Alasdair Stuart
Actor / Narrator
The Secret of St Kilda (2015-2022)
Role
“The Narrator.”
Bio
“Alasdair Stuart is a professional enthusiast, pop culture analyst, writer and voice actor.
He co-owns the Escape Artists podcasts and hosts their weekly horror fiction show, PseudoPod. He is an Audioverse Award winner, a multiple Hugo Award and BFA finalist, writes the multiple-award nominated weekly pop culture newsletter, The Full Lid, blogs at alasdairstuart.com, streams on Twitch, and tweets @AlasdairStuart.”
“… I love getting the opportunity to grow in a field I have no formal training in.”
How did you become aware of The Secret of St Kilda?
“We met the crew at PodUK a frankly horrifying amount of years ago and hit it off instantly. They interviewed us for another project and then, when Kilda spun up, reached out.”
What was your aim in getting involved?
“For a long time I felt the same way about work as one of my heroes, self-described aging alternative rock icon Henry Rollins. Rollins loves work. Doesn’t matter what it is. He does it.
As time’s gone on I’ve evolved from that standpoint into someone who loves work that brings me joy. I love voice acting, and I love getting the opportunity to grow in a field I have no formal training in. Oh and I love narrators too. Rod Serling. The Man in Black from Fear On Four, the EmCee in Cabaret, the bandleader in Chicago. Characters adjacent to the action with a perspective all their own. The Narrator in Kilda is one of my favourites.”
What was the biggest challenge?
“Honestly, there was a confidence issue. Everyone else on that crew is incredibly good at what they do and, in many cases, trained. I still felt, at that point in my career, that I’d lucked into a big role in Peter Lukas and wasn’t sure I knew how to do anything other than that. Kilda and, later, Roguemaker, were instrumental in showing me I have range and I’ll always be grateful for that..”
What would be your dream project?
“I’m a nerd who grew up in the UK in the last six decades so The Doctor is top of the list. Failing that - being killed in a Big Finish Doctor Who audio would be pretty cool.
Aside from that, I’d love to do something in a lead role. I sound like Radio 4 and I’ve got a deep voice so supporting and/or evil roles are pretty regular for me but Roguemaker helped show me I can do nice characters too.
Ooh! Or a video game! I’d love to act in a game.”
How did you land the role? Any tips for a strong audio reel (or virtual audition)?
“There were a couple of roles they thought I’d be a good fit for, and asked if I wanted to audition.
I went Full Rollins and we all decided that the Narrator would be the most fun. And he is! Bless him, little fella. What an angel.”
How does acting for audio compare to other media, for you? Any skills or techniques you’d recommend learning?
“The amazing Karim Kronfli has pointed out that audio acting removes the inherent physical bias of acting in person and he’s quite right. Oddly, I’ve actually gone out of my way before now to play characters who are persons of size and mentioned as such, which is kind of the other side of that coin.
The biggest one for me, though, is playing. Read your script early, play with it, find stuff you love and tell people you love it. That’ll both be the serotonin hit the other cast-members deserve and foster a sense of community. It’ll also help the writers zero in on what you like and write towards that which will help everyone.
Regarding tips…
Speak slightly slower than you think you should.
Breathe past the mic not into it. Don’t be afraid to annotate your script for breath points. Also don’t be afraid to breathe. Breathing’s great.
Pre-read. Coming to a script cold is fun but getting an idea of the territory gives you room to find fun new routes through it..”
If your character was an occasional part, how did you characterise them quickly and memorably?
“We talked about this a lot - and what we settled on was the idea of two voices. Narrator Voice is the warm, rounded, bladed weapon of the terrible thing at the core of the story having so much fun as he moves his pawns around. Pengwing Voice is what we use for non plot specific stuff. Remember that BBC documentary about Penguins where Benedict Cumberbatch forgot how to say the word and just styled it out? We went with that.
Now things have changed somewhat for my character, he’s far more joyous. The plan has worked, the box is opening and now he gets to have a different kind of fun. And jaunty evil is the best evil. Just look at The Master.”