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Shop nowThe Mark of Zorro - Abridged
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Learn moreBased on Johnston McCulley’s The Curse of Capistrano first published in 1919 by pulp magazine All-Story Weekly
Set in Los Angeles during the era of early nineteenth century Colonial Spanish California, the story introduces us to wealthy, young aristocrat Don Diego de la Vega, son of the richest ranchero in the country. Don Diego is an idler who has never concerned himself with more than the cut of his clothes. Unlike other full-blooded youths of his age, he presents himself as a fop, lacking in vigor, vitality, and strength. But Vega’s timorous reputation is merely a mask to conceal his alter ego—El Zorro. As Zorro, dressed in black and wearing a mask, he is transformed into a cunning swordsman who fearlessly pulls off dashing and daring escapades in his quest to avenge the helpless, aid the poor and oppressed, and punish cruel officials. Deemed an outlaw by California’s corrupt governor, he is ever-hunted by the Commandante of La Reina de Los Angeles, Capitan Ramón, and his henchman, Sergeant Pedro Gonzalez.
Forced to find a wife or lose his inheritance, Diego sets off to romance the fiery, outspoken Lolita Pulido, the most beautiful señorita in Los Angeles. Unimpressed with Diego’s passionless efforts to win her affections, Lolita finds herself attracted to the dashing and courageous Zorro. With the Pulido family having been impoverished by the corrupt governor, her father would see her married to the rich Don Diego. At the same time, the nobly born, but morally dissolute, Captain Ramón has also taken an interest in the fair señorita, making matters worse. As tensions heighten between Ramon and the Pulido family and pursuit of the masked avenger intensifies, Zorro leaves his mark on those who would perpetrate injustice.
The Mark of Zorro, masterfully adapted into a full-cast audio drama by the award-winning Hollywood Theater of the Ear especially for Blackstone Audio, is an exciting, action packed, swashbuckling adventure that will have listeners on the edge of their seats.
Johnston McCulley (1883–1958) created his most famous character, Zorro, in 1919. He was the author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, and numerous screenplays for film and television. He wrote sixty Zorro stories during his career.
Val Kilmer is an American actor known for his roles in Top Secret!, Top Gun, Real Genius, Thunderheart, Willow, The Doors, True Romance, Tombstone, Batman Forever, Heat, The Saint, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and more. A graduate of Juilliard’s drama department, he has appeared on Broadway and London’s West End. He has published two books of poetry and received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album. He is also an accomplished visual artist, with work exhibited in galleries worldwide.
Scott Brick first began narrating audiobooks in 2000, and after recording almost 400 titles in five years, AudioFile magazine named Brick a Golden Voice and “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy.” He has read a number of titles in Frank Herbert’s bestselling Dune series, and he won the 2003 Science Fiction Audie Award for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Brick has narrated for many popular authors, including Michael Pollan, Joseph Finder, Tom Clancy, and Ayn Rand. He has also won over 40 AudioFile Earphones Awards and the AudioFile award for Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense 2011. In 2007, Brick was named Publishers Weekly’s Narrator of the Year.
Brick has performed on film, television and radio. He appeared on stage throughout the United States in productions of Cyrano, Hamlet, Macbeth and other plays. In addition to his acting work, Brick choreographs fight sequences, and was a combatant in films including Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He has also been hired by Morgan Freeman to write the screenplay adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama.
Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.
Phil Proctor is an original member of the three-time Grammy-nominated Firesign Theatre. He has performed on stage, television, through interactive games, and in film, including the Emmy Award–winning Rugrats, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and the Dr. Doolittle films. He is part of Los Angeles’ celebrated Antaeus Classical Ensemble.
Ned Schmidtke has played leading roles on Broadway, on national tours, and at dozens of regional theaters in the United States and Canada. He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he continues to work in theater, film, and television.
Armin Shimerman is familiar to science fiction fans as Quark on Star Trek: DS-9 and as Principal Snyder on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. An acclaimed stage actor, he has also cowritten four science fiction novels.
Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Shorts for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins’s Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and has won several Earphones Awards.
Kristoffer Tabori made his screen debut when he was six years old and appeared on Broadway for the first time at age sixteen. He has garnered numerous honors for his stage, screen, television, and radio acting and directing, including an Emmy and three Earphones Awards. His first solo narration won the 1993 Audie Award for best audiobook of the year.
Elizabeth Peña (1959 – 2014) was an American actress and director. She starred in the mystery film Lone Star, for which she won the 1996 Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Bravo Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film from the National Council of La Raza.
Reviews
“A succession of thrills from first page to last…Original…Captivating.”
“Cunning, suave, fearless, and a friend to the poor, the masked El Zorro first appeared in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly in 1919. This sparkling full-cast audio adaptation of the original short story, ‘The Curse of Capistrano,’ provides the sounds of plenty of swords clashing and bullets ricocheting. Where the real sparks fly is in the wonderfully honed playful dialogue, performed by an A-list Hollywood cast. Val Kilmer uses subtle vocal changes to play both the aristocratic idler Don Diego de la Vega and Diego’s alter ego—the dashing El Zorro, who easily bests the villainous and foolish Captain Ramón and Sergeant Gonzalez, played with great energy by Keith Szarabajka and Meshach Taylor. But Zorro is no match for the stinging words of the lovely, proud Lolita Pulido, played with fiery grace by Ruth Livier. Good-natured fun.”
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