PHILLIPA PO: Mind Changer
Changing the world, one mind at a time!
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ABOUT:
An Episodic Fictional-Mockumentary Podcast
created by Pippa Mackie and Ryan Gladstone
and commissioned and produced by
Sound the Alarm: Music/Theatre
STYLE:
A dead serious delivery from Philippa. Think Cunk on Earth meets FUBAR.
PREMISE:
The hallmark of the human mind is that it can change. So why is it so hard to change someone’s mind? This is the question our lead character Philippa Po, a 37-year-old from Nanaimo, sets out to answer.
In this mockumentary series, Philippa finds unsuspecting targets and sets about trying to understand their point of view and then uses any tactic she can to change their beliefs. Having never gone to journalism school, her methods are questionable, barbaric, and sometimes… totally illegal.
Will she succeed in her quest, or will her mind be changed?
GENRE:
Undercover investigative journalism mock'umentary.
STYLE:
A dead serious delivery from Philippa. Think CUNK ON EARTH meets FUBAR.
SERIES: beginning with 4 to 5 episodes.
SEASON 1:
20-25 minutes each
1: Olives are (not) disgusting.
2: Incel(ibate) for the win.
Pilot Episode (Episode 2, full production value)
3: To Heaven or to Void - that is the question.
4: Just cancel Oil - it's simple!
5: Baths are disgusting.
LEAD CHARACTER:
Philippa Po (she/her; 37 years old). Originally from Nanaimo, BC, Philippa Po is the daughter of two average Canadian parents. Spending her childhood reading Nancy Drew, Chicken Soup for the Soul and the Encyclopedia Britannica, Philippa dreamed of a life full of meaning. She travelled for years hoping to stumble upon purpose, inspiration and perhaps even love. But after ten years away from her beloved Nanaimo she was none the wiser and decided to return home to live in her parents basement. What she found upon her return shocked her; rigid, immutable minds that were resistant to change. Why? What would it take to change someone’s mind, she asked herself.
Philippa is diving into the deep end and going undercover to create her hard-hitting new podcast - Mindchanger. Risking her journalistic integrity to actually get answers from folks with unpopular beliefs.
ALARM:
Disintegration of healthy discourse.
Narcissistic voices dominating our media.
PRODUCED AND COMMISSIONED BY:
Sound the Alarm: Music/Theatre (STA) is a Vancouver based arts charity that explores the theatre of music and sound while helping to sound alarms and generate conversation around social concerns, through its programming.
After its international award-winning success of Theatre for the Ears, a series of fictional audio-dramas and related conversations, STA is developing a new episodic fictional comedy audio series, Phillipa Po, intended to comment on the fragmentation of healthy discourse, and the ever growing presence of narcissistic voices dominating our media.
TEAM:
Script: Pippa Mackie/Ryan Gladstone
Artistic Producer: Alan Corbishley
Director: Brent Hirose
Sound Services: Divide the Silence
Audio Director: Evan Berndt
Sound Supervisor: Dean Nelson
Sound Designer: Geoffrey Bremner
Music Composition: Evan Berndt and Dean Nelson
Title Intro Music: Evan Berndt
Phillipa Po: Tara Travis
Chaz (not Chad): Ryan Gladstone
Ensemble roles:
Alisa Lindley, Bradley Bergeron, Kai Rudell, Lili Beaudoin
GOFUNDME:
We are aiming to raise production funds to cover our first season of episodes (up to 5 episodes would cost us $60K)
We are starting with a campaign goal of $15K.
If you are interested in supporting,
please visit our GoFundMe page.
Take a Listen to our Pilot Episode
AWARDS
Thank you for these lovely nods.
Award Winner
Best Podcast Concept
Theatre for the Ears
Official Selection
2022 Festival
from Minn WEBFEST
Platinum Winner
Podcast:
Episode 1, STARMAN
2022
from Hermes Creative Awards
Gold Winner
Podcast
from AVA Digital Awards
Official Selection
Winter '21
Nominated for 3 Awards:
Best Podcast
Best Performance
Best Scriptwriting
from Berlin Filmhaus Festival
Official Selection Fall '22
Theatre for the Ears
Nominated for 4 Awards
Best Writing (Pippa Mackie)
Best Leading Performance (Kayvan Khoshkam)
Best Anthology (Series)
Outstanding Comedy (STARMAN)
from New Jersey Web Fest
Official Selection
Fall '22
from Miami Web Fest
Reviews
2nd from Bottom
12-04-2021
"The audio-play (STARMAN) covers over 200 days of Daryl/Starman’s self-imposed exile and as the protagonist morphs into a different character(s) entirely, so too the writing comes to inhabit an increasingly darker space. Mackie handles this transition with assurance showing the volatile highs and depressive lows of such a situation with economy and wit. This is aided by a first class performance of a splintering ego from Kayvon Khoshkam. Initially the character comes across as completely annoying but by the end one would have to have a heart of stone not to sympathise as they go deeper and deeper inside themself."
"I found the whole thing fascinatingly relatable"
"THE ETERNAL SAILOR: The actors are fine, the soundscape created by Stefan Smulovitz makes the whole thing immersive and it is directed with economy by Lok Yu."
Art Critique:
Brandon Lorimer
01-16-2022
on LOST SOUL ANIMAL RESCUE
"Mok has made a setting that is abundantly familiar in the universality of natural environments but layered it with such perfect amounts of the surreal... This coupled with Lam’s careful hand in guiding the subtle nuances of this experience and how each narrative element emerges makes for a truly gripping seventeen minutes."
"the acting work is perfectly executed for this concept"
"Lost Soul Animal Rescue may be the most effective listening experience of Theatre for the Ears."
"A masterclass in just how poignant succinct audio dramas can be, Lost Soul Animal Rescue will both fill your heart throughout the listen and leave an animal-shaped absence when it’s over."
Art Critique:
Brandon Lorimer
12-05-2021
"The Eternal Sailor is both poetic and mundane in the best of ways. There is a relatable fog across the circumstances that are explored that echo our own without putting us in the driver’s seat of slogging through true pain. It feels in many ways like both a history lesson and a lesson for the future, all within the realm of a fever dream. As a combination dive into the woes of our world at large and poignant woes of the heart, it is a timely and timeless piece of theatre and delivers comfort in the face of disaster."
Art Critique:
Brandon Lorimer
11-15-2021
"In every way, Starman is representative of what modern audio dramas could and should be. Crisp and gripping in its sound, believable and bracing in its performance, and stirring and striking in its subject matter."
"gripping and unsettling"
"Khoshkam’s performance as Starman is balanced on the edge of a knife, and it drives home the desperate mind the audience is experiencing... It is friendly, familiar, and frightening all at once."
"Brent Hirose’s direction of the audio drama truly stands out as well. The ways in which the space of the audio is used for the podcast within the podcast grounds the performance so strongly."
"sound designer Malcolm Dow, whose atmosphere is the perfect antidote to the tone of Starman’s delivery—a looming, ethereal presence floating around the forced grin of a man spiralling down."
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a dark comedy by Pippa Mackie
Starman
Taking inspiration from the galactic event of blackholes swallowing stars, Starman is a dark
comedy about a 42-year-old man who has locked himself in his room for the rest of his life.
Through his very unpopular podcast - Daryl (aka Starman) will take his internet “friends” on a
journey into his chosen exile which may lead him to confront a part of himself he never knew
existed.
NOTE:
This episode does have a trigger warning as it deals with strong emotional subject matter.
Alarm:
mental health and social alienation
Mental health resources if you need them
Episodes:
Now Available:
TO LISTEN: click on a platform link at the top of the page.
1: STARMAN (audio-drama)
2: STARMAN Conversation
with Pippa Mackie & Ashley Greensmyth
3: STARMAN Conversation
with Kayvon Khoshkam, Victor Dolhai,
Brent Hirose, and Matt McLean
a love story by Derek Chan
The Eternal Sailor
Waking up from a concussion coma suffered during a 2020 protest crackdown, Jacy
goes on a marine odyssey to track down their
beloved partner Alexis.
Amidst environmental chaos,
a new viral threat, and a new regime, Jacy must find their way from Hong Kong to Vancouver with the help of a tape recorder and a small boat.
If only that mosquito would stop following them!
Alarm:
conservation of our waterways and the fragility of democracy
Episodes:
Now Available:
TO LISTEN: click on a platform link at the top of the page.
4: THE ETERNAL SAILOR (audio-drama)
5: THE ETERNAL SAILOR Conversation
with Derek Chan, Lok Yu and Dr. Derek Turner
6: THE ETERNAL SAILOR Conversation
with Derek Chan, Lok Yu and Dr. Miu Chung Yan
a spirit adventure by Gary Mok
Lost Soul Animal Rescue
This episode is for young audiences and is centred around the tradition of Chinese ghost stories which normally focus on filial piety (duty to your ancestors). In this particular creation, Gary has added a twist on that concept by using animal “ghosts” to question our duty to nature instead.
Alarm:
environmental and wildlife conservation
Episodes:
Now Available:
TO LISTEN: click on a platform link at the top of the page.
7: LOST SOUL ANIMAL RESCUE (audio-drama)
8: LOST SOUL ANIMAL RESCUE Conversation
with Elfina Luk, and Tracy Pierce
9: LOST SOUL ANIMAL RESCUE Conversation
with Gary Mok, Karen Lam and Dr. Alison Bailey
Donations Welcomed
Sound the Alarm is a charitable organization.
All donations through Canada Helps will receive a charitable tax receipt.
We would like to thank our supporters!
It is with great honour that we have received funding support from the following organizations.