Read Time: 8 Minutes
Today I got to interview David Allen Vargo, stage actor and director, and most recently narrator of the Civil War paranormal thriller, “I Survived Gettysburg” by Mark Pieper. After theatres closed during the pandemic, David put his skills towards narrating audiobooks. Join us as we find out more about his early life, narration, and his pet cats!
M: David, can you tell us about your background and how you got into audiobook narration?
D: My parents put me in a children’s acting school when I was six years old on the advice of my first-grade teacher who informed them, ‘You MUST put this child in acting class!” I guess I was ‘acting out’ a bit more than my peers and she figured I needed an outlet for my inner Hamlet. Anyway, my parents, ever eager to provide as much education for me as they could, took her advice and I thrived in children’s theater. I never really wanted to do anything other than acting as a profession, so I majored in theater in college, attended Florida State University School of Theatre in Tallahassee and Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, and from there I went to NY and studied at the now, sadly defunct, National Shakespeare Conservatory. This was concurrent with the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in New York, and for the sake of peace in my family back in Florida, I grudgingly abandoned my fledgling career and came home. At the time there were some but not a lot of regional theatre in South Florida where I lived. It has grown considerably and well since those days. But I got involved where I could. I did a lot of acting, directing and stage managing, all the while building my resume and earning my Equity card.
But acting and directing alone were never sufficiently remunerative to provide the stable lifestyle I desired. So, I entered the corporate world. There I found my niche in the world of Destination Management, a place where I could express myself creatively and still provide for my lifestyle comfortably. Working as a graphic designer, script writer, actor, and producer for corporate events, I eventually became a marketing communications director for several firms which focused on special events and logistics for corporate travel, with offices in Fort Lauderdale, The Bahamas, and Puerto Rico. I spent many happy years in that world working with marvelous people I still have as friends to this day.
Eventually I got married and moved to Ohio as my spouse is a Professor Emeritus of Law at The Ohio State University. I’ve worked steadily in regional professional theater here since my arrival. When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020 we had just opened a production at one of our regional professional theaters when we were shut down and the city went into lockdown and quarantine. Anyone who lived through that knows the frustrations we experienced as all our lives were put on hold and we existed in a surreal and disconcerting stasis. I had been toying with the idea of audiobook narration for a few years but was working so steadily on stage I kept it on the back burner, so to speak. But with the pandemic, it moved to the front of the line. I installed a recording booth in my home and began learning about the process through friends already in the voice industry and various online sources.
M: What drew you to narrating “I Survived Gettysburg”? Was there anything about the book or its themes of the Civil War or the supernatural that resonated with you?
D: The author, who was familiar with my work both on stage and in the recording booth, approached me with the proposal to narrate his book. I’m a history lover and fascinated with the paranormal anyway, so a story about the American Civil War that included ghosts and time travel was right up my alley. I read the book with my jaw on the floor, and in utter fascination. I wasn’t just reading a book, this was a work of superior and lasting artistic merit. This independent author, yet undiscovered by the publishing world, would have been destined for a meteoric rise to the top, if fate and circumstance ever placed him before the right people in the right place at the right time. I accepted the proposal and felt I owed it to this author’s monumental work to give it the very best production value I could, calling upon many of the technical skills I had learned through my years in the theatre.
Audiobook narration is, of course a vocal art, but it is also the art of sound. Traditionally, most audiobooks are not produced with sound effects for various reasons. Not all producers/narrators are skilled in the choosing, acquisition, and application of sound effects and not all listeners like or appreciate them. I use them where I feel it is appropriate as long as I alone am producing the audiobook and the author wants and requests them based on having heard my past work. “I Survived Gettysburg,” just screamed for sound effects when I read it. I got very excited about the production possibilities, and the author was on board with all of my ideas. The finished product was a fully immersive experience and is one of my proudest accomplishments in the area of sound design and performance.
I was honored to perform this book because I personally believed in the primary message it conveyed about the futility of war and how the common man is the one who really suffers when governments and ’causes’ motivated by greed commence bloody, armed campaigns of death and destruction.
M: What would you say you enjoy the most about being a narrator?
D: I would have to say what I enjoy most about being a narrator are the multitudinous opportunities it provides for me to simply act and do what I was born to do – tell stories. I still act, direct, and occasionally stage manage local professional theatrical productions – I’m scheduled to play the lead in one which opens at the end of May this year – but I find myself drawn more and more to the recording booth. I think I could be very happy leaving the stage altogether and work solely as an audiobook narrator for the rest of my life. It’s that fulfilling for me. It feeds my creativity, and allows me to immerse myself in wonderful new worlds written by talented authors. I can tell stories to thousands of people and my voice will reach places and hearts, I could never do without the recording booth or on stage.
M: One completely unrelated question I like to ask is about any pets you own. Do you have any, and could you tell us about them?
D: I am devoted to my pets. I’ve been an animal lover all my life and have had pets since I was a little boy. Mostly dogs earlier in life, but now I’m a CAT DAD. I have three wonderful cats whom I love dearly. All of our cats are rescues and they all have very different personalities. Our oldest is MAMA, she’ll be 15 this year. Everyone who meets her says she is the smartest cat they’ve ever known. Our 12-year-old cat is Abigail. We call her our Russian Grand Duchess, as she implied to us upon her arrival that she was exiled Russian royalty whose family ‘was killed in the revolution,’ and she is the sole surviving member of her noble line. Our youngest is Thor, he just turned 3, but could be an offensive lineman in the NFL. He’s a big, strong boy and handsome as can be. They bring so much joy to our lives. We don’t have children so we spoil our cats with the best food, and the very best medical and grooming care they can get.
M: Finally, where can people get in touch with you to keep up to date with what you’ve got going on?
D: I have a personal website http://www.vargo-narrates.com which I keep up to date with samples of my latest releases and demos for authors, publishers, and casting director to hear. On there I have an ‘Upcoming’ page on which I post what I’m currently working on and when I expect it to be released on Audible.
Speaking of Audible, you can always type my full name, David Allen Vargo, into the Audible search engine, and it will display every book I’ve narrated since 2020 when I started.
On Facebook I am VargoNarrates
On Instagram I am david_allen_vargo
I hope you will all follow me. And if any readers of this interview would like a promo code for any of my books, I will do my best to provide you with one. Just message me privately either on Facebook, Instagram, or at [email protected]