Cosponsored by Entertainment Design, Onstage, and Sound & Video Contractor magazines.
The nation's newest audio theatre workshop hosted by the National Audio Theatre Festivals (NATF) introduces students and professionals to the skills needed to participate in the growing audio theatre entertainment industry. NATF's Audio Theatre Workshop is a week long, hands-on training ground that prepares students to write, produce, and direct audio theatre for broadcast on radio or the Internet. The NATF workshop will be held from June 18-24, 2001, on the picturesque campus of the William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri. Anyone can register to attend NATF's Audio Theatre Workshop. For further information contact Sue Zizza at 516/483-8321 or visit www.natf.org.
The NATF workshop offers a new training ground for audio dramatists and gives participants the chance to work alongside leaders in the audio theatre industry. Participants will have the opportunity to work with members of The Firesign Theatre, and audio dramatists featured on National Public Radio, SciFi.com's Seeing Ear Theatre and the audio book industry. After a week of classes and rehearsals, everyone works together to present a live performance on Saturday evening.
As a special benefit, this year's workshop features a teleconference link with Jim Dale, the Grammy-nominated narrator of the unabridged Harry Potter audiobook series.
New technology and new listeners are bringing a surge of interest in audio drama. "Our staff has spent more than 20 years together producing workshops of this kind in Missouri and throughout the country, and interest has never been greater," says Sue Zizza, executive director of NATF. Audio production technologies including digital audio workstations, webcasting software, and remote recording equipment, will be featured in hands-on workshop sessions throughout the week.
The 1999 Audio Publishers Association's Listener Habits and Practices survey indicates that the Audio Theater market in the U.S. alone is $200 million per year and growing. "Our goal is to make that [Audio Theater market] accessible to others," explains Zizza. Along with teaching traditional live and studio performance, the workshops will cover emerging audio technologies and webcasting. Three of the workshops will feature respected engineer, author, and surround sound expert Mike Sokol. These workshops--surround sound for audio theater, sound reinforcement for the theater, and digital console technology--are produced by the nationally recognized Fits & Starts Productions, LLC (www.ModernRecording.com), and sponsored by Entertainment Design, Onstage, and Sound & Video Contractor magazines.
NATF is a nonprofit organization created in 1999 by professionals in the field. Its advisory board includes legendary radio writer and director Norman Corwin, public radio's Dr. Science and Firesign Theatre, among others.