Behind the Script: Allyson Dwyer on Adapting American Afterlife
7/14/20264 min
In this behind-the-scenes conversation, co-writer Allyson Dwyer shares the creative journey of adapting Pedro Hoffmeister's novel American Afterlife into the gripping scripted audio drama. Alongside fellow writer River Donaghey, Allyson breaks down the unique challenges of transforming a richly detailed novel into a performance-ready script, reshaping scenes, building tension through sound, and writing dialogue that brings the story to life for actors and listeners alike. Whether you're a fan of American Afterlife, an aspiring writer, or fascinated by the art of adaptation, this episode offers an inside look at how an award-worthy audio drama is made.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:01
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Speaker 20:20
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Allison Dwyer· Guest0:47
[gentle music] Hi, this is Allison Dwyer, and I am one of the writers for American Afterlife, along with River Donaghey. I'm a writer and more formally a playwright. That's more of my focus is theater writing. At the beginning of the pandemic, I got into audio writing. I wrote an experimental full-length audio play. I really love dramatic writing. I just always have loved drama. I would go into these, like, tight-knit chat rooms of people who were really into cartoons, and we had, like, a wild imagination. I started to appreciate theater for things other than writing, use of space and time and the collaborative nature of it. Very gratefully, River reached out to me about co-writing