Thespian Thursday–2015 Audie Awards are Tonight with Richard Armitage and Hamlet A Novel Nominated, May 28, 2015 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #755)

As an avid reader of other people’s stories and an amateur writer myself, I sometimes ask myself What is the essence of storytelling? In its purest form, storytelling to me is one individual sharing a tale of mystery, love, danger, honor, history, humor, sadness, or joy, etc., with each individual who reads their story. And when you speak the words of the story out loud in that storytelling you bring to life the many aspects of the story through humanizing its pathos with the sound and inflection of your voice. See Audible tweet quote of Richard Armitage (right) about his newest audiobook narration Hamlet Prince of Denmark, A Novel written by A.J. Hartley and David Hewson and distributed by Audible. Here is what Richard Armitage also has to say about this story:

In my view, truly great storytellers/narrators become each of their characters through their voice, embuing each character with unique peccadillos and foibles be they gruff curmudgeonly old men, totteringly foolish old women with impossibly high voices, breathlessly guileless ingénues, puffed up arrogant swells, swarthy tongued common folk and sailors, precious flower girls, or heart sick young swains. Having a variety of characters in a story often require narrators to call upon skills of such vocal dexterity that one wonders if they lost their voice by the end of the recording session. Ha! Yet, the deeply resonant baritone voice of the exquisitely talented British actor Richard Armitage possesses that alacrity time and again to wonderful storytelling results–and no loss of voice as of yet, that we know of.

The ease and poise that Richard Armitage spins tales and stories with his resonant and flexible voice is legendary. Mr. Armitage is an artfully skilled and experienced narrator/storyteller–masterful and hypnotic. Who among us has not enjoyed Mr. Armitage’s storytelling of the Georgette Heyer audiobooks–Venetia, The Convenient Marriage (my fave), or Sylvester? And then there is Lords of the North (excerpted by me in a video here, cover right via RANet), and many documentaries and adverts. For links to these and more Richard Armitage audiobook and other narrations, visit the wonderful RANet site, http://www.RichardArmitageNet.com

And more recently Richard Armitage’s narration/storytelling of Hamlet The Prince of Denmark A Novel in 2014 has garnered both he and the authors A.J. Hartley and David Hewson nominations for the 2015 Audie Awards to be held this evening in New York City (thanks to Fabo Laktuko for the live stream link here!):

“ORIGINAL WORK
The Child; by Sebastian Fitzek; Narrated by Rupert Penry-Jones, Jack Boulter, Emilia Fox, Stephen Marcus, Robert Glenister, and Andy Serkis; Audible, Inc.
Gadzooks! A Comically Quirky Audio Book; by Adele Park; Narrated by Garry Morris, Andra Harbold, Lesley
Mendenhall, Abby Elvidge, Rhett Guter, Melissa Sandberg, Kent Hayes, Jack de Golia, Steve Campbell;  Straight to Audio Productions
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; by A.J. Hartley and David Hewson; Narrated by Richard Armitage; Audible, Inc.
Mandela: An Audio History; by Nelson Mandela; Narrated by Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and Joe Richman; Highbridge, a division of Recorded Books
Transparent: Behind the Scenes; Narrated by Jeffrey Tambor; Audible, Inc.”

and

“SOLO NARRATION — MALE
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; by A.J. Hartley and David Hewson; Narrated by Richard Armitage; Audible, Inc.
The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw; by Christopher Healy; Narrated by Bronson Pinchot; HarperAudio
The Martian; by Andy Weir; Narrated by R.C. Bray; Podium Publishing
Mr. Mercedes; by Stephen King; Narrated by Will Patton; Simon & Schuster
The Other Story; by Tatiana de Rosnay; Narrated by Simon Vance; Macmillan Audio
Radiance of Tomorrow; by Ishmael Beah; Narrated by Dion Graham; Macmillan Audio”

So to Mr. Armitage as narrator/storyteller and to the authors Mr. Hartley and Mr. Hewson, I wish you every good luck and my very best wishes tonight at the 2015 Audie Awards!

P.S.  And while we wait for the results, what are your favorite Richard Armitage Audibooks and which stories do you wish he would tell in the future?