I can’t believe? I haven’t posted about this yet, but the time is fast approaching for the National Audio Theater Festivals‘ weeklong audio drama workshop.

If you’re new to audio drama production or want to amp up your skills, you won’t find a better environment than in this intense week of audio goodness.? West Plains, Missouri might not look like much on the map, but it draws a great crowd of audio folks, young and old, amateur and vets, with the shared passion of this “not dead yet!” medium.

I attended the conference in 2007, and you can get a taste of what it’s like by seeing my RDR exclusive coverage.

Particularly exciting this year is an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation workshop lead by Bill Dufris and Lance Axt, especially exciting because it’ll be available for newcomers.? Don’t miss an opportunity to work with two extremely talented people!

Early Bird Discount only lasts to this Friday, so check out the website and download the application today.? If you do miss the special, you’ve got until June 1 to lock in an application rate of $575.

I’m behind the curve on this, but I’d be dreadfully remiss if I didn’t put a shout-out for the National Audio Theater Festivals‘ week long summer audio drama workshop. I won’t be there this year, but my god, and I’m kinda wishing I was.

For example, listen to this juicy bit from their website:

Workshops lead by Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill, known throughout the world as Brother Blue. He is called by many the worlds’ greatest storyteller. He says he wants his stories “?to be bread for the mind, the imagination, the heart, the soul?.” He says, “I speak my stories from the middle of the middle of me to the middle of the middle of you.”

I would LOVE to become a better storyteller — you know, the kind of yarn you can just start spinning without any pre-scripting — and so meeting Dr. Hill sounds like one killer opportunity.

I would ALSO love to meet (face-to-face) Sam Mowry of the Willamette Radio Workshop — he, and Cynthia McGean, who runs the “Writers on the Air” workshop and blog — will be at NATF to run workshops in their respective areas of strength.

Gosh, and that’s only the beginning… There’s Cowboy Poetry, Shakespeare, and hey, did I mention the fact that you get to be personally involved in the production of a live feature-length audio play put together in less than a week’s time?

If you’re serious about this audio drama thing, and you haven’t made it out to West Plains yet, now’s the time. Check out the NATF website to make it happen!

P.S. You can also check out my coverage from last year’s workshop.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the upcoming deadline for the National Audio Theater Festival’s Script Contest.? November 15 is the postmarked-by date for entries in what is likely the biggest script contest for audio theater, with a critics from the finest ranks of the artform and great prizes such as a sizable chunk of change (up to $400) and free participation in the NATF conference (a damn good time, if I write so myself).

I’m going to earnestly try to get an entry in this year, though with this incredible Halloween event coming up, my time will be scarce to really craft an excellent entry.? What incredible Halloween event, you ask?? Stayed tuned for more details.

So after days of scouring town for knick-knacks, whatzits, bagged rice, sponges, kitty litter and countless other props, assembling all of the scattered noisemakers, poring over the scripts countless times and at least two twelve hour days of tireless cue-to-cues and rehearsals, the sound effects team was ready.? The voice actors, by the sounds of it, were on top of things themselves.? And by golly, the band just made things look easy.? With about every possible technical issue happening and being resolved, about 6:30 Friday night we had a precious breath of fresh air and an hour before showtime.

The funny thing with all of this, is that after all the work — days building the set, the hours the writers spent on their scripts, and everyone else did preparing to realize those scripts, the marketing, the mixing, the satellite uplinks, the rehearsal time… it all went into two and half solid hours with no retakes.? Talk about game-time!

The audience was in for a terrible treat, whether packed into the West Plains Civic Center or tuning in from any part of the globe, what with two 30ish minute full plays, a 5 min drama (featuring alien turkeys), two improv sketches, a mind-bending experimental music piece and a variety of short narratives… all in 6.1 surround sound!

When it was all through, hardly having realized that the whole thing was over, we tore the set down in many 2 hours flat.? The incredible, sound-resistant, microphone-laden, sound prop ridden stage was again a blank set of wooden floors on concrete.? The flurry of commotion faded, whirlwinding towards the community “Yellow House” where the off-the-wall cast party was already in full force.

With plenty of food and beverage to sate the army of triumphant radio dramatists, and rock-the-roof-off music provided by the Native Radio Theater contingent, ferocious chatter, ebullience and joy extended long into the late hours, with me finally turning in when Dave Taylor yelled out “Can someone cut the chirping bird track!” as dawn approached.

And then, with murmured goodbyes to the last stragglers and a feeling of dread of the coming morning, it all faded away.? Three hours later, astonishingly less groggy than anticipated, I piled my equipment back into my bags (baffled at how many extra CDs seemed to have shown up) and staggered out to where the shuttle was idling, more goodbyes were being said, and we all looked ahead to another traumatizing day of travel.

So, eleven hours later, Maine never looked sweeter, and eleven more hours after that, it’s with warmth I think about the welcoming and passionate group at the NATF, and the truly awesome time we all had doing what we love, talking about what we love, and being with people who love it as much as we all do.? While I can’t attest to the dynamism of West Plains cuisine, it was an amazingly welcoming community and a true home away from home.

And that’s a wrap!? Until next year, at least, when I already get the feeling that the long road to Missouri will be calling back to me again.

Well, a little late on the gun on this, BUT… after much adventure, thrift-store shopping, cue-to-cue, rehearsal and precious few shouting matches, the amazing live shows have come together with yours truly taking rather compelling roles as doorbell 1, bag of junk and peach eating. Tune in live, while you still can, at NATF.org, and hear all about the wrap and maybe hear the non-live broadcast a little later…

That is, once I’ve recovered from the after party and am fighting off a hangover on the long ride home…

Alright, how many other opportunities do you have to strap a several grand rig to your chest, kick off your shoes, and dive beneath a helicopter to try your luck getting a pristine recording?? Well, that was the scene yesterday as a team of 20+ audio addicts hit the field as West Plains’ Air Evac team graciously volunteered a helicopter and pilot to conduct a few landings and flybys for our rather peculiar artistic motivations.

Even better, we got to dust the leaves off, dump our equipment, and send the results to legendary Sound Designer Randy Thom, to see what he had to say (especially since one of the best-sounding recordings was with a $50 Belkin mic and an iPod).? And every word he said was precious gold.

Meanwhile, I joined the live sound effects team which so far involved a trip to raid the local theater’s sound effects closet, more trips to get the odds and ends which we still needed (10 power strips and perfume-free, super-fine kitty litter being hard items to find this late in the afternoon), and my grating my knuckles apart while aggressively gutting a coconut.? Now it’s time for rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal as we take this big pile of random junk and make beautiful sounds from it.

And hey, we got to play with the telephone used in Sorry, Wrong Number!