THE CHOKER
Project Overview
UPDATE: We've extended audition deadlines to Sunday, December 28, 2025.
Welcome to Maplewood-Sparta, where suburban streets are lined with shadows. Some say the 90s are dead and gone. But here ... they linger.
This is the fifth in the Spartans! anthology—think Are You Afraid of the Dark? meets haunted mixtapes and 90s nostalgia.
Episode 5: THE CHOKER—a story of Valentines Day 1995, secret love, and a princess with two faces.
SYNOPSIS
The shadows of Maplewood-Sparta are thick with secrets, longing, and the ache of growing up in a world that doesn’t always let you choose who you love.
Gabriella, a princess among high school royalty, finds herself torn between the expectations of her friends and the reality of her forbidden romance with Ethan—a boy from the wrong side of every social line. Their love is hidden away in a church basement, whispered through mixtapes, and marked by the gift of a velvet choker: a token of devotion and the weight of everything left unsaid.
As the seasons change, Gabriella’s world fractures under the pressure of secrets and betrayals. Mysterious Polaroids begin to circulate, exposing the private shames of her once-invincible friend group, and the line between victim and villain blurs. Haunted by grief, divided selves, and the memory of a boy who changed her forever, Gabriella must confront what it means to tell her own story—and what it will take to finally become whole.
Told as a confessional campfire tale, THE CHOKER is a story of love, guilt, and identity set against the Abercrombie and angst of the 1990s.
You can listen to past episodes of the SPARTANS! anthology here.
EPISODE RATING for THE CHOKER
🌙 Lantern (Teen / PG-13)
Advisory: Death & grief; bullying/social cruelty; haunting imagery, non-graphic teen makeouts; mild profanity; reference to suicide (Kurt Cobain).
Run-time: Approx. 40 minutes.
TIMELINE
Audition deadline: December 28, 2025
Casting decisions: December 29, 2025
Table read (zoom): by January 3, 2025 (flexible)
Recording deadline: January 12, 2026
Release: January 19 and 21, 2026 at the Cosmographia Codex Substack (free and paid) then January 23 on Spotify/Apple/Amazon Music/Audible/YouTube.
🎧 FINAL FILE REQUIREMENTS
Format: WAV required for final recording
Sample rate: 44.1 kHz or higher
Final files (when ready for production) should be clean, broadcast-ready voice tracks: no background noise, no music/effects, minimal breaths, consistent levels.
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THE CHOKER
Project overview
THE CHOKER is a 90s teen gothic campfire tale from the SPARTANS! anthology: one narrator at the fire, slipping between confession, fairy tale, and a whole cast of Maplewood-Sparta kids. Think "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" meets "My So-Called Life" with a supernatural twist, told by a woman who was there.
This is episode 5 of the SPARTANS! audio-fiction podcast. Listen to previous episodes to get a sense of the style of performance we tend to choose.
Format
Single-episode audio drama. One performer reads ALL narration and voices ALL characters.
Setting: Maplewood-Sparta (somewhere in suburban America with seasons. Loosely based on Upstate NY but no regional accents of any kind required).
Date: Autumn1993 - Spring1996
Tone: 90s teen gothic
For THE CHOKER, we’re seeking a single female actor to voice the narrator (GABRIELLA) and also side characters ETHAN, JENNY, LAURA, COURTNEY, ALISON, and a few other one-off character lines.
Some performance notes:
These are teens, but I find it's best to use young adult voices for these characters, not make them sound too young, cartoonish, or high-pitched.
Less is more. Warmer is better than colder. Nuance and naturalness are king and queen.
These are not separate roles—just a guide to the range we’d like the narrator to be able to inhabit.
GABRIELLA (the Princess and the Choker Girl)
A kind, polished, popular "princess" with a sensitive interior who begins to split into two separate personalities after a trauma: Princess and Choker Girl.
- Teen Gabriella (princess): polite, composed, steady, smooth register
- Teen Gabriella (choker girl) gets sharper and darker as the choker/trauma work on her.
- Older Gabriella: lower, steadier, almost like she’s telling a ghost story to people she cares about. Occasional cracks when she touches real grief.
- Princess/Fairy-tale voice
Still Gabriella, but slightly heightened—like she’s telling herself the story to survive it.
- Gentle storybook cadence, without going Disney.
JENNY – queen bee
Cutting, sharper voice; quick, precise consonants.
Snark is effortless; no need to “cackle”—just confident, cutting.
Rare, tiny moments where you can hear the insecurity under the control.
Ethan – secret boyfriend
Warm, slightly low, relaxed; doesn’t need to be super deep, but lower register than the girls.
Speaks like someone who lives inside music: unhurried, sincere.
The Girls (Alison, Courtney, Laura, Dana)
Alison: fun, slightly performative; goes brittle when defensive
Courtney: brighter, anxious; “nice girl” energy, shakier when hurt.
Laura: smart, clipped; lower register, a little more grounded and annoyed than scared.
Background Characters (one-liners)
Dana: softer, defensive crushy/hopeful popular girl
Wendy: low register, dry, no nonsense, 80s metal chick vibes
Lunch Lady: one barked line, world-weary amusement.
Noah: sincere, a little shaky, freshman energy
- Storybook
- campfire
- warm
- female young adult
- Sad
- smooth
- female adult
- gothic
NARRATOR (GABRIELLA) (an adult looking back, wry, sad, but warm): Once upon a time in the 90s, there was a girl who loved a boy. She didn’t want to love him. It was social suicide. But she did.
NARRATOR (GABRIELLA) (existential horror but keep it understated. She is seeing something in the photo that can't possibly be there): But there she was. In the photo. The other one. Feral, mascara still smeared. Still in velvet, the black band at her throat.
ETHAN (in response to the question "We're so different, how can this work?" Spoken warmly but plainly): Because you belong to me, and I belong to you.
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