Media Page
Presence, The Play
“More like a fantastically acted film than words on a page…”
– Amy Lignor, Feathered Quill
Presence, the Play, speaks to the primacy of personal presence over mediated presence, detached from being.
The novel’s protagonist, a playwright, is thrust into a comatose world, in which he grasps to discern image from self. Along the way, he enters a Dantean-inspired netherworld, where Lucifer, the ultimate antagonist, appears on a stage of luminous ice to declare the modern age of media ecology has swept away the dated notion of presence.
Thus, is presence “utterly passé,” and do pixels gain prominence over presence?
Watch Trailer
An original reading from Chapter One, by author William Jefferson
(recorded prior to the production of the audio adaptation)
Reader Reviews
“Brilliant storytelling, adventure and much to ponder…”
“Completely original and unique, absolutely brilliant…”
“Powerful reminder of the potent messages art carries…”
“Alice in Wonderland meets Narnia…”
“More like a fantastically acted film than words on a page…”
“Jefferson has done a phenomenal job crafting his story…”
“Jefferson has done a phenomenal job crafting his story…”
“A thoroughly engrossing tale of light vs. darkness…”
“Presence, the Play fills a void in our imagination…”
Map of Estillyen
Over the centuries, waves have deposited a wealth of numinous tales upon Estillyen’s shores. The mix of steely reality and tales gives a special lilt to Estillyen life, unlike anywhere else on earth.
Audio Adaption
Listen to Chapter 1
View on Audible
About SueMedia Productions
The audio-adaptation of Presence, the Play was produced and directed by Sue Zizza for SueMedia Productions at Radio Waves (NYC), and released on December 28, 2021.
Audio Adaptation by Sue Zizza and Butch D’Ambrosio is distributed globally by Blackstone Publishing.
Meet The Cast
Gary Furlong, as Script
Gary Furlong is a master of accents and dialects and is known for his dynamic
audiobook narration and authentic character development. His portrayal of Script, the protagonist of Presence, the Play is brilliant.
Gary has narrated over 200 books and is the winner of a 2021 Audie, three AudioFile
Earphones Awards, and an Independent Audiobook Award.
Nancy Wu, Narrator
Nancy Wu has performed voice-over animation and narration for more than 300 audio books since 2004 and has won multiple Earphone Awards. As a theater, television, and film actor, she has recorded in studios throughout the world.
Narrating across genres for audio publishers such as Penguin Random House, Blackstone Audio, Recorded Books, Simon Schuster, and Scholastic Brilliance, Nancy is known for varied character voices and bringing stories vividly to life.
Simon Jones, as Lucifer
Simon Jones’ impressive record spans Broadway, film, radio, and television,
including the BBC television series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Brideshead Revisited.
In the 2019 Downton Abbey movie, Simon played a leading role as King George V. Most recently Simon Jones plays the stately butler, Mr. Bannister, in the 2022 HBO series Gilded Age.
Simon Jones has won numerous Earphones Awards and was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile Magazine. He is currently nominated for a 2022 Audie Award.
Robert Fass, as Sage and Plot
Robert Fass is considered a master of narration and spoken-word performance. He has read for Penguin Random House, Harper, Macmillan, Hachette, Blackstone, Tantor, and several other publishing firms.
Robert has won numerous awards, including the Audie, AudioFile Earphones, Library Journal’s Best Audiobook of the Year, and Sound Commentary “Best of the Best.”
Deondra Kamau Means, as Melchizedek
Deondra Kamau Means is the Resident Playwright and a 26-year veteran of The Children’s Theatre (TCT)in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has helped expand TCT’s focus on curricular-based literature for young adults with popular workshops like “From the Page to the Stage.” Deondra believes his gifts are God-given for “creating memorable life experiences and moments.”
Cary Hite, as Simon of Cyrene and Brimer
Cary Hite has performed on stage and in hundreds of productions for Pierre Films, Marro Media, Luke Films, ABC Studios, and Creative Direction. Notable venues include the Weston Playhouse, Guild Theater, and Jewel Box Theater.
Cary’s course of training includes Graham Casting, Audition Workshop Ross Meyerson, Red Wall Productions, and the University of Houston.
Doug Shapiro, as Mock, Day, and Seth
Doug Shapiro had the unique challenge of giving voice to Mock—the mockingbird
companion of Script. Doug, though, is used to voice acting for a broad range of characters, which he did both in the live production and film version of Disney’smusical Finding Nemo. Other projects with Radio Waves Studios/SueMedia Productions include
Ellen Kushner’s Swordpoint(2013 Audie Award) and Cathy Moeschet’s What Remains (Audible).
Yale Strom produces Original Score and Violin
Yale Strom is an American violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer, and playwright. He is a pioneer among klezmer(a musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe) revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Romcommunities.
He was amongthe first of the so-called klezmer revivalists to identify the connection between klezmer and lautare (Rom/Gypsy musicians) and explorethat connection in his scholarly and artistic works.
David Shinn - Master Engineer/ Studio Manager
David Shinn is co-owner of SueMedia Productions and Radio Waves Studios. He is an Emmy and Audie award-winning sound designer/engineer and foley (SFX) artist for live and studio productions. Most recently he oversaw the interconnection of artists from home and commercial studios around the world to create ensemble performance events for the Audio Engineering Society and Audio Publishers Association Conference.
David has mixed sound for all media, including reality television series, film,
VR, AR, 360 film, audiobooks, podcasts, and commercials.
David is also a master builder of custom recording and VO studios. His work has been recognized by The Communicator Awards, Earphone Awards, The International Radio Festival, and numerous other awards.
Nick Sullivan
Lj Ganser
Eric Jason Martin
Joniece Abbott Pratt
Kerry Malloy
Tara Sands
Mark Beckerman
Christina Bobrowsky
Kim Fields
Neil Hellegers
John Higgens
Holly Adams
Jennifer Jiles
Mathew Gregory Serianni
Director/Producer Sue Zizza
Sue Zizza is a transmedia producer, director, writer, and sound designer. SueMedia Productions, owned by Sue Zizza, is a full-service audio production company. Likewise, Radio Waves Studios, also owned by Sue Zizza, is a premiere audio facility capturing and producing sound for a full range of media, including: Audiobooks, TV, Film, VR.
For more than three decades, Sue Zizza has produced award winning audio fiction for public radio, audiobooks, and podcasts. Her work has been honoured by The Audies (9 nominations, two wins); The Gabriel’s; The International Festival of New York; The National Federation of Community Broadcasters; and the Communicator Awards.
In 2021 Sue received the Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theater for her many achievements in producing audio fiction.
Sue’s clients include: Cleo TV, PBS, Audible, Blackstone, Macmillan Audio, and USA Networks Scy-Fi Channel.
From 1996 -2008 Sue Zizza served as the Executive Director of the National Audio Theatre Festivals (NATF)—an audio arts training organization. In 2013 Sue co-founded with NATF, the HEAR Now Festival.
Sue also teaches audio arts and sound production at New York University’s Kanbar Institute for Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts.
Dual Ecologies
The Netflix Documentary, The Social Dilemma, probes many of the challenges posed by social media.
Personal presence: A welcome antidote to the touch-less sphere spawned by social media platforms
The realm of nature, in which we live and breathe
The realm of media ecology, in which the pulse of culture ebbs and flows
A Work of Literature
Within the text of Presence, the Play, readers and listeners, too, discover many a line from poetry and literary classics
“I saw, today, the corpse being borne to Kirk of one who, but last Monday, was at work.”
– Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales “The Miller’s Tale”
“There is no sorrow greater than, in times of misery, to hold at heart the memory of happiness.”
– Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto 5
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door—
“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
– Edgar Allan Poe
Audio Library
Chapter 1
Chapter One —Theatre Portesque, Opening Night
Chapter One —Script’s Tragic Fall in the Balcony of Theatre Portesque
Chapter One — Robert Frost’s Poem — Fist Stanza sung on Theatre Portesque stage
Chapter 2
Chapter Two — Trauma Ward, Dr. Page Speaks of Script’s Comatose Condition
Chapter Two — Script Comes Alive in His Comatose World
Chapter Three — Script Must Enter the Darkened Tunnel
Chapter 3
Chapter Three — Script Must Enter the Darkened Tunnel
Chapter 5
Chapter Five—Sage Encourages Script on His Mission to Hell
Chapter Five—Sage Encourages Script on His Mission to Hell
Chapter Five—Script Awakens Ready to Carry on in his Journey to the Netherworld and Addresses his Image in the Mirror
Chapter Five—Sage Explains Five Doors in the Meadow of Gates and Doors and Scenes from Living History
Chapter Five—Sage Explains Five Doors in the Meadow of Gates and Doors and Scenes from Living History
Chapter Five—Nicodemus at Home with Mrs. Nicodemus Part 1
Chapter Five—Sage Instructs Script about the Trail That Leads to Hell
Chapter Five—Sage Instructs Script about the Trail That Leads to Hell
Chapter Five—Nicodemus at Home with Mrs. Nicodemus Part 2
Chapter 6
Chapter Six—Step-by-Step Script & Mock Make Their Way Along the Corridors of Hell
Chapter Six—Lucifer’s Description and First Appearance in the Narrative
Chapter Six—Script Meets Simon of Cyrene in Hell
Chapter Six—Second Excerpt from Lucifer Speaks of Media Effect
Chapter Six—Script Describes Hell to Simon of Cyrene
Chapter 7
Chapter Seven—Script at the Campfire with Simon and Sage
Chapter Seven—Script Meets Time
Chapter Seven—Sage Explains Tunnel Time
Chapter Seven—Simon of Cyrene Speaks of Jerusalem and Carrying the Cross
Chapter 8
Chapter Eight—Script Falls Through the Pages of Dante’s Divine Comedy
Chapter Eight—Script Meets Melchizedek Outside the Gates of Hell Part 3
Chapter Eight—Script Meets Melchizedek Outside the Gates of Hell Part 1
Chapter Eight—Script Meets Melchizedek Outside the Gates of Hell Part 2
Chapter 9
Chapter Nine—Script and Melchizedek Carry On Conversation in Hell
Chapter Nine—Script Wished to “Call it a Day” (Speaking to Melchizedek)
Chapter Nine—Script and Melchizedek Look Upon the George of Hell
Chapter 10
Chapter Ten—Script Recites the Ancient Pangur Bán (Ancient Irish poem dating to the 9th Century)
Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen—Script’s faith Waivers on the Ridge Overlooking the Reservoirs of Bewilderment: Fragmentation, Static, Confusion, Chatter, and Delusion Part 2
Chapter Thirteen—Script’s faith Waivers on the Ridge Overlooking the Reservoirs of Bewilderment: Fragmentation, Static, Confusion, Chatter, and Delusion Part 4
Chapter Thirteen—Script’s faith Waivers on the Ridge Overlooking the Reservoirs of Bewilderment: Fragmentation, Static, Confusion, Chatter, and Delusion Part 1
Chapter Thirteen—Script Recites The Raven by Edgar Alan Poe Part 1
Chapter Thirteen—Script’s faith Waivers on the Ridge Overlooking the Reservoirs of Bewilderment: Fragmentation, Static, Confusion, Chatter, and Delusion Part 3
Chapter Thirteen—Script Recites The Raven by Edgar Alan Poe Part 2
Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen—Script Addresses His Image in the Mirror— “Yet a soul discarnate, I am not.” “An Image knows not its Presence.”
Chapter Fourteen—Scene of Melchizedek Eating Gooseberry Pie with, Mock, Simon, Script and Sage
Chapter Fourteen—Seating Arrangement for Mock’s Interrogation—as the Large Chestnut Table in the Meadow
Chapter Fourteen—Mock is Given the Floor/Table to Tweet
Chapter Fourteen—Melchizedek Addresses Mock… “Now straight out with it…”
Chapter Fourteen—Melchizedek Gives His Staff and Crust of Bread Dipped in Meadow Wine
Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen—Lucifer Last Recorded Speech—he speaks to the his sentinels, about Platforms, Medium and Message, Meaning and Media Ecology Part 1
Chapter Fifteen—Lucifer Last Recorded Speech—he speaks to the his sentinels, about Platforms, Medium and Message, Meaning and Media Ecology Part 2
Novelist William Jefferson
Presence, the Play was written by William Jefferson and published May 1, 2021, by Port Estillyen Productions. The novel is set on the Isle of Estillyen.
William Jefferson writes from a Civil War-era cottage in the rural Ozarks and is the owner of Storybook Barn, an all-occasion event venue. Jefferson holds an MTh in Theology and Media from the University of Edinburgh and an MA in Communication from the Wheaton Graduate School.