Student-produced audio drama is back for more encounters with the truth

Returning to the airwaves after five years, “The Encounter,” an original audio drama podcast from the Liberty University School of Communication & the Arts, is keeping the art of audio/radio storytelling alive for another generation.

The fifth season premiered on March 20. New episodes release weekly on multiple audio streaming platforms. (Listen now on the “The Encounter” website.)

The program is written, composed, voiced, edited, and produced by students and faculty in the School of Communication & the Arts and the School of Music. Inspired by real-world societal conversations about absolute truth versus relativism, the story focuses on four teenagers living in two seemingly utopian societies separated by a mysterious mist — one society is legalistically religious and the other is humanistic without truth — who search for greater truths beyond their borders.

Gospel values have been conveyed through audio storytelling for decades with radio dramas like “Unshackled” or “Adventures in Odyssey,” and now, Liberty’s creators are bringing the artform to the modern entertainment medium of streaming audio.

“Christ-believing organizations have been engaged in this format for a long time,” said Department of Theatre Arts Professor Chris Nelson, who developed “The Encounter” as a radio program in 2015 and serves as executive producer. “Now it’s no longer radio … now you’re talking about what the next generation is using. (At Liberty), we talk about being Champions for Christ in the arts; we’re trying to champion excellence and also still put out things that people could easily tie back to biblical truths, without it necessarily being an explicitly biblical tale.”

Over 100 students have been involved in “The Encounter.” The program is a collaborative, interprofessional effort, with acting students performing many of the characters, digital media students helping in the editing bay, and film scoring students writing the show’s music. Faculty members from these programs have also been integral to producing the final product.

Nelson said he’s seen students discover a passion and skill for voice acting as the experience opens their eyes to a career opportunity they may not have considered before.

“There are many students who have some gifting in this area,” he said. “It’s just a different way of using your gifts, and that’s awesome. That’s really what a university should be: finding where you best fit in and how you can help launch yourself into a career. Because this generation is so technologically savvy, they (students) understand this medium already; they understand the microphones, and they understand the editing software they get. It’s a prime generation to be engaged in this world.”

Logan Polson (’23), now a theatre arts graduate, voiced Magnus Styleson in the fifth season when he was a student. He had no prior experience or knowledge of voiceover work until Nelson asked him to try out for the show. In the process of performing one of the lead roles in the new season, Polson said he discovered a new artistic passion.

“My expectation of voiceover before getting into it and then actually doing it were vastly different experiences,” he said. “I’d thought you just sort of show up, do some funny voices with it all, and see what happens. But when I got in the space and realized how physical it was, I realized how this is a whole different form of art. That experience kind of opened me to the world of voiceover, and I’m now doing some professional voiceover acting because of my first experience at Liberty doing it. The whole experience of working on the show was amazing, and it’s so exciting to have it out now for people to listen to.”

“My encouragement to aspiring actors and to people who would like to get into voice acting, or to acting at all, is to jiggle doors and see which ones open, even if it’s not your realm or your wheelhouse initially,” he added. “See what the Lord opens because He may have a path for you that you’d never see coming.”

“The Encounter” has been a large catalyst for Sonic-Con, an audio theater convention that Nelson has organized for three years on Liberty’s campus, welcoming professional voice actors from programs like “Adventures in Odyssey” and “Animaniacs” for masterclasses and panels, all with the focus of engaging current and future audio storytellers.

At this year’s Sonic-Con, June 30-July 2, attendees will be the first to listen to the Season 5 finale episode of “The Encounter” before it releases on July 10.

From 2015 to 2021, four seasons of “The Encounter” were produced and released, with 15 episodes each, along with a small two-episode prequel.

Nelson said that originally, the audio drama was written to end with its fourth season in 2021, but when he and co-writer Colton Grellier (a 2020 School of Law graduate) realized the overall arc of the story may still be incomplete, they returned to the project and developed plans for three more seasons.

“We’re really excited right now for what we believe is really strong quality storytelling and character development,” he said.” A beautiful thing is seeing people who attached themselves early on to our program and are excited for the new episodes. They love the story, and they love what’s going on.”

“‘The Encounter’ is an ensemble show that I feel has great pace to it and great world-building alongside it,” Polson added. “There’s a new energy in Season 5, a new dynamic and pace that I think is so good, while staying in the world that’s been built.”

There is no projected release date for upcoming seasons, but Nelson said the groundwork has already been laid, and future episodes could be some of the show’s best.

“I believe this show is putting out some of its best work, and I believe very strongly that when you start something, you want to finish it and finish it well,” he said.

Season 5 and all past seasons of “The Encounter” are available to stream on the website and on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Dramafy, and more.