2014 HEAR Now Festival Programming to Include:
Purchase an ALL ACCESS FESTIVAL PASS, to attend any of our events, or select individual tickets to specific events you want to attend:
Individual Event Ticket Costs:
$8.00 per 90 minute "listening event" in Cinemark Theaters
$30.00 per 5 sessions (FIVE 90 minute "listening events" in Cinemark Theaters)
$15.00 for Thursday Night Opening event
$15.00 for Friday Night Audio Vaudeville
$15.00 for Saturday Afternoon Golden Voice Narrators
$15.00 for Closing Brunch and Awards Ceremony
The following programs are free and require no tickets: Tree of Life Sound Installation; KCAI Gruppo’s BENTON@125; WWI, Our Voices and Stories from the Front; and Celebrating Mark Twain.
Purchase an ALL ACCESS FESTIVAL PASS, to attend any of our events, or select individual tickets to specific events you want to attend:
Individual Event Ticket Costs:
$8.00 per 90 minute "listening event" in Cinemark Theaters
$30.00 per 5 sessions (FIVE 90 minute "listening events" in Cinemark Theaters)
$15.00 for Thursday Night Opening event
$15.00 for Friday Night Audio Vaudeville
$15.00 for Saturday Afternoon Golden Voice Narrators
$15.00 for Closing Brunch and Awards Ceremony
The following programs are free and require no tickets: Tree of Life Sound Installation; KCAI Gruppo’s BENTON@125; WWI, Our Voices and Stories from the Front; and Celebrating Mark Twain.
FEATURED FESTIVAL PROGRAMS
I KNOW THAT VOICE Documentary Opens The HEAR Now Festival
Thursday, June 19th, 7:30 PM, at the UMKC Student Union Theater (5100 Cherry St, Kansas City) the HEAR Now Festival will present I KNOW THAT VOICE, a 90 minute documentary that puts a face to the voices we all know and love!
Narrated by, and starring, John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender on Futurama, this film also features many other well-known voice actors, including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker – Star Wars / Joker – Batman Animated Series), Billy West (Stimpy – The Ren & Stimpy Show), Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum – The Simpsons), Tara Strong (Rugrats / Powerpuff Girls), Tom Kenny (SpongeBob – SpongeBob Square Pants), and Kansas City’s own Tom Kane (The Chancellor in Tim Burton’s 9, Magneto in Wolverine and the X-Men, and Jedi Master Yoda and Admiral Yularen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NATF Playhouse
For those independent audio dramatists whose work was accepted into the Festival, HEAR Now is hosting listening sessions throughout the day on Friday, June 20th and Saturday, June 21st at the Cinemark Palace Theater at The Plaza. Award-winning NATF performances, from past workshop events, will be showcased as part of the NATF Playhouse as well. See daily schedule for featured artists.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tree of Life - A Sound Installation for strings, woodwinds, electro-acoustics & video (installation premiere) FREE FOR ALL TO ATTEND - No ticket required
"The affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree….As buds give rise to growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications." --- Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, 1872
Charles Darwin's sketch of the divergence of species (as illustrated in his Origin of Species) presents his central organizing vision of shared descent, the idea that all species ultimately evolved from a common ancestor in the distant past. From a single starting point, genetic changes in different populations send species down evolutionary pathways. Some of these branches survive, and split off to form new branches. Other branches wither, and species become extinct.
Darwin's metaphorical image is used to create this audio-theater installation for instruments and electro-acoustics. Sound progresses and develops from the starting point, where Darwin imagined life "originally breathed into a few forms or into one." Instrumental parts flow through the branching lines of divergence and extinction, increasing in complexity and diversity, representing 3.6 billion years of our evolutionary history -- from simple, single-celled organisms to modern humans.
Sound Artists Michael Henry and Dwight Frizzel have designed this work as a multi-channel installation for a room or space with an area for the audience to sit and recline, entering and exiting as they wish. Video projection on the floor in the center of the room lights the space, and speakers surround the audience. The layered environment perpetually changes with time flowing both backwards and forwards at the same time, much in the style of a crab cannon.
This installation will be housed at the Community Christian Church (4601 Main St., Kansas City) through out the HEAR Now Festival weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Time Celebrates International Winners
The Mark Time Awards are pleased to be coming back to HEAR Now, this year in celebration of their many international award-winning producers.
One 90 minute Mark Time session is planned for the Festival on Friday from 11:00am - 12:15pm at the Cinemark Palace Theater at The Plaza. The Mark Time and Ogle Awards were established in 1996 and are the only international awards dedicated solely to recognizing the best in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and multicast AUDIO DRAMA.
Independent producers from every corner of the US and around the globe have been honored by Mark Time and have trekked phenomenal distances to appear at CONVergence, Minneapolis' largest science fiction convention, to accept their plaques in person. Preceding the awards ceremony, every year Great Northern Audio Theatre presents the Mark Time Radio Hour--a live original comedy show written especially for the occasion. At HEAR Now we will be playing featured selections from winning works by many of the independent international audio theater producers who have won Mark Time and Ogle Awards over the past 15 years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Star Trek and Beyond: The Sounds of Gaming
The HEAR Now Festival will be presenting a special session on Sound Design for Gaming by premier audio producer and composer Michael Henry (Cryptic Studios).
After working for Com/Track (commercial music production, radio and TV) for nearly ten years, Michael made the switch to creating soundscapes and music for computer games. After a stint with Viacom New Media (the gaming division of Viacom/MTV/ Paramount) he relocated to the bay area to take a position with the legendary Atari Games as a composer and sound designer.
Among the many game titles he has worked on, his favorites are Midway’s Dr. Muto and Atari Games San Francisco Rush 2049 series of racing games. My work has also appeared in game titles developed by Z-Axis, Activision, and NCSoft.
For Cryptic Studios Michael is working on a massively multiplayer online game based on the Champions Sci-Fi Superhero franchise, Champions Online.
He also consults with technology companies and has done interface sound design for Palm PDAs, cellphones, and Intel multimedia applications.
Michael is also the co-creator of "Tree of Life Sound Installation" which is being featured throughout the Festival weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KCAI Gruppo’s BENTON@125 FREE FOR ALL TO ATTEND - No ticket required
Friday, June 20th, at 2:00 PM, The Kansas City Art Institute’s student-led Gruppo will perform a 45-minute audio-theater work celebrating Thomas Hart Benton’s life, art and music at his historic home/studio for the HEAR Now Festival.
Period musical sources, vocals, costumes, and dance will be used in addition to Gruppo’s newly constructed instruments.
Thomas Hart Benton was an internationally acclaimed Kansas City artist whose home/studio are a Missouri State historic site located less than a mile from the Community Christian Church. Besides his accomplishments as a fine artist, Benton was an accomplished harmonica player who had open music sessions at his home every Saturday night. Decca released an album of 78s in 1941 entitled “Saturday Night at Tom Benton’s.” This performance will be part of the 125th anniversary celebration of his birth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Audio Vaudeville: A Story-tellers Cabaret
Friday, June 20th, 7:30 PM, at Centennial Hall, located in the Community Christian Church (4601 Main St., Kansas City), the HEAR Now Festival will present, a 90 minute showcase of audio performers from all across the country. Original audio drama, poetry, short stories, and more will all be showcased as part of Audio Vaudeville.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Golden Voices": Best Audiobook Voices
Saturday, June 21st, 1:30pm, in the Sanctuary, located in the Community Christian Church (4601 Main St., Kansas City), meet, and hear, award-winning audiobook narrators reading from their favorite works.
Featured narrators for this 90 minute showcase will include Scott Brick (Moneyball, Cloud Atlas (novel), A Princess of Mars, The Bourne Identity (novel), The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Atlas Shrugged), Barbara Rosenblat (TV: Orange is the New Black / Audiobooks: Terminal City by Linda Fairstein, The 'Amelia Peabody' series by Elizabeth Peters, Terms of Endearment), Simon Vance (Bring Up The Bodies, Dracula, The Tao of Pooh) and Robin Miles (We Are Water: A Wally Lamb Novel, Cleopatra: A Life, Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
World War I: Voices and Stories From The Front FREE TO ALL TO ATTEND - No ticket required
Saturday, June 21st, 3:30pm, in the auditorium at the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, (100 W 26 St, Kansas City), HEAR Now will present a 90 minute program of original stories, remembrances, and more from the Great War.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Between the Ears
Saturday, June 21st, 8pm HEAR Now will present Right Between the Ears an award-winning sketch comedy show broadcast every week on Sirius-XM and on Kansas Public Radio stations. RBTE spoofs politics, TV and movies, sports figures, celebrities, the quirky and the occasional turkey. The show will feature guest artists from the Festival including Orange is the New Black’s Barbara Rosenblat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Celebrating Mark Twain at HEAR Now! FREE TO ALL TO ATTEND - No ticket required
Beginning on Thursday, June 19th, and running through Saturday, June 21st, readings from Missouri’s own Mark Twain will be showcased “around town” each night between 5:30pm and 6:30pm, in a variety of venues, throughout the city.
Thursday’s free reading will take at The Raphael Hotel (325 Ward Pkwy, Kansas City, MO), with the Friday, June 20th and Saturday, June 21st reading being hosted by Prospero’s Books (1800 W 39th St, Kansas City, MO).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2014 WORKSHOP 101: HANDS-ON FUN!!
Along with listening sessions and live performances, HEAR Now will offer Workshop 101, a “crash course” in audio theater, which runs throughout the Festival, (June 19 - 22) and takes participants through the basics of writing, directing, producing, and performing audio theater works so that the group creates a new original work to be performed by the Workshop 101 participants on the final day of the festival.
Not only will participants get the opportunity to interact with their accomplished faculty, but they will also get to meet to many professionals throughout the field, who can become valued contacts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Listening Room For Festival Pass & Tickets Holders only
Thanks to Sennheiser - Neumann, USA, HEAR Now will host a "Headphones Listening Room" at the Holiday Inn Country Club Plaza (Private Dining Room - near Salon C: HEAR Now Registration / Vendor Area) on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This listening station will give producers, fans, performers, the opportunity to compare headphones for optimal listening. The HEAR Now Festival will present works recorded in binaural sound and meant to be heard with headphones on Saturday, June 22nd.
Additional Programming will be updated constantly, so keep checking back!!!
I KNOW THAT VOICE Documentary Opens The HEAR Now Festival
Thursday, June 19th, 7:30 PM, at the UMKC Student Union Theater (5100 Cherry St, Kansas City) the HEAR Now Festival will present I KNOW THAT VOICE, a 90 minute documentary that puts a face to the voices we all know and love!
Narrated by, and starring, John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender on Futurama, this film also features many other well-known voice actors, including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker – Star Wars / Joker – Batman Animated Series), Billy West (Stimpy – The Ren & Stimpy Show), Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum – The Simpsons), Tara Strong (Rugrats / Powerpuff Girls), Tom Kenny (SpongeBob – SpongeBob Square Pants), and Kansas City’s own Tom Kane (The Chancellor in Tim Burton’s 9, Magneto in Wolverine and the X-Men, and Jedi Master Yoda and Admiral Yularen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NATF Playhouse
For those independent audio dramatists whose work was accepted into the Festival, HEAR Now is hosting listening sessions throughout the day on Friday, June 20th and Saturday, June 21st at the Cinemark Palace Theater at The Plaza. Award-winning NATF performances, from past workshop events, will be showcased as part of the NATF Playhouse as well. See daily schedule for featured artists.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tree of Life - A Sound Installation for strings, woodwinds, electro-acoustics & video (installation premiere) FREE FOR ALL TO ATTEND - No ticket required
"The affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree….As buds give rise to growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications." --- Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, 1872
Charles Darwin's sketch of the divergence of species (as illustrated in his Origin of Species) presents his central organizing vision of shared descent, the idea that all species ultimately evolved from a common ancestor in the distant past. From a single starting point, genetic changes in different populations send species down evolutionary pathways. Some of these branches survive, and split off to form new branches. Other branches wither, and species become extinct.
Darwin's metaphorical image is used to create this audio-theater installation for instruments and electro-acoustics. Sound progresses and develops from the starting point, where Darwin imagined life "originally breathed into a few forms or into one." Instrumental parts flow through the branching lines of divergence and extinction, increasing in complexity and diversity, representing 3.6 billion years of our evolutionary history -- from simple, single-celled organisms to modern humans.
Sound Artists Michael Henry and Dwight Frizzel have designed this work as a multi-channel installation for a room or space with an area for the audience to sit and recline, entering and exiting as they wish. Video projection on the floor in the center of the room lights the space, and speakers surround the audience. The layered environment perpetually changes with time flowing both backwards and forwards at the same time, much in the style of a crab cannon.
This installation will be housed at the Community Christian Church (4601 Main St., Kansas City) through out the HEAR Now Festival weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Time Celebrates International Winners
The Mark Time Awards are pleased to be coming back to HEAR Now, this year in celebration of their many international award-winning producers.
One 90 minute Mark Time session is planned for the Festival on Friday from 11:00am - 12:15pm at the Cinemark Palace Theater at The Plaza. The Mark Time and Ogle Awards were established in 1996 and are the only international awards dedicated solely to recognizing the best in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and multicast AUDIO DRAMA.
Independent producers from every corner of the US and around the globe have been honored by Mark Time and have trekked phenomenal distances to appear at CONVergence, Minneapolis' largest science fiction convention, to accept their plaques in person. Preceding the awards ceremony, every year Great Northern Audio Theatre presents the Mark Time Radio Hour--a live original comedy show written especially for the occasion. At HEAR Now we will be playing featured selections from winning works by many of the independent international audio theater producers who have won Mark Time and Ogle Awards over the past 15 years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Star Trek and Beyond: The Sounds of Gaming
The HEAR Now Festival will be presenting a special session on Sound Design for Gaming by premier audio producer and composer Michael Henry (Cryptic Studios).
After working for Com/Track (commercial music production, radio and TV) for nearly ten years, Michael made the switch to creating soundscapes and music for computer games. After a stint with Viacom New Media (the gaming division of Viacom/MTV/ Paramount) he relocated to the bay area to take a position with the legendary Atari Games as a composer and sound designer.
Among the many game titles he has worked on, his favorites are Midway’s Dr. Muto and Atari Games San Francisco Rush 2049 series of racing games. My work has also appeared in game titles developed by Z-Axis, Activision, and NCSoft.
For Cryptic Studios Michael is working on a massively multiplayer online game based on the Champions Sci-Fi Superhero franchise, Champions Online.
He also consults with technology companies and has done interface sound design for Palm PDAs, cellphones, and Intel multimedia applications.
Michael is also the co-creator of "Tree of Life Sound Installation" which is being featured throughout the Festival weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KCAI Gruppo’s BENTON@125 FREE FOR ALL TO ATTEND - No ticket required
Friday, June 20th, at 2:00 PM, The Kansas City Art Institute’s student-led Gruppo will perform a 45-minute audio-theater work celebrating Thomas Hart Benton’s life, art and music at his historic home/studio for the HEAR Now Festival.
Period musical sources, vocals, costumes, and dance will be used in addition to Gruppo’s newly constructed instruments.
Thomas Hart Benton was an internationally acclaimed Kansas City artist whose home/studio are a Missouri State historic site located less than a mile from the Community Christian Church. Besides his accomplishments as a fine artist, Benton was an accomplished harmonica player who had open music sessions at his home every Saturday night. Decca released an album of 78s in 1941 entitled “Saturday Night at Tom Benton’s.” This performance will be part of the 125th anniversary celebration of his birth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Audio Vaudeville: A Story-tellers Cabaret
Friday, June 20th, 7:30 PM, at Centennial Hall, located in the Community Christian Church (4601 Main St., Kansas City), the HEAR Now Festival will present, a 90 minute showcase of audio performers from all across the country. Original audio drama, poetry, short stories, and more will all be showcased as part of Audio Vaudeville.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Golden Voices": Best Audiobook Voices
Saturday, June 21st, 1:30pm, in the Sanctuary, located in the Community Christian Church (4601 Main St., Kansas City), meet, and hear, award-winning audiobook narrators reading from their favorite works.
Featured narrators for this 90 minute showcase will include Scott Brick (Moneyball, Cloud Atlas (novel), A Princess of Mars, The Bourne Identity (novel), The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Atlas Shrugged), Barbara Rosenblat (TV: Orange is the New Black / Audiobooks: Terminal City by Linda Fairstein, The 'Amelia Peabody' series by Elizabeth Peters, Terms of Endearment), Simon Vance (Bring Up The Bodies, Dracula, The Tao of Pooh) and Robin Miles (We Are Water: A Wally Lamb Novel, Cleopatra: A Life, Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
World War I: Voices and Stories From The Front FREE TO ALL TO ATTEND - No ticket required
Saturday, June 21st, 3:30pm, in the auditorium at the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, (100 W 26 St, Kansas City), HEAR Now will present a 90 minute program of original stories, remembrances, and more from the Great War.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Between the Ears
Saturday, June 21st, 8pm HEAR Now will present Right Between the Ears an award-winning sketch comedy show broadcast every week on Sirius-XM and on Kansas Public Radio stations. RBTE spoofs politics, TV and movies, sports figures, celebrities, the quirky and the occasional turkey. The show will feature guest artists from the Festival including Orange is the New Black’s Barbara Rosenblat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Celebrating Mark Twain at HEAR Now! FREE TO ALL TO ATTEND - No ticket required
Beginning on Thursday, June 19th, and running through Saturday, June 21st, readings from Missouri’s own Mark Twain will be showcased “around town” each night between 5:30pm and 6:30pm, in a variety of venues, throughout the city.
Thursday’s free reading will take at The Raphael Hotel (325 Ward Pkwy, Kansas City, MO), with the Friday, June 20th and Saturday, June 21st reading being hosted by Prospero’s Books (1800 W 39th St, Kansas City, MO).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2014 WORKSHOP 101: HANDS-ON FUN!!
Along with listening sessions and live performances, HEAR Now will offer Workshop 101, a “crash course” in audio theater, which runs throughout the Festival, (June 19 - 22) and takes participants through the basics of writing, directing, producing, and performing audio theater works so that the group creates a new original work to be performed by the Workshop 101 participants on the final day of the festival.
Not only will participants get the opportunity to interact with their accomplished faculty, but they will also get to meet to many professionals throughout the field, who can become valued contacts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Listening Room For Festival Pass & Tickets Holders only
Thanks to Sennheiser - Neumann, USA, HEAR Now will host a "Headphones Listening Room" at the Holiday Inn Country Club Plaza (Private Dining Room - near Salon C: HEAR Now Registration / Vendor Area) on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This listening station will give producers, fans, performers, the opportunity to compare headphones for optimal listening. The HEAR Now Festival will present works recorded in binaural sound and meant to be heard with headphones on Saturday, June 22nd.
Additional Programming will be updated constantly, so keep checking back!!!
