Podcast Palooza

Podcast Palooza 2019

The following are the HEAR Now Festival Podcast Palooza 2019 Platinum, Gold, and Silver Listening Programs.
The Festival's panel of judges found each to be interesting in its own way and wanted to include these works in the podcast program.

Platinum

On Friday, June 7, 2019 the Platinum Level Programs were presented at the HEAR Now Playhouse.

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The Witch Of KC by Coy Dugger (Kansas City, MO)
In an inverse of the classic Frank L. Baum book/movie "The Wizard of Oz," a Dorothy from a magical fantasy land suddenly finds herself in modern day Kansas City. With the help of a local department store clerk, she and her trusty companion Toto search for a way back home.

Salmon's Run - Episode 3 by Nick Messitte (New York, NY)
     Salmon’s Run asks a simple question: what would happen if an innocent man appeared, for all the world, to be a terrorist? The story centers on a hapless, sweet soul named Salmon Warzynski. He never meant to hurt anyone. He just wanted to toss his cigarette in a trashcan. He didn’t think it would explode, setting lower Manhattan ablaze in the process. Now, with the CIA, the FBI, the NYPD, the mainstream media, and some home-grown terrorists in hot pursuit (they think he’s their leader), Salmon must run…run for his life…
     In this episode, we meet Douglas Mitchell Sargento, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania. The powers that be want him to advocate for war with Iran—but he has other ideas.
     Meanwhile, Salmon Warzynski goes to great lengths to disguise his identity.

Frankenstein by Russel McGee (Bloomington, IL)
     The name Frankenstein is world-renowned, but what do you really know of Shelley’s original vision? This faithful adaptation by Russel McGee presents the 'creature' as an intelligent being that has suffered the injustice of mankind.
     In celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of Shelley’s creation, with an emphasis on Shelley’s original text and to allow the creature to speak for itself, in Shelley’s own words, this production cast a female actor as the creature to help lift Shelley’s voice from the text.
     Originally presented for Halloween 2018.

The Incident by Larry the O (Fictional, CA)
The Incident, is a true story in nine parts. It is the second episode of the storytelling-meets-sound-art series Ears Hear Now (EHN), which tells stories in a different way. While many other storytelling relies exclusively on narration and dialogue to tell a story, using music to frame it and sound effects to illustrate it, EHN’s approach is more akin to film or video game sound, where music and sound design go beyond those roles to be active storytelling partners.
The Incident significantly develops techniques pioneered in the first EHN episode, Out of Body, Out of Mind, which was a Platinum Selection at the 2017 HEAR Now Festival. The story told in The Incident concerns a near-fatal car crash that befell the narrator (Larry) and his wife without their ever being aware it had occurred until they awoke in the Emergency Room.

Hump Day by Young Park and Victor Liu (Bloomington, ID)
Ken Thompson went to sleep last Tuesday and woke up Thursday morning with a screaming migraine. He has no memory of what happened during the missing day, but it soon becomes clear that he cannot have slept the whole day through. In his search for the truth, Ken learns there are serious consequences for skipping Hump Day.
This production was produced as a final project as part of Indiana University's undergraduate Sound Design class led by Russell McGee.

Licorice from KAAD-LP radio and Ellen Stewart (Sonora, CA)
Licorice was adapted from an original story set in the early days of the California Gold Rush. The story teller is the local padre in a mining camp who makes an unhappy discovery when a disagreeable man turns up swinging in the hanging tree. What could be the motive and who could have done the deed?

Screaming With the Cannibals by MountainWhispers.com
This production of Lee Maynard's Screaming with the Cannibals is the second book in the Crum trilogy. The story, set in 1950's Appalachia, follows Jesse Stone, a young often confused man, as he works his way to manhood. Jesse encounters a variety of colorful characters, both friend and foe, as he moves from one wild adventure to another usually escaping with his life by the narrowest of margins.

Deck The Halls: The Runaway Bride by Sassquach Radio (North Hollywood, CA)
Episode 1, season 3 of Deck the Halls (with Matrimony!) --The Runaway Brid Jackie braves a singles' trivia night at a sports bar... and one of her teammates looks oddly familiar.
Directed by Paula Deming, written by Ashley Quach. Sound design by Kevin Rosen Quan.

I Got Your Back & Front by Armand Jennings (Bronx, NY)
Zuri Valerez is a 26 year old woman reminiscing about her friendship with her long time friend, Nathan Jones, leading up to the days of her marriage. She recalls memories and their many shared experiences. Created in surround sound, Zuri's story begins with her bachelorette party.

Lake & Logan In The Dimensions of Liquid by Locked into Vacancy Entertainment (aka L.I.V.E.) (Chicago, IL)
It's the ladies turn in the spotlight on the wacky supernatural misadventures of Lake & Logan. Katie and Daphne are set to perform on the largest cruise ship to ever sail on a lake, the Titanish. However, also on board are Mrs. Wilhelm and an assortment of other individuals, all with their own agendas keen to make the cruise considerably more eventful. Missing jewelry, family grudges, and a love that we'd rather not think about all collide in... "The Dimensions of Water!" Locked into Vacancy Entertainment brings 1940s style radio plays into the 21st century.

BS de Résistance Episode 12 - Rabbit Redux Deluxe by Dale Leopold (Manakin Sabot, VA)
BS de Résistance is a deliciously irreverent, deliriously immersive scripted, fully-produced political satire podcast.
Vera enlists some old friends to avoid a Middle Eastern meltdown. Trump looks for a scapegoat for his French faux pas. Canada has to deal (politely) with a caravan of Americans. And the Purple Avenger raps! Written by Lyssa Graham and Dale Leopold.

WILD BILL’S GHOST: The 30th ANNIVERSARY
WILD BILL'S GHOST, sees Oliver North visited by Bill Casey's Ghost. Produced in Columbia, Missouri in 1989, after the Iran- Contra hearings. What Wild Bill shows us that in thirty years not much changes in Washington D.C. Created when Siri and Alexa were pipe dreams, Ollie had a state of the art bio-metric security system but ghosts have a access all areas status.

In 1989, the producing team had to use the full power of a "Commodore 64 personal computer" to help in the automated mix down of the 2 inch Otari 8 track recorded.

Psycho Santa by Petaluma Radio Players (Petaluma, CA)
Delusion and illusion hit a Christmas Eve cross-current, and Santa must face off with his conflicted reality in this comedy by award-winning Houston playwright, Vivian C. Lermond.

MIDNIGHT LISTENING: The Call of the Flame: An Audio Play
From the epic fantasy series, this is the journey of Bri, and her travels along with her Orc, Elvan, Dwarven, and Halfin companions as she seeks to redeem her father, for murdering the Chieftain of Gods, and restore the balance of magic in the world.