The Importance of Authentic Casting in Audiobooks
Audiobooks make great entertainment and can be very educational, but perhaps where they truly excel is as a medium for storytelling.
A great narrator has the ability to take a listener within the headspace of a person they may have nothing in common with and keep them there, engaged, for hours on end. In this way, audiobooks can share whole new worlds with listeners. We can be immersed in another person’s life and, in some cases quite literally, spend a day walking in their shoes, experiencing the world as they feel their way through it.
The significance of this immersive experience should not be overlooked. Sharing our stories with others is how we connect and develop empathy and compassion; it’s how we can experience and appreciate things we may never have the chance to see firsthand. It’s one thing to hear a story about how things are different elsewhere, but another experience entirely to turn it into a visceral encounter that leaves an impression.
Audiobooks provide us with a narrator to help guide our imagination and this narrator can do a great deal to influence how we interpret and feel about a story. It is essential to find someone who can authentically represent the events and characters who appear in it. We want to hear the languages and accents of foreign places and become truly immersed in someone else’s life. This fosters a bond between the storyteller and the listener unlike any other medium, nurturing a spark of connection that can spread across people from diverse walks of life, one of the truly inspiring things about creative work in general.
Casting the right narrator for a project then is easily the most important decision in the audiobook production process. At Deyan Audio, we’ve had the great fortune of being a part of many audiobook adventures over the last 30 years and if there’s one thing that’s always held true it’s that the right narrator can elevate any work into an impactful experience. There’s nothing quite like spending several hours transported to another place or time, captivated by narration alone, and this is an experience we hope to help every listener have.
There has never been a shortage of amazing storytellers in the world, and today we live in an age where it is possible to work with talented actors from all over the world as well. It’s possible to provide listeners with authentic voices to guide them through foreign and exotic lands and this means we can all learn more about other people and cultures than ever before. That’s a pretty incredible thing.
The barriers to reaching a global audience are almost non-existent these days and we believe the ways stories and experiences can be shared through audio productions has only begun to be explored. We are excited to see what the future holds and remain committed to finding diverse and inclusive voices to share these stories
— Philip Miller, Casting Director, Deyan Audio