2015 HEAR Now Festival Programming Included:
Scroll down the page to hear the show in segments!
Masters of Ceremony:

Dion Graham
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 also narrated this year's Odyssey Award winner H.O.R.S.E. His performances have been praised as thoughtful and compelling, vivid and full of life.
Scott Brick Scott Brick has recorded bestsellers for every major publisher, over 700 titles including JURASSIC PARK, MYSTIC RIVER, FAHRENHEIT 451, IN COLD BLOOD and HELTER SKELTER. An AudioFile Magazine Golden Voice, he’s received over 50 Earphones Awards, three Audie Awards, a Grammy nomination, and has twice been Publisher’s Weekly Audiobook Narrator of the Year. An active and passionate teacher, Scott recently wrote an intensely detailed and multi-media analysis of the narration process called NARRATING AUDIOBOOKS BRICK BY BRICK, debuting soon on his website (www.scottbrickpresents.com). |
Works HEARD in AUDIO Tonight!
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
When Johnny Comes Marching Home by Louis Gutierrez
The year is 1864 and a frontier woman is being held hostage by two desperate outlaws. But she is not afraid. She knows she has a protector, her brother Johnny. She's not afraid because tonight, Johnny Comes Marching Home.
Author Louis Gutierrez's play, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, won second place in the 2014 Marion Thauer Brown Scriptwriting Competition.
He is co-founder and main playwright for the Tallahassee, Florida based group Curious Echo Radio Theater at curiousecho.org. He was the first place recipient for Imagination Theater’s Phil Harper Award in 2009 and first place recipient for the 2007 Friends of Old Time Radio script contest.
The year is 1864 and a frontier woman is being held hostage by two desperate outlaws. But she is not afraid. She knows she has a protector, her brother Johnny. She's not afraid because tonight, Johnny Comes Marching Home.
Author Louis Gutierrez's play, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, won second place in the 2014 Marion Thauer Brown Scriptwriting Competition.
He is co-founder and main playwright for the Tallahassee, Florida based group Curious Echo Radio Theater at curiousecho.org. He was the first place recipient for Imagination Theater’s Phil Harper Award in 2009 and first place recipient for the 2007 Friends of Old Time Radio script contest.
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Starring Cynthia Darlow
Cynthia Darlow has many on and off-Broadway credits, including Grease, Prelude to a Kiss, Rumors, Taller Than a Dwarf, and Trouble in Paradise. Ms. Darlow is a member of the New York based The Actors Company Theatre (TACT). In television, she has made numerous appearances in three of the different Law & Order series, and guest starred on Soul Man and The Sopranos. Film credits include The Thomas Crown Affair (as Pierce Brosnan's secretary), Lost Souls (with John Hurt and Elias Koteas, as "Directionless Woman), and 25th Hour. Cynthia's unique voice makes her a natural fit for the spoken arts, she can be heard narrating the Murder, She Wrote series, many Young Audience tiles, and much more for Recorded Books and others. |

Featuring
Richard Ferrone
Richard Ferrone, an Audie Award recipient, has consistently received high praise from critics and fans alike for his audiobook performances for 25 years. He has performed on and off Broadway and in regional theaters.
TV appearances include Law & Order, Against the Law, Guiding Light and One Life To Live.
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William Dufris
William Dufris is the original voice of BOB (and Farmer Pickles/Mr. Beasley/Mr. Sabatini) in the popular children's show, BOB The Builder - for US and Canada (Series 1-9). William began his audio career in London (radio plays, audiobooks, film/animation dubbing, language tapes, etc), where he resided for 13 years. While there, he had the honor of sharing the microphone in a number of BBC Radio plays with Kathleen Turner, Sharon Gless, Stockard Channing and Helena Bonham-Carter. These experiences led him to co-found four audio production companies - The Story Circle, Mind's Eye Productions, AudioComics, and Pocket Universe Productions, for which he produces, directs, acts and engineers . He has been nominated over 10 times as an audiobook finalist for the APA's Audie Awards (winning in 2012 for Non Fiction - The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins), and has garnered over a score of Golden Earphones Awards through AudioFile Magazine - as well as being named “One Of The Best Voices At The End Of The Century” (AudioFile Magazine 1999), as well as for 2008 and 2009. |
With William Chessman, Rich Fish, and Ryan McCabe
Mark Twain's Letter to Western Union

Mark Twain's Letter to Western Union
Read by Alice Rosengard
1902 was an eventful one for Mark Twain. In April he received a degree of LL.D.
from the University of Missouri and returned to his native State to accept it.
This was his last journey to the Mississippi River.
During the summer, while visiting in Maine, Mrs. Clemens's health broke down
and illnesses of one sort or another visited other members of the family. Amid so
much stress and anxiety Clemens had little time or inclination for work. He
wrote not many letters and mainly somber ones.
In particular, he wrote to the President of The Western Union, in New York,
to complain that the telegraphic service in Maine was the "worst in the world except for Boston."
When it comes to technology and communication it seems, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Read by Alice Rosengard
1902 was an eventful one for Mark Twain. In April he received a degree of LL.D.
from the University of Missouri and returned to his native State to accept it.
This was his last journey to the Mississippi River.
During the summer, while visiting in Maine, Mrs. Clemens's health broke down
and illnesses of one sort or another visited other members of the family. Amid so
much stress and anxiety Clemens had little time or inclination for work. He
wrote not many letters and mainly somber ones.
In particular, he wrote to the President of The Western Union, in New York,
to complain that the telegraphic service in Maine was the "worst in the world except for Boston."
When it comes to technology and communication it seems, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Granny's Cookies from VoiceScapes Audio Theater
by Tom and Ellin Curley
Granny's Cookies! They are the BEST cookies you've ever eaten and it's all due to Granny's "secret ingredient". The question is, what is it?
Starring Sande Sherr. Barbara Rosenblat, Robin Miles, Tom Curley, Butch D'Ambrosio and Ryan McCabe.
VoiceScapes is a group of audio actors, directors, sound engineers, writers and producers who met and worked together in Missouri each year at the National Audio Theatre Festivals. Because they all live in or near New York City, they decided to create a New York City based contemporary audio theater company, and so VoiceScapes Audio Theater came into being.
VoiceScapes has performed at the two previous HearNow Festivals as well as the Paley Center in New York, and just recently at the Elmwood Theater in Nyack NY.
by Tom and Ellin Curley
Granny's Cookies! They are the BEST cookies you've ever eaten and it's all due to Granny's "secret ingredient". The question is, what is it?
Starring Sande Sherr. Barbara Rosenblat, Robin Miles, Tom Curley, Butch D'Ambrosio and Ryan McCabe.
VoiceScapes is a group of audio actors, directors, sound engineers, writers and producers who met and worked together in Missouri each year at the National Audio Theatre Festivals. Because they all live in or near New York City, they decided to create a New York City based contemporary audio theater company, and so VoiceScapes Audio Theater came into being.
VoiceScapes has performed at the two previous HearNow Festivals as well as the Paley Center in New York, and just recently at the Elmwood Theater in Nyack NY.

Barbara Rosenblat
Barbara Rosenblat is an actor living in New York City and has enjoyed a long career both here and the UK. She can currently be seen playing the cancer-ridden prisoner Miss Rosa on the Netflix original series Orange Is The New Black as well as a new recurring role on the Fox series 'Gotham'.
On Broadway, she created the role of Mrs Medlock in the 3-time Tony award winning musical,The Secret Garden.
Barbara is also one of the most sought after voice actors in the country. She is one of the audiobook industry's most beloved recording artists with 8 Audie Awards and countless other commendations for a distinguished body of work.
One critic was moved to write, 'Barbara is to audiobooks what Meryl Streep is to film'.
Barbara Rosenblat is an actor living in New York City and has enjoyed a long career both here and the UK. She can currently be seen playing the cancer-ridden prisoner Miss Rosa on the Netflix original series Orange Is The New Black as well as a new recurring role on the Fox series 'Gotham'.
On Broadway, she created the role of Mrs Medlock in the 3-time Tony award winning musical,The Secret Garden.
Barbara is also one of the most sought after voice actors in the country. She is one of the audiobook industry's most beloved recording artists with 8 Audie Awards and countless other commendations for a distinguished body of work.
One critic was moved to write, 'Barbara is to audiobooks what Meryl Streep is to film'.

Robin Miles
Known for great accents and emotional nuance, narrator Robin Miles brings words to life. A veteran of Broadway, classical plays, TV/film, and museum exhibitions, with 300+ Audiobook titles, she is the 2014 ALA Voice of Choice, an Audiofile Magazine Golden Voice and Grammy finalist (directing), with multiple awards (Audies, Best of the Year), Earphones).
Robin owns Voxpertise® training & production studio. She graduated from Yale University and the Yale School of Drama.
Known for great accents and emotional nuance, narrator Robin Miles brings words to life. A veteran of Broadway, classical plays, TV/film, and museum exhibitions, with 300+ Audiobook titles, she is the 2014 ALA Voice of Choice, an Audiofile Magazine Golden Voice and Grammy finalist (directing), with multiple awards (Audies, Best of the Year), Earphones).
Robin owns Voxpertise® training & production studio. She graduated from Yale University and the Yale School of Drama.
The Pitfalls of Parenting

Ellin Curley
Rhyming Rants: Witty and Terse, Essays In Verse
THE PITFALLS OF PARENTING
Ellin was one of the founding members of The Georgetown Gilbert & Sullivan Society, a theatrical company that bills itself as “America’s Only Theater Group With It’s Own Law School”. She wrote humorous poems for family and friends and in the 1990’s started a company called Photo-Synthesis, which provided personalized poems for individual and corporate clients. She then went on to write Rhyming Rants: Witty and Terse, Essays In Verse, covering topics from parenthood, growing old gracefully and over-the-top dog lovers to organ transplants. In 2012 she entered the world of audio theater, teaming with her husband Tom to write for VoiceScapes Audio Theater.
Rhyming Rants: Witty and Terse, Essays In Verse
THE PITFALLS OF PARENTING
Ellin was one of the founding members of The Georgetown Gilbert & Sullivan Society, a theatrical company that bills itself as “America’s Only Theater Group With It’s Own Law School”. She wrote humorous poems for family and friends and in the 1990’s started a company called Photo-Synthesis, which provided personalized poems for individual and corporate clients. She then went on to write Rhyming Rants: Witty and Terse, Essays In Verse, covering topics from parenthood, growing old gracefully and over-the-top dog lovers to organ transplants. In 2012 she entered the world of audio theater, teaming with her husband Tom to write for VoiceScapes Audio Theater.
The End of TheWar of the Worlds As We Know It The End of the War of the Worlds as We Know It
By Nicholas Kalajdzic and Tom Curley Callers react as radio host Orson Wellesley reports on a modern day UFO invasion. Featuring Scott Brick & Dion Graham |
Nicholas Kalajdzic is a NYU film student from Berlin, Germany.
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José Faus a native of Bogota, Colombia, now lives in Overland Park, Kansas and received degrees from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in studio art and creative writing. He maintains a studio in downtown Kansas City and has exhibited in the metropolitan area and is a founding member of the Latino Writers Collective and editor of Kansas City Hispanic News. His writings have appeared in the anthologies, Primera Página: Poetry from the Latino Heartland and Cuentos del Centro: Stories from the Latino Heartland and in other publications including the forthcoming Dicho Magazine and Present Magazine.
Tony Brewer is a poet, spoken word performer, screenwriter, sound effects artist, and roller derby announcer. He is also executive director of the Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Arts Festival in Bloomington, Indiana. He has three books (The Great American Scapegoat, Little Glove in a Big Hand, and Hot Type Cold Read) and wrote and co-produced a DVD, 8 Wheels of Death, the world’s first roller zombie romantic comedy.
Tony Brewer is a poet, spoken word performer, screenwriter, sound effects artist, and roller derby announcer. He is also executive director of the Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Arts Festival in Bloomington, Indiana. He has three books (The Great American Scapegoat, Little Glove in a Big Hand, and Hot Type Cold Read) and wrote and co-produced a DVD, 8 Wheels of Death, the world’s first roller zombie romantic comedy.
Tales from the Mid-Life Wife - The Ruse
Tales From the Mid-Life Wife - The Ruse by Heather Farrar
"Neither hot-flashes nor cold showers nor dirty dishes nor temperamental-sloppy teens stays this Mid-Life Wife from the swift completion of her appointed demands. Stay tuned to learn how Janice, our Mid-Life Wife creates that perfect looking life on the outside ...but don't look too close!"
Featuring Heather Farrar with Sue Bilich, Dianna Dorman, Jane Aker, and Suzan Lorraine |
![]() Heather E. L. Farrar is a published columnist, poet, writer, playwright (Gathering Kane, 2013) as well as an audio-book narrator/actor/voice-talent. A lifetime resident of Missouri, she's shared 32 years with her husband Richard and 5 children. Owner of Quillsongs Media & Publishing, LLC
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Shenandoah: Lyrics & Legend

Shenandoah: Lyrics & Legend
by Missouri Master Storyteller Marideth Sisco
Oh Shenandoah. also called Shenandoah, or Across the Wide Missouri, is a traditional American folk song that dates back to the early 19th century. Marideth shares the history of this song when she sings it in the show.
A noted singer and Missouri Master Storyteller, Marideth Sisco, whose music was the backbone of the Oscar-nominated film Winter’s Bone, is known for her down-home tales, from comic to poignant and insightful, of the Missouri Ozarks of yesterday.
by Missouri Master Storyteller Marideth Sisco
Oh Shenandoah. also called Shenandoah, or Across the Wide Missouri, is a traditional American folk song that dates back to the early 19th century. Marideth shares the history of this song when she sings it in the show.
A noted singer and Missouri Master Storyteller, Marideth Sisco, whose music was the backbone of the Oscar-nominated film Winter’s Bone, is known for her down-home tales, from comic to poignant and insightful, of the Missouri Ozarks of yesterday.
Let Freedom Ring!
AUDIO Tonight's featured Band
BCR All-Stars - Performing "Let Freedom Ring" with Marideth Sisco and throughout the show.
Thomas Aber-bass clarinet, clarinet, bari sax, gaida, Native flute
Patrick Conway-drums, percussion, bassoon, alto sax
Molly Dillon-trombone
Bill Dye-bass, lap steel, acoustic guitar
Julia Thro-guitar, guitar synthesizer
Dwight Frizzell-clarinet, tenor sax, WX5 midi wind-controller, Native flute
Thomas Aber & Dwight Frizzell performed together on “Ionisations,” a KOPN-FM radio series that also featured Pauling Oliveros and Diamanda Galas. They joined Alvin Curran and Frederic Rzewski in Rome via satellite feed in 1982 for the first International Radio Solstice Broadcast. They are founding members of newEar contemporary chamber ensemble and longtime players in Black Crack Revue. Aber’s passion for bass clarinet led him to Juilliard in New York and Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam where he studied with Harry Sparnaay. Frizzell’s teachers include cosmo-jazz master Sun Ra, clarinetist Raymond Luedeke and video artist Douglas Davis.
Patrick Alonzo Conway is a percussionist, wind player and composer who studied with Master Drummers Abubakari Lunna‐Wumbie and I Ketut Gedé Asnawa. He is a founding member of newEar, director of UMKC’s Gamelan Genta Kasturi, long-time player/composer in Black Crack Revue, and recipient of the Generative Performing Artist Fellow Award from the Charlotte Street Foundation.
Molly Dillon is a trombone player whose is earning her BFA in painting and creative writing at KCAI. Her experience playing jazz instilled a dynamic call and response between her audio and visual work. She has played with members of newEar and Grupo, and at the Thomas Hart Benton Studio and Lawrence University.
Bill Dye is a veteran musician who has lived in Kansas City since 1982. He played with legendary bluesman Luther Allison in 1979 and 1980, traveling throughout the U.S and Europe, and appears on Luther's 1980 album "Time", recorded in Paris. After stints in Nashville and central Illinois, Bill moved to Kansas City, where he has played with Tom Bark, the Bon Ton Soul Accordian Band, BCR, Dan Doran, Ida McBeth, and Danny Cox,. He has accompanied Charlie Musselwhite, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Jimmy Witherspoon, Magic Slim, Champion Jack Dupree, and Robert Lockwood. In 1990 Bill released his solo album "Buffle Off To Shuffalo,” a collection of originals in which he played all instruments.
Julia Thro has performed as a guitarist in the Kansas City area since 1982 with bands as diverse as Millard Fillmore, One of Us, Afrique, The Messengers, Joey Skidmore Band, Gerald Trimble Ensemble (where she played the Arabic lute) and Venus Envy. Her rock stylings can be heard on Joey Skidmore’s “Ventiloquist Doll” CD, and her lute work on Gerald Trimble’s “Celtic Cantigas.” She composed music for the National Audio Theatre Festivals, working with Firesign Theatre’s Phil Proctor and “Starstruck” author Elaine Lee. Julia has been the guitarist for BCR since Y2K.
Thomas Aber-bass clarinet, clarinet, bari sax, gaida, Native flute
Patrick Conway-drums, percussion, bassoon, alto sax
Molly Dillon-trombone
Bill Dye-bass, lap steel, acoustic guitar
Julia Thro-guitar, guitar synthesizer
Dwight Frizzell-clarinet, tenor sax, WX5 midi wind-controller, Native flute
Thomas Aber & Dwight Frizzell performed together on “Ionisations,” a KOPN-FM radio series that also featured Pauling Oliveros and Diamanda Galas. They joined Alvin Curran and Frederic Rzewski in Rome via satellite feed in 1982 for the first International Radio Solstice Broadcast. They are founding members of newEar contemporary chamber ensemble and longtime players in Black Crack Revue. Aber’s passion for bass clarinet led him to Juilliard in New York and Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam where he studied with Harry Sparnaay. Frizzell’s teachers include cosmo-jazz master Sun Ra, clarinetist Raymond Luedeke and video artist Douglas Davis.
Patrick Alonzo Conway is a percussionist, wind player and composer who studied with Master Drummers Abubakari Lunna‐Wumbie and I Ketut Gedé Asnawa. He is a founding member of newEar, director of UMKC’s Gamelan Genta Kasturi, long-time player/composer in Black Crack Revue, and recipient of the Generative Performing Artist Fellow Award from the Charlotte Street Foundation.
Molly Dillon is a trombone player whose is earning her BFA in painting and creative writing at KCAI. Her experience playing jazz instilled a dynamic call and response between her audio and visual work. She has played with members of newEar and Grupo, and at the Thomas Hart Benton Studio and Lawrence University.
Bill Dye is a veteran musician who has lived in Kansas City since 1982. He played with legendary bluesman Luther Allison in 1979 and 1980, traveling throughout the U.S and Europe, and appears on Luther's 1980 album "Time", recorded in Paris. After stints in Nashville and central Illinois, Bill moved to Kansas City, where he has played with Tom Bark, the Bon Ton Soul Accordian Band, BCR, Dan Doran, Ida McBeth, and Danny Cox,. He has accompanied Charlie Musselwhite, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Jimmy Witherspoon, Magic Slim, Champion Jack Dupree, and Robert Lockwood. In 1990 Bill released his solo album "Buffle Off To Shuffalo,” a collection of originals in which he played all instruments.
Julia Thro has performed as a guitarist in the Kansas City area since 1982 with bands as diverse as Millard Fillmore, One of Us, Afrique, The Messengers, Joey Skidmore Band, Gerald Trimble Ensemble (where she played the Arabic lute) and Venus Envy. Her rock stylings can be heard on Joey Skidmore’s “Ventiloquist Doll” CD, and her lute work on Gerald Trimble’s “Celtic Cantigas.” She composed music for the National Audio Theatre Festivals, working with Firesign Theatre’s Phil Proctor and “Starstruck” author Elaine Lee. Julia has been the guitarist for BCR since Y2K.