THE METAL
Project Overview
Welcome to Maplewood-Sparta, where suburban streets are lined with shadows. Some say the 90s are dead and gone. But here ... they linger.
THE METAL is a story about Mabon 1993, Ethan's Zippo, and the witches knot in the graveyard.
This is the 8-part summer minisode series for the SPARTANS! anthology—think Are You Afraid of the Dark? meets literary coming-of-age.
🎙️ STORY SYNOPSIS — THE METALSet in Maplewood-Sparta during the fall of 1993, THE METAL follows Wendy—a sharp-tongued, fiercely loyal metalhead navigating friendship, jealousy, and the slow fracture of her world.
When a night in the cemetery during Mabon leads to a chilling encounter with something otherworldly, Wendy becomes convinced that unseen forces are at work—tied to an unconsecrated grave, a mysterious witch’s knot, and her own family lineage. As tensions rise within her tight-knit group of friends, Wendy turns to ritual and magic in an attempt to hold everything together… but learns too late that there is a dangerous line between protection and control.
Spanning memory, grief, and the mythology of growing up, THE METAL is a story about love that isn’t always returned the way you want, friendships that evolve, and the painful, necessary act of being “tempered” into who you are meant to become.
EPISODE RATING for THE METAL🔥 Campfire (Mature Teen / 16+)
Advisory: Supernatural/occult ritual and themes; sustained eerie atmosphere; teen substance use (smoking, alcohol, marijuana); implied abusive relationship dynamics; mild profanity.
Run-time: Approx. 75 minutes total (broken into 8 weekly minisodes).
Word Count: approx 13,600
TIMELINE
Audition deadline: April 12, 2025 (end of day)
Casting decisions: April 13, 2026
Table read (zoom): Try to schedule within 3 days of casting decision.
Recording deadline: April 28, 2026
Release: May 5 (minisode 1)—then once a week for 8 weeks.
🎧 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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🎭 CASTING SHEET — ONE ACTOR (ALL ROLES)
Project Note (IMPORTANT):
This is a solo performance audio drama. One actor will perform the narrator and all characters, differentiating through vocal tone, rhythm, and subtle character shifts—not caricature.
We are looking for an actor who can balance:
- Naturalistic teen voices
- Emotional depth and restraint of adult voice looking back
- Storytelling clarity
- Subtle tonal transitions across multiple characters
Age Range (Voice): Teen (16–18), with adult retrospective framing
Voice: Low register, smoker's voice, NO NONSENSE, tough, sarcastic, loyal, emotionally volatile beneath the surface
Energy: Wendy is the core of the story—both as a teenage participant and as the adult narrator looking back. She is sharp, funny, defensive, and deeply feeling, even when she tries not to be.
Key Qualities:
- Strong narrative presence (campfire storyteller)
- Ability to shift between past and reflective tone seamlessly
- Carries humor, anger, vulnerability, and grief
- Rhythm-driven delivery (she moves fast, thinks fast)
Age Range (Voice): Teen male
Energy: Gentle, introspective, slightly distant
Ethan is the emotional center of Wendy’s world—and the one she cannot reach. He speaks calmly, often with a sense of being elsewhere.
Key Qualities:
- Soft, grounded tone
- Understated emotional weight
- Slight dreamlike quality in delivery
Age Range (Voice): Teen female
Energy: Witchy, sensitive, romantic, intuitive
Brandy lives slightly closer to the mystical world than the others. She is softer than Wendy but not weak—she feels things deeply.
Key Qualities:
- Airy but grounded
- Emotional openness
- Subtle fragility
Age Range (Voice): Teen male
Energy: Confident, cocky, physical, impulsive
Tony is charismatic and reactive, often leading with instinct rather than thought.
Key Qualities:
- Casual swagger
- Playful edge
- Ability to pivot into intensity when needed
Age Range (Voice): Teen female
Energy: Quiet, guarded, unexpectedly firm
Initially perceived as weak or peripheral, Noah reveals strength and self-possession over time.
Key Qualities:
- Reserved tone
- Clear emotional boundaries
- Subtle evolution in confidence
Age Range (Voice): Late teen / early 20s
Energy: Dominant, volatile, controlling
Ricky carries an undercurrent of threat. His presence should shift the energy in a scene immediately.
Key Qualities:
- Sharp tonal edge
- Controlled aggression
- Ability to imply danger without exaggeration
Age Range (Voice): Elderly female
Energy: Calm, knowing, quietly powerful
Gran is grounded, wise, and subtly magical. She never raises her voice—but always holds control.
Key Qualities:
- Warm but firm
- Deep stillness
- Hints of hidden power
Age Range (Voice): Adult male
Energy: Controlled, judgmental, unsettling
A figure of authority whose concern masks something more insidious.
Key Qualities:
- Polished, deliberate speech
- Slightly condescending tone
- Ability to feel threatening without volume
Energy: Functional, grounded
These roles should be clearly distinct but not overperformed.
Key Qualities:
- Efficient differentiation
- Light character sketching without distraction
- This is a radio play with cinematic tone, not a stage performance.
- Avoid exaggerated “voice acting”—we want lived-in realism.
- Character changes should feel intuitive and fluid.
- The narrator voice should feel like someone telling a story by firelight—intimate, direct, and immersive.
- Emotional restraint is key—especially in later sections dealing with grief and memory.
- female adult
NARRATOR (WENDY) (opening lines. pride, edge, identity, fondness looking back): "Back of the cafeteria. Closest to the exit. That’s where the real ones sat. The metal kids. Our soundtrack was all loud guitars — Sabbath, Warlord, Judas Priest, Maiden, Ozzy. We banged our heads like it still meant something. And maybe it did."
NARRATOR (WENDY) (Inward, dreamlike but grounded in her delivery, more ache than intensity. Wendy is never too soft, but she feels deeply): "I closed my eyes and it was like I was floating—or stepping through layers of air into dark dimensions, where time bent and faces blurred. But in every one of those worlds, Ethan was moving farther and farther away."
GRAN (older woman talking to her grand daughter. Keep it naturalistic, warm, but warning.): "Well, magic like that always has two faces—the thing you call, and the shadow that answers."
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