WRW’s Radio Carol on OPB Tonight!

Radio-Carol-Poster-13Willamette Radio Workshop’s Radio Christmas Carol will be broadcast on Oregon Public Broadcastings radio stations across all Oregon and Southwest Washington this Thursday evening the 24th (of all the good old days of the year, Christmas eve!) at 9pm on 91.5 fm. And streaming from: http://www.opb.org/radio/listennow/player.php/

For many years, members of the Willamette Radio Workshop have given special performances of “A Christmas Carol” for audiences around the Portland metro area who might not otherwise have had any holiday entertainment.  We took this tradition to the next level with a live performance, open to the public, to benefit our local Food Bank. We are very excited to now be able to share it with the whole state. We also ask that if you have the resources, that you continue to support the food banks in your area, all year round.

This “live radio” performance of “A Christmas Carol,” was adapted by Cynthia J. McGean from the Charles Dickens story and the Campbell Playhouse version. The show was recorded at First Christian Church in Portland, Oregon in front of a live audience.  While admission was free, we asked for the donation of two cans of non-perishable food per person or an appropriate cash donation to the Food Bank.  Envelopes were  available for cash donations.Radio-Carol-OFB-2012-websho

The cast for this performance included Tim McKennie, James Dineen, Greg Alexander, Alan King, Cynthia McGean, Renee Boutin King, Mary Thomas and Sam A. Mowry. Live music and carols  provided by The Holly Jolly Radio Choir, directed by Bennett Bailey and featuring over twenty singers!

Recorded and Mastered by D. Neil Blake.

Merry Christmas to you all and the happiest of New Years!DSC_1024

The Civic Theater Guild’s Holiday Radio Hour with WRW!

fibber-mcgee-and-molly Holiday Radio Hour with the Willamette Radio Workshop is the December 1 reading for the Portland Civic Theatre Guild’s 2015-2016 Reader’s Theatre season.

Holiday Radio Hour with the Willamette Radio Workshop, directed by Sam A. Mowry, will be the December reading for the Portland Civic Theatre Guild’s Readers Theatre season, Tuesday December 1, at The Old Church. The event begins at 10:00 am with complimentary refreshments followed by the play at 10:30. The Old Church is located at 1422 SW 11th. Tickets are $8.00 and available at the door.

Warm up the Philco and gather round as Willamette Radio Workshop ushers in the spirit of the holidays with a selection of stories presented in the style of an old time radio show. Hear your favorites, including The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service, The Plot to Overthrow Christmas by Norman Corwin, and Fibber Paints a Christmas Tree by Don Quinn and Phil Leslie.Norman-Corwin-appears-in-the-NBC-radio-studio-with-Peggy-Burt.-

Director Sam A. Mowry has assembled an outstanding cast for the reading. The actors are Alyson Ayn Osborn, Michele Mariana Todd Tolces, Phil Rudolph, David Meyers, and Atticus Welles Mowry, as well as Sam A. Mowry as Santa! Get ready for laughter, thrills and sound effects!

More information about Holiday Radio Hour and the Portland Civic Theatre Guild is available atWRW-Poe-2011-

This Halloween 10/31! The Mummy’s Bride by Erik James Live Radio Chills!

The Willamette Radio Workshop, Winners of 9 National Audio Drama Awards, presents:

The Mummy’s Bride by Erik James.

Kennedy School – Gymnasium | Saturday, October 31, 2015
1 p.m til 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. til 4 p.m. | Free | All ages welcome .

Please note the new times.Mummys-Bride-Poster-2015

The Mummy’s Bride is a classic horror tale in the spirit of Universal, Hammer and International Pictures Mummy movies. A trio of archaeologists discover fabulous wealth along with a forgotten sarcophagus in the valley of the Nile. There is, of course, a curse, ancient spirits taking over peoples bodies and Kharis- The Mummy who will do anything to protect his beloved Princess Anika-Tera. Listen as the past battles the present. Science battles superstition. And Foley artists choke each other senseless. The Mummy Lives and so does Live Radio!
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This is a loving homage to one of the great horror figures of all time. Joining our radio classics, Dracula and Frankenstein. Based on “The Jewel of the Seven Stars” by Bram Stoker.

Our team includes: James Dineen, Scott Jamieson, Bruce Miles, Patricia Blem, Robin Woolman, David Ian, Dino de AElfweald, Marc Rose, Phillip Bursch and Sam A. Mowry

Magic Lantern projections by Joe Medina will accompany the program.

Special Appearance by Ringo Zeitgeist with Ukulele songs to call up the spirits and swing in the season.

The perfect way to start off your Halloween festivities. The program is an hour long and suitable for all ages, though it can get intense.

Bring your kids-in-costume for trick or treating while you enjoy a handcrafted ale, wine or spirit
CDs of past performances and the work of other local Audio Dramatists will be available for purchase at the show.

Fall of the City and R.U.R.- Re-Imagined Radio!

Fall-of-the-City-RUR-Webshot Re-Imagined Radio Presents:

The Fall of the City and R.U.R.
Two classic radio dramas combined into one production!
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Kiggins Theatre — Vancouver, Washington
Doors open at 6:00 PM, show starts at 7:00 PM
Wine, beer, and concessions available

ADMISSION is FREE. Thanks to support from WSUV, CMDC and Re-Imagined Radio

The program will last one hour.

The Fall of the City, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982), was the first American verse play for radio. Arguably, no program did more to reveal the artistic potential of radio broadcasting in terms of both stylistic innovation and social power. First performed by The Columbia Workshop, 11 April 1937,  The plot centers on a radio announcer reporting from the plaza of a nameless city, where a crowd awaits the appearance of a woman dead three days. She brings a prophecy of a brutal conqueror who will make this city of masterless men, take a master. The people of the city struggle to decide between security and freedom with fear driving the argument. MacLeish noted the surrender of Austria to Nazi Germany as the inspiration for his play.  The play, he said, was not about the conqueror, but rather about the way people chose their freedom. In this regard, The Fall of the City raises interesting questions about sustaining the burden of freedom that we seem to be facing today as well. This is our director Sam A. Mowry’s favorite radio play and we are very excited about bring it to a live audience. Marc Rose’s brilliant sound design both keeps the timeless quality of the original and adds an echo of the future to the program.

Our amazing cast includes Sam A. Mowry, Curtis Hanson, Linda Goertz, William S. Gregory, Holly Spenser, Tim McKennie, David Loftus, David Ian, Scott Jamieson and Dino de AElfweald. Original sound design by Marc Rose and Projections by Joe Medina
Our second show of the evening is  R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), written as a stage play by Czechoslovakian writer Karel Capek (1890-1938), premiered in 1921 at the National Theater, in Prague and was transformed into a radio drama by The Columbia Workshop in 1937. Grown in vats, Rossum’s Universal Robots are designed to work as slaves for humans and, so, have no feelings. The plant manager’s wife, pities the robots and persuades the head R.U.R. scientist,  to give them feelings. As you can imagine, with feelings comes resentment of their subservience to humans and revolt ensues. Issues of what makes a human and the rights of living creatures drives this pl,ay, which is also far ahead of it’s time.
This is the first appearance of the term “robot” and to this day leads audiences to discussions regarding the relationship between humans and robots, androids, cyborgs, and lately, artificial intelligence and how we will handle the sciences that sometimes seem far beyond our understanding and control.

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Re-Imagined Radio is  Start with a 1936 theatre. Re-enact historic radio dramas complete with voice actors and Foley sound artists. Garnish with digital SFX, music, and visual backdrops. Overlay student digital interpretations of the base narrative. Invite a live audience to watch, eat popcorn, and participate via social media. The result: Re-Imagined Radio—storytelling as never before heard, or seen. You can find out more about Radio Re-Imagined and radio history by following the link.

McMenamin’s 16th Annual UFO Festival in McMinnville 5/16/15 @ 3pm, Hotel Oregon in Maddie’s Room.

UFO-2015-WebshotIt’s that time of year again. WRW heads to the wine country to present some of the finest moments in Sci-Fi Radio history at the historic Hotel Oregon. This year we offer up two beauties, X-1’s The Martian Death March by Ernest Kinoy and Planet Man, a mysterious serial from the 50’s, loaded with campy good fun. We’ll be in Maddie’s Room at 3pm. The show runs about an hour and is suitable for all ages, though there is drama, so you are the best judge of your small ones.

The Martian Death March is a great show, an allegory of the Trail of tears, populated with Martians instead of Native Americans. A John Brown-esque character leads a band of Martians to their homeland and encounter a homesteading family determined to keep their land and their hate. The story is dramatic and heart breaking, one of Kinoy’s best.

Planet Man lightens the mood with the story of Dantro, the Planet Man. Here’s some starter information for you. I think we’ll get requests for more episodes.

UFO Guy

Produced in about 1950 by Palladium Radio Productions, “The Planet Man” is the golly-gee-whillikers saga of Dantro, an intergalactic troubleshooter for an organization known as the League of Planets – “the law enforcement body for peace and justice in the celestial world.” (Think of him as an outer-space version of Marshal Matt Dillon – “It’s a chancy job, and it makes a [planet] man watchful…”) With their center of operations situated on Planeria Rex, “the capital of the planets,” the League sends their water-carrier Dantro out into the celestial world to maintain law and order “whenever danger threatens the universe.”

Dantro is assisted in his quest for law-and-order by the members of Earth’s first rocket expedition: Dr. John Darrow, his daughter Pat, and engineer Slats, who are rescued by the Planet Man before their rocket comes perilously close to crashing into the moon. (The explanation for this is that Darrow and crew took on a pair of stowaways before blast-off, namely his nephew Billy and niece Jane – which makes a listener wonder why the heck they weren’t in school.) These five individuals join forces with the Planet Man to defeat evildoers like Marston, the ruler of Mars who possesses an insatiable appetite for interplanetary domination.

This is borrowed from the fine folks at Radio Archives. See the whole listing and history of the show here: http://www.radioarchives.com/The_Planet_Man_Volume_1_p/ra023.htm

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Our cast and crew are top notch as always. Todd Tolces, Scott Jamieson, David Ian, Dino de AElfweald, Eli Campbell and Toni Lima. We welcome back Marty Gallagher on Live Organ, Marc Rose adds Expert Sound Design and live sound by Atticus Welles Mowry. Sam A. Mowry directs and acts as is his want.

Plus a special musical event, the world premier of Alien Girlfriend. Not to be missed.

Jamie Lawson and Joe Medina of Ollin Productions man the Swag table and vend some of the best audio drama in the Northwest and a fine selection of hand crafted jewelry and other wonders for your perusal. Remember, every thing you buy helps to support our endeavors to bring you the best live radio we can.

Special thanks to McMenamin’s, the Medici’s of live radio drama, Ollin Productions, Dry Smoke and Whispers, Fuse Audio Design, WSUV and the Creative Media and Digital Culture program, Dene Grigar & John Barber and our dramaturge, Cynthia J. McGean.

Stay tuned for announcements concerning our upcoming summer show, it’s quite the blockbuster.

Come early, enjoy the day and remember, “Live Radio Lives!”.

The Case Files of Dr. Moreau comes to Vancouver! 4/22/15.

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Poster by Kate Palermini.

The Workshop presents a live radio adaptation of “The Case Files of Dr. Moreau” by William S. Gregory will be performed at 7 p.m. April 22 at the Kiggins Theatre. The event is free and open to the public. The performance is a collaboration between the Willamette Radio Workshop, Washington State University Vancouver’s Creative Media and Digital Culture program and the Kiggins Theatre,.

“The Case Files of Dr. Moreau” is Mr. Gregory’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’s “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” The novel focuses on a scientist’s attempts to convert animals into humans using vivisection, and its themes include pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity and human interference with nature. Mr. Gregory’s radio adaptation examines these themes from the perspective of the “manimals”—the creatures of Moreau’s experiments as they suffer under the experiments of Moreau.

The show will be performed by the Willamette Radio Workshop, directed by Sam A. Mowry. John Barber, faculty member in WSU Vancouver’s Creative Media and Digital Culture program, teaches a course on Digital Storytelling and produces the performance as part of his Re-imagined Radio project.

Each of Barber’s Re-Imagined Radio productions begins with a live recreation of a historic radio drama complete with voice actors and Foley sound artists. Various digital and multimedia components are added to increase opportunities for audience engagement and to introduce student digital storytelling work from Barber’s classes. The result, says Barber, is a new way to think of sound as the primary element of good storytelling. Cindy McGean, WRW’s dramaturge taught a Writing for Audio class and Barber and McGean’s students have collaborated on multimedia explorations of the story as part of “Dr. Moreau’s Wunderkammer” an exhibition in the lobby of the Kiggins.

Doors for this performance open at 6 p.m. Concessions, beer and wine will be available for purchase. The Kiggins Theatre is located at 1011 Main Street, Vancouver, Wash.

The cast and Crew of the show are:

Actors, Amy Gray, Tim Mckinnie, Phil Rudolph, Scott Jamieson, Cindy McGean. Foley Artists David Ian and Dino de AElfweald. Sound Design/Ableton cues by Marc Rose. Drums curtesy of Martin John Gallagher. Projections by Joe Medina. Merchandising curtesy of Jamie Lawson. Live sound and recording by D. Neil Blake.

Our crew from WSUV focusing on Foley and Wallah,  Jaymes Coyden (Oryx), Eli Campbell Wallah Captain and John Barber.

Sam A. Mowry produced, directed and plays Moreau/Wolf.

Special thanks to William S. Gregory, Dene Grigar, Kate Palermini, Alyssa Korinke and all the students in the WSUV/CMDC program for their inventive work and continuing enthusiasm. Ollin Productions and Dry Smoke and Whispers.

The Hobbits Greatest Hits Saturday 1/10/15 @ 3pm NEW TIME.

HobbitCome join the Willamette Radio Workshop as we make another journey to Middle-earth with “The Hobbit’s Greatest Hits” our one-of-a-kind adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien classic suitable for all ages. We start at the begining and end at the end, but in between, the audience chooses what order we tell the story (by picking numbers from the proverbial hat). The show is broken into two parts at 3pm and 5pm. The performance is set for Saturday, January 11th, at the McMenamins Kennedy School (5736 N.E. 33rd Ave.Portland, OR 97211), part of the annual J.R.R. Tolkien Birthday Celebration.

The costume contest is always a highlight and this year will be no different. Bring your finest Middle Earth inspired creations and join in the fun. Come on your own or bring a crew of your favorite characters for back up. The contest will start at 4:30, sign up with Jamie and Joe at the swag table, prizes will be awarded, laughter and merriment usually ensues.

Hobbit-WebshotThe performance is absolutely free, but remember: when you come to Middle-earth, you too may be called into service! We need your voices for the battle of the Five Armys and elsewhere , don’t worry, it won’t be 2 and a half hours long.

Our cast and crew include , Troyce Crucchiola, David Ian, Dino de AElfweald, Cynthia J. McGean, Alyson Ayn Osborne, Phil Rudolph, Bill Barry, Phillip Bursch, Jamie Lawson, Joe Medina, Kobel Weaverli and Sam A. Mowry. Special thanks to Marty Gallagher and Marc Rose for their sonic enhancements.

 

Come grab a beer and some pizza and enjoy the unique experience of live radio and the timeless tale of The Hobbit.

“May the hair on your toes never fall out!”

Radio Christmas Carol on OPB 91.5 fm 12/24/15 9pm pt.

dialHello folks, we are very happy to announce that our recording of Willamette Radio Workshop’s Radio Christmas Carol will be broadcast on Oregon Public Broadcastings radio stations across all Oregon and Southwest Washington this Thursday evening the 24th (of all the good old days of the year, Christmas eve!) at 9pm on 91.5 fm. And streaming from: http://www.opb.org/radio/listennow/player.php/

For many years, members of the Willamette Radio Workshop have given special performances of “A Christmas Carol” for audiences around the Portland metro area who might not otherwise have had any holiday entertainment.  We took this tradition to the next level with a live performance, open to the public, to benefit the Food Bank. We are very excited to now be able to share it with the whole state. We also ask that if you have the resources, that you continue to support the food banks in your area, all year round.

This “live radio” performance of “A Christmas Carol,” was adapted by Cynthia J. McGean from the Charles Dickens story and the Campbell Playhouse version. The show was recorded at First Christian Church in Portland, Oregon in front of a live audience.  While admission was free, we asked for the donation of two cans of non-perishable food per person or an appropriate cfamily-around-radioash donation to the Food Bank.  Envelopes were  available for cash donations.

The cast for this performance included Tim McKennie, James Dineen, Greg Alexander, Alan King, Cynthia McGean, Renee Boutin King, Mary Thomas and Sam A. Mowry. Live music and carols  provided by The Holly Jolly Radio Choir, directed by Bennett Bailey and featuring over twenty singers!

Recorded and Mastered by D. Neil Blake.

Merry Christmas to you all and the happiest of New Years!

Radio Christmas Carol @ the Kiggins 12/18/14 7pm

DSC_0021Washington State University will be presenting the Willamette Radio Workshop’s performance, A Radio Christmas Carol as part of the Re-imagined Radio series at the Kiggins Theater (1011 Main St, Vancouver, WA 98660). Doors open at 6pm.

This is a FREE event with a donation of a non-perishable food item for donation to the Clark County Food Bank.

The Willamette Radio Workshop presents a “live radio style” performance of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, adapted by Cynthia McGean from the source and the Campbell Playhouse versions.  The classic Christmas story of Scrooge and Tiny Tim finds it?s natural home in the radio medium, the theater of the mind. A ghost story told to remind mankind of the perils of greed and isolation at a time of the year when our community needs more help than ever. This years cast includes Curtis Hanson, Cynthia McGean, Renee Boutin King, Chris Porter, James Dineen, Alyson Ayn Osborn and Sam A. Mowry. Live music and carols provided by The Holly Jolly Radio Singers under the direction of Bennett Bailey.  Plus in the tradition of the Golden Age of Radio, live Foley by David Ian and Dino de AElfweald.  The show is an hour in length and suitable for all ages.DSC_1270

The award winning Willamette Radio Workshop wants to help preserve the history of Radio Theatre and to this end our work includes re-creations or re-imaginings of Classic Radio programs like The Campbell Playhouses? Christmas Carol with Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymore. We also just love to put on a great show.

Please also join us after the performance for the opening of “Move. Touch. Feel.” at Nouspace Gallery & Media Lounge (right next door at the Niche Wine Bar) We’ll be hosting a reception for the opening, with an opportunity for a Q&A with the actors and Foley artists.  Plus a few carols by the Holly Jolly Singers.

 

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