Madelyn Dorta on Magic, Community, and Meteor City
As an audio dramatist and playwright, Madelyn is doing it all with style and consideration
Madelyn Dorta is a powerhouse.
Between opening a new physical homebase for her production company, Wrightwood Studios, and releasing the second season of her audio drama Meteor City, Dorta is honing her skills in storytelling across different forms. She’s directing plays, she’s reading and recommending books by Latina authors on her Instagram, she’s crafting episodes for anthology podcasts — and guaranteed, she’s working on even more behind the scenes that has yet to be announced.
And she’s doing it all with style, with grace, and with a deep love of the art.
Dorta’s first audio drama, Meteor City, is an outstanding debut. This full-cast audio drama follows the wonderfully messy Bianca who returns to her hometown of Detroit — now called Meteor City — after the disaster that left her home in ruins ten years ago. She hopes to reinvigorate her career as a vlogger by interviewing the people who never left, but she quickly finds herself over her head in more ways than one.
We interviewed Dorta to talk about what she’s learned as an audio dramatist as the second season of Meteor City drops. Find the show on Apollo and listen in as season two unfolds.
I want to start by talking about Detroit as it is right now. What does this city mean to you? How would you describe the heart of the city to someone who’s never been?
To me, the city of Detroit is best described as Electric — which is a common theme in Meteor City. It is a city very much alive and with a loud pulse. From its rich history, its people, the music, the food, the soul of the city, it’s vibrating with life. To me… the city of Detroit, much like its, people are a symbol of resilience and what it means to live life out loud.
“I wrote because I love this story and these characters, and that is enough.”
What were the initial inspirations for Meteor City? Did the characters come first, or the plot, setting, etc.? And how did the rest of building the story come together from those early beginnings?
When visiting Detroit, I was struck with its inspiration. The city has such an electric vibe to it. I felt it the minute I stepped foot there. But it really wasn’t until I spoke with the people and saw the pain and destruction of the city did I fully understand it. Much like every other big city, it has its share of systemic issues. I wanted Meteor City to reflect the reality of Detroit, the good, the bad, the ugly — because the city deserves it. When I was leaving Detroit, I saw a deteriorating sign that read “Motor City,” and being dyslexic, of course I read it as Meteor City… which made me giggle. But it clicked instantly: Detroit HAD been hit by a disaster, and had to live in its destruction. From there, each character, especially Bianca, sprang to life.
You’ve said that writing season 2 was one of the most challenging projects you’ve worked on. I’d love to know what challenges you faced and how you overcame them–or how you embraced them.
I think for me, writing Season 2 was incredibly difficult because the world I created is often dark and isolated, much like the real one. I wrote Season 2 at the height of the pandemic, and it just echos the grief and uncertainty that we were all experiencing. I questioned myself, my abilities as storyteller and as an audio maker… if this story really needed to be told. And I’m glad that I did because I feel that I was able to channel my anxiety and anchor myself into the story.
“As creators, we get to breathe life into worlds and go on epic journeys… audio fiction truly is an act of magic.”
I did that by stepping out of the box that I put myself in as a storyteller. I wrote because I love this story and these characters, and that is enough. I wanted to hear this story and I wrote for an audience of one. I packed away the expectations, and the constant comparisons of other shows and just wrote for me and Bianca. I’m proud to say that through challenges of writing of Season 2 I was reminded why I wanted to create in the medium…and it was for me.
Your other audio projects include Coven Cast: A Disaster’s Guide to Magic and a Thumbelina episode of Feminist Fairytales. What role does magic play in your art, and what role does magic play in your life?
Magic plays an essential part of my life. I see all around me. So much, it’s now my studio’s slogan. Audio, visual, magic! That is exactly how I see storytelling. As creators, we get to breathe life into worlds and go on epic journeys… audio fiction truly is an act of magic.
You’ve talked about the protagonist, Bianca, being a mirror to yourself. Reflecting on Bianca at the start of season 1, and then at the start of season 2, how do you see yourself in Bianca? How have you changed alongside her?
I feel like a lot of storytellers put pieces of themselves in characters, and I was no different. We are both stubborn, caring — we don’t always make the best decisions, but we try to do what is right. I feel like both myself and Bianca have grown less accepting of others’ opinions and their judgment. I think the biggest difference for both of us between seasons was the need to grasp for some kind of control in a chaotic world. For Bianca, that’s saving Dee’s Diner and for me that’s… well… I am still working on that one.
One of the core themes of Meteor City is the ways we are kept from forming community, the way closeness is de-incentivized. We can see this from the separation between Meteor City and New Detroit; from the friction in Bianca asking for truth and vulnerability from those around her; and even from how Bianca gets literally burned when Deon touches her in season 1. Why do we need community, and how can art make us remember its importance when the systems want us to forget?
We all need community, and we can find or create it in all areas of our lives. It’s how we grow, take care of and tend to each other. Without it… what are we? That’s not to say that individuality isn’t important, but how we identify within ourselves often is shaped by those around us — which can be a beautiful and dangerous thing.
I think the fascinating thing about audio fiction specifically is how sharing what we love is part of the experience. Telling your peers about it, and inviting them to experience the story with you, is an act of love, and that in itself is strengthening the bond in our community. It’s essential to our growth. I feel that social media has drastically reshaped our minds and provides a false realty of self so much so that we see gatekeeping, discrimination, and barriers in art just as much as we do in real life. And it doesn’t need to be that way. We have an active choice in creating a community of creators, listeners, audio makers, that support one and another and lift each other up, because if we don’t do it from within… we won’t survive.
“It takes intention to support those who aren’t brave enough to ask for it just yet.”
The outro theme for Meteor City contains samples from Barack Obama. Your work is very directly referential to real-world politics–why these samples from Barack Obama in particular?
Our resident Sound Wizard, Angel Dorta, made the choice to sample Obama due to the context of the speech. Obama was talking to a rally in Detroit when he was campaigning. He was promising to uplift, and reinvigorate Detroit after the 2008 recession. And no surprise… it didn’t happen. The people of Detroit struggled, fought, and rebuilt their city on their own like they always have. It’s a ode to the resiliency of the people and hope for the future.
How does community factor into the audio drama space? What are we doing well in community, and what do we need to be doing better?
Audio fiction as a medium has grown so much because of community. It’s the lifeblood of [the medium]. I think the beauty of any community really is the seasons that it goes through. When I joined the audio drama space a few years ago, it was a night and day difference to what it is now.
As a woman of color, I often feel like an outsider looking in even in online spaces including this one. We do an excellent job at supporting our peers and friends: people we know. We listen, we review, subscribe, and donate. But I often see that we don’t give that same attention and support to the newbies, and I think we should. If we only support creators, voice actors, and shows that we know… we will never grow and experience new ideas, new art, new friendships. It takes intention to support those who aren’t brave enough to ask for it just yet.
“It’s okay to ask for help. That’s what I did.”
After having finished one season and starting to drop episodes of a second, what advice can you give to new and aspiring audio drama creators?
So much! The biggest piece of advice I’d give to aspiring audio creators is a gentle reminder that it’s okay not to know what you are doing. It may look like each creator, show, voice actor knows what we are doing, but we don’t. We are just making it up as we go. It’s okay that you aren’t perfect at first; no one is! It’s okay if your audio isn’t a masterpiece.
It’s okay to ask for help. That’s what I did. I tweeted a question. Not only did I find an answer, but a community. We all start somewhere, and when you get to the place where you feel proud of what you created, that’s when you’ve made it. And you are presented with the opportunity to help those who’ve been in your shoes, too. We grow when we give just as much as when we receive!
And finally, what other audio dramas have you been loving?
Tons! Most recently I have fallen madly in love with Teatro Vista’s Fifth World. It’s a brilliant story about a missing boy, an eerie desert town, and an otherworldly fate. I couldn’t stop listening.
Also, I am a HUGE fan of WGC Productions’ Small Victories. It is such a refreshing and poignant show unlike anything in our space. It’s raw, vulnerable, and so very human!
