It’s a bit like an old timey radio play, except we only have two minutes to tell a story. Every QC PastPort Destination includes an audio production, written and produced with our QC PastPort team. Our voice talent comprises of actors from this area. Some of our local actors are pros who’ve acted in theater and radio plays for years. Others are new to voice acting.
Because our audio plays are based on real historical figures from different eras of history, voice actors get to have a bit of fun with line readings of the sort of dialogue we don’t hear any more in daily conversation.
The Quad Cities has a rich history, and our region has a long history of immigration from all over the world. This means QC PastPort voice actors are challenged to act in a variety of accents, from 19th Century Boston to even older Swiss, German, and Irish accents.
Rock Island native Kai Swanson is a wonderful voice actor who’s voiced several roles in a variety of accents for us. He’s such fun to work with because of the enthusiasm he brings to our recording sessions.
Talented voice actors can perform a variety of accents and dialogue styles, yet authenticity is important when portraying people who lived in our area and made an impact. When we had a role for a Native American role, we reached out to our friend and colleague Martin Chaney. He’d never acted before, but this was a role from his ancestors and it was important to have that authenticity in our audio recording. Martin got into it and made his acting debut with QC PastPort!
If you want to hear the many talented voice actors we’ve worked with throughout these productions, see the QC PastPort map and start visiting our destinations! There’s a code on each destination sign to give you the opportunity to listen to the audio play from your phone.