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Song of the Northwoods

By: Jessica Huang
Narrated by: Michele Selene Ang, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Emma Kikue, Caroline Neff, Joy Dolo, Lisa Flanagan, Ricardo Vázquez
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Publisher's summary

After a betrayal at work costs Song Kuan her job, she retreats to her friend Lucy’s idyllic family cabin on a lake in Minnesota to lick her wounds. She devotes herself to recording Ice Cold Cases, a true-crime podcast that she and Lucy cohost with the gleeful energy of obsessed fans—until an anonymous tip about a missing-person case disrupts their equilibrium. Then Lucy disappears, leaving Song alone in an unfriendly and unfamiliar town where locals don’t take kindly to strangers asking questions.

Twisty, unpredictable, and sonically adventurous, Song of the Northwoods will keep you guessing until the final showdown.

Portions of this audiobook contain mature language. Listener discretion is advised.

Playwright Jessica Huang was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible-commissioned playwright, she received funding and creative support to develop Song of the Northwoods.

Directed by Jaki Bradley.

Now available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.

©2022 Jessica Huang (P)2022 AO Media LLC
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About the Creator

Jessica Huang is a playwright from Minnesota based in New York. Her work has been commissioned by Audible, History Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Mixed Blood Theatre, Timeline Theater, Theater Masters, and Theater Mu, and includes The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin (Barry and Bernice Stavis Award, Kilroy's List), Mother of Exiles (Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award, Kendeda Prize Finalist), Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying, and Purple Cloud. She has been a member of the Civilians R&D Group, Page 73's Interstate 73 and Ars Nova Play Group, and has had fellowships at the Playwrights' Center and McDowell. She is a graduate of the Playwrights Program at Juilliard.

About the Director

Jaki Bradley is a Brooklyn-based director. Recent projects: White Noise (Berkeley Rep), Radio Island, and Good Men Wanted (New York Stage and Film), Mama Metallica (Denver Center), and Playing Hot (Pipeline Theater). She has developed and presented work with The Public, Williamstown, Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, Arena Stage, and Ars Nova. She has been a member of the Civilians R&D Group, an artist-in-residence at Ars Nova, a Drama League artist-in-residence and TV/Film Fellow, a member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Williamstown Directing Corps, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, and a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. Her screenplay Detox made the 2019 BloodList and HIT List and is being produced by XYZ Films. She is currently writing a script for Paramount Players and Nightshade Productions.

About the Performer

LA-based Michele Selene Ang is a Chinese-American actor, writer, and artist who was born in Indonesia, raised in San Francisco, and educated in New York. She is best known for her role on Netflix's megahit series 13 Reasons Why, where she played the role of Courtney Crimsen, one of the titular reasons that Hannah (Katherine Langford) commits suicide in season 1. In addition to her time on 13 Reasons Why, Ang also appeared on the CBS crime procedural Elementary, where she played Kelsey Chapman, a houseguest of Watson’s (Lucy Liu) who is considering giving up her unborn baby for adoption.
Up next, Michele can be seen starring in the feature film How I Learned to Fly opposite Marcus Scribner, Lonnie Chavis, Cedric the Entertainer and Method Man.
Michele received her BA in Theatre Performance from Fordham University and was chosen as a YoungArts winner and U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts.

About the Performer

Quincy Dunn-Baker was born in Middlebury, Vermont, and splits his time between upstate New York and Brooklyn. A television, film, voice, and theater actor, he has appeared in numerous TV shows including Only Murders in the Building, Black Mirror, FBI, Inventing Anna, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and many others. Recent films include the independent feature Mabel and Sharper for A24. NYC theater credits include The Wayside Motor Inn (Signature Theater), By The Water (Manhattan Theatre Club), The End of Longing (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Good Negro (The Public Theater), Georgia Mertching is Dead (Ensemble Studio Theatre), and Romeo and Juliet (The Public Theater).

About the Performer

Emma Kikue most recently appeared in the recurring role of Keiko on Love Life for HBO Max. Emma previously recurred on season one of USA’s hit anthology The Sinner opposite Christopher Abbott. She has also appeared in guest roles on CBS’ Instinct, Madam Secretary, Elementary, and Bull. In film, Emma wrapped a leading role in Black and White and Red All Over and can be seen in2019’s Josie and Jack. Emma will next appear in the Universal distributed feature The Adults starring Michael Cera

About the Performer

Caroline Neff will next be seen recurring in two Showtime series: Three Women opposite Betty Gilpin, Shailene Woodley, and DeWanda Wise, and Let The Right One In alongside Demián Bichir. Other television credits include major recurring roles on NBC's Chicago Med and CBS' The Red Line. Broadway credits include Linda Vista written by Tracy Letts and Airline Highway directed by Joe Mantello. She is a company member at Steppenwolf Theater and Steep Theater. Regional credits include performances at Steppenwolf, Steep Theater (Jeff Award A Brief History of Helen of Troy), Mark Taper Forum, Yale Rep, Goodman Theatre, and Victory Gardens (Jeff Award for Lettie). She teaches at New York University

Dear Listener,

What did I want to explore when I set out to create Song of the Northwoods?
"The Northwoods of Minnesota have always been evocative for me. There’s the rich resource of the land—used for hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, cross-country skiing, and for its valuable iron ore. The friendly iciness of "Minnesota nice." The loon. When I was invited to create this play for audio, I knew the setting of the Northwoods before I knew anything else. Song of the Northwoods is a play created for an audience of one listener at a time, and I wanted to immerse you each in the specificity of that place.
The second thing is this: I was in high school hanging out in the choir room after school with some of my closest friends and for some reason there weren’t enough chairs, so one of them told me to sit on the floor "because you’re Chinese." It was a joke and we all laughed. At the time, I thought we were laughing because the part of me that’s Chinese was so insignificant to them, so much a part of my distant background, that arbitrarily calling it up would be absurd—how funny! That’s how deeply I thought I had masked my difference. But since moving away from Minnesota, I’ve been turning that memory over in my mind, arranging it alongside so many others, trying to piece together a mystery of belonging. Who was I to them? And more importantly, who was I to me?" – Jessica Huang, writer of Song of the Northwoods

What listeners say about Song of the Northwoods

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Need More

I hope Ms Huang is still writing...we need more!!! I finished Song of the Northwoods on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happens next!

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Short but not sweet

I'm not mad that I listened, but the story doesn't stand out as particularly good. The whole thing felt rushed, predictable, and meh.

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2 people found this helpful

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A bit weak

The story itself was not very memorable. Ok for s free short story. Couldn’t relate to any of the characters. Performance was ok

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2 people found this helpful

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okay for free

This production was difficult to understand, which may have been the effect they were going for, in this story v. podcast format.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Nice listen while doing chores

Kept my mind occupied while getting thru some unpleasant tasks. No blockbuster but I liked how the truth finally won out, message being integrity is a great Value for living with oneself.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Very entertaining

I really enjoy these novellas, I can listen to 2 or 3 a day while I work. This one kept me on my toes from the beginning to the end

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  • Overall
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Mysterious but believable!

This isn’t my typical listen so it took a bit to settle in and get used to the style, but I found that I really enjoyed the performance. The voice actors did an excellent job and even without additional descriptions that are typically present in fiction writing, I was able to imagine the setting.

I liked the included background noises, and the loons made me think of our own summers spent in the north woods! Most everything was tied up at the end, so that was nice.

Overall, I liked it!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Popcorn Thriller

This was definitely a quick, relatively engaging listen. The writing was a little too obvious and sometimes the narration grated a bit - I wouldn’t call this high quality or nuanced, but if you’re looking for a quick, popcorn thriller, it does the trick!

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Fun! Loved it.

This was a fun little story, I loved the background sound effects especially. I felt like I was totally apart of the scene.

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Except for

I loved the various voices. The plot was interesting. The issue I have is the language. I understand this may be how some people speak, but it seemed over the top. I listen to many books and this performance, by far, was the most vulgar.

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