We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeffrey Adams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeffrey below.

Jeffrey, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Self-taught, entirely. My academic background is in history which is an excellent major for research and writing. My education as a dramatist is from reading and practical experience.

Jeffrey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The Icebox Radio Theater was founded in International Falls, Minnesota in 2004 as a kind of ‘community theater of the air’ for this small town on the US/Canadian border. The theater (or IBRT) was created by Jeffrey Adams, a writer who saw the group as an opportunity to write and create audio drama on a variety of subjects. Since those first years on a local radio station, the IBRT has expanded to include 10 podcasts, a streaming radio station, over 350 original plays and a series of performances in clubs and theaters around the area. Today, the IBRT is focusing on using new technologies to broadcast their work live over the internet, reviving the art of live radio drama that was lost so many years ago.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Over the twenty years, I’ve seen audio drama re-emerge from its dormancy following the end of network radio in the 1960’s to become an active art form. But I think there is still misunderstandings about its artistic potential. Many groups and companies creating audio drama today appear fixed on a cinematic approach by which I mean structuring their stories like screenplays and teleplays. Linear story lines, an adversion to voice over and a poor understand of what makes a good voice actor all limit the artistic potential of modern audio drama. Part of our mission here in Int’l Falls is to fully explore telling stories through sound, to explore the differences that make audio drama unique and great.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In 2023, we were focusing almost exclusively on studio recordings. A local businesswoman (and IBRT board member) contacted us about doing regular radio shows from a club she was opening that year. We had done many live performances before, but they were always one-offs, single shows held in a varity of venues. This would be a regular, monthly performance before a paying audience. It not only gave us consistent ticket income for the first time, it forced us to get creative in how we might fill a monthly show.

We decided to combine orginal scripts with scripts from classic radio series like Candy Matson and Your’s Truly Johnny Dollar to fill out a ninety minute show. Not only did this toughen up our creative muscles, it gave all of us a better appreciation of the heritage which plays from radio’s golden age represent.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.iceboxradio.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radioicebox/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iceboxradio
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Iceboxradio
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKev2b6_RU8lvexUA1MCviQ