This week I had the incredible honor, pleasure, and generally awesome time of heading to Minneapolis, Minnesota to pick up the Ogle Award for my production, Waiting for a Window. To celebrate, we have it on the show for an encore presentation today.

But not only did I get to pick up a rad award, but I got to hang out my radio buddies Brian Price and Jerry Stearns and finally meet Chris Markman, Great Northern Audio Theater’s producer, and Jeff Adams of Icebox Radio Theater, who we’ve featured on the show previously and who runs the Icebox Radio streaming radio drama station. Oh, and I got to see really kick-ass sci-fi and fantasy costumes.

I have a bunch of great photos from the live event, which you can check out on FinalRune’s Facebook page. Since I’m about to do my first live show in Halloween, it was a great primer for the calm in the midst of chaos a director needs to have while doing a live show, not to mention a really fun time.

I’ll be talking with Brian and Jerry later today about their work with Mark Time/CONVergence and next week we’ll feature a live show from one of their previous years… But for now, enjoy “Waiting for a Window!”

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 129

Title: The Halloween Tree
Author: Ray Bradbury (Adapted)
Producer: Colonial Radio Theater
Type: Adaptation of a Short Story
Genre: Fantastic Drama
Availability: Paid Release

My Two Cents: Jerry Robbins and The Colonial Radio Theater have had the incredibly awesome pleasure of working with Ray Bradbury and their treatment of his work doesn’t disappoint. The Halloween Tree is Bradbury at his imaginative best, and Colonial does a fine job as realizing that imagination in a fantastic audio adventure. This is a worthy listen that won the Silver Ogle Award this year.

If you would, imagine A Nightmare Before Christmas and its richly realized caricature of a Hallowen world, and you’ll have an idea of the kind of job Colonial has done in The Halloween Tree. A group of young kids, dressed in their Halloween best, go searching around a haunted house and find themselves chasing after one of their lost number into a series of more outrageous underworldly locations. The music and sound effects are completely over the top, which is befitting this high-adventure story.

If audio had CGI, this would be it. Luckily, we can do in sound what it takes millions of dollars for computers to do, and have our imaginations tickled more than the movies ever can. Bravo.

As I mentioned a couple weeks back, I had the amazingly well-timed opportunity to talk to Rich Fish who happens to feature prominently in the new documentary by Georgia Southern University, Theater of the Mind.

Oh and yes, we talked to James Kicklighter who was kind enough to chat on the phone about a month ago. Thereafter, James was so kind as to send me a screening version of the DVD to check out.

The documentary is far from comprehensive, but a refreshing primer and a worthy tribute to OTR. It highlights a group of modern college students — painted as a tad spoiled by non-linear digital editing — as they to learn the art of creating live radio plays, interspersed with experts talking about the magic and challenge of live radio as well as interviews with voice actors of the era (including Edith Ivey and Rosemary Rice).

As the new generation learns more about the art form they soon realize that it was real work to make this happen, and the historians highlight the professional qualities needed to succeed in the Golden Age of Radio. Both Ms. Ivey and Ms. Rice have some great anecdotes to share about working on the air, and how the get into broadcasting to begin with.

Running at just over 20 minutes and created in just a few months, it’s again only a flavor, not a full meal. One feature I felt was sorely overlooked was the creation of live sound effects — what an opportunity to show visually what can be created in audio! I would’ve love to have seen a sound effects demo with a professional, either from the day or a modern equivalent.

I do hope “Theater of the Mind” gets wide circulation, and even more, I hope it sparks a more in-depth series that deeply examines the terrain that this merely skips across. This could easily be a multi-part PBS style documentary, and radio is well worth. Georgia Southern, I hope you’ve started that effort!

Read more on James Kicklighter’s Blog.

A mega-episode here today to celebrate the NATF workshop down in West Plains, Missouri, and then moving on to our focus on this year’s Ogle and Mark Time winners.

Lance Axt, man of many hats, introduces us to several personalities at NATF and gives us flavor of the workshop. We look into the #NATF feed that’s going out on Twitter. And hey! If you’re reading this on June 26, 2009, you can catch the live NATF show on their live stream. Click here to tune in at 8:30 EDT.

Following that up is Roger Gregg’s “The Return of the Bogman Mummy,” produced in tandem with the Gaiety School of Acting. It won the Silver Mark Time Award this year, and as far as I know, Radio Drama Revival is the only place to find it right now!

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 128

Next week: an encore presentation of Waiting for a Window and then my interviews with Great Northern Audio Theater guys, Brian Price and Jerry Stearns.

This week kicks off a new feature for Radio Drama Revival called Fred’s Fuze. Recognizing that there’s a TON of great stuff I listen to that doesn’t make it on the show (or takes months to get there) I’ve decided to start this to share my love of listening. And to see how shocked or surprised you are at some of the picks!

Why Fuze? Because I do not own an iPod. There, I said it. I also never read Harry Potter or watched Titanic. Once I see where the crowd is going, I go the other way. So it was with the iPod, and let me say, I’m pretty happy with my Sansa Fuze.

So, lest this turn into a product review let’s get into the first installment of Fred’s Fuze – Medusa on the Beach.

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Title: Medusa on the Beach
Author: Marty Ross
Producer: Wireless Theater Company
Type: Audio Drama
Genre: Modern Retelling of a Classic
Availability: Free Download

My Two Cents: I’ve been listening to the Wireless Theater Company’s work since they kicked off in 2007. Several things have impressed me — one, how deftly they jump from comedy to drama and back again, and two, how much the quality of their work has increased. Not that the first works weren’t good — they’re all solid listens — but they’ve obviously been studying their craft and learning from everywhere they can the last two years. They also seem to be getting access to more resources, which certainly doesn’t hurt!

Medusa on the Beach, I’m happy to say, is really quite a strong statement in audio. I’m a sucker for retellings of Greek myths (a retelling of Orpheus, after all, is what got me into audio drama to begin with) so I couldn’t click the download button fast enough when I heard about Medusa on the Beach.

I wasn’t disappointed. Medusa is a refreshingly original story. The plot has only so many twists — a disparaged small-town woman goes on a killing spree upon discovering Medusa’s head washed ashored — but man is this thing funny and a joy to listen to. Funny? A Greek tragedy? Well, you have to hear it to believe it. As I said, Wireless jumps back from comedy to drama with deft, even cheeky, precision.

Since it’s a free download, do feel free to check it out, just don’t be surprised if you hear it on the show sometime down the line!

Hot off the presses from Ireland I’ve gotten word that Roger Gregg’s shockingly original adaptation of Gerry Murphy’s poetry will be returning the stage in Cork, Ireland. Here’s what the jacket has to say:

All the colourful personas that infamously stalk through Murphy’s satirical writing: from his vicious portraits of demented despots and torturers, to his passionate erotic encounters, to his highly personal confessions on love and loss, will come to life in an evening of riotous musical entertainment!

It may be a bit of a swim for most of us to get there, but if you happen to be across the pond already, don’t miss the show, running June 23-June 27, 2009 at the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork, Ireland. Shows kick off at 8pm.

Possibly more exciting, at least for us distant audio listeners, is a fresh CD that Roger’s pressed from the last time the show was performed… Including some great bonus tracks. I had the pleasure to listen to the pre-release copy and the material’s taken on an even greater sheen since then.

Here’s a taste of it, with a song that may sound oh-so-vaguely familiar:

I assume that the CD will be available on ZBS, as have previous Crazy Dog CDs. I’ll also may an effort to continue posting excerpts, as this is excellent stuff not to be missed.

Just in case you thought poetry was the realm of dust-covered English professors, think again. And don’t miss the clips of the Gerry Murphy Poetry show available on YouTube.