We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Patricia Santomasso. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Patricia below.
Alright, Patricia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My parents are both creatives and that had a huge impact on my decision to pursue an artistic life. My mother is a classically trained lyric coloratura soprano, and my father is a rock n’ roll drummer. Throughout my childhood, though they had two kids and other obligations, they found a way to continue living their dreams. When I was young my mother had a job cantoring in church on the weekends. She would often bring me with her and I’d sing softly along in the choir loft. I loved listening to her and watched proudly when people approached her afterward to let her know how much her beautiful singing meant to them. On Saturday or Sunday mornings I would often wake up to the sound of my Dad expertly playing the drums to Cheap Trick, Yes, or Led Zeppelin. He would work gigs most weekends, and then come home and sing me to sleep with the bass line of The Marcels’ “Blue Moon”, and I was out like a light. They each had day jobs as well, but above all, a creative life was always revered in our house. My sister and I took piano, voice, and dance lessons and they supported us if we wanted to perform in plays, musicals, or recitals. We would have conversations about music and performance almost daily, so much so, that from a young age I never understood why anyone would want anything but a creative life. If my parents hadn’t shared their gifts with the world, and their love for their artistic pursuits with me, I don’t know if I would have had the courage and confidence to follow my own dream when the time came. Thanks Mom and Dad. I love you!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My road to becoming an audiobook narrator started with a love of listening to stories. When I moved to NYC to become a theatre student I would go to the Lincoln Center Library and take out audiobooks every week. After graduation and years of performing on stage I took a class on narration at a local studio. From then on I was taken with the idea of becoming a narrator myself. This was 2012 and it was not easy to break into that kind of work, but a website called the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) made it possible to connect to Indie authors who were looking to collaborate with narrators to produce their audio. I auditioned and was offered a book. I had found my “in”. My husband Sean then spent days creating a recording space in our tiny 3×3 closet in Queens, setting me up with a basic USB microphone and acoustic treatment and I was on my way.
My first narration posted on October 30, 2013, and it’s been full-steam ahead from there. My husband is also a trained actor, and a year later he decided to join me in pursuing narration. Two bedroom closet studios later, we now each have our own freestanding booth diagonal from each other in our house in Connecticut.
When a Publisher, Producer, or Author approaches me with a story they’d like me to tell, I put everything I am into that piece. Though people love to joke about the uselessness of an English or Theater degree, I use both of them every day. Here’s how I prepare in a nutshell. First, I read through the script to get a sense of the tone of the story. Then once I feel I understand the voice of the author, I make notes about each character’s personality, voice, and background. I jot down any accents that are mentioned. If I have that accent in my arsenal, great! If not, then I have to work on that before recording. I also note any unfamiliar words, place names, proper names, etc. and ask my publisher or producer if the author has any preferences for those pronunciations. After getting all of this information sorted out, I’m finally ready to get in the booth and start narrating!
Storytelling celebrates the uniqueness of being human, which is why I love it. I believe that all of my life experiences have helped to form my style and approach to my work, and make my storytelling uniquely my own. I’ve been a magician’s assistant, a singing dancing cockroach in Times Square, and product specialist for Ferrari cars. I’ve also been lucky enough to perform Shakespeare, Sheridan, and Odets, on stages across the country. Every stranger I meet or loving or difficult relationship I encounter are added to my arsenal of experiences. If I hear a unique voice, it might just show up in my next narration!
It’s hard to say what I’m most proud of. Lately, it’s a collaboration with a couple of small presses, Shortwave Publishing and Bad Hand Books, that specialize in horror literature among other genres. My husband and I are teaming up with them to produce some beautiful pieces of short fiction, and it’s really creatively invigorating. One recent piece I’m very proud of is “Stay on the Line” by Clay McLeod Chapman. Horror literature has always been a passion of mine, and it’s having quite a moment right now, with so many incredible writers putting out great work. As a kid who grew up devouring Stephen King novels, it’s exciting to be a part of it.
I hope that anyone I work with feels like I’ve done my best to tell their story. I am so lucky to do what I do, and treat each job as the gift that it is.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
There are many resources that either I wasn’t aware of or were not available to me when I started in narration. I sort of stumbled around until I fell into a groove that worked, garnering information here and there and cobbling together a plan.
For narrators starting out today there are wonderful organizations that can help. If you are considering this as a career, narratorsroadmap.com is a good place to start. Maybe someone has told you that you have a nice voice, or perhaps you are a trained actor looking to diversify your career. The Narrators Roadmap offers materials to help you figure out if narration is right for you, your skill set, and your lifestyle. Other wonderful resources are the Audio Publishers Association (APA), which offers advocacy, research, events, and more to the audiobook community, the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association (PANA) which is an organization by narrators for narrators, Audiofile Magazine, who recommend and review audiobooks, and of course SAG-AFTRA, which has championed fair wages and working conditions for actors since the 1930’s.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I get to do what I love every day, and I will never take that for granted. On Monday, I’m excited to go to work either in my home studio or by hopping a train to NYC to record at a publisher’s space. Sure, there are parts of my job that are less fun than others. For instance, sometimes you have to do difficult and exhaustive research for a book, or you get sick and it makes it difficult to hit your deadlines. But no matter what, I am so grateful every day because I get to do what I’m passionate about. I don’t get bored because there is always a new story to tell, a new project to imagine, a different dialect to learn. Outside of studio hours I often will get to meet the authors at their launch parties or book festivals, and I’ve made many lasting friendships as well as business relationships that way. For me being a creative isn’t just my job, it’s the way I live my life. Storytelling is very important to me in my personal life too. Our family recently started a monthly Free Banned Book Storytime for the kids in our neighborhood at our local coffee shop, raising money for the ALA in their fight to end book bans. My husband reads the story aloud and I manipulate “Ralphie the Annoying Parrot” from beneath the table, who interjects comments, sings songs, and causes general mayhem to make the kids laugh. Sometimes our daughter joins in the performance as “Baby Ralphie” or does a pre-show telling jokes! Sharing our love of storytelling with her is possibly the most rewarding aspect of being a creative. I hope it inspires her to do what she loves when she grows up.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.patriciasantomasso.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psantomasso/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patriciasantomasso
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-santomasso-952a54a/
- Other: https://www.audible.com/search?crid=6e44ebb5dd2e4220ab63e81a385408e6&i=na-audible-us&k=%22Patricia+Santomasso%22&keywords=%22Patricia+Santomasso%22&ref=nb_sb_noss_2&sort=pubdate-desc-rank&sprefix=%22patricia+s%2Cna-audible-us%2C177&url=search-alias%3Dna-audible-us&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&pf_rd_p=0a2f6131-b0f4-4cd5-b722-e9604a0a3102&pf_rd_r=3YPGZYECHYJMFK4QBVV5&plink=hm7nTPexikUlBNsi&pageLoadId=y9lvdzDTu2QTGlcD&creativeId=792c6ece-15a9-4a32-b4ea-d95a6bbc6141
Image Credits
Matt Simpkins Photography