The HEAR Now PODCAST PALOOZA 2018!

Welcome to the 2018 HEAR Now PODCAST PALOOZA!   

Silver Listening

The HEAR Now Festival is happy to present a variety of audio performances from around the U.S. and the world.

This page showcases productions the Festival's panel of judges felt represented works of note submitted this year.

Featured are a wide variety of stories and story-telling styles.
Be sure to click on the link for each program so you can learn more about our featured artists.

These programs will be available until August 1, 2018 for you to enjoy.

And be sure to watch for the 2019 HEAR Now Festival Submission Information.
You might be selected to be showcased in one of our listening theaters or in next year's HEAR Now Podcast Palooza!

Happy Listening - The 2018 HEAR Now Festival.

                                                                BE BOLD! BE BOLD!
A brief synopsis of the work being submitted:
The not-for-the-faint-of-heart fairy tale for non-traditional children...and the grandparents who recite to them. Written by renowned American playwright, Donna Latham, and performed in an interpretive, choral style, this radio drama marks the directorial debut of PRP's Kendra Murray and the Company's 'Director-in-the-Round' program. This play is sure to leave your teeth chattering and your knees knocking. But it could be worse. God forbid you, our radio audience, ever find yourself accidentally knocking upon the door of Mr. Fox. (Recorded live at Readers Theatre, Petaluma, California.)


Cast list:
BE BOLD! BE BOLD! is a production of the Petaluma Radio Player. Written by Donna Latham. Starring: Shirley Bennett as Grandmama; Vivian Schafbuch as Olivia; Kathy Murphy as Lady Mary; Barton Smith as Mr. Fox; Stephen Dietz as Father; First Suitor and Brother #1 played by Dave Murphy; Second Suitor and Brother #2 played by Ben Kaplan; Third Suitor and Brother #3 played by Ralph Scott. Directed by Kendra Murray. Recording engineer: Ralph Scott. Post-production: John Biehl. Produced by: Ralph Scott and Kendra Murray. Copyright 2018, The Petaluma Radio Players. We're on the web at petalumaradioplayers.com. I'm your announcer, Cheryl Holling.



Information on you and/or your company:
The PETALUMA RADIO PLAYERS have been producing radio dramas from around the English-speaking world since 2015. The company formed when one of our future members tossed two scripts down on a table during a Tuesday morning coffee social at a Petaluma-based coworking space and said, "My parents wrote these two episodes of 'The Shadow' in 1944. Perhaps you'd like to read them sometime." Little did she know that that pivotal moment would soon launch a troupe that has become a Mecca for unpublished and published playwrights who embrace hearing their works produced at the highest production value possible. And all by a troupe of thespians who do not hail from theatre. PRP produces live vintage radio shows using real sound effects created by a Foley team and produces and broadcasts weekly radio dramas on www.kpca.fm and in the Bay Area on KPCA-lpfm (103.3). We respond to every playwright who approaches us and vet more than 150 plays per year selecting up to 48 in 2018.

Certain Gravity

Cast list:
JANE - Gabi Bailey
CAFE KID - James Grau
NARRATOR - James Grau

Link: vimeo.com/269288327
Password: CERTAIN_GRAVITY_April_2018

Certain Gravity Act 1 (of 4), was adapted and produced by James Grau as a midterm semester project for Kansas City Art Institute, Spring 2018. The audio drama is based on the short story, "A Certain Gravity," by Scott Thomas.

Certain Gravity is psychological horror. It explores insecurity and anxiety stemming from social standards of beauty.

Act 1: Jane is lost in her thoughts late at night, sitting in a cafe. The shop is closing, so Jane heads to the bathroom to touch up her makeup and hair.

Act 2: Jane finds that she locked her keys in her car and returns to the cafe to call her husband. The cafe kid lets her back in to use the pay phone.

Act 3: The cafe kid locks up the store when his father arrives to pick him up. The kid's father leers at Jane, then drives away, leaving her all by herself at the empty shopping center.

Act 4: Jane takes shelter in an alcove where her disturbed thoughts escalate as she waits for her husband. Jane discovers a crack in her leg and begins to panic. As she rushes towards her car, Jane's body turns to a glass-like substance, and she shatters piece by piece along the way. Her husband arrives only to discover Jane's empty shoes.
Information on the company:
James Grau is a filmmaking student at Kansas City Art Institute, where he is focusing on audio drama. His work is produced under the names UglyMunchkinStudios and/or TENTACLES of Mars.

                                                                                        Friendnight Stand
Cast list:
Jordan Crafton - Trey
Jessica Juste - Christina
Amber Pickens - Amoya
Malik Rashad -Chris
Dana Hillard - Krystal
Daniel Austin - DJ Prince Chillz

Chris and Trey are best friends who enjoy partying many weekends in beautiful New York City. Tonight is no different as they try their luck at love during caribbean night at one of their favorite dance clubs.
Through a bet, Trey meets Krystal who is partying with her roommate Christina. Trey, Krystal, Chris, and Christina have no idea what this unlikely union will bare as each of them hold many skeletons in their closets! Little do they know, but Krystal's dark past and ex-girlfriend will have them all in store for an evening that they will never forget.

Information on the company:
Jordan Crafton is a 30 year old award winning filmmaker and founder of JDC Films. Since establishing JDC Films in 2005 the company’s work has been featured on many media outlets such as Huffington Post, CNN, BET, People Magazine, USA Today, and Billboard Magazine. JDC Films strives to create films that are edgy, innovative, and thought-provoking. Jordan's audience is growing and their twenty million collective views on youtube and Facebook is proof of the audience’s appreciation and recognition of Mr Crafton’s work.

Four Mondays

Cast list:
Marcus Atkins
Lorraine Bahr
Sunny Bleckinger
Keia Booker
Marv Clark
Kurt Conroyd
Monica Dailey
Micah Makela
Will Mustoe
Adam Randall
Douglas Yarrow

The Crystal Plunge is quiet, the radiators are broken, letting out steam. Kasper from the Water Bureau is on the case, but first he needs a swim. Shannon the pool clerk brings in a space heater and a fan, employs them creatively. Samuel the lifeguard saves nobody. Marty sees everything but no one listens to her. Edna forgets. Bystanders stand outside and watch as cars crash in the endless rain.

Information on you and/or your company:
I am a two-time XRAY-FM Radio-Is-Yours Contest winner, I
host / produce The Staple, an Arts & Culture podcast for the
Independent Publishing Resource Center. I was the 2015
Artist in Residence at KBOO Radio. And the production I am
submitting to HEAR Now, "Four Mondays," was funded in
part by a 2017 Project Grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and supported by KBOO Radio.

Future Tense: Boundaries

Cast list:
Andrew Horning
Leah Heathcote
Jemimah McPeek

The future is a dangerous place where your behavior is determined by your boundaries that you are assigned or have purchased. Two idealists are on the run as they have broken their boundary by reading "the book."

Information on the company:
This was produced by Stagestruck Audio Theatre, which is a part of Wichita State University Theatre Dept.

Houdini's Secret Life

CAST LIST
Bob Allen, Dale Alpert, Jim Barker, John Barker, Nancy Solomon-Barker, R. Shane Bingham, Jon Cowsill, Bob Decker, Jim Diderrich, Judy Diderrich, Erin Fagundes, Maria Laing, Shirley Lorraine, Joe Mantegna, Ray Mastrovito, Yasmine Morantes, Gloria Palma, David Parmenter, Courtney Potter, Robert Staback, Reesha Tuomi, James M. Wortman, Sebastian Williams, and Monti Yvon.

America’s first real modern day super hero was a fraud buster, World War One spy, government witness, humanitarian, and possible murder victim. Actor Joe Mantegna is Celebrity Host and cast member. Mantegna introduces each act, reveals facts at the breaks, and relates updates in the epilogue. The script is based on six months of research from diaries, recent revelations, congressional transcripts, and Houdini’s own writings. Within the one hour commercial-free show, local magician Paul Dwork performs mind reading challenges with
listeners.

INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY
Every Now and Then Theatre is Ventura County California's select troupe for radio drama broadcasts since 1990. Our shows are unique by the way we cast and perform. We showcase top local actors mixed with beginners. Each cast-crew is allowed one group read-through then perform. Nationally known celebrities host our productions. Proceeds benefit area foster children via KVTA radio’s annual fundraising drive.

                                                                               Marketing 4 Marketers
Cast list:
Alex Best - Micheal Wheelhouse
Ryan Bernales - Computer Tech 1
Jake Bowman - Kickstarter guy
Lorna Duyn - Tiff Topp
Nick Hardcastle - Kai Wylago
Steve Jai - Chase Bruswein
Colin McGuiness - British tough guy
Jo McGuiness - Tomiko Braggi
Matt Rath - Computer Tech 2
Rose Rossi - Kickstarter girl
Greg Travis - Demon

An internet marketing guru and his sidekick are terrorized by an invisible demon. (Contains sexual content, decidedly NSFW).

Information on the company:
To The Manor Borne By Robots is written, produced and directed by John Eder. This episode was engineered by John Owens at Oogie Boogie Studios in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. The format of TTMBBR is that a monster is destroying the world. The only thing that calms it is stories. Each episode features the on-going battle to kill the Beast, plus the stand-alone story told to it. This entry is a stand-alone story, excerpted from episode 8. TTMBBR is to have a limited run of 13 episodes, with episode 10 currently in production.

Shade of Night
Cast list:
Jonathon Edenfield as Jimmy Green
John Kraft as Joey Glover
Angelique Bone as Abby Holmes
Scott Davis as Scott Travis
Mark Krawczyk as "Macabre" Mark Tailor
William Sears as Jack Casey
Mark Bogner as Sheriff Tom Bowen
J. D. Cadden as Don Hadden
Kacey Lezak as Kelly Landers
Josh Gouge as Narrator
James Ramsey as Radio Voice
Derrick Carey as himself
Austin Rhodes as himself
Written and Directed by J. Daniel Edenfield
Mixed and Produced by J. Daniel Edenfield

Shade of Night follows two kids, Jimmy and Joey, as they embark on a paranormal investigation at Enfield Manor, located in haunted Silver Bluff, South Carolina. Shade of Night is essentially an "audio found footage" movie for your mind/

Information on the company:
The Night Keep is an award-winning group of friends who gather every year to release an original horror tale and soundtrack.

Tales from Beyond the Pale, Season 4

Cast list:
Lance Reddick, Larry Fessenden, Kate Flannery, Martin Starr, Tony Todd, Barbara Crampton, AJ Bowen, Pat Healy, Joshua Leonard, Clay McLeod Chapman, Glenn McQuaid

Tales from Beyond the Pale, Season 4 is a collection to ten half hour audio dramas all performed in front of audiences in Colorado, Los Angeles and Montreal.

Information on the company:
Tales from Beyond the Pale is an audio drama series produced by Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid. Inspired by radio drama shows like Inner Sanctum and Mercury Theatre.

Ted X and the Cactus Grifters
Cast list:
Jeff Lowe as Tex X
Burl Lampert as Grody
Stacey Loew as Maw Philips
Bill Chessman as Shady Sam Jackboot
C. Conrad Cady as Red Slim Blackie
Wayne Johnson as Paw Philips and Sheriff Figgis
Glenda Zahradka as Mrs. Clovis Murphy

Jo Lusk and Loralee Windsor performing live SFX
Suzan Lorraine, recording, mixing and running pre-recorded SFX

Tex and his sidekick, Grody, fight bad guys (Shady Sam Jackboot and his sidekick, Red Slim Blackie) to save Maw Philips's shipping business in Cactus Gulch.

Information on the company:
Four-Eyed Jacks is Bill Chessman and Suzan Lorraine (and anyone else we can pull in for a show). We perform original pieces (written by Bill) before live audiences in any theater or performance space (or senior center, or broom closet, or...) that will allow us. We've been operating in this mode since 2013.

That'd Be Revival

Cast list:
Lindsay Chambers
Pat Buetow
Sarah Mowaswes
Matt Hooker
Ilana Peña
Jenna Levin
Laura Pollak
Jack Forbes
Wes Humphrey
Summer Blake
Matt Nauss
Annie Brennan
Alex Jacobs
Glenn Fellman
Haley King
Tia Anae

That'd Be Revival is a six part anthology podcast about life on the American plains at the turn of the century. Each episode recreates an original text created by a citizen of Carlyle, Kansas in the year 1895. A team of actors gives life to these texts, without altering their original wording in any way. Accompanied by period-accurate soundscapes, these readings will tell the story of a particular place, at a particular time. It is the story of a town in its own words.

Information on thecompany:
That'd Be Revival was created by myself and Sam Spahn. We are both pursuing careers in the entertainment industry and have a passion for telling overly grand stories that we hope will entertain and amuse audiences. This project was our first foray into aural storytelling, and we had an excessive amount of fun making it.

                                     The First Time They Murder Billy

Cast list:
written by Stephen S Power
performed by Mark Gallie
dramatised for radio and produced by David Devereux

A product of the Tin Can Audio workshop

'The First Time They Murder Billy' is an audio dramatisation of a science fiction short story by Stephen S Power.

Information on the company:
Tin Can Audio is a Glasgow based audio production studio formed in 2017 by Scottish sound designer and musician, David Devereux, after the success of his one man scifi audio drama podcast 'Tin Can'. As well as specialising in audio drama, Tin Can Audio also covers sound for TV and film, radio documentaries, voicereels for actors, music and just general noisemaking.

The Incident, Pt 3 - Hell In her Eyes

Cast list:
Larry the O - everything you hear (and a few things you might not)

"The Incident" is an excerpt from the second episode of the sonic storytelling show "Ears Hear Now." (The first episode was a platinum selection at the 2017 HEAR Now Festival.) It tells the true story of myu near-death experience from a bizarre car crash in 2013. "Ears Hear Now" differs from other storytelling shows in applying cinematic music and sound design scoring techniques to storytelling. The show explores new compositional methods in which the text and score are conceived and executed simultaneously and are highly interactive. The show is created, performed, and produced by the O single-handedly. It's a lot of work.

Information on the company:
Larry the O is a musician and sound artist with experience creating, editing, and mixing sound and music for album, TV, film, video games, live performance, and industrial sound design, through his company, Toys In the Attic. After more than 35 years working for industry-leading studios and companies such as Lexicon, LucasArts Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Meyer Sound and others, the O graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2015 (having started college 41 years earlier!) with a degree in Music Production, Summa Cum Laude.

                                            The Plague Song

Cast list:
Michaela Smith as Rosella
Alison Holm as Sister Teresa
Susan Wismar as Pavia
and Shaun Brown as Zeno

In 17th century Italy, a little girl named Rosella waits on a dock with her caretaker, Sister Teresa. Two dottores (doctors), Pavia and Zeno, arrive to take her away to
the nearby city of San Marco where it is said there is no plague. There Rosella will be made well again...supposedly.

Information on the company:
Midnight Audio Theatre is a weekly audio drama show broadcast on WCBE 90.5 FM out of Columbus, OH. Our focus is to share and encourage new audio dramas, broadcasting original works produced within the last ten years.

Catherine Rinella is host and producer of Midnight Audio Theatre.

The Traveler

Cast list:
Myself. Several character multilogue within the story.

This is a story adapted from The Uncommercial Traveler by Charles Dickens -- a story he recollected his nanny telling him that scared him mightily as a child, but here recreates with humor as an adult.

Information on the company:
In a nutshell, I love telling stories, especially those of Dickens and especially live. I also have a multilogue sample from A Christmas Carol, the scene where the den of thieves is dividing up the spoils from the newly dead Scrooge's bed chamber. But i thought that this particular story, unlike the Carol, might be more novel.

I have performed a 2 hour one-man version of the Carol and would love doing either of these pieces live, let alone hearing them aired.

                                                                                                    They Slipped The Bonds of Earth
Cast list:
Christina Yoho as Diana
Eric McGlaughlin as David
Beth Josephsen as Sara
and JT Walker as Dr. Ankrum

Two astronauts, conducting an experiment in artificial gravity, have returned to Earth changed by the experience. The scientist who sent them up enlists the aid of a local journalist in tracking them down before any mishap can befall the astronauts – or anyone else.

Information on the company:
Midnight Audio Theatre is a weekly audio drama show broadcast on WCBE 90.5 FM out of Columbus, OH. We host an annual scriptwriting competition for short, original scripts, with the winning stories produced and aired on our show.

Catherine Rinella is host and producer of Midnight Audio Theatre.