2018 HEAR Now Festival Featured Programming:
Blood Cotton is a new series for public radio, written by Howard Craft, that looks at the experiences of African American soldiers returning to the US. after having serviced abroad during World War I.
In addition to this workshop presentation of Blood Cotton, Robin Miles will read from the just released Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neal Hurston and Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly.
In addition to this workshop presentation of Blood Cotton, Robin Miles will read from the just released Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neal Hurston and Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly.
Dion Graham (Director Blood Cotton)
Dion Graham, from HBO’s The Wire , also narrates The First 48 on A&E. A multiple Audie Award–winning and critically acclaimed actor and narrator, he has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series. Most recently he played Fred Cole on CBS's Madam Secretary. He just won an Audie Award and Odyssey Honor Award for Trombone Shorty. |
Robin Miles (Reading from Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston & Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, & featured in Blood Cotton)
With more than 200+ audiobook titles, director and Golden Voice, Robin Miles, seems born to do voice work and brings tremendous talent and experience to both sides of the glass. Her awards include multiple Audies, Ben Franklins, Audiofile Earphones, and a 2009 Grammy nomination. Her voice has been chosen for Audiofile Magazine’s Best Voices of 2008 (fiction & non-fiction), Publishers Weekly Best Audio, and Best of the Best Kids Audio. Her clients include Audible, BBC Audiobooks America, Hachette, Harper Audio, McMillan Audio, Penguin, Live Oak Medi |
The Cast of Blood Cotton:
Curtis Shepard
Deondra Means
As a professional actor, Deondra has traveled to perform in Chicago, St. Louis and in 2007 toured Romania with the cast of Man of LaMancha with Northern Kentucky University. A theater educator in Cincinnati, Ohio, many area schools including Villa Madonna Academy, Mason Heights Elementary, Ninth District Elementary and WEB Dubois have utilized his talent of enriching classroom lessons through dramatic principles throughout the school year. Mr. Means has the ability to bring to life through drama, historical lessons, world cultures and literature to help students to better understand what is required in the classroom. |
PJ Ochlan
An Audie Award winner, multiple Earphones Award winner, and Voice Arts Award nominee, P.J. Ochlan's work behind the microphone began in 1987 as a young voice actor with many commercials and promos. Since then he has lent his diverse talents to virtually every voiceover genre. Most notably, he is a widely acclaimed and record-setting audiobook narrator with hundreds of fiction and non-fiction titles to his credit. P.J.'s voice work is enhanced by his mastery of accents, distinctive characters and versatility, as well as his proficiency with English, French, Italian, German and Mandarin. He is also the founder of Dr. Dialect and co-founder of the Deyan Institute of Voice Artistry. |
Richard Fish
Richard has worked in audio theatre since 1970. He’s an actor and musician who became a writer, producer, director, teacher, engineer, Foley artist, journalist, broadcaster, publisher, and salesman. He helped found the National Audio Theatre Festivals organization, and WFHB Community Radio in his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. Richard has worked with the leading figures in audio theatre from coast to coast, including The Firesign Theatre and the legendary American grand master of the art, Norman Corwin. |
Music by Master Mix by
Special thanks to Midsummer Sound Company for their support of this production.