National Audio Theatre Workshop

For over 10 years, I worked as a member of the teaching and production staff at the National Audio Theatre’s annual Audio Theatre Workshop.  Participants from all over the country gathered to learn, create, perform and produce radio theatre in one week’s time with the expertise of audio theatre directors, audio book readers, sound effects artists, and recording engineers. 

Each summer, I taught digital editing workshops and produced live radio theatre that was simultaneously broadcast.  I produced an audio postcard of the workshop week: recording the sounds and stories from the artists, directors, participants, engineers and sound effects crew as we worked toward creating the final performance.

Many of the sound effects written into the script for each radio play were either performed live on stage or recorded during the week and mixed into the show. We were asked to record a variety of sounds.  Once someone ran down the hall and said, “Quick, there’s a Med-Evac helicopter about to do fly-bys!”  And out we went in full recording gear.  Who could ever afford to have a helicopter land and maneuver on cue? 

Here are some of the sounds from my audio postcards throughout the years, starting with “falling in the water sounds” for the play Darwin.