A Watcher in the Woods, an audio play that aired on WFIU in April of 2024, received six Communicator Awards on May 6.
WFIU partnered with Starrynight Productions to adapt Florence Engel Randall’s A Watcher in the Woods as part of the celebration of the total solar eclipse in Indiana. Writer/director Russell McGee (Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays) and producer/actor Michael Brainard (All My Children) worked collaboratively with WFIU to produce A Watcher in the Woods as a two-part limited radio series. Previously, McGee and Brainard worked with WFIU on the radio series The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Ernie Pyle Experiment!.
A Watcher in the Woods received three Communicator Awards of excellence for craft on-air talent, craft sound design, and craft editing, and three awards of distinction for general production, craft writing, and craft original music.
The Communicator Awards is an international awards program recognizing excellence, effectiveness, and innovation across all areas of communication. The 31st Annual Communicator Awards received over 3,000 entries from companies, agencies, studios, and boutique shops of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards shows of its kind globally.
A Watcher in the Woods series synopsis
Fifty years ago, Karen Aylwood entered the woods and disappeared. Who or what was the watcher? Jan Carstairs had felt its presence on the very first day, walking up to the door of the old Tudor home. She had known the watcher was there…waiting...and so did Mrs. Aylwood. The little old woman glanced at the woods and acknowledged its presence. But no one wanted to discuss it. Broken mirrors, mirror writing, and seven-year-old Ellie was hearing strange songs, and receiving even stranger messages. And what did it all have to do with the solar eclipse? Jan couldn’t explain it, but she was afraid of the watcher—A Watcher in the Woods!
The audio series features the talents of Barbara Rosenblat (The Boy and the Heron, Orange is the New Black), Sophie Aldred (Doctor Who), Bonnie Bogovich (Marvel Snap, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Resurgence), Deva Marie Gregory (Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, A Ghost Waits), among others.
About the author
Florence Engel Randall (October 18, 1917 – September 4, 1997) was the author of The Almost Year, a 1971 American Library Association Notable Book, and five other successful novels, as well as more than 100 short stories published in both literary and popular periodicals. She is most notably recognized for her novel A Watcher in the Woods (1976), a work that inspired a 1980 Disney film adaptation and a 2017 remake for Lifetime Television.