NATF Audio Theatre Workshop

National Audio Theatre Festivals, Inc. ATW 2008 Staff
June 22-27, 2008
West Plains, MO

The following is a list of some of the members of this year's Audio Theater Workshop Staff.

Please keep checking back here over the next few weeks, as you will see this list evolve and grow, as plans are finalized for classes and the showcase performance that ends the workshop week. 2008 classes

Thomas Aber CLARINETS, SAXES, TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS Thomas Aber, D.M.A., is a native of Kansas City, Missouri. He plays clarinets and saxophones of various sizes, but his greatest love among these by far is for the bass clarinet. His study of the bass clarinet led him to the Juilliard School in New York and to the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, where he studied with Harry Sparnaay on a Fulbright-Hays grant. During his stay of several years in The Netherlands he was a prize winner in the Gaudeamus Foundation International Competition for Interpreters of Contemporary Music. Bass clarinetist with the Omaha Symphony since 1990, Dr. Aber is a founding member of newEar. Dr. Aber also performs traditional music on a variety of wind instruments, with and without bags, such as the gajda, doedelzak, torupill, zurna, and tullum.
Dianne Ballon 2008 Demo Producer \| Instructor - The Art of Editing Dianne Ballon is an audio artist and independent radio producer. She spent years as a visual artist (Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Massachusetts College of Art) before the sound of radio caught her ear. Most of her audio art embraces the humor of dealing with everyday events like lawn mowers or scraping the grill. She records her own sound effects and the more sound rich an idea, the better. Her works have aired on National Public Radio's, "All Things Considered" and on the WBUR Boston national show "Here & Now". She served as chair of the Media Arts Advisory Panel at the Maine Arts Commission, and has given many workshops in audio production and Radio Theater to artists, producers and school groups. This includes an audio workshop at Concordia University in Montreal at a conference focusing on women and sound technology, a workshop for students in a new sound art program at Maine College of Art and workshops at several Audubon Societies based on her field recordings of birds and bird watchers. She works part time as a studio assistant at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) recording studio, and as a production specialist in video broadcasting. She is an instructor of Independent Study for students continuing in audio engineering. And for over ten years she continues to teach a "crash course" in Radio Theater. In the span of three classes, students are asked to write and perform a script, create and perform sound effects, and record the drama! She has just completed a sound installation which is running at an art gallery in Maine.
Bill Bartilson House Sound Bill Bartilson was born with a microphone in one hand and a soldering iron in the other. Fascinated with sounds and music at a young age, he began his producing career by recording family musicians at parties. He soon began playing guitar, and pursued his interests in making and recording music throughout high school. He opened his own recording studio in 1987, and worked as a full-time sound/recording engineer for the next ten years. Like most folks in his field, he was often double and triple employed during this time, as he also worked as a bench tech at Marshall Music in Lansing, MI and did repair work in his own shop. In 1999 he took the opportunity to become a Technology Director for a K-12 school district, where he added curriculum development skills to his already impressive base of knowledge. In 2002 he transferred that knowledge to the secondary education field, becoming the Supervisor of Audio Services at Lansing Community College. Highlights of Bill's work at LCC includes live engineering and multitrack recording of concerts that are also simulcast on LCC's radio station WLNZ (the Grand River Radio Concert Series), creating audio and sound effects for LCC's Theatre productions, and doing voice work for various college marketing and operations projects. Last year Bill achieved a long-time dream of designing and building his first custom guitar amp, and hopes to continue to build the Bartilson brand identity.
Brother Blue SHAKESPEARE TALENT/INSTRUCTOR/HOST ANNOUNCER Brother Blue has received many awards. In 2002 he was the first recipient from LANES (League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling) of an award named for him, The Brother Blue Award, honoring extraordinary commitment and support of storytelling and storytellers. The National Storytelling Network presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for sustained and exemplary contributions to storytelling in America. He has also received the Zora Neale Hurston Award from the National Association of Black Storytellers; a Peace and Justice Award from the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Peace Commission; and the Anne Bradstreet Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cambridge Center for Adult Education for contributions to the poetry community. In 1975 he was awarded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Local Programming Award, and a Special Citation for Outstanding Solo Performance on Public Radio (WGBH-Boston). By resolution of the city councils, Brother Blue also has the distinction of being official storyteller of two Massachusetts cities — Cambridge, and Boston. Brother Blue has told stories for the World’s Fair in New Orleans, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, New York Folk Festival, Spoleto (Charleston, S.C.), Africa in April (Memphis), and Mariposa Festival (Toronto), First Night (Boston, Massachusetts). He was the official storyteller for the United Nations Habitat Forum (Vancouver, B.C.), and the New Age Conference (Florence, Italy). He has appeared at many storytelling festivals including the National Storytelling Festival (Jonesborough, Tennessee), Sharing the Fire (League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling), Toronto Festival of Storytelling, Yukon Storytelling Festival, and In the Tradition… (National Association of Black Storytellers). He has also appeared in the syndicated daily children’s television series Playmates/Schoolmates, and costarred in George Romero’s film Knightriders. Video appearances include American Storytelling Series, It’s In Every One of Us, and In Search of Joy. Since 1992 he has hosted a weekly storytelling series in which he has presented as featured tellers over 200 amateur and professional tellers. Since 1997 he has had a weekly live television show on Cambridge Community Television, and since 2000 a two-hour live weekly radio show. Brother Blue holds an A.B. from Harvard College, M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama, and Ph.D. from the Union Institute. He has taught storytelling and presented workshops in prisons, schools, colleges, universities, libraries, and conferences throughout the United States and in other countries. He has presented his stories before countless audiences for radio, television, churches, libraries, schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, conferences, festivals, and in streets and parks in the United States, Canada, Europe (including Russia and Sweden), South Africa, and the Bahamas. For more information about Brother Blue, visit his website at http://www.brotherblue.com/.
Pat Conway Percussion Patrick Alonzo Conway is a percussionist, wind player and composer. He has studied with such noted Master Drummers as Abubakari Lunna-Wumbie, Frisner AugustÃn , Felipe Garcia Villamil, Alejandro Carvajal and I Ketut GedÃ© Asnawa. Mr. Conway has traveled to Cuba to research Afro-Cuban Folklore, holds a MM in Composition from the UMKC Conservatory and was a founding member of newEar. He has performed with the Gillham Park Orchtet, Grupo Aztlan, and works with Paul Mesner Puppets, the National Audio Theater Festival, Kansas City Young Audiences, Traditional Music Society, Mambo DeLeon Orchestra, Makuza, Peoples Liberation Big Band of Greater KC, BCR and Loose Cannon Brass Band. He currently is director of the Balinese Music & Dance troupe Gamelan Genta Kasturi. Recent projects include work as music director/performer on the UMKC Theater Department?s MFA production of Rita Dove?s The Darker Face of the Earth directed by Ricardo Kahn, Artistic Director of the famed Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He also traveled to Bali in the summer of 2006 and had his composition Sekar Purwa Pascima read by Kaliungu Kaja Banjar Gamelan, in Denpasar.
Butch D'Ambrosio Workshop 101 Instructor Butch has been writing, producing, and making noise for radio theatre since 1991, when he walked into his college radio station as a freshman on the second day of classes and came out commissioned by WRHU-FM to write Halloween sketches for the production classes. Most recently his audio play "The Pied Paper Towel Roll Piper of Prestonpans" placed fourth in the NATF's 2003 script contest. He also wrote and appears in the satirical short film "If Spielberg Made A Snuff Film," which has played at over 20 festivals and even won some awards at a few. Mr. D'Ambrosio is a member of The Usual Gang of Idiots, having written for MAD magazine for 18 years; nine of them successfully. When not having one act plays read at local theaters or playing penny stocks, he can be found wondering why we always write these things in the third person
Andrew Davis Stage Manager \| State Construction Instructor Andrew swears audio theater is not an addiction and he can quit any time. His interest in producing audio theater started after his first visit to NATF. Since then he has spent most of his free time trying to refine his abilities. Partially by realizing he needed to jump back into the university where he worked to receive all the instruction he could. Secondly, by joining a newly formed radio theater group in Tallahassee and becoming their recording, editing and mixing guy. But most importantly by continuing harass the staff at NATF with questions every time he came back. A few years ago someone just assumed he worked for the organization handed him a hammer and said go work on the stage. Since then he has continued to refine his stagecraft at NATF and local theaters. He is looking forward to the hard work ahead this year. Curious Echo is on the cusp of releasing their first CD "Beware the Moonwraith" and is busy recording two new series, one of which is written by Andrew.
Steve Donofrio MUSIC MIX TRUCK/ POETS DIRECTOR Steve Donofrio has been Free-lance- Audio Engineer & Technical Consultant for the past 25 years. For ten years he served as Technical Coordinator for Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop and it's Executive Director for three more years. Steve worked as the technical Director for New Generation Radio Theatre for children in 1989 and 1993. A current board member and treasurer of the National Audio Theatre Festivals. Wrote, Directed, Produced and Co-Engineered the Radio Drama "Wild Bill's Ghost". which had national distribution for broadcast on The Radio Works. He has been on the Air on KOPN 89.5 FM for the last 20 years as the Radio Ranger, hosting a Weekly 3 hour Music and Info-tainment show featuring: Classic Western, Honky Tonk, Folk, New Acoustic, Alternative Country, Rockabilly and Cowboy Poetry. http://radioranger.org Steve worked as Producer and engineer of- "Where The River Rolls" and "Everybody's Got Love The songs of Lee Ruth", two music CD's for KOPN Radio. Created the concept and worked as the Satellite Coordinator for four national live broadcasts over NPR of the Grateful Dead -New Year's Eve: 1983/1984 1984/1985 & 1985/1986 and the Summer Solstice SEVA Benefit concert in Toronto, Canada June 1984 Served on the Missouri Arts Council - Citizen Advisory Media Panel-1995 , 1996 ,1997. Currently working on am audio dramatized griot tale titled "The Bones that Shook the Earth".
Buckshot Dot COWBOY POETRY TALENT & INSTRUCTOR Dot (Dee Strickland Johnson) is a native of Arizona. She grew up on the Navajo and Hualapai reservations, and at the Petrified Forest. In the '70s Dot and her husband John raised Hereford and Angus cattle in the Arkansas Ozarks, but the call of the west was just too strong and they returned to Arizona, the land of Dot's childhood. While living in Arkansas,she appeared regularly with her children at the Ozark Folk Center and wrote heritage articles for a local newspaper. She has taught at small schools in tiny Ozark communities and in the largest inner city high school in Arizona. Buckshot Dot has been featured at Cowboy Poets Gatherings and concerts in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nebraska and Texas. In addition, she has appeared in concert and sessions in Alabama, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and British Columbia. She has been named an Academy of Western Artists' Female Cowboy Poet of the Year and a finalist for video and song of the year. In addition, she has won the Will Rogers Medallion Award for both of her historical poetry books, Arizona Herstory: Tales From Her Storied Past and Arizona Women Weird Wild and Wonderful. Dot is happily married to John (Ol' Buck) Johnson. They have three grown children, five grandchildren, and four 1/2 great-grandchildren.
Dave Downing CONTINUITY Co -DIRECTOR \| Instructor Dave Downing discovered the magic of the airwaves in the hallways of the Lansing, Michigan public schools. He and friends and started a station while a High School junior. At age 14 he got his first job at a commercial station. Today, he is Station Manager of another type of station associated with public airspace, non-commercial WLNZ-FM. For over 30 now years he has taught courses in broadcasting at Lansing Community College. While teaching he worked at putting the student teaching studio on the air as an FM station. That station went on air in 1994. Over the years he has also been involved in productions that re-created live radio programs from Radios Golden Era. Last November he produced/directed a recreation of It's a Wonderful Life, the radio version originally done in 1947. What was unique about this fund-raiser for WLNZ is that the lead characters were played by area media personalities, most notably all of the anchors of all the area TV stations. This event was so successful, that another production is planned again for next year's Silver Bells in the City event in Lansing, which will be a recreation of the radio version of Miracle on 34th Street. As for hobbies, he is works on Civil War re-enactments, describing the activities of the 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Company B. He portrays life during the Civil War by doing re-enactments for schools, colleges, and public festivals and events. If you get a chance to see the movie Gettysburg you'll see him wearing both blue and gray as an extra.
Dwight Frizzell Nusic Director \| Instructor Award-winning independent producer and musical composer, Dwight heads up Kansas City's only jazz/fusion/rock/blues band, (BCR), and produces "From Ark To Microchip", a radio series. Teaching staff at the Kansas City Art Institute. Currently in the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Theatre Sound Department. As always Dwight and his band will be creating original music for this year's plays and performance.
Sue Harris COWBOY POETS MUSICAL TALENT \| INSTRUCTOR Sue Harris, who was raised in Arizona, "has a masterful touch with 'true western music'. She conveys the feeling of what this music is supposed to be about -- wide open spaces, a type of life style and a particular type humor indigenous to the west." (Mark Bridge, PhD, Lone Hand Western). She has toured her state extensively, as well as around the Southwest, and even Canada, performing at festivals, concerts and schools; and has been honored as a nominee for the Arizona Culturekeepers Award. She has released two CD’s - - Where Have I Been All My Life and Tall Tales and Treasures, both of which have enjoyed international airplay. Her recording of Dean Cook’s song “Where Do You Go When There’s No Place to Go” was selected for inclusion on the Smithsonian Folkways label compilation CD Songs and Stories from Grand Canyon, released in May 2005. Most of all, Sue enjoys the heck out of entertaining audiences who love melodies, stories, and laughing. For more information about Sue, visit her MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/sueharrisaz
Henry Howard Session Recording \| AV Support \| Marti Operator \| Web Site Henry has been recording, editing and producing spoken word content for corporate communications, training, pod-casting and education for over 25 years. He also works as a stringer / location recordist for a number of national producers/programs. Henry was a founding director for the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company (ARTC) where he had produced many titles. He has worked under Himan Brown (CBS Mystery Theatre) and Vanessa Whitburn (BBC). He created the audio content for themoonlitroad.com, a collection of southern ghost stories and edited and mixed "The Mad Planet" for the NPR 2000X series. Henry serves on the board of directors of NATF, ARTC, and has advised The Philco Radio Players, Crossroads-The radio program, and taught workshops on sound effects and radio drama production. He maintains the www.audiotheater.com web site.
Sonia James Administrative Assistant Saved from a career in computer programming, Sonia James followed her heart to the world of radio/television production and management. Her past lives have ranged from The Lady Reggae to The Late Night Swing Shift Gal, and from a public affairs coordinator to a program director. Her dramatic flair has been showcased as The Hapless Child (The Mickee Faust Club), a Klingon (don't ask, she'll have to kill you), and a Waffle Ho??? (thanks, Carla Ulbrich). Now Sonia fulfills Dr. James Parker's prophecy and enters the audio theatre realm. She's the Business Manager/Executive Producer for Curious Echo Radio Theater, Inc. However, since every prophecy must also be properly funded, she's also Project Manager/ Senior Content Developer for LearnSomething, Inc. (Chances are good that your pharmacist has been required by law to take one of her courses.)
Jay Jones COWBOY POET TALENT \|Instructor \| ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Lucas Keppel ASST. DIRECTOR \| WORKSHOP 101 INSTRUCTOR Lucus founded Central Audio Theatre, an audio theatre troupe from Central Michigan University, in 2005. In the three years since, he has directed 15 audio plays, including scripts from NATF members. He holds a masters degree in Electronic Media Management, and currently works for CBS radio in Detroit.
Mike Knopka Metromobile - On Site Recording Truck Mike is currently the President of ThunderTone Audio, a company specializing in audio production, acoustical design, and engineering. He provides his audio services on a freelance basis for Metro Mobile where he has engineered may remote recordings and live broadcasts for clients such as WXRT, WFMT, "PBS' "Soundstage", and The National Audio Theatre Festivals. Mike's Metro Mobile credits include; The Rolling Stones, The Pretenders, Ringo Starr, Lyle Lovett, Amee Mann, Niel Finn, Blues Traveller, Wilco, Brian May, Dave Matthews, The Patti Smith Group, Dave Brubek, and many more. http://www.mikekonopka.com.
Janine Marr Producer \| Instructor Naive Janine Marr was introduced to live radio performance more than 25 years ago, when she milked a cow during a remote broadcast at the county fair and then represented the local commercial radio station as the only female in a demolition derby. Creating WKNH Radio Theatre, NH's first weekly one-hour program of original material by and with college students, teachers and local schools, seemed tame after that. Teaching and working in radio and developing the radio theater program at Keene State College led to her own recording studio--and gear--from the mics of the 30s and 40s for recreating the OTR look for a live stage show to musical instruments and a closet full of SFX toys. In 2000 she created Sounds Of The Season, an annual live radio/internet/theater broadcast celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukah, Native American legends and the winter season, with elementary school students through seasoned performers such as Betsy Palmer and Comedy-O-Rama, and music legends Bobby 'Boris' Pickett and The Pixies Three, complete with live music, sound effects and vintage microphones. In 2004, Janine was the founding president of New England Audio Theatre, a non-profit organization which held several performances, broadcasts and workshops during its inaugural year. In 2005, Janine was elected to the NATF board, and currently serves as President and a member of several committees, and has been a judge for the NATF script contest. Her experience of Indian Summer Festival 2006 inspired a new radio program, Red Rocks!, 100% North American Indian music, and now the circle is complete, as she promotes new music on college radio once again.
Cindy McGean WRITING INSTRUCTOR \| CONTINUITY WRITING Cynthia McGean, Willamette Radio Workshop's dramaturge and resident playwright is an award-winning published writer, director, actress, social service veteran and educator. Her original script Pandora's Box received the Grand Prize from the National Audio Theatre Festival's 2005 Script Competition and her adaptation of Frankenstein was awarded a Special Gold Ogle Award for Best Adaptation. Original scripts for WRW include Call of the Mummy, Meditations of a Gargoyle , The Truth About the White Eagle and Can You Hear Me Now? Along with Frankenstein, she has adapted Around the World in Eighty Days and The Hobbit for WRW. Cynthia leads the Writers-On-the-Air Workshop and has just finished her first novel. She has written scripts for traditional stage productions, readers theater, puppetry and audio theater. Henry and Ramona , her adaptation of Beverly Cleary's beloved stories, has been produced at theaters throughout the United States and her original script, Perseus, Hero of Ancient Greece , is part of Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre's rotating repertoire. She has acted in numerous productions for WRW and a variety of local stage theaters. Directing credits include an audio theater production of The Tempest for Speak-the-speech.com and pieces for WRW's Murder of Crows, plus stage theater productions of The Yellow Wallpaper, A Christmas Carol, Winnie-the-Pooh, The Secret Garden, Taming of the Shrew, The Monkey King and Marvin's Room. She is proud to be teaching third grade at Lot Whitcomb Elementary School in Milwaukie, Oregon. www.radiowork.com
Kerby Mitchell ASST RECORDING TRUCK ENGINEER Kerby is an Audio Engineer working in and around Columbia, Missouri. He interned at Pete Szkloka Music Productions in Columbia. He is interested in sound designer for video games as film. This is his fourth year working as an engineering assistant for the Audio Theatre Workshop
Sam Mowry DIR SHAKESPEARE \| INSTRUCTOR Sam A. Mowry Director - Willamette Radio Workshop - Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Sam moved across the country before settling in Portland, OR in 1979. A professional actor and director for the last 24 years, Sam has produced dozens of independent productions on stage. Founder and director of the Heart Theater (notable productions include, The White Devil and The Trial) and The Shakespeare Martyr Complex, (Christmas Carol, Satan's Fall, The Yellow Wallpaper). Some representative stage roles from over 100 options, Henry Higgins My Fair Lady, Lennie in Of Mice and Men, Macbeth, Edward II, James Leeds in Children of a Lesser God, Clark in Short Eyes, Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Andrew Wyke in Sleuth, Daniel Webster in The Devil and Daniel Webster, Dr. Astrov in Uncle Vanya, Shere Kahn in Jungle Book, Dr. Stockman in An Enemy of the People and Richard in The Lion in Winter. A much sought after voice over actor, Sam has represented such companies as: Parker Furniture, The Discovery Channel, OMSI, Adidas, Nike, GI Joe's, The Steinbeck Center and Thomason Auto Group. Sam is very excited to be voicing the titular character in Dry Smoke and Whispers Holodio theater's new series on XM Radio, Shadow Man. Sam is also the Voice for the Horned Avenger a faith based creativity super hero series on DVD. He recently played Caliban in The Tempest for Speak-The-Speech.com, an internet audio project that will eventually provide new versions of all Shakespeare's plays free of charge over the world wide web. Personally, Sam is married to teacher, Director and playwright Cynthia McGean with whom he has collaborated on numerous occasions. His son Atticus Welles Mowry is attending college locally as he pursues a wide variety of interests. Sam is represented by Stacey Stahl and Tara Strong at IN BOTH EARS www.radiowork.com
Don Priest Assistant SFX DIRECTOR INSTRUCTOR Don Priest (Choctaw) is a college professor and media professional with over 20 years experience in television and radio production. He has won numerous awards over the years and in 2006 was named the Outstanding Media Professor in the California State University system. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at CSU, Fresno. He also serves as the general manager of the campus-operated radio station, KFSR, and hosts his own weekly radio show, The Blue Buffet. Don attended his first NATF last year as a member of the Native Voices contingent and was “seriously bitten” by the audio theater bug. He has since produced, directed and acted in his first radio drama, supervised a noir-like detective drama produced by his students, and worked on the technical crew of the Native Voices production of “Super Indian.”
Renee Pringle Location Recording \| Technical director \| Insturctor Full-time audio engineer & producer/director for over 20 years at NPR in Washington, DC. Renee was the production engineer for Wade In The Water, a series on black gospel music. In the past she has served as the Workshop's on-site technical director as well as being the primary mixing engineer. Renee's work can be heard on a daily basis on NPR's many national programs.
Barbara Rosenblat NARRATION TRACK \| SHAKESPEARE TALENT \|INSTRUCTOR VOICE-OVER WORKSHOP \|PARTICIPANT DEMO PRODUCERS Barbara Rosenblat is one of the most revered voice actors in the country. Her distinguished body of work includes over 400 audiobooks, numerous radio and television commercials, documentaries, radio shows and museum audio guides. She is the recipient of 6 Audie Awards ( the Oscar of the audiobook industry) and 40 'Golden Earphone' awards from Audiofile Magazine for superior narrations. One critic remarks, 'Barbara is to audiobooks what Meryl Streep is to film." Starting July 9th, on PBS TV stations nationwide, Barbara can be heard playing the role of 'Sal' in the first of a 10 part animated series 'Car Talk-As The Wrench Turns' based on the popular NPR radio series featuring Click and Clack. On Broadway, Barbara created the role of 'Mrs. Medlock' in the Tony Award winning musical 'The Secret Garden' and returned to B'way last summer in the Tony nominated revival of Eric Bogosian's dark comedy 'Talk Radio' starring Liev Schreiber. In London's West End, Barbara performed with Harvey Fierstein in his Olivier Award winning production of 'Torch Song Trilogy'. While in London, Barbara performed with the BBC and appeared at the Edingburgh Festival for two years. Recently, Barbara completed a run off Broadway as Gertrude Stein in the new musical "27 Rue de Fleurus". Later this summer, she takes on ''Golda Meir" in a performance of 'Golda's Balcony', the critically acclaimed one woman show about the first woman prime minister of Israel. www.barbararosenblat.com
Stu Rushfield Mix Engineer Just days after his graduation from Hofstra University, where he learned the craft of radio at WRHU-FM, a trembling Stu found himself at the controls of the morning drive show at legendary New York powerhouse WABC Radio. Undaunted, he went on to serve as an engineer for the New York Yankees Radio Network and The Rush Limbaugh Show, where he became known to Rush listeners as leftist commie pinko engineer. Stu also engineered live concert remotes for WABC's sister station, Top 40 hitmaker WPLJ-FM, where he met music luminaries such as Milli Vanilli. He relocated to Washington, DC in 1990 to join the Unistar Radio Networks as Production Director for News. After Unistar was gobbled up by Westwood One in 1994, Stu headed across town to NPR, only to be lured away by the CBS Talk Radio Network shortly thereafter. He helped to launch The Mary Matalin Show at CBS, and served as it's Production Director for its two and a half year run. Stu returned to NPR Audio Engineering in 1998, and has engineered virtually all of NPR's news programs and served as Technical Director for many programs. Stu has done NPR field recording and remote coverage, including national political conventions, live music performances and "Talk of the Nation and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" remote broadcasts. Stu currently serves as an audio enginner and Technical Director for NPR's "All Things Considered."
David Shinn Show Caller \| Instructor David is a sound designer/engineer, and foley (SFX) artist for stage and studio productions. He co-produced the nationally syndicated Radio Works series heard on more than 70 stations coast-to-coast and is working on the foley effects for a feature animation. David hosted the award winning radio theatre show The Voice of the Imagination on station KMUD and started a radio theatre troupe doing weekly hour-long live variety shows. He has served as NATF's Program Chair for the 2002 and 2003 Audio Theatre Workshops and as NATF's Technical Coordinator from 2003-2007.
Eric Somers PRE-PRODUCED SFX \| INSTRUCTOR Eric Somers is Professor of Design and Communication at Dutchess Community College of the State University of New York and also owns a business engaged in sound and media production for the fine arts, The Sandbook Studio. Professor Somers has served as Chair of the New York section of the Audio Engineering Society, President of the International Community for Auditory Display, and senior Newsletter Editor for the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S. He has been a sound recordist for network television and radio and a sound composer for theatre, dance and video. He has lectured widely on audio topics in the U.S., Europe and Japan. He serves as a consultant to the Dog Rose Trust, a British organization which produces sound guides to aid the blind when visiting historic public places. At Dutchess Community College he teaches courses covering documentary speech (oral histories), audio theatre and film dialogue recording, Foley art, soundscape recording, electronic music composition, direct stereo music recording and multitrack music recording. He is a regular guest lecturer at the Julliard School in New York where he presents master classes in recording and music technology to music technology and composition students.
Ellen Stewart DIRECTOR NATF SCRIPT WINNER \| INSTRUCTOR Ellen Stewart will direct Where Eagles Fly. A resident of the foothills of California, she is a professor emeritus of theatre and speech at Columbia College in California where she has taught audio drama among other subjects. For more than thirty years, she produced and directed plays for her college and two theatre companies for which she served as artistic director. For the past seven years she has operated an entertainment company, Murder for Hire, multi-tasking as playwright, director and actor. An improviser, she is a member of the Bay Area Theatre Sports Sunday Night Players in San Francisco. She has been a participant with NATF since 2001, directing the script contest winner, Histories in 2007. She is currently a NATF Board member.
A. Nannette Taylor NATF Executive Director Her motto is "Educate, Enlighten, and Entertain". Nannette assumed the role of NATF's Executive Director in January of 2008. Prior to her association with Audio Theatre, Nannette found herself immersed in a combination of Arts Presenting for Arizona State University, directing 19 award winning original plays in conjunction with nationally renowned playwright Terry Earp, and leading Artlink, Inc. a visual arts organization located in Phoenix, AZ Prior to her move to Arizona, she resided in Portland, Or. where she was a founding member and the Executive Director of the award winning Columbia Theatre Company, an organization dedicated to presenting American Stage Classics, new works by Northwest Playwrights, and offering a wide range of educational opportunities for theater aficionados of all ages. During her tenure with The Firehouse Theatre, under the auspices of the Portland (Or.) Bureau of Parks and Recreation, she was responsible for developing pilot programs and workshops in all aspects of the performing, visual, and literary arts. When not tending to NATF business, Nannette is also a volunteer camera person, floor director, and/or producer-director for MetroEast Community Media, a community based TV station located in Gresham, Or.
Ben Taylor SHOW MUSIC MIX \| \|INSTRUCTOR - EDITINGBUILD SFX \| TRUCK/PRODUCTION COORDINATOR \| PRE-RECORDED SFX EDITOR \| PRODUCTION DIRECTOR (PRE-RECORDED SFX) \| CLASS AV SET-UP \| CLASS RECORDING ENGINEER Ben Taylor is Senior Audio Engineer for KBAQ Production Studio at ASU in Tempe, AZ, a part of KAET-TV. He records live classical music performances, voice narration, trains student assistants, and edits shows for later airing on KBAQ-FM. In addition, Ben operates OmniClassic Recording, primarily engaged in CD production and live performance recording for classical and jazz artists, some of which has taken him outside the US. Much of his work has appeared on NPR's "Performance Today" and in the past, on labels like Elektra, Nonesuch, Vanguard, Polydor and Island. Ben brings over 30 years audio experience forward to the present,.... ready to share.
Julia Throw BAND--GUITAR, STRINGS Julia Thro has performed as guitarist in the Kansas City area since 1982. She worked with the rock bands Millard Fillmore, One of Us, the Joey Skidmore Band and most recently, Venus Envy. Beginning in nineties, she joined the worldbeat scene playing West African pop music with Afrique, reggae with the Messengers, and Afro-Nuclear Funk Swing Reggae Tango music with the Black Crack Revue (BCR). An ongoing interest in Arab music led her to taking up Turkish lute with the Gerald Trimble Ensemble and Goat¹s Ear. She also composes and arranges music for many situations, including multi-media shows for LightWild architectural displays, and the National Audio Theatre.
Sue Zizza SFX DIRECTOR \| INSTRUCTOR Sue Zizza, owner of SueMedia, a full service audio production company, is a producer, director, writer, and sound designer. For more than 25 years she has produced award winning audio drama for public radio and audiobooks. Her clients have included: USA Networks/SciFi Channel, USA Productions, Movies for the Ears, and The Museum of TV and Radio – NYC. Sue is also an instructor at the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where she teaches recording and sound design and has recently designed a new course in SFX and Foley Performance for the program. From 1996 - 2007 she served as the Executive Director of the Midwest Radio Theater WOrkshop and the National Audio Theatre Festivals. Her work has been honored by The Gabriel's, The International Festival of New York, The National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and the Communicators. When she's not directing or teaching, Ms. Zizza specializes in manual SFX (Foley) effects for audio productions, film & television and the stage.

Thomas Aber CLARINETS, SAXES, TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS Thomas Aber, D.M.A., is a native of Kansas City, Missouri. He plays clarinets and saxophones of various sizes, but his greatest love among these by far is for the bass clarinet. His study of the bass clarinet led him to the Juilliard School in New York and to the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, where he studied with Harry Sparnaay on a Fulbright-Hays grant. During his stay of several years in The Netherlands he was a prize winner in the Gaudeamus Foundation International Competition for Interpreters of Contemporary Music. Bass clarinetist with the Omaha Symphony since 1990, Dr. Aber is a founding member of newEar. Dr. Aber also performs traditional music on a variety of wind instruments, with and without bags, such as the gajda, doedelzak, torupill, zurna, and tullum.
Dianne Ballon 2008 Demo Producer \| Instructor - The Art of Editing Dianne Ballon is an audio artist and independent radio producer. She spent years as a visual artist (Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Massachusetts College of Art) before the sound of radio caught her ear. Most of her audio art embraces the humor of dealing with everyday events like lawn mowers or scraping the grill. She records her own sound effects and the more sound rich an idea, the better. Her works have aired on National Public Radio's, "All Things Considered" and on the WBUR Boston national show "Here & Now". She served as chair of the Media Arts Advisory Panel at the Maine Arts Commission, and has given many workshops in audio production and Radio Theater to artists, producers and school groups. This includes an audio workshop at Concordia University in Montreal at a conference focusing on women and sound technology, a workshop for students in a new sound art program at Maine College of Art and workshops at several Audubon Societies based on her field recordings of birds and bird watchers. She works part time as a studio assistant at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) recording studio, and as a production specialist in video broadcasting. She is an instructor of Independent Study for students continuing in audio engineering. And for over ten years she continues to teach a "crash course" in Radio Theater. In the span of three classes, students are asked to write and perform a script, create and perform sound effects, and record the drama! She has just completed a sound installation which is running at an art gallery in Maine.
Bill Bartilson House Sound Bill Bartilson was born with a microphone in one hand and a soldering iron in the other. Fascinated with sounds and music at a young age, he began his producing career by recording family musicians at parties. He soon began playing guitar, and pursued his interests in making and recording music throughout high school. He opened his own recording studio in 1987, and worked as a full-time sound/recording engineer for the next ten years. Like most folks in his field, he was often double and triple employed during this time, as he also worked as a bench tech at Marshall Music in Lansing, MI and did repair work in his own shop. In 1999 he took the opportunity to become a Technology Director for a K-12 school district, where he added curriculum development skills to his already impressive base of knowledge. In 2002 he transferred that knowledge to the secondary education field, becoming the Supervisor of Audio Services at Lansing Community College. Highlights of Bill's work at LCC includes live engineering and multitrack recording of concerts that are also simulcast on LCC's radio station WLNZ (the Grand River Radio Concert Series), creating audio and sound effects for LCC's Theatre productions, and doing voice work for various college marketing and operations projects. Last year Bill achieved a long-time dream of designing and building his first custom guitar amp, and hopes to continue to build the Bartilson brand identity.
Brother Blue SHAKESPEARE TALENT/INSTRUCTOR/HOST ANNOUNCER Brother Blue has received many awards. In 2002 he was the first recipient from LANES (League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling) of an award named for him, The Brother Blue Award, honoring extraordinary commitment and support of storytelling and storytellers. The National Storytelling Network presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for sustained and exemplary contributions to storytelling in America. He has also received the Zora Neale Hurston Award from the National Association of Black Storytellers; a Peace and Justice Award from the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Peace Commission; and the Anne Bradstreet Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cambridge Center for Adult Education for contributions to the poetry community. In 1975 he was awarded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Local Programming Award, and a Special Citation for Outstanding Solo Performance on Public Radio (WGBH-Boston). By resolution of the city councils, Brother Blue also has the distinction of being official storyteller of two Massachusetts cities — Cambridge, and Boston. Brother Blue has told stories for the World’s Fair in New Orleans, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, New York Folk Festival, Spoleto (Charleston, S.C.), Africa in April (Memphis), and Mariposa Festival (Toronto), First Night (Boston, Massachusetts). He was the official storyteller for the United Nations Habitat Forum (Vancouver, B.C.), and the New Age Conference (Florence, Italy). He has appeared at many storytelling festivals including the National Storytelling Festival (Jonesborough, Tennessee), Sharing the Fire (League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling), Toronto Festival of Storytelling, Yukon Storytelling Festival, and In the Tradition… (National Association of Black Storytellers). He has also appeared in the syndicated daily children’s television series Playmates/Schoolmates, and costarred in George Romero’s film Knightriders. Video appearances include American Storytelling Series, It’s In Every One of Us, and In Search of Joy. Since 1992 he has hosted a weekly storytelling series in which he has presented as featured tellers over 200 amateur and professional tellers. Since 1997 he has had a weekly live television show on Cambridge Community Television, and since 2000 a two-hour live weekly radio show. Brother Blue holds an A.B. from Harvard College, M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama, and Ph.D. from the Union Institute. He has taught storytelling and presented workshops in prisons, schools, colleges, universities, libraries, and conferences throughout the United States and in other countries. He has presented his stories before countless audiences for radio, television, churches, libraries, schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, conferences, festivals, and in streets and parks in the United States, Canada, Europe (including Russia and Sweden), South Africa, and the Bahamas. For more information about Brother Blue, visit his website at http://www.brotherblue.com/.
Pat Conway Percussion Patrick Alonzo Conway is a percussionist, wind player and composer. He has studied with such noted Master Drummers as Abubakari Lunna-Wumbie, Frisner AugustÃn , Felipe Garcia Villamil, Alejandro Carvajal and I Ketut GedÃ© Asnawa. Mr. Conway has traveled to Cuba to research Afro-Cuban Folklore, holds a MM in Composition from the UMKC Conservatory and was a founding member of newEar. He has performed with the Gillham Park Orchtet, Grupo Aztlan, and works with Paul Mesner Puppets, the National Audio Theater Festival, Kansas City Young Audiences, Traditional Music Society, Mambo DeLeon Orchestra, Makuza, Peoples Liberation Big Band of Greater KC, BCR and Loose Cannon Brass Band. He currently is director of the Balinese Music & Dance troupe Gamelan Genta Kasturi. Recent projects include work as music director/performer on the UMKC Theater Department?s MFA production of Rita Dove?s The Darker Face of the Earth directed by Ricardo Kahn, Artistic Director of the famed Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He also traveled to Bali in the summer of 2006 and had his composition Sekar Purwa Pascima read by Kaliungu Kaja Banjar Gamelan, in Denpasar.
Butch D'Ambrosio Workshop 101 Instructor Butch has been writing, producing, and making noise for radio theatre since 1991, when he walked into his college radio station as a freshman on the second day of classes and came out commissioned by WRHU-FM to write Halloween sketches for the production classes. Most recently his audio play "The Pied Paper Towel Roll Piper of Prestonpans" placed fourth in the NATF's 2003 script contest. He also wrote and appears in the satirical short film "If Spielberg Made A Snuff Film," which has played at over 20 festivals and even won some awards at a few. Mr. D'Ambrosio is a member of The Usual Gang of Idiots, having written for MAD magazine for 18 years; nine of them successfully. When not having one act plays read at local theaters or playing penny stocks, he can be found wondering why we always write these things in the third person
Andrew Davis Stage Manager \| State Construction Instructor Andrew swears audio theater is not an addiction and he can quit any time. His interest in producing audio theater started after his first visit to NATF. Since then he has spent most of his free time trying to refine his abilities. Partially by realizing he needed to jump back into the university where he worked to receive all the instruction he could. Secondly, by joining a newly formed radio theater group in Tallahassee and becoming their recording, editing and mixing guy. But most importantly by continuing harass the staff at NATF with questions every time he came back. A few years ago someone just assumed he worked for the organization handed him a hammer and said go work on the stage. Since then he has continued to refine his stagecraft at NATF and local theaters. He is looking forward to the hard work ahead this year. Curious Echo is on the cusp of releasing their first CD "Beware the Moonwraith" and is busy recording two new series, one of which is written by Andrew.
Steve Donofrio MUSIC MIX TRUCK/ POETS DIRECTOR Steve Donofrio has been Free-lance- Audio Engineer & Technical Consultant for the past 25 years. For ten years he served as Technical Coordinator for Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop and it's Executive Director for three more years. Steve worked as the technical Director for New Generation Radio Theatre for children in 1989 and 1993. A current board member and treasurer of the National Audio Theatre Festivals. Wrote, Directed, Produced and Co-Engineered the Radio Drama "Wild Bill's Ghost". which had national distribution for broadcast on The Radio Works. He has been on the Air on KOPN 89.5 FM for the last 20 years as the Radio Ranger, hosting a Weekly 3 hour Music and Info-tainment show featuring: Classic Western, Honky Tonk, Folk, New Acoustic, Alternative Country, Rockabilly and Cowboy Poetry. http://radioranger.org Steve worked as Producer and engineer of- "Where The River Rolls" and "Everybody's Got Love The songs of Lee Ruth", two music CD's for KOPN Radio. Created the concept and worked as the Satellite Coordinator for four national live broadcasts over NPR of the Grateful Dead -New Year's Eve: 1983/1984 1984/1985 & 1985/1986 and the Summer Solstice SEVA Benefit concert in Toronto, Canada June 1984 Served on the Missouri Arts Council - Citizen Advisory Media Panel-1995 , 1996 ,1997. Currently working on am audio dramatized griot tale titled "The Bones that Shook the Earth".
Buckshot Dot COWBOY POETRY TALENT & INSTRUCTOR Dot (Dee Strickland Johnson) is a native of Arizona. She grew up on the Navajo and Hualapai reservations, and at the Petrified Forest. In the '70s Dot and her husband John raised Hereford and Angus cattle in the Arkansas Ozarks, but the call of the west was just too strong and they returned to Arizona, the land of Dot's childhood. While living in Arkansas,she appeared regularly with her children at the Ozark Folk Center and wrote heritage articles for a local newspaper. She has taught at small schools in tiny Ozark communities and in the largest inner city high school in Arizona. Buckshot Dot has been featured at Cowboy Poets Gatherings and concerts in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nebraska and Texas. In addition, she has appeared in concert and sessions in Alabama, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and British Columbia. She has been named an Academy of Western Artists' Female Cowboy Poet of the Year and a finalist for video and song of the year. In addition, she has won the Will Rogers Medallion Award for both of her historical poetry books, Arizona Herstory: Tales From Her Storied Past and Arizona Women Weird Wild and Wonderful. Dot is happily married to John (Ol' Buck) Johnson. They have three grown children, five grandchildren, and four 1/2 great-grandchildren.
Dave Downing CONTINUITY Co -DIRECTOR \| Instructor Dave Downing discovered the magic of the airwaves in the hallways of the Lansing, Michigan public schools. He and friends and started a station while a High School junior. At age 14 he got his first job at a commercial station. Today, he is Station Manager of another type of station associated with public airspace, non-commercial WLNZ-FM. For over 30 now years he has taught courses in broadcasting at Lansing Community College. While teaching he worked at putting the student teaching studio on the air as an FM station. That station went on air in 1994. Over the years he has also been involved in productions that re-created live radio programs from Radios Golden Era. Last November he produced/directed a recreation of It's a Wonderful Life, the radio version originally done in 1947. What was unique about this fund-raiser for WLNZ is that the lead characters were played by area media personalities, most notably all of the anchors of all the area TV stations. This event was so successful, that another production is planned again for next year's Silver Bells in the City event in Lansing, which will be a recreation of the radio version of Miracle on 34th Street. As for hobbies, he is works on Civil War re-enactments, describing the activities of the 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Company B. He portrays life during the Civil War by doing re-enactments for schools, colleges, and public festivals and events. If you get a chance to see the movie Gettysburg you'll see him wearing both blue and gray as an extra.
Dwight Frizzell Nusic Director \| Instructor Award-winning independent producer and musical composer, Dwight heads up Kansas City's only jazz/fusion/rock/blues band, (BCR), and produces "From Ark To Microchip", a radio series. Teaching staff at the Kansas City Art Institute. Currently in the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Theatre Sound Department. As always Dwight and his band will be creating original music for this year's plays and performance.
Sue Harris COWBOY POETS MUSICAL TALENT \| INSTRUCTOR Sue Harris, who was raised in Arizona, "has a masterful touch with 'true western music'. She conveys the feeling of what this music is supposed to be about -- wide open spaces, a type of life style and a particular type humor indigenous to the west." (Mark Bridge, PhD, Lone Hand Western). She has toured her state extensively, as well as around the Southwest, and even Canada, performing at festivals, concerts and schools; and has been honored as a nominee for the Arizona Culturekeepers Award. She has released two CD’s - - Where Have I Been All My Life and Tall Tales and Treasures, both of which have enjoyed international airplay. Her recording of Dean Cook’s song “Where Do You Go When There’s No Place to Go” was selected for inclusion on the Smithsonian Folkways label compilation CD Songs and Stories from Grand Canyon, released in May 2005. Most of all, Sue enjoys the heck out of entertaining audiences who love melodies, stories, and laughing. For more information about Sue, visit her MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/sueharrisaz
Henry Howard Session Recording \| AV Support \| Marti Operator \| Web Site Henry has been recording, editing and producing spoken word content for corporate communications, training, pod-casting and education for over 25 years. He also works as a stringer / location recordist for a number of national producers/programs. Henry was a founding director for the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company (ARTC) where he had produced many titles. He has worked under Himan Brown (CBS Mystery Theatre) and Vanessa Whitburn (BBC). He created the audio content for themoonlitroad.com, a collection of southern ghost stories and edited and mixed "The Mad Planet" for the NPR 2000X series. Henry serves on the board of directors of NATF, ARTC, and has advised The Philco Radio Players, Crossroads-The radio program, and taught workshops on sound effects and radio drama production. He maintains the www.audiotheater.com web site.
Sonia James Administrative Assistant Saved from a career in computer programming, Sonia James followed her heart to the world of radio/television production and management. Her past lives have ranged from The Lady Reggae to The Late Night Swing Shift Gal, and from a public affairs coordinator to a program director. Her dramatic flair has been showcased as The Hapless Child (The Mickee Faust Club), a Klingon (don't ask, she'll have to kill you), and a Waffle Ho??? (thanks, Carla Ulbrich). Now Sonia fulfills Dr. James Parker's prophecy and enters the audio theatre realm. She's the Business Manager/Executive Producer for Curious Echo Radio Theater, Inc. However, since every prophecy must also be properly funded, she's also Project Manager/ Senior Content Developer for LearnSomething, Inc. (Chances are good that your pharmacist has been required by law to take one of her courses.)
Jay Jones COWBOY POET TALENT \|Instructor \| ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Lucas Keppel ASST. DIRECTOR \| WORKSHOP 101 INSTRUCTOR Lucus founded Central Audio Theatre, an audio theatre troupe from Central Michigan University, in 2005. In the three years since, he has directed 15 audio plays, including scripts from NATF members. He holds a masters degree in Electronic Media Management, and currently works for CBS radio in Detroit.
Mike Knopka Metromobile - On Site Recording Truck Mike is currently the President of ThunderTone Audio, a company specializing in audio production, acoustical design, and engineering. He provides his audio services on a freelance basis for Metro Mobile where he has engineered may remote recordings and live broadcasts for clients such as WXRT, WFMT, "PBS' "Soundstage", and The National Audio Theatre Festivals. Mike's Metro Mobile credits include; The Rolling Stones, The Pretenders, Ringo Starr, Lyle Lovett, Amee Mann, Niel Finn, Blues Traveller, Wilco, Brian May, Dave Matthews, The Patti Smith Group, Dave Brubek, and many more. http://www.mikekonopka.com.
Janine Marr Producer \| Instructor Naive Janine Marr was introduced to live radio performance more than 25 years ago, when she milked a cow during a remote broadcast at the county fair and then represented the local commercial radio station as the only female in a demolition derby. Creating WKNH Radio Theatre, NH's first weekly one-hour program of original material by and with college students, teachers and local schools, seemed tame after that. Teaching and working in radio and developing the radio theater program at Keene State College led to her own recording studio--and gear--from the mics of the 30s and 40s for recreating the OTR look for a live stage show to musical instruments and a closet full of SFX toys. In 2000 she created Sounds Of The Season, an annual live radio/internet/theater broadcast celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukah, Native American legends and the winter season, with elementary school students through seasoned performers such as Betsy Palmer and Comedy-O-Rama, and music legends Bobby 'Boris' Pickett and The Pixies Three, complete with live music, sound effects and vintage microphones. In 2004, Janine was the founding president of New England Audio Theatre, a non-profit organization which held several performances, broadcasts and workshops during its inaugural year. In 2005, Janine was elected to the NATF board, and currently serves as President and a member of several committees, and has been a judge for the NATF script contest. Her experience of Indian Summer Festival 2006 inspired a new radio program, Red Rocks!, 100% North American Indian music, and now the circle is complete, as she promotes new music on college radio once again.
Cindy McGean WRITING INSTRUCTOR \| CONTINUITY WRITING Cynthia McGean, Willamette Radio Workshop's dramaturge and resident playwright is an award-winning published writer, director, actress, social service veteran and educator. Her original script Pandora's Box received the Grand Prize from the National Audio Theatre Festival's 2005 Script Competition and her adaptation of Frankenstein was awarded a Special Gold Ogle Award for Best Adaptation. Original scripts for WRW include Call of the Mummy, Meditations of a Gargoyle , The Truth About the White Eagle and Can You Hear Me Now? Along with Frankenstein, she has adapted Around the World in Eighty Days and The Hobbit for WRW. Cynthia leads the Writers-On-the-Air Workshop and has just finished her first novel. She has written scripts for traditional stage productions, readers theater, puppetry and audio theater. Henry and Ramona , her adaptation of Beverly Cleary's beloved stories, has been produced at theaters throughout the United States and her original script, Perseus, Hero of Ancient Greece , is part of Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre's rotating repertoire. She has acted in numerous productions for WRW and a variety of local stage theaters. Directing credits include an audio theater production of The Tempest for Speak-the-speech.com and pieces for WRW's Murder of Crows, plus stage theater productions of The Yellow Wallpaper, A Christmas Carol, Winnie-the-Pooh, The Secret Garden, Taming of the Shrew, The Monkey King and Marvin's Room. She is proud to be teaching third grade at Lot Whitcomb Elementary School in Milwaukie, Oregon. www.radiowork.com
Kerby Mitchell ASST RECORDING TRUCK ENGINEER Kerby is an Audio Engineer working in and around Columbia, Missouri. He interned at Pete Szkloka Music Productions in Columbia. He is interested in sound designer for video games as film. This is his fourth year working as an engineering assistant for the Audio Theatre Workshop
Sam Mowry DIR SHAKESPEARE \| INSTRUCTOR Sam A. Mowry Director - Willamette Radio Workshop - Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Sam moved across the country before settling in Portland, OR in 1979. A professional actor and director for the last 24 years, Sam has produced dozens of independent productions on stage. Founder and director of the Heart Theater (notable productions include, The White Devil and The Trial) and The Shakespeare Martyr Complex, (Christmas Carol, Satan's Fall, The Yellow Wallpaper). Some representative stage roles from over 100 options, Henry Higgins My Fair Lady, Lennie in Of Mice and Men, Macbeth, Edward II, James Leeds in Children of a Lesser God, Clark in Short Eyes, Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Andrew Wyke in Sleuth, Daniel Webster in The Devil and Daniel Webster, Dr. Astrov in Uncle Vanya, Shere Kahn in Jungle Book, Dr. Stockman in An Enemy of the People and Richard in The Lion in Winter. A much sought after voice over actor, Sam has represented such companies as: Parker Furniture, The Discovery Channel, OMSI, Adidas, Nike, GI Joe's, The Steinbeck Center and Thomason Auto Group. Sam is very excited to be voicing the titular character in Dry Smoke and Whispers Holodio theater's new series on XM Radio, Shadow Man. Sam is also the Voice for the Horned Avenger a faith based creativity super hero series on DVD. He recently played Caliban in The Tempest for Speak-The-Speech.com, an internet audio project that will eventually provide new versions of all Shakespeare's plays free of charge over the world wide web. Personally, Sam is married to teacher, Director and playwright Cynthia McGean with whom he has collaborated on numerous occasions. His son Atticus Welles Mowry is attending college locally as he pursues a wide variety of interests. Sam is represented by Stacey Stahl and Tara Strong at IN BOTH EARS www.radiowork.com
Don Priest Assistant SFX DIRECTOR INSTRUCTOR Don Priest (Choctaw) is a college professor and media professional with over 20 years experience in television and radio production. He has won numerous awards over the years and in 2006 was named the Outstanding Media Professor in the California State University system. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at CSU, Fresno. He also serves as the general manager of the campus-operated radio station, KFSR, and hosts his own weekly radio show, The Blue Buffet. Don attended his first NATF last year as a member of the Native Voices contingent and was “seriously bitten” by the audio theater bug. He has since produced, directed and acted in his first radio drama, supervised a noir-like detective drama produced by his students, and worked on the technical crew of the Native Voices production of “Super Indian.”
Renee Pringle Location Recording \| Technical director \| Insturctor Full-time audio engineer & producer/director for over 20 years at NPR in Washington, DC. Renee was the production engineer for Wade In The Water, a series on black gospel music. In the past she has served as the Workshop's on-site technical director as well as being the primary mixing engineer. Renee's work can be heard on a daily basis on NPR's many national programs.
Barbara Rosenblat NARRATION TRACK \| SHAKESPEARE TALENT \|INSTRUCTOR VOICE-OVER WORKSHOP \|PARTICIPANT DEMO PRODUCERS Barbara Rosenblat is one of the most revered voice actors in the country. Her distinguished body of work includes over 400 audiobooks, numerous radio and television commercials, documentaries, radio shows and museum audio guides. She is the recipient of 6 Audie Awards ( the Oscar of the audiobook industry) and 40 'Golden Earphone' awards from Audiofile Magazine for superior narrations. One critic remarks, 'Barbara is to audiobooks what Meryl Streep is to film." Starting July 9th, on PBS TV stations nationwide, Barbara can be heard playing the role of 'Sal' in the first of a 10 part animated series 'Car Talk-As The Wrench Turns' based on the popular NPR radio series featuring Click and Clack. On Broadway, Barbara created the role of 'Mrs. Medlock' in the Tony Award winning musical 'The Secret Garden' and returned to B'way last summer in the Tony nominated revival of Eric Bogosian's dark comedy 'Talk Radio' starring Liev Schreiber. In London's West End, Barbara performed with Harvey Fierstein in his Olivier Award winning production of 'Torch Song Trilogy'. While in London, Barbara performed with the BBC and appeared at the Edingburgh Festival for two years. Recently, Barbara completed a run off Broadway as Gertrude Stein in the new musical "27 Rue de Fleurus". Later this summer, she takes on ''Golda Meir" in a performance of 'Golda's Balcony', the critically acclaimed one woman show about the first woman prime minister of Israel. www.barbararosenblat.com
Stu Rushfield Mix Engineer Just days after his graduation from Hofstra University, where he learned the craft of radio at WRHU-FM, a trembling Stu found himself at the controls of the morning drive show at legendary New York powerhouse WABC Radio. Undaunted, he went on to serve as an engineer for the New York Yankees Radio Network and The Rush Limbaugh Show, where he became known to Rush listeners as leftist commie pinko engineer. Stu also engineered live concert remotes for WABC's sister station, Top 40 hitmaker WPLJ-FM, where he met music luminaries such as Milli Vanilli. He relocated to Washington, DC in 1990 to join the Unistar Radio Networks as Production Director for News. After Unistar was gobbled up by Westwood One in 1994, Stu headed across town to NPR, only to be lured away by the CBS Talk Radio Network shortly thereafter. He helped to launch The Mary Matalin Show at CBS, and served as it's Production Director for its two and a half year run. Stu returned to NPR Audio Engineering in 1998, and has engineered virtually all of NPR's news programs and served as Technical Director for many programs. Stu has done NPR field recording and remote coverage, including national political conventions, live music performances and "Talk of the Nation and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" remote broadcasts. Stu currently serves as an audio enginner and Technical Director for NPR's "All Things Considered."
David Shinn Show Caller \| Instructor David is a sound designer/engineer, and foley (SFX) artist for stage and studio productions. He co-produced the nationally syndicated Radio Works series heard on more than 70 stations coast-to-coast and is working on the foley effects for a feature animation. David hosted the award winning radio theatre show The Voice of the Imagination on station KMUD and started a radio theatre troupe doing weekly hour-long live variety shows. He has served as NATF's Program Chair for the 2002 and 2003 Audio Theatre Workshops and as NATF's Technical Coordinator from 2003-2007.
Eric Somers PRE-PRODUCED SFX \| INSTRUCTOR Eric Somers is Professor of Design and Communication at Dutchess Community College of the State University of New York and also owns a business engaged in sound and media production for the fine arts, The Sandbook Studio. Professor Somers has served as Chair of the New York section of the Audio Engineering Society, President of the International Community for Auditory Display, and senior Newsletter Editor for the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S. He has been a sound recordist for network television and radio and a sound composer for theatre, dance and video. He has lectured widely on audio topics in the U.S., Europe and Japan. He serves as a consultant to the Dog Rose Trust, a British organization which produces sound guides to aid the blind when visiting historic public places. At Dutchess Community College he teaches courses covering documentary speech (oral histories), audio theatre and film dialogue recording, Foley art, soundscape recording, electronic music composition, direct stereo music recording and multitrack music recording. He is a regular guest lecturer at the Julliard School in New York where he presents master classes in recording and music technology to music technology and composition students.
Ellen Stewart DIRECTOR NATF SCRIPT WINNER \| INSTRUCTOR Ellen Stewart will direct Where Eagles Fly. A resident of the foothills of California, she is a professor emeritus of theatre and speech at Columbia College in California where she has taught audio drama among other subjects. For more than thirty years, she produced and directed plays for her college and two theatre companies for which she served as artistic director. For the past seven years she has operated an entertainment company, Murder for Hire, multi-tasking as playwright, director and actor. An improviser, she is a member of the Bay Area Theatre Sports Sunday Night Players in San Francisco. She has been a participant with NATF since 2001, directing the script contest winner, Histories in 2007. She is currently a NATF Board member.
A. Nannette Taylor NATF Executive Director Her motto is "Educate, Enlighten, and Entertain". Nannette assumed the role of NATF's Executive Director in January of 2008. Prior to her association with Audio Theatre, Nannette found herself immersed in a combination of Arts Presenting for Arizona State University, directing 19 award winning original plays in conjunction with nationally renowned playwright Terry Earp, and leading Artlink, Inc. a visual arts organization located in Phoenix, AZ Prior to her move to Arizona, she resided in Portland, Or. where she was a founding member and the Executive Director of the award winning Columbia Theatre Company, an organization dedicated to presenting American Stage Classics, new works by Northwest Playwrights, and offering a wide range of educational opportunities for theater aficionados of all ages. During her tenure with The Firehouse Theatre, under the auspices of the Portland (Or.) Bureau of Parks and Recreation, she was responsible for developing pilot programs and workshops in all aspects of the performing, visual, and literary arts. When not tending to NATF business, Nannette is also a volunteer camera person, floor director, and/or producer-director for MetroEast Community Media, a community based TV station located in Gresham, Or.
Ben Taylor SHOW MUSIC MIX \| \|INSTRUCTOR - EDITINGBUILD SFX \| TRUCK/PRODUCTION COORDINATOR \| PRE-RECORDED SFX EDITOR \| PRODUCTION DIRECTOR (PRE-RECORDED SFX) \| CLASS AV SET-UP \| CLASS RECORDING ENGINEER Ben Taylor is Senior Audio Engineer for KBAQ Production Studio at ASU in Tempe, AZ, a part of KAET-TV. He records live classical music performances, voice narration, trains student assistants, and edits shows for later airing on KBAQ-FM. In addition, Ben operates OmniClassic Recording, primarily engaged in CD production and live performance recording for classical and jazz artists, some of which has taken him outside the US. Much of his work has appeared on NPR's "Performance Today" and in the past, on labels like Elektra, Nonesuch, Vanguard, Polydor and Island. Ben brings over 30 years audio experience forward to the present,.... ready to share.
Julia Throw BAND--GUITAR, STRINGS Julia Thro has performed as guitarist in the Kansas City area since 1982. She worked with the rock bands Millard Fillmore, One of Us, the Joey Skidmore Band and most recently, Venus Envy. Beginning in nineties, she joined the worldbeat scene playing West African pop music with Afrique, reggae with the Messengers, and Afro-Nuclear Funk Swing Reggae Tango music with the Black Crack Revue (BCR). An ongoing interest in Arab music led her to taking up Turkish lute with the Gerald Trimble Ensemble and Goat¹s Ear. She also composes and arranges music for many situations, including multi-media shows for LightWild architectural displays, and the National Audio Theatre.
Sue Zizza SFX DIRECTOR \| INSTRUCTOR Sue Zizza, owner of SueMedia, a full service audio production company, is a producer, director, writer, and sound designer. For more than 25 years she has produced award winning audio drama for public radio and audiobooks. Her clients have included: USA Networks/SciFi Channel, USA Productions, Movies for the Ears, and The Museum of TV and Radio – NYC. Sue is also an instructor at the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where she teaches recording and sound design and has recently designed a new course in SFX and Foley Performance for the program. From 1996 - 2007 she served as the Executive Director of the Midwest Radio Theater WOrkshop and the National Audio Theatre Festivals. Her work has been honored by The Gabriel's, The International Festival of New York, The National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and the Communicators. When she's not directing or teaching, Ms. Zizza specializes in manual SFX (Foley) effects for audio productions, film & television and the stage.