Willamette Radio Workshop

It’s with great pleasure I announce that the Willamette Radio Workshop is ON THE AIR!

We are fortunate enough to have two broadcasts of our Radio Christmas Carol, recorded live on December 14th 2011 at the First Christian Church in beautiful downtown Portland as a benefit for the Oregon Food Bank and now to be broadcast on KBOO 90.7 at 7pm Christmas Eve and KZME 107.1 at 6pm Christmas Day. Both stations have a live stream as well, visit their websites for info on that. Christmas eve will be a broadcast filling the 7:00pm – 10:00pm slot usually filled by An Evening of Afrotainment. Hosted by our frequent collaborator Randall Howington (Rascho) and featuring the full length Radio Carol, our classic Hiro & Lilling and new presentations of The Selfish Giant and The War Prayer as well as a cornucopia of seasonal music from Vince Guaraldi  to… well everywhere and all stops in between. A delightful way to while away the hours while your video log crackles on the TV. Saturday will have an abridged, but still wonderful hour long version of our Radio Carol  (58:30 to be exact and sometimes you have to be). The unabridged version is 60:08, for those keeping score at home. We will be posting the whole shebang on our website for those who were expecting it to be there. If you have the means, please use this as a reminder to reach out to your local food banks and help everyone have a happy holiday.

We are never happier than when our work has the opportunity to fly through the air via the magic that is radio. We hope your holidays have much wonder and magic and good health to everyone. See you next year!

WHAT: A Live Radio Christmas Carol in the Tradition of Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymoreʼs Campbell playhouse.

This years cast includes Greg Alexander, Cynthia McGean, Renee Boutin King, Alan King, Tim McKennie, James Dineen, Mary Thomas and Sam A. Mowry. Live music and carols provided by The Holly Jolly Radio Choir under the direction of Bennett Bailey and features over twenty singers! Plus live Foley by David Ian and Dino de AElfweald.

More information at www.radiochristmascarol.org

If you can’t join us, remember to make a donation to your local Food Bank. Check the website for broadcasting and Christmas streaming options.

WHERE: New Location! First Christian Church, 1314 SW Park Avenue Portland, Oregon 97201 The church number is (503) 228-9211.

WHEN: Wednesday December 14th, starting at 6:45 pm with light carols and sing a longs, Dickens at 7:15. The show is an hour in length and suitable for all ages.

WHY: The program is to benefit the Oregon Food Bank. We ask for the donation of non-perishable food items or cash donations to the OFB, envelopes will be provided.

HOW MUCH:! We ask for a donation of 2 non-perishable food items per person. Donation envelopes will be provided for cash or check donations.

First Christian Church is delighted to host this holiday drama. We are a community that values the arts and desires to reach out to our neighbors in Portland. Should you decide to come to worship some Sunday morning (at 9:00am or 11:00am) you’ll find a place where you won’t be judged, you won’t be told what to think or who to hate. Instead you’ll find people committed to a spirituality of conversation with each other and the Divine.

“The Oregon Food Bank distributes food to agencies that feed people who are hungry throughout Oregon and Clark County, Wash. We also work to address the root causes of hunger through public policy advocacy and education programs. Our mission: To eliminate hunger and its root causes … because no one should be hungry. “

We are very pleased to have our reading of Edgar Allan Poe’sthe Raven, scored by Eric Hull of VOX

posted on Barry Johnson’s Oregon Arts Watch blog. Barry has been a long time contributor to the Oregonian and now continues to cover the best of Oregon’s arts with a quick mind and ready intellect on the lone frontier of the interweb. If you haven’t checked out his blog yet, I hope our being there prompts you to give it a go. Poke around, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

The recording is by D. Neil Blake, recorded live at McMenamin’s Kennedy School on Halloween night 2011. Then cast includes Alyson Ayn Osborn, Sarah Rea, James Dineen, Bruce Miles and Sam A. Mowry. Music was by Galen Huckins and the Filmusik All Stars and live Foley by David Ian and Dino de AElfweald. A special treat before giving up Halloween and starting in on Christmas.

A poem from our friend Willaim S. Gregory to commemorate the end of another wonderful Halloween for WRW.

The Skeletons Dance Away

The skeletons dance away over the hill
The black cat’s asleep and the pumpkins are still
The ghosties and ghoulies and shuddering frights
have gone to the land of past October Nights

The phantoms who flit in the mist have decamped
The zombies have gone and the crows are all damp
The devils and angels that ran down the lane
have taken their candy in out of the rain

The fears and desires of the year which roamed free
for one blessed night are now back under key
We were who we are, now we’re not who we were
our secrets are back inside, barely astir

The masks and the costumes now flutter forgot
We are who we are, and we’re not who we’re not
November with dawn with a wintery sheen
and life will be certain– ‘till next Halloween.

Used by permission of William S. Gregory

Want to enjoy the whole of Transcontinental Terror? You can listen to all of it right here, with the streaming audio player embedded below!

Featuring the Works of Edgar Allan Poe

WRW celebrates our 10th Anniversary with “An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe!” The master works of the master of the macabre. Selections include “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “Hop-Frog,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee.” Classic radio adaptations, a new adaptation by William S. Gregory and the Vox Poetry stylings of Eric Hull. Live music performed by Galen Huckins and the Filmusik All Stars. Event Stylist Kate Dineen. Performed live by The Willamette Radio Workshop! Winners of 9 National Audio Drama Awards.
Performed at the McMenamins Kennedy School!  Live Radio shows at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Free Trick or Treating from 4:30 ’til 6:30 p.m.; All ages welcome; kids with adults only please.

Bring your kids-in-costume for trick or treating so you enjoy a handcrafted ale, wine or spirit as you wander the halls together! Afterwards (before they get too far into their bags of loot), have dinner at the Courtyard Restaurant, which has a kids’ menu — nothing like a grilled cheese sandwich or a corn dog followed up with candycandycandyyeeahhhh!!!!!

After trick-or-treating, check out two free performances of “An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe” performed by Willamette Radio Workshop. The shows will begin at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. CDs of past performances and the work of other local Audio Dramatists will be available for purchase at the show.

CAST AND CREW FOR THE HALLOWEEN SHOW

Alyson Osborn,James Dineen, Sarah Rea, Bruce Miles and Sam A. Mowry. Sam A. Mowry is the producer and director. Joe Medina is indispensable. Cynthia J. McGean is our Dramaturge. Rob Kowal is Associate Producer of the Workshop. David Ian & Dino de AElfweald- Foley Artists and Designers. Galen Huckins- Musical Director/Composer.

Special thanks to Jamie Lawson and Joe Medina/ Afterhell, Dry Smoke and Whispers, Martin J. Gallagher, Atticus Welles Mowry, Jerrel McQuen, Claudine Hemminway, Tapestry Theater and Judy Straasland, Filmusik, PDX Classical Revolution and all our families and friends who make this possible.

We are also proud to be a part of the Transcontinental Terror: An Express Train to Audio Horror. Our submission this year will be the Mercury Theater on the Air’s first program, DRACULA by Bram Stoker, adapted by Orson Welles and John Houseman.

This is the single largest event in the world of audio theater, and the only time each year a group of independent producers unite to create a whopping five hours of original programming. And you can hear it all hear on Halloween night—Monday, October 31st, 2011. In addition to WRW, contributing production companies include:

• The Wireless Theatre Company (London, England)
• Electric Vicuna Productions (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
• FinalRune Productions (Portland, Maine)
• Chatterbox Audio Theater (Memphis, Tennessee)
• Icebox Radio Theater (International Falls, Minnesota)

Doctor Who: Proteus Rising by Joseph Medina

Deep in outer space, far in the future, an alien artifact lures a mad scientist and a band of extremists to an asteroid.  And their battle for the artifact unleashes a monstrous evil.  Now the only hope for the human race — for the galaxy — is a mysterious alien wanderer.  He has had many faces, many names.  But he’s known best as… the Doctor.   And he could really use a cup of tea.

12th ANNUAL UFO FESTIVAL

2pm Saturday, May 14, 2011

McMENAMINS HOTEL OREGON — McMinnville, OR

Matties Room (on the 2nd floor)

WRW is happy to once again join the UFO Festival for the 8th year. This year’s show brings Joseph Medina’s (whose rendition of The Thing at a previous UFO Fest was chilling) amazing continuation of the Doctor Who saga. With an original score by James Dineen, live Foley by David Ian and Dino de AElfweald (with assistance from Toni Lima and Amy Branson) as well as live sound from D. Neil Blake, Robert Kowal and the otherworldly audio assistance of Marc Rose.

Our special thanks go out to Claudine Knapp and Martin John Gallagher, our Resident Sound Designer and all round swell guy.

The show features the talents of: Mary Thomas, Alyson Ayn Osborn, Atticus Welles Mowry, Cobal Weaverli, Bruce Miles, Sam A. Mowry, Robert Kowal, D. Neil Blake, Marc Rose, David Ian, Dino de AElfweald, Toni Lima, Amy Branson and James Dineen as the Doctor.

2011 marks our 10th anniversary, starting with a late night War of the Worlds for Halloween. Thanks for listening!  We are and have been having a blast.

One of the greatest heroes in all of science fiction is coming to the McMenamins UFO Festival next month!  Author of “The Thing,” a smash hit at the 2008 UFO Festival,  Afterhell‘s own Joe Medina returns to WRW with a script featuring a new incarnation of the mysterious traveling Time Lord known only as “the Doctor.”

The “Doctor Who” series has been a staple of British television since it began in 1963.  The newest season is beginning a run on BBC America this weekend.

More details to come soon, but in the meantime, need to get up to speed on the Doctor and his adventures?  Try some of these links:

• Gallifrey One Convention 2012 — the premier Doctor Who fan convention in the USA
• The Two-Minute Time Lord podcast
• Doctor Who: Podshock
• Matt Smith (the newest Doctor) & Orbital Live, 2010
• Craig Ferguson’s DW cold open
• BBC Radiophon-A-Tron: Mix Your Own Doctor Who theme!
• Newsarama:  Doctor Who’s TARDIS of Fashion