Third Eye

By: Alison Fortune
Megan Palcic

Third Eye tells a tale of childhood prodigy, failure, and finding a way in the world when you’re no longer on top of it. The audio drama follows Laurel Pettigrew, played by creator Felicia Day. Laurel was once a child chosen one, but failed in her purpose. Now she navigates the world as an outcast while training a young, overeager magic-user named Kate, played by Lily Pichu. “How many stories do we have of chosen ones who fail?” said Day. Day describes Third Eye as her dream TV show that she was never able to make. However, she goes on to say that she was able to achieve things with the project as an audio drama that would have never been possible as a television series or a movie.

The production drops you into the middle of the magic of the world with immersive and captivating sounds that are perfectly “portally,” many of which were created specifically for the audio drama. The sound design team transports you to a San Francisco pier… by recording real life audio from a pier in San Francisco. Director Jonah Ray discussed the excitement of working on a project like this, a first in the medium for him. He was inspired by his love of old radio plays, like the Twilight Zone, as well as shows from BBC Radio. He approached the work from a place of interest in bringing a visual element to an audio production.  

London Hughes described the character of Sybil as basically “just myself,” and commented that she was able to use her stand-up comedy experience to make the role her own through improv, “perfect comedy timing,” and updating “Americanisms” to “Britishisms.” Third Eye is a “love letter to the fantasy genre,” and Hughes said she has her own background in immersing herself in fantasy. As a child she would write fanfiction inserting herself into 90s sitcoms and other TV shows, even though she didn’t know it was part of a larger cultural practice, or even had a name: she just “called it Thursday.”

Third Eye is an Audible Original that is being released October 5, 2023, and boasts a star-studded cast, including Felicia Day as LAUREL, London Hughes as SYBIL, Sean Astin as FRANK, Neil Gaiman as THE NARRATOR, Christopher Judge as TYBUS, Carolyn Seymour as DELIAH, Laraine Newman as RUBY, Wil Wheaton as ROBIGUS, Danny Pudi as CHARLES, LilyPichu as KATE, Alan Tudyk as VLAD, Nyima Funk as RIVER MUMMA, Hudson Yang as BEN, Amir Talai as BALAJI, Sean Giambrone as GARY, Jade Hykush as BABA YAGA, Janet Varney as TRACY and Lila Sage Bromley as TEEN LAUREL.