Last updated: July 8 2023
Click here for Radio Activity News - Current -- News - 2006 - News 2007
(in backwards chronological order)
December 2nd, 2005 to January 1st, 2006 - Pasadena - 30 PERFORMANCES
For the entire month of December 2005, Tony performed live sound effects for the Pasadena Playhouse's radio-on-stage production of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. In addition to doing sound effects and producing the show, Tony adapted the script.
It's a Wonderful Life script & SFX for radio - Details about how you can produce my radio adaptation of Frank Capra's classic film.
For the 2005 Pasadena Playhouse shows, Stuart Ross of Forever Plaid fame directed a deft ensemble of supporting characters and a rotating cast of celebrities in the leads. December 1-3 saw Michael Richards, Sara Rue, Orson Bean and Susan Sullivan (pictured). A special Gala performance December 4th featured Alfred Molina, Brooke Adams, Tony Shalhoub and Michele Engemann. For the December 8-11th shows there was Robert Picardo, Stephanie Zimbalist, Hal Linden and Tom Hatten. December 15-18th saw Joe Mantegna, Sharon Lawrence, Fred Willard, and Jamie Farr (That cast is pictured above, left). December 18-23rd starred John Larroquette, Markie Post, Jamie Farr and KPCC's Larry Mantle. The December 28-January 1st cast featured Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter, Dick Van Patten and Dakin Matthews.
The terrific ensemble of character actors included Andrew Borba, Ivar Brogger, Jenna Cole, Robert Mandan, Brian McGovern, Monette McGrath, and Harrison White. Jonathan Green (who has worked with Tony on the comedy-improv Liquid Radio Players' shows) provides warm and gripping period-authentic organ and piano. Gary Wissman's beautiful set (pictured) recreated a 1940s CBS/LUX radio studio.
SFX-wise, Tony broke glass, slammed doors, drove cars, pushed squeaky wheelchairs, snow-walked, plunged into icy rivers, and whipped up magic for this busy and very imaginative show. This was a delightful production for the whole family and a perfect Holiday evening at the (radio) theatre. The audience numbered between 400 and 680 over the 30 performances.
A special show was held on January 2nd for the staff of the Tournament of Roses, just drying off from the very soggy 117th annual Rose Parade. Among the audience was Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. When the Secret Service bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in, Tony wondered if the incredible realism of his hand-made gun-shot SFX device might cause her bodyguards to wrestle him to the ground as a threat to national security. He could see the headline: Man with Gun-Shot Sound Effect Fires At Justice O'Connor. Some might say, Tony was heard by the Supreme Court. And others would add that he should have pleaded insane! (1/02/2006)
December 8, 2005 - Pasadena - SPARX Educational show
As part of an education outreach program at the Pasadena Playhouse, Tony--in his persona as Sparx, the Sonic Shaman--hosted 250 7th and 8th grade students from the McKinley Arts Middle School. In his 75-minute assembly show, Sparx took the students from the beginning of the Universe (with a deafening "The Big Bang" live sound effect), through pre-historic times, through the Fourth Crusade of 1204 A.D., through a 5 minute scene from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol--with Tony doing all the voices and sound effects and triggering his orchestral score--through the history of radio, including podcasting, and finally ending in Heaven. All 250 students, and their teachers, participated in several sound effects sequences ranging from a medieval battle to a bank panic to booing, hissing and cheering. It was an epic day and a lot of fun. (12/09/2005)
November and December 2005 - World Wide - Radio Adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol
This holiday season, Tony's radio adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol will be produced by radio stations across the U.S as well as theatre troupes, schools, rest homes and even private parties, with several productions overseas, including Ireland, Egypt, and Poland. In La Quinta, California, a legit theater is mounting Tony's "Radio Carol" as a full-fledged stage play, complete with costumes, singing, and live music. See the "Radio Carol" page for more information. "God bless radio drama! Every one!" (12/14/2005)
October 26-30, 2005 - Los Angeles - PERFORMANCES for Broadcast on NPR stations & XM satellite radio in December 2005, and January 2006
Tony performed live sound effects for L.A. Theater Works' 2-hour A Tale of Charles Dickens at the Skirball Cultural Center. Five performances before a live audience were recorded for broadcast on National Public Radio and XM Satellite Radio.
This full-fledged radio drama by Janet Dulin Jones & Paul Lazarus is a very Dickensian fictionalization of Charles Dickens own life in London in the 1830's, before he became a novelist. Here, Dickens, the newspaperman, investigates arson and murder amidst many of the colorful characters that would later populate his fiction. Paul Lazarus directed a cast of 17 in this action-packed show, starring the award-winning Antaeus Company, hot off their recent stage hits, Mother Courage and Pera Pelas. The music was by Jan Powell and live sound effects by Tony. Mark Holden engineered, as he does for all LATW shows. Susan Albert Lowenberg is the producing director for L.A. Theater Works .
This is a terrific production that’ll thrill you and make you cry. It did ME. Sound effects-wise, I get to burn down half of London, stuff kids into trap doors, rattle chains with ghosts, fight and scuffle repeatedly, and beat a poor, blind orphan girl. What fun! L.A. Theater Works will air this program somewhere around Christmas. Hopefully, you can tune into the broadcasts in March 2006 See the L.A. Theatre Works schedule for info. (11/02/2005)
October 16, 2005 - Los Angeles -
PERFORMANCE
Tony audio-documented
Wilshire Words, a live spoken word tribute to Los Angeles' historic
Wilshire Boulevard. This was with Brenda Varda's
Wordspace collective of poets
and musicians and took place at the
Craft and Folk Art Museum in Miracle Mile. Tony recorded five poets and
their live backing of acoustic guitar and flute and then mixed the two to create
a you-are-there audio CD. The hour-long show may be made available via podcasts.
(10/17/2005)
October 2005 - Radio Christmas Carol
page
Tony has created a webpage with more details about his radio adaptation of Charles
Dickens' A Christmas Carol. This is in response to demands from radio
stations and schools across the country, who seek to produce this show on their
own. The radio Carol page lists the
cast and sound effects called for and has links to both a demo audio clip and an
excerpt from the script. Tony now offers a full 60-minute version as
well as a 40-minute version for schools and a 30-minute version for radio
stations with limited time slots available for drama.
September 15, 2005 - Los Angeles - Post-Production
Tony began post-production on a series of projects, including his
recent recording of his adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and several short
pieces created with audio actress, Lindsay Ellison. One of those pieces,
Tony "Sparx" Palermo &
Lindsay Ellison - Lie With Me - MP3 (5.3 MB) is also available on the
RuyaSonic downloads page. (9/15/2005)
August 11,18, 25, 2005 - Hollywood -
PERFORMANCES
Tony guest starred, on sound effects with the
Liquid Radio Players in
entirely improvised live radio-on-stage shows at the ACME Comedy Theatre.
Tony brought a host of his vintage SFX devices and plenty of surprises
for the improvisers in the cast. The Liquid Radio Players
have been pick of the week in both the Los Angeles Times and the L.A. Weekly. (8/11/2005)
August 11, 2005 - Ohio - Eddy Palermo
Tony's beloved father, Eddy Palermo passed away suddenly at home.
He was 84. Eddy had been a radio-artillery man with Patton's Third
Army in Europe during W.W. II. He and his wife of 50 years, Kay attended Tony's
60th anniversary production of Norman Corwin's masterpiece On A Note of
Triumph in May 2005 at Los Angeles' Skirball Cultural Center.
He will be sorely missed by his family, and children
everywhere, who mistook him, with his white beard, for Santa Claus. That was no
mistake. (8/27/2005)
August 2005 - Podcasting Hacks book
published
In August, O'Reilly
Media, the noted publisher of computer "how to" books, published
the tech tome
Podcasting Hacks,
one of the first books on the "Podcasting" phenomenon. Tony collaborated
with Jack Herrington for the chapter
on "Podcasting for Audio Theatre," offering tips and tricks to make
the best of this promising new internet distribution method. Look to my new
podcasting info page for more of my
suggestions related to producing your own audio theatre pieces for Podcasts.
July 30, 2005 - Hollywood - PERFORMANCE
Tony performed live sound effects in a radio-on-stage production of a new
episode of the Dark Shadows, television soap opera from the 1960s.
Vengeance at Collinwood, an hour long drama, featured series regulars David
Selby, Lara Parker, John Karlen, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Jerry Lacy, Nancy Barrett,
and Marie Wallace.
Pictured here, David Selby (Quentin Collins) leads the audience in an appreciation of Tony and Hazel Le Blanc. Among the technical challenges, this gripping new script by writer-director Jamison Selby called for a tricky skipping jukebox effect as well as Jerry Lacy, playing a modern day witch hunter who shares his body with a witch burning ancestor, and a comical jacuzzi in the basement of a creepy mansion. Hazel LeBlanc assisted, triggering the original score from the 1966-1971 TV run. The performance was part of the three day Dark Shadows Hollywood Weekend, a fan convention held at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. See www.darkshadowsfestival.com for details. (7/30/2005)
July 1, 2005 - Cyberspace
After six months of having RuyaSonic.com up and running, Tony finally began
re-directing visitors from his old "Radio Drama Resources" website on
Sprynet.com. The reason for the move was that the 500 daily visitors and 1
gigabyte of traffic was exceeding his bandwidth limits there. The RuyaSonic site
has more info, downloadable files and photos, with plenty more to come. If
you're a first time visitor take a good look at the
RuyaSonic table of contents page to find your favorite pages. (7/01/2005)
July 2005 - Los Angeles
I continue preparing for radio production classes that I'll be teaching in Southern
Africa in conjunction with the Medical Institute for Sexual Health and TransWorld
Radio. This is similar to my United Nations work in Asia several years ago
with the Population Media Center.
I will be teaching radio staffers in Swaziland how to create serial dramas aimed
at social change, specifically regarding HIV/AIDS issues. I especially look
forward to utilizing radio's imaginative ability to render fantasy and thus
reach the 65,000 AIDS orphans in this stricken nation of one million.
(6/20/2005)
June 29th 2005 - Echo Park, California
- WORKSHOP
In Tony's school assembly alter-ego of Sparx, the
Wizard of Sound, he held a
children's radio drama workshop at Plasencia Elementary School in Echo Park.
They produced an episode from Tony's In Old California
series of curriculum-based historical "you are there" works. Golden Dreams, Golden Nightmares follows an
everyman character through the gold rush days of 1849-50. The 4th grade students
handled all acting, sound effects and engineering. It went over very well. (6/29/2005)
June 25th 2005 - Santa Monica, California
- WORKSHOP
As Sparx, Tony
conducted a found sound-effect/story workshop with the folks from
reDiscover Center in Santa Monica. This
three-hour class and performance covered the physics and metaphysics of noisemaking and then
taught 35 pre-school teachers how to use improvised stories based upon found
plot fragments AND sound effects easily created from discards and recycled
materials. More workshops are planned for Autumn 2005. (6/06/2005)
June 28th 2005 - Pacific Palisades,
California - Steve Bell
Steve Bell, who, in May, hosted Tony's re-creation of Norman Corwin's "On a
Note of Triumph" passed away suddenly at age 66.
Steve was a pioneering TV executive, former
Director of the Museum of Television & Radio, past president of the Los Angeles
Opera League and an instructor at UCLA. His warmth, knowledge and generous
spirit were beloved by all who knew him. Steve will be
sorely missed. (6/30/2005)
June 13-14 2005 - Los Angeles -
PERFORMANCE
Tony produced an opera (NOT a soap opera, a real one) for O-Lan Jones' Overtone
Industries Troupe.
"Songs & Dances of Imaginary Lands."
This was
at the
Evidence Room in the Los Angeles Silver Lake neighborhood. A
production of both ACT I and II is scheduled for February 2006 at Cal Arts in
Los Angeles.
(5/30/2005)
May 2005 - Beverly Hills - SEMINAR
I attended a tribute to my friend,
Norman Corwin, "America's Poet
Laureate of Radio" at the Museum of Television & Radio's Mitchell
Theater. Norman turned 95 May 3rd and this USC/MT&R tribute presented
clips of his works, plus live readings from Norman's works and a Q&A session
hosted by Patt Morrison.
http://www.mtr.org/seminars/semnrs_la.htm
May 25th 2005 - Los Angeles - ONE TIME
ONLY PERFORMANCE
I'm producing and directing a live-radio-on-stage re-creation of
Norman Corwin's 1945 masterpiece,
"On a Note of Triumph" the most powerful work
of 20th century radio poetry, recapping World War II and looking ahead at the
uncertain peace to come. This performance at the
Skirball Cultural Center, will
be in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the original V-E Day broadcast,
and celebrating Norman's 95th birthday, also in May. This project includes my
recreating Bernard Herrmann's stirring orchestral score--a daunting
prospect. The cast includes
John Achorn, Dave Cox, Dale Evans, Michael Gough, Gretchen Johnson, James
Napoli, Katarina Palermo, Jesse Mackey, Mitchell Landsberg, Melinda
Peterson,
Phil Proctor, and Yuri Rasovsky. This production is in association
with the talented folks from the
Antaeus Company. See my own
On a Note of Triumph page for more details.
(04/21/2005)
May 28th 2005 - Los Angeles - PERFORMANCE
- LATER BROADCAST
I performed sound effects for Peggy Webber's
California Artists
Radio Theatre production of "Reno" starring Alan Young. This
"Mid-Western" was set along the Ohio frontier in the 1870s and
concerns a broken down race horse getting a second chance. This is slated to air
on XM satellite radio.
(05/02/2005)
April 2005 - U.S. Airwaves - BROADCAST
I contributed sound design for Jim Metzner's
Passover Dreams
special, which aired in April. The program, hosted by Theodore Bikel,
detailed a Passover dinner of ideas humor, and music, with Albert
Einstein, Fredrick Douglass, and Lenny Bruce attending. My work could
be heard when a Native American shaman arrives and for his gift takes the entire
dinner to the Edge of the Universe. I provided the sonic rendering of that
journey. For this imaginative radio fantasy, I used an Indonesian cricket
twirler, a large "meeting drum," a homemade thunder pulser device (fashioned
from a coffee can, tape and a long spring), and a lap steel guitar being rubbed
with a metal bar. Jim Metzner is the wonderful audio artist known for his
Pulse of the Planet
programs. (4/21/05)
April
2005 - Santa Monica
In January, the Virginia Avenue Project had me teach about using sound
effects to enhance theatrical performances for a series of
radio plays to be written by young dramatists. Those shows were
performed April 15-17th at the 24th St. Theater in Los Angeles.
www.virginiaavenueproject.org Phil Proctor also lent his advice and
SFX kit. The plays were very imaginative and the performances--by
adults--inspired. What a great program! (4/20/05)
April 2005 - Sacramento - WORKSHOP
I attended the California Statewide PTA meeting in Sacramento, April
28th-May 1st to market my SPARX's Educational Sonic
Storytelling Programs to schools across California. I also conducted
a radio drama production workshop for a low power FM station in nearby Davis. (4/29/05)
March 2005 - Northridge, California
I premiered a new short radio comedy called "Colonel Frothingham -
Egypped Again!" at the Cleveland Media Academy. This is part of a new series
of short-form works that can be produced by small groups in a short time span
and without an elaborate sound effects kit or audio rig. The program went over
very well with cast, crew and audience. I also presented a Sparx "storytelling
with sound" demonstration at the Joaquim Miller Special Education High
School nearby. This involved teaching a class of autistic and blind students how
to use sound in ways to spark the imagination when producing their own radio
plays. This was part of the Listening For Greatness series headed by Naomi
Benghiat. (3/30/05)
February 2005 - New
Hampshire
I
was teaching in New Hampshire in February at
Colby-Sawyer College,
in the town of New London. Hester Fuller, a talented media
production professor at the school, brought me in to produce one of my "Good,
Fast, Cheap & Fun" workshops, as well as to teach a class about radio drama and
the sorcery of sound. The shows were very successful and I've been asked to
return annually. The snow was wonderful, too. (02/12/2005)
February 2005 - Boston
I
was working in Boston with my radio-sister, Lindsay
Ellison on several audiobook projects. One is a series of
Victorian children's stories to be called RuyaSonic Wonder
Tales. They employ my "narration with accompaniment" style
to mix a single narrator with music, sound effects and
occasional other voices, but not as a full dramatization. We
tell classic fairy tales and myths in this series. We
will also will begin work on "the world's most boring audio
book"--boring on purpose--as an aid for insomniacs. This will
feature tedious delivery, plodding ideas, and mind numbing
music. There are plenty of terribly dull audiobooks out
there, but none of them are quite so intentionally boring.
(02/14/2005)
JANUARY 2005
Web Traffic Jams Radio Drama Resources
Website
Due to the 110,000 visitors who visited my Radio Drama
Resources website at
http://home.sprynet.com/~palermo in 2004, my ISP shut me
down for exceeding the bandwidth allowed a private site.
So... I've moved to a bigger, better server--my own domain,
www.RuyaSonic.com
--that allows me gigabytes of monthly transfers, audio and
video downloads and streaming, and a PayPal shopping cart.
I'd intended to upgrade my offerings for quite a while and
that's what this shutdown of service "opportunity" afforded
me. My old web pages will soon merely point you to
www.RuyaSonic.com. I
suggest you bookmark this site now. (01/01/2005)
RuyaSonic.com debuts
My new site's name is derived from "Ruya," which is Arabic
for Dream or Vision, and "Sonic" for how that vision will be
delivered via sound. In addition to hosting all my old Radio
Drama Resources information, RuyaSonic will have
downloadable audio clips and streams of my various radio
dramas, "sonic singles," news pieces, photos, my calendar of
appearances and whatever else I have time to cook up. If you
have suggestions for features you like to see, drop me a
line at
(01/02)/2005)
January 2005 - Los Angeles - Radio Changed America
documentary tapes Tony
Anthracite films is currently shooting a TV documentary
mini-series about the power of radio drama, from the golden
days of the 1930s up to... this week. They've interviewed
writer/director Norman Corwin, producer/actress Peggy
Webber, veteran actors, Jan Merlin, John Astin, Dick Van
Patten, new time radio auteur Matt Johnson and others.
Including me. In early January, I went into the Culver
Studios to do an hour long interview and a brief sound
effects demonstration. After four-and-a-half hours of
stories, analyses and history of the medium, we ran out of
time--and I hadn't even gotten to the SFX demo! I'll be back
as director Mike Kacey and his crew continue to gather the
stories behind the mic. These filmmakers really love radio.
If you have stories to tell or resources to share, contact
them. Here's a link to their website. They're also looking
for investors.
http://www.anthracitefilms.com/otr/index.htm
(01/08/2005)
January 2005 -
Los Angeles
My boss and lovely wife, Carla Fantozzi will begin booking
my "SPARX" act for assembly programs at schools and museums
in the Los Angeles area. In these solo performances for
audiences of up to 400, I will be exploring deep listening
and teach how to tell stories with sound. I developed this
material for my very successful show at the San Francisco
Exploratorium in May 2004. For bookings, contact
(01/05/2005)