Carole Ann Miller, a Jefferson County native, has helped forge a new storytelling experience for the next generation of fairy tale and mythology lovers.
Miller, 23, has helped create a podcast called “The House of Branching Paths,” along with co-host Mark Killmer, covering stories like Ovid’s tale of Echo and Narcissus, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and fairy tales from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, better known as the Brothers Grimm.
“We took the idea of classic stories, things that people would know or that would be new to them, and combined them with this new technology of soundscapes, sound work and voice acting to revamp that ancient tradition of storytelling and bring it to the 21st century,” Miller said.
The first podcast episode was released on Oct. 12 on Spotify and retells the Norwegian fairy tale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon.”
Killmer said his audio editing experience, along with his and Miller’s acting experience serves them well for “The House of Branching Paths” podcast.
The podcast currently includes three episodes, averaging about 20 minutes each, with plenty more to come, Killmer said.
Their first podcast was released on Oct. 12 on Spotify and retells the Norwegian fairy tale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon.”
Miller said she believes the podcast may bring people together.
“‘The House of Branching Paths’ was this idea that all of us come from different backgrounds. So many things are happening on so many different paths, and yet we’re all connected by this one central thing,” Miller said. “You might know the story of Arachne from Greek mythology, or you might know the story of Winnie the Pooh, and that’s something that brings us together.”
Miller
Miller grew up in the Festus area and is a 2018 St. Pius X High School graduate. She now lives in St. Charles and is pursuing a career in acting.
Miller grew up in the Festus area and is a 2018 St. Pius X High School graduate.
“I’ve been a professional actor in the St. Louis area for many years now,” Miller said. “(The podcast) is a whole new experience because we are part of the entire process. We’re making the soundscapes and all of the voice work. I’m really good at the story adaptation and bringing life to these characters not only in the stories but also the characters we’ve created – the storytellers Grandmaster Emris and Lady Morgana.”
As listeners dive into the podcast, Lady Morgana, AKA Miller, and Grandmaster Emris, AKA Killmer, guide them on their journey. Listeners are invited to close their eyes and imagine themselves sitting around a fire with Emris and Morgana as they spin tales.
“The fire burns low, with stories ever glowing,” Emris and Morgana say at the end of each episode.
Woven into the podcast are audio samples Killmer and Miller create to enhance the story, including echoes, ticking clocks, spinning cogs and rushing water.
Miller said her role is to write the script and provide voices on the podcast.
“(Adapting a story) comes from my personal performance experience and things that I have picked up here and there,” Miller said. “We wanted Season 1 to be a combination of a little bit of everything that we really love.”
Miller said her background in stage productions and acting at various festivals is an asset to the podcast.
Miller and Killmer first met in 2020 at the Legends & Lanterns festival in St. Charles, where they played the characters a siren and Blackbeard, respectively. Miller said she still acts in the festival, whereas Killmer has moved on to the St. Charles Christmas Traditions festival where he dresses as Santa Claus.
“St. Louis and the St. Louis area is so supportive of the artistic community, and there’s so much going on right now,” Miller said. “People want professional theater and professional creativity that’s new and they haven’t seen before. We wanted to bring something that we weren’t seeing (in podcasts) that will hopefully pique people’s interest.”
Miller earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at Southeast Missouri State in 2021. She first became interested in acting in fifth grade when she joined the Bellarmine Speech League, an extra-curricular program run by the St. Louis Archdiocese for middle school students.
Killmer
Killmer, 36, of University City has a background in stage shows and is trained to work with audio equipment and editing. He said part of the inspiration for “The House of Branching Paths” came from ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos, which can produce the tingling, relaxing sensation one gets when listening to a satisfying sound, according to the Sleep Foundation. ASMR podcasts and videos are a popular genre on social media, often used to help people fall asleep or relax after a hard day.
Mark Killmer
Killmer said he uses ASMR techniques and Foley effects to enhance the podcast.
“(Foley) is a very interesting, strange field because when you really start getting into it, you start realizing that even the most complex sounds are just a combination of simpler sounds. We have a spinning wheel sound effect in the first episode. I don’t have a spinning wheel, but I found a baby toy in my nephew’s room that made a similar sound.”
Killmer said one episode needed the sound of a ticking watch, but when he attempted to capture a watch ticking with his microphone, the sound was too low, so he ended up using the ratchet sound of a socket wrench to achieve the sound effect.
Once Killmer and Miller record the script and generate the sound effects using whatever means they have, Killmer edits, mixes, and masters all the audio. He said he has been a voice actor and worked in audio editing for three audiobooks, which helped prepare him for the editing process on the podcast.
“That was really where I cut my teeth on the editing process,” Killmer said. “When your final product is eight to 10 hours, you’re editing somewhere around 40 hours of audio. We generally have about 25 to 30 minutes of audio to work with (on the podcast).”
What’s next?
Miller said the next step for the podcast duo is to take their stories to the stage, adding that performing the stories for “edutainment” purposes is a goal.
“(The podcast) is for all ages,” Miller said. “I would love for teachers to use it as educational material. Our goal for these characters would be to get out to live shows at libraries or schools because people can learn so much from these adapted stories.”
Killmer said one way the duo might tell the stories live is through puppetry.
“We’d really love to work with local libraries because the library is where I first read these stories and fell in love with them,” Killmer said. “We want to pay them back by doing some type of programming.”
Miller said those interested in hearing their podcast may follow “The House of Branching Paths” on Spotify. The podcast also has a social media presence on Instagram and Facebook under the same name.