In more audio drama news, the peculiar platitudes behind “The Many Men of Martha Manning” are up to more aural mischief:

Set in 1958, “MARTHA & DOTTY: MICROWAVE MAMBO!” is a multi-episode audio production that takes our heroines from their pastoral pine porch to the
Beat scene in Greenwich Village, to the casinos of Havana and to the bottom
of the ocean–with plenty of unexpected stops in between. And on the way,
they’ll delve into the mysteries of microwaves, multilingual love and a
pesky H-Bomb.

“MARTHA & DOTTY: MICROWAVE MAMBO” will again be directed by Grace
Gonglewski, choreographed by Karen Getz and written by David Witz. The show will feature guest players from the Philly Fringe, professional voice actors
and more than few surprise participants.

“The Many Men of Martha Manning” earned giddy reviews (”Hilarious–It
couldn’t be any better!” raved the Philadelphia Inquirer), thousands of
downloads from around the world and inspired college students to create
their own audio-theater pieces.

This year, “MARTHA & DOTTY: MICROWAVE MAMBO!” will be presented by BRAT Productions as a pay-per-download audio production.  Episodes will be available from iTunes and from http://MarthaAndDotty.com beginning in early August and throughout the 2008 Fringe.

Sounds like fun — and just to get you ready, you’ll be hearing Martha’s previous adventures sometime this spring.

390 Days, 134 posts, 52 episodes, and nearly 30 hours of audio later, Radio Drama Revival! is proud to announce some sort of anniversary… either this week, last week, or some time in between.  It doesn’t really matter.  All I know is that what started out as a dream quickly became a reality, and even more quickly grew to become something way beyond what I imagined.

I don’t think I’ve ever told the story, but basically I got the idea of starting this show because I wanted to get a definite place to air my own work.  The folks at WMPG were very generous with getting me good air times when I was just starting out, but I still wanted a definite time to carve out for audio theater, and at the same time, figured there was probably plenty of good stuff out there I could air when I didn’t have any of my own work.  And wow, have I found some!

In one short year, in only one short half hour, a lot’s happened on the show:

• We’ve had sci-fi by Dry Smoke and Whispers, Great Northern Audio Theater, Icebox Radio Theatre, Imagination X, Dreamseed, Crazy Dog Audio Theater, and a wacky live one all our own!
• Debuts of everything by FinalRune — Drizzle, Tales from Williamsville, Fall of the Hero and Dark Passenger.  And hey, how ’bout Day of the Dead?
• Exclusive interviews with Roger Gregg, the people behind Wormwood, Mort Castle, Joe Bevilacqua, Joe Medina, Marc Rose and Geral McQuinn, Doug Bost and Jeff Ward, Xander Davis, Jeffrey Adams, Brian Price, Jack Hosley, Lucus Keppel, Craig Wichman and Jay Stern, Gregg Taylor and Scott Hickey.  And many more to come!
• First-hand coverage of the National Audio Theater Festival
• Horror for Halloween — classics like Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, modern stuff, and an exhilirating triple-feature special with HP Lovecraft, Joe R. Lansdale and myself — enough of you downloaded that one to shut the server down!
• … Not to mention sweet Christmas tales, crime capers and something naughty AND nice.
• An attempt to win the Public Radio Quest
• A handful of reviews
• Quicksilver Radio Theatre!  How ’bout Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln’s Last Days?
• Spooky stories from Central Audio Theater, tales from the Afterhell, malevolent ghost stories, and a “Reality Check” thanks to Tee Morris and WanderRadio
• Something like 7000 visitors, about that many downloads, and almost 200 weekly listeners.  Thanks y’all!

Now, despite what’s at least in my opinion a pretty decent track record, by all accounts 2008 looks to totally eclipse what’s happened so far.  Great new audio theater’s coming out every day, and I’m just as excited to air brilliant new work by Roger Gregg as to showcase lesser known /up and coming audio dramatists.  And maybe even produce some more of our content!

The biggest objective, both on this website and www.finalrune.com, is to help cultivate community and discussion for radio drama… encompassing both the craft as well as the fun part — stories!  To that end, I hope to recruit some good guest writers to help me get our rather anemic reviews area rolling as well as provide more coverage on news of interest to audio fiends.  Interested?  Send me an email and we can talk!

Mostly, to 2009 and beyond, I want to keep spreading the word about this amazing format which is reaching new listeners and exploring new territory thanks to the digital technology and the internet.  THANK YOU for listening, and I hope you keep doing it… and if you’re out there, hearing the podcasts, and you like the show… why not comment on an episode?

For now and forever, as I like to say, keep your mind and your ears open.

Oh radio drama fans, do we begin a treat for you today… I am absolutely tickled to bring to you, for the first time broadcast in the United States, the latest startling, bold, gripping, and mesmerizing tale by Crazy Dog Audio Theater… The Salmon of Blackpool

Now the phrase “audio movie” gets kicked around a lot in audio circles, but this work is by far the first to show just what an “audio movie” can be. Cut-throughs, fades, in-scene sound effects, stunning performances and the feeling of being in a real room with these people… “Salmon” does all this and more, propelled along by the cutting words of Roger Gregg, who shows us his skills as a literary writer are on par of that of his biting satire.

Today we begin to learn a little bit about the world we’ll be visiting for the next four weeks… A world where two Irish talents collide in their hometown, a place neither ever wanted to return to, in a situation riddled with irony and dotted with a desperate search for truth, all while voices from across the Atlantic cry out for the “feel good.”

Whether “Salmon” makes good box office is up for your ears to decide. But it’s a hell of a story.

Radio Drama Revival! Episode 52

Crazy Dog Audio Theatre’s The Salmon of Blackpool Credits:

Written, Directed and Produced by Roger Gregg.

CAST:

David Murray: Johnny Gallagher.
Sarah Greene: Sinead Murphy.
Michael Sheehan: Richie Ryan
Morgan Jones: Doctor Whitman
Georgina Miller: Nurse Marcella.
Liam Heffernan: Donal MacSweeney
Roger Gregg: Sheldon Berkus.
Other parts played by the above members of the cast.

Mark McGrath: Sound Engineer, location recording.
David Grimes: production assistant.

Music composed and performed by Roger Gregg.

Vocals by Sarah Greene.

Recorded and post-produced the Summer of 2007

Audio fans in the Kenosha, Wisconsin area will be treated to a live production of Orson Welles’ adaptation of Dracula this Halloween.  The drama is being produced by Wisconson-based RG Productions, an audio theater group that produces faithful re-creations of old time stuff and has ties with other producers, including the Willamette Radio Workshop.  It sounds like a lot of fun, and for those of us many, many miles from Wisconsin, I hope they put it up on the web!

For us audio dramatists, October is our Christmas.  Something about the nature of the season — with its penchant for spooky stories told around campfires, couches or cauldrons, combined with a love for eerie music and things that go bump in the night — makes our nigh forsaken artform spring to life to a surprising part of the population… including public radio!

Nearly even producer out there is making the most of this, including myself, and as I’ve been scrambling to put together the utterly frightful Halloween special, I’ve heard about similar efforts by many other excellent artists… So, to suit your audio listening, here are some other tales to tickle your eardrums with this October!

First would be the FreeQuincy Radio Theater.  They’re a passionately local theater group from Wisconsin, bringing the best elements of classic and new audio drama to their live presentations.  In celebration of the spooky holiday, they’re featuring several new and older works:

Sunday October 14th = Alex Stoli, Private Detective: The Act of Jealousy

Sunday October 21st = When Lightning Strikes

Sunday October 28th = Spring Cleaning Invasion

October 31st = Gangster’s Ghostcapades -FreeQuincy Radio Theater’s first studio recording.

Another exciting announcement came from Willamette Radio Workshop — now, I’m remiss in not having featured their outstanding work yet, but the WRW is a training ground for some excellent dramatists and produces some of the best-sound work you’ll hear anywhere.  Not the least among their great talents is the outstanding work of Sam Mowry, whose bold and commanding voice is far better suited for interesting audio drama roles than radio commercials (at least in *our* humble opinion…)

Hear their contribution to the horrorsphere this Halloween with excellent renditions of Frankenstein and The Confessions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Off the beaten path from horror is a third episode of Dick Dynamo, the absurd transdimensional adventures of a man who is “ready to pack a punch to any villain or meager elderly lady who stands in his way.”  You will find the stories are incredulous as they are amusing, and an apt satire that still honors the works of its origins.

Also, while not producing any new works for the holiday, I’d be remiss in not noting another great producer of audio stories.  The Wireless Theatre Company is a UK-based producer of a range of great stories, tackling the comic to the tragic, with some of the finest writing, acting, and directing talent.  Best of all, it’s all free and available via digital downloadable!

Finally, on Halloween, rumor has it that Dreamseed will finally release the first episode of “Soul Rift,” the series about psychic ghost-hunting detectives.

All of these stories are well worth your ears, and I hope to get the time to review and feature them in greater depth in the coming weeks on the show… And until then, keep your ears open!

Stayed tuned to the show this October for truly terrifying theater!  I’ve packed Radio Drama Revival to the gory brim with haunting tales, culminating in a three-part live radio drama event to be held on All Hallow’s Eve.

The fright fest kicks off October 4th during WMPG’s “Begathon” pledge drive with Maine-based audio artistry by Mind’s Eye Productions, headed by Audio-award winning narrator William Dufris.  The “Derelict,” by William Hope Hodgson, tells the unsettling tale of a ghost ship found afloat deep in the ocean… It’s ominous outcome will keep you off the high seas for a while, and maybe even in your home for the remainder of the week (all the better to donate to listener-supported community radio station WMPG, who are very supportive of my audio theater exploits).

The following two weeks (Oct 11, Oct 18) we hear one of the quintessential tales of horror — Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” produced by Quicksilver Radio Theater of New York City.  This haunting adaptation is as true to the original as it is celebrated — with praise from Don Glut, author of “The Frankenstein Legend” and Leonard Maltin, author of “The Great American Broadcast.”  As per usual Quicksilver style, it features a stellar line-up of New York’s finest actors (Joseph Franchini, Clyde Baldo, Craig Wichman…) and a score by Tony-award winner Mark Hollman.  If all you’ve seen is the movies, treat yourself to the real story!  And if all you’ve read is the book, see how inspired actors use the magic of audio to bring this classic to life.

On October 25th we hear The Grist Mill’s adaptation of “If You Take My Hand My Son,” written by Mort Castle, a master of short horror fiction.  “If You Take My Hand My Son” is the tale of a man on the brink of death forced to confront his abusive father — who haunts him from beyond the grave.  Following this shocking story of reconciliation will be an exclusive interview with Mr. Castle, who is as prolific as he is insightful.  We’ll see how he, as an established writer, looks at audio theater a little differently and learn about his experience with the art.

Finally, the gates of many underworlds line up and crack open for a medley of audio terror to be unleashed on Halloween.  From 8:30-10PM on October 31st all manners of ghouls, gods, and ghosts will infiltrate our eardrums as we air a triple feature with Mind’s Eye Productions/William Dufris, The Grist Mill, and an original by my own FinalRune Productions.  A demon may be loose in the world, but no one believes him.  A god forgotten since ancient days confronts an awestruck human.  Two friends head to a haunted house and awaken an ancient evil.  The terror is non-stop Halloween night as we hear H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter,” Joe R. Lansdale’s “God of the Razor” (winner of the 2007 Ogle Award), and Frederick Greenhalgh’s “Dark Passenger.”

Apart from the Halloween special, which will air 8:30-10PM EST on Halloween, all episodes air the usual time, Thursday, 1PM on WMPG.  If for some reason you’re in the Portland, Maine area, you can hear WMPG at 90.9/104.1 on their FM dial, while the rest of us can tune in to www.wmpg.org.  As usual, all episodes will be available through the podcast, accessible via the little RSS icon to the right, and on the iTunes store (by searching “Radio Drama Revival”).

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.

If you were lucky enough into one of the most popular episodes ever on the show — Dreamseed’s spectacular Buried in Falling Sand and the interview with its producer, Xander Davis — then you no doubt were waiting with baited breath to hear when the next work, Soul Rift, would be out (I know I’ve been anxious!).  And now, we have our answer: Dreamseed announces Soul Rift will be released some time in the Fall.

Soul Rift is exciting for several reasons.  First, it’s gonna be damn good.  Second, it’s going to be episodic.  And third, it’s very, very contemporary.  It’s rare to have this combination of high-quality modern work, which has very good crossover potential from T.V. viewers.  Soul Rift promises all the excitement of a CSI or  X-Files but exclusively for the audio form and I think Xander summed it up as “Minority Report meets Ghostbusters.”  From what I’ve heard of Xander’s potential and ambitions, this is going to be a series well worth the wait.

AND… I also believe they’re looking to cast one more part, so saunter over to the Soul Rift Casting Call to learn more.

It’s easy to let political issues sort of simmer in the back burner while imminent daily things take over your life, and so it’s been with the Save Net Radio movement, which you’d think I’d be on the forefront of, until this morning, when I saw that WMPG had posted a bold warning that the Copyright Ruling Board’s fee hikes threaten to shut down their streaming service.

Suddenly, the apathy melted. Even in the greater Portland area, WMPG can have a shaky signal and the ability to offer a version streamed online helps hundreds if not thousands tune regularly into the station. This is also the way that I tune into the station a lot, since my FM radio at home stinks, and is also how I get to listen to my beloved WWOZ. After Katrina, I sobbed into many shots of bourbon while listening to the sweet sounds of New Orleans croon from my home thousands of miles away. I also stymied my sense of missing the party during Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, when I could raise a glass from the privacy of my home yet still hear the pulse of the Crescent City.

I can’t quantify the loss I’d feel if that signal went silent, but it’d be a big one.

Likewise, though this issue doesn’t effect podcasting (yet!), I know this is how a lot of you hear the show, especially those who want to hear the live version, as rough-hewn and stumbling as it can sometimes be. And even though I don’t tend to listen to internet-only stations, I totally respect what the small-time webcasters have done for the millions of listeners out there, and the diversity of material they’re offering to the world. Taking this all away for the sake of pennies for the media monopolies is a nightmarish thought. We have to defend the places that haven’t yet turned into terrestrial commercial radio!

And so, as the deadline for the fee rollback looms — that’s THIS Sunday, July 15!!! — I urge you, yes you, to immediately contact all of your representatives and beg for them to stand up against the Copyright Ruling Board’s rate hikes by supporting the Internet Radio Equality Act. Even timid ol’ me found contacting Senator Collins, Senator Snowe, and Rep. Tom Allen a pretty painless experience… in fact, the person at Tom Allen’s office actually seemed interested and made me feel like my voice was heard and important. Pretty cool.

Thanks to Save Net Radio, WMPG, and the cool jazz of WWOZ for waking me up to this… And hey, ol’ NPR for their mighty efforts to get these fees revoked as well.

Just when you thought you’d caught your breath from NATF, the Willamette Radio Workshop is plotting their annual Writers on the Air Workshop on Wednesday and Thursday evenings from July 18 through August 9th (with a couple wrap up events the following weekend).  This intensive writer’s course is FREE to anyone passionate about their craft, and has fostered the growth of writers who’ve won Mark Time and Ogle Awards, and the NATF script competition.

If I wasn’t already in hot water for missing a week to head to NATF, I’d definitely be in for this one, and maybe some day there’ll be a Portland MAINE version of this kind of thing!  I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting anyone from the Willamette Radio Workshop in person, but based on what we’ve heard from Afterhell and Dry Smoke and Whispers, this is a group of people who don’t mess around.