Sitting behind paneled glass in a Midtown recording studio, Alfre Woodard reads her character’s lines for the science-fiction audiodrama “Kindred.”
Woodard stars as Dana Franklin, a techie who’s downsized in an e-commerce crossfire, then time-travels to the antebellum South. There, she must save the life of the plantation owner’s son – so that he will survive to father her own grandmother.
“Kindred” is adapted from a 1979 novel by Octavia E. Butler, an author Woodard said helped attract her to the project, even though she’s not a huge science fiction fan.
“I was introduced to her writing in college,” says Woodard, nominated for a 1983 Academy Award in “Cross Creek.”
“She’s such a fine writer, and I like good writing in any genre.”
Lynn Whitfield, among the 19-person cast that includes Ruby Dee, agrees.
“Her work has not been brought to the screen yet, but to bring it to life in any way was great,” says Whitfield, who recorded the novel “Beloved” as an audiobook.
“We rarely think of literature from African-American people as having a sci-fi bent to it, but her work is extremely interesting.”
Producer Brian Smith, of Seeing Ear Theatre, explains why the work is special.
“Obviously, there are not that many black women who are science-fiction writers, and Octavia is one of those people who crossed the gap,” says Smith, who, with Seeing Ear, is attempting to reinvent the golden age of radio on the Internet and other venues.
“But ‘Kindred,’ at its heart, works as a slave narrative.”
The four-part program, which will air over the Internet (www.scifi.com/set), showed its first installment yesterday. The others are scheduled Feb. 20, Feb. 22 and Feb. 27. Running about 35 minutes per episode, “Kindred” can be accessed any time after noon. Anyone who missed an episode can call it up on the Web site.
The cast, which spent three days recording the 138-page script, overcame the challenge of working in what was largely an isolation chamber.
“It’s difficult for the actors, because they don’t have the effects to work with,” Smith says. “The whippings, beatings and dogs chasing people were all added later on.”