Congratulations, Dear Stranger
Find the original score on Bandcamp
The Bandcamp album also includes an EXCLUSIVE “Suite from Congratulations, Dear Stranger,” not heard in the show. Check it out!
About the Show
Human scientists created artificial ecosystems on alien planets during the early days of off-earth expansion. Then, they lost track of them for a while. Congratulations, Dear Stranger is narrated by the starship sent to seek those missing planets. The starship and passengers all find what they are looking for, but none return home due to the nature of the worlds they encounter.
Congratulations, Dear Stranger is a science fiction audio play. Runtime approx. 150 minutes in three parts. We suggest you remember the plant.
Production
| Producer | Kimberly Dauber |
| Writer | Z. E. Bow |
| Director | Amelia Smith |
| Production Manager | J.C. Pankratz |
| Associate Production Manager | Mel Abrams |
| Sound Designer | Loren Sherman |
| Composer | Jamey J. Guzman |
| Cover Art | Loren Sherman |
Cast
| Demetris | Zoe Sheinkopf |
| Kiri | Kimberly Dauber |
| Miles | Robert Thorpe II |
| Boluwatife | Victoria Longe |
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the early readers of Congratulations, Dear Stranger: Amelia Smith, Colin Aitken, Erin Reynolds, Jacob Abrams, Kimberly Dauber, Kwabena Arthur, Noelle Colant, Xuan Bui, and Zoe Sheinkopf. Thank you to Erika Ding, Megan Mansfield and Staly Chin for science and worldbuilding discussions. Thank you to the cast and crew for their collaboration building this story. Thank you to Zebo Abrams for ectothermic inspiration. Thank you to everyone else whose support let these archives reach listening ears at long last.
Support the Show
Donate to this show on Ko-fi! Mention “CDS” to support this show specifically. Thank you for your support!
Content Warnings
- Violence: multiple graphic deaths, including reference to infant death (part 1 of 3), depiction of sudden, violent death (part 2 of 3), depiction of death by terminal illness (throughout); war, including vivid memories of destruction of home (part 2 of 3) and weapons of mass destruction (part 2 of 3)
- Mental health: claustrophobia, including being confined to living space (thoughout), intense loneliness (throughout), request for assisted suicide (parts 1 and 3 of 3), intense depiction of PTSD (part 2 of 3)
- Body horror: harmful, unwanted puberty (throughout), depiction of terminal illness, including cutting unwanted growths to manage the condition (throughout), vomiting (part 3 of 3), and parasitic growth (part 3 of 3)