Last Updated: July 8, 2023
Click here for Radio Activity News - Current -- News 2007 - News - 2005
(in backwards chronological order)
December 15, 2006 - Los Angeles - PERFORMANCE/WORKSHOP - "A Christmas Carol"
Tony directed one of his Sparx - Audio Adventures workshops, a Radio Play-ground production with 6th grade students at John Burroughs Middle School in Mid-City Los Angeles. In 3 hours, the kids went from auditions to casting, rehearsal to the performance of Tony's radio-adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The entire 6th grade watched the John Burroughs Middle School Radio Players perform this holiday tale of a man who journeys far before bestowing his gifts. (12/15/2006)
December 13-17, 2006 - Los Angeles, CA - PERFORMANCE/RECORDING
Tony performed live sound effects for L.A. Theater Works' 2-hour Mary Stuart at the Skirball Cultural Center. Five performances before a live audience were recorded for broadcast on National Public Radio and XM Satellite Radio.
This was a radio-on-stage production of Friedrich von Schiller's Mary Stuart in a new version by Peter Oswald, which opened in London's West End in 2005 and is headed for Broadway in 2007. In this gripping story of court intrigue, Queen Elizabeth I is threatened by the survival of her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart, and agonizes over fears for her own survival. ER's Alex Kingston stars as the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots, heading a 14-member ensemble that includes Sheelagh Cullen, Kenneth Danziger, Jill Gascoine, Martin Jarvis, Christopher Neame, Alan Shearman, W. Morgan Sheppard, and Simon Templeman. Directed by Rosalind Ayres, who has helmed numerous productions for both LATW and the BBC. Mark Holden engineered, as he does for all L.A. Theater Works shows. (12/04/2006)
November 3, 2006 - Westchester, CA - PERFORMANCE/RECORDING - "O, Shaw"
The California Artists Radio Theatre presented a live radio-on-stage production of two comedies by George Bernard Shaw: Village Wooing, starring Samantha Eggar and Norman Lloyd, and The Music Cure starring JoAnne Worley, Ian Whitcomb and Peter Dennis. Tony provided live sound effects for these dramas for director/producer Peggy Webber. Both shows were recorded for XM Satellite Radio and will be broadcast next year. The performances took place Loyola Marymount University in their 220-seat Murphy Recital Hall. A reprise performance--at the Beverly Garland's Holiday in in North Hollywood is in the works for late December. (11/05/2006).
November/December 2006 - Los Angeles, CA - RECORDING - Aeschylus' Oresteia
trilogy
audiobook
In November, Tony begins sound effects and production work on the latest audiobook dramas for writer/director, Yuri Rasovsky. This series follows their last collaboration, the Audie Award-winning Sherlock Holmes Theatre dramas. The new project is a full cast production of The Orestia -- three plays by the ancient Greek master, Aeschylus, detailing the trials of Agamemnon's return from the Trojan War, his subsequent murder and the revenge-filled peril for his son Orestes and daughter Elektra. This tale of needless war and the cost of revenge is particularly timely today. For these plays, Tony will re-create parts of the Trojan War as well as gods, goddesses and the avenging Furies. The audiobook will be published next year. (10/01/2006)
November 5, 2006 - Altadena, CA - WORKSHOP - Cemetery Teachers Training
In one of the most bizarre settings he'd ever performed in, Tony did a radio drama workshop at the Mount View Cemetery for the Pasadena Museum of History. Here, Tony used radio drama to explore themes of death and threshold crossing by having a group of elementary and middle schoolteachers perform his comic Hare Dryer radio play about a gargling rabbit that comes back from the grave. Tony "knocked them dead--at the cemetery. An eventual return engagement is... inevitable. (11/06/2006)
October 21, 2006 - San Francisco, CA - MUSEUM EXHIBITION - Now through December 2007
Tony attended the opening of his hands-on Sonic Storytelling Studio exhibit at San Francisco's Exploratorium. Running to the end of 2007, Listen: Making Sense of Sound is a new 5000-square-foot exhibition that features over 55 interactive exhibits, 40 of which are brand new. These exhibits help patrons learn to listen to their sonic environments as musicians do for the patterns that form the structural framework of musical compositions. Tony's booth of SFX devices and recording gear allows visitors to become sound effects artists, recording and playing back three mini-shows featuring detectives, pirates and a bizarre commercial for selective-listening Ear Mufflers. Visit the Listen website for plenty of hear-raising adventures. (10/23/2006)
October 5, 2006 - Santa Monica, CA - BENEFIT PERFORMANCE - Virginia Avenue
Project
Tony performed live on-stage sound effects for the Virginia Avenue Project's gala Commotion by the Ocean fundraiser. The Virginia Avenue Project's annual benefit was a foot-stompin', high-kickin', hootenanny event at the Casa del Mar, Hotel by the Sea in Santa Monica. It featuring dinner, an old-timey string band & dancing, re-staging of two shows from this year's Signs of the Times shows. plus silent + live auctions. (10/06/2006)
October 3, 2006 - Beverly Hills, CA - SEMINAR - Prairie Home Companion
At the Museum of Television and Radio's seminar honoring Robert Altman's film about the Prairie Home Companion, Tony talked shop with Garrison Keillor, the creator and longtime host of this classic music/variety radio program. Tony visited the MPR show's home at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, MN two years ago and provides gear for Keillor's inventive sound effects artists, Tom Keith and Fred Newman. At the MT&R, Tony talked with Keillor about the imaginative routines that call for a lot of improvised mouth sounds by Tom and Fred. They agreed that gunshots, chair skootches, and Pterodactyls remain difficult--but necessary--challenges for sound effectors. A DVD of the Altman film will be released October 10th. The PHC radio show, now it its 32nd year, airs weekly on stations across the U.S, on Sirius satellite radio and shows, new and old, are available free on Web. (10/04/2006)
October-December 2006 - Worldwide - PRODUCTIONS FOR RADIO/STAGE
With the Holidays coming, troupes all over the world are gearing up to produce Tony's very faithful adaptation of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" for radio, but after several professional troupes mounted weeks-long productions of a traditional stage version last year, using Tony's text and music, he's decided to offer a stage play version. For details see A Christmas Carol script & Score for Radio and A Christmas Carol script & Score for Stage Performance rights and the music cue CDs are available at affordable rates--depending upon size of venue and whether the production is for stage, recording or broadcast. (10/09/2006)
September 2006 - Los Angeles/San Francisco, CA - SOUND DESIGN/EXHIBIT for San Francisco's Exploratorium
The whole month of September, Tony was busy in his workshop/laboratory developing sound effects devices for a Sonic Storytelling studio at San Francisco's Exploratorium. This exhibit allows visitors to record sound effects to Tony's original mini-shows. The Listen exhibit opened October 21st and runs through all of 2007, with a road-show version slated for cities across the U.S. (9/13/2006)
Here's the official blurb:
The Listen exhibition will be at San Francisco's Exploratorium from October 21, 2006 to December 31, 2007. Listen: Making Sense of Sound is a new 5000-square-foot Exploratorium exhibition that features over 55 interactive exhibits, 40 of which are brand new. These exhibits will help you listen as a musician does for the patterns that form the structural framework of musical composition. Combining exhibits, activities, demonstrations, specially-commissioned artist-created listening environments, and public programs, this exhibition invites you to experience the nature of sound, the ways in which humans perceive sound and, most importantly, how you listen. Starting October 19, you can even listen at home via the Web at www.exploratorium.edu/listen.
September 1-2, 2006 - Los Angeles, CA - SOUND
DESIGN/PERFORMANCE
-
Signs of the Times (Part 2)
Tony performed live on-stage sound effects for the
Virginia Avenue
Project's marvelous
Signs of the Times production of
nine
short plays at the 24th St. Theatre. Leigh Curran's wonderful children's collaborations with adult theater
artists are a delight for both their humor and imagination. This follows the
July 7-8 production of a first batch of nine plays at UCLA.
Here were some hilarious and touching short plays that pair kids with adult actors, with live accompaniment by Tony and a pianist. The plays were full of talking chameleons, penguins worrying about global warming, businessmen having a change of heart, a kung-fu chicken and more. Through sound, Tony evoke dragonflies with a Theremin, doing rim-shots for “fowl” puns, playing Native American flute, as well as the usual tornadoes, doorbells, ice floe cracks, statues shooting arrows, etc. He will also appear at the V.A.P. Fundraiser, October 5th in Santa Monica (9-03-2006)
August 2006 - Los Angeles, CA - Post-Production, Pre-Production work, C&W
Carnival
Tony spent August editing the California Artists Radio Theatre production of Ruggles of Red Gap, starring Michael York. He also continued his consulting work for the Skriball Cultural Center's Noah's pArk exhibit--slated to open in the Summer of 2007. He's beginning the final phase of a Sonic Storytelling exhibit at San Francisco's Exploratorium, which will open October 21st. Tony and his wife, Carla celebrated a belated Mutual Admiration Society Carnival by sstomping the milestone into the ground with a Western Jamboree, complete with a C&W set by his band, Los Gringos. (9-01-2006)
July 7th & 8th, 2006 - Los Angeles, California - SOUND DESIGN/PERFORMANCE - Signs of the Times (Part 1)
Tony did live on-stage sound effects for the Virginia Avenue Project's Signs of the Times production of 9 plays at UCLA's Little Theater on July 7-8th. The stories ranged from a dashboard Hula & Garfield dolls plotting their escape, a cop who won't use guns, to Mother & Son magicians, to a court jester debating political humor vs. bathroom humor, to an egg undergoing psychotherapy and overcoming prejudice against a frying pan. The shows call upon all of Tony's imagination and arsenal of sound effects--including his glass scratch, door creaker, autoharp and Theremin--pictured at the right.
A second batch of plays was produced in early September. (7-08-2006)
June 30, 2006 - Los Angeles - California Artists Radio Theatre - PERFORMANCE FOR BROADCAST
The California Artists Radio Theatre presented a live radio-on-stage production of the comedy Ruggles of Red Gap starring Michael York, William Windom, JoAnne Worley, Samantha Eggar and the talented C.A.R.T. regulars. Peggy Webber (pictured with Tony) adapted the script and directed. Tony performed live sound effects and engineered. This was being recorded for XM Satellite Radio and will be broadcast this Autumn. (7/1/2006)
June 17, 2006 - Los Angeles, California - WORKSHOP/PERFORMANCE
Tony conducted a radio drama workshop as part of the Oral History and Radio program at the Los Angeles Memorial Branch Library. This special community-wide storytelling event was the culmination of the library's Voices of Ballona Creek project. The two hour workshop produced episode one of "Rick Lowell, Private Eye - The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of"--part of which is set in the Mid-City area. (6/18/2006)
June 5-6, 2006 - Los Angeles, California - PERFORMANCES
O-Lan Jones' Overtone Industries mounted Act II of the experimental opera-in-progress, Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands at the Not a Cornfield site near Chinatown in Los Angeles. Tony oversaw sound effects, Bart Hopkin's unusual instruments, and engineered the recording of the performances. Tony had produced the full opera in 2003. For more info see http://www.overtoneindustries.org/news.php (6/07/2006)
May 24, 2006 - Los Altos, California - VIDEO INTERVIEW
Radio/TV director Dave Parker (and former OTR actor on The Lone Ranger and other WXYZ Detroit classics) filmed an interview withTony discussing the art of sound effects for radio. This was a second session, following the January 2005 SFX demonstration Tony gave in Los Angeles. Dave begins final editing of his film in the coming weeks, with a completion date scheduled for July 2006. Other interviewees include Norman Corwin, June Foray and other OTR greats. (5/25/2006)
May 23, 2006 - Petaluma, California - WORKSHOP/PERFORMANCE - "The Pirate's Curse"
Tony directed one of his Sparx - Audio Adventures workshops, a Radio Play-ground production with 4th-to-6th grade G.A.T.E. students at the Wilson School in beautiful Petaluma. In 2 hours, the kids went from auditions to casting, rehearsal to the performance of Grim Scary Tales - The Pirate's Curse, one of Tony's radio plays. The entire school watched the Wilson School Radio Players perform this horrifying tale of pirates, a spirited noblewoman, winged demons and the Fountain of Youth, presented in the classic 1940s style. (5/25/2006)
May 22, 2006 - San Francisco, California - MUSEUM INSTALLATION
Tony is developing a Sonic Storytelling booth at San Francisco's Exploratorium. This exhibit will allow visitors to record sound effects to mini-shows drawn from Tony's Colonel Frothingham, Intrepid Antiquitist episode "Egypped Again!" and a new piece, Twinkleston's Dire Dreams. This is a follow-up to Tony's Sparx show at the Exploratorium in 2004--You Won't Believe Your Ears! Bay Area students will now be able to do their own hands-on radio shows at the fascinating museum of science, art and human perception. The full Listen exhibit opens in October 2006. (5/23/2006)
May 19, 2006 - Washington, DC - AUDIE AWARD
Sherlock Holmes Theatre with sound effects by Tony
The Audio Publishers Association (APA) presented the 2006 Audie award for the best Audio Theatre production to Yuri Rasovsky's production of The Sherlock Holmes Theatre, for which Tony did all the sound effects work. This stellar 5-CD production featured the vocal talents of Martin Jarvis, Kristoffer Tabori, Josephine Bailey and a host of others. The 5-hour collection of three different radio plays sports some of Tony's best SFX work. (5/19/2006)
May 19, 2006 - Davis, California - WORKSHOPS
Tony conducted three of his Sparx - Audio Adventures workshops at Harper Junior High in Davis, California, near Sacramento. This return engagement featured Tony directing one of his Sparx programs: the Radio Active Theater Workshop, where 85 seventh-grade students mprovised short radio-plays with sound effects--using their course-work as the seeds. Imagine Samurai warriors meeting the Wright Brothers! (3/30/2006)
May 10-12, 2006 - Anaheim, California - EXHIBITION
Tony marketed his Sparx - Audio
Adventures! at the
California PTA
Convention
in Anaheim. Parents and teachers from schools all across California
got to see Tony's collection of ingenious sound effects and get a taste of how
"telling stories with sounds" can spark creativity in their children. Assisting
Tony were his two PTA-ngels, Lindsay Ellison and Elisabeth Bersanetti (5/12/2006)
April 26th - Beverly Hills - Theatre40 Children's Radio Plays
Tony performed live sound effects for five children's plays in conjunction with Theatre40 at the Horace Mann School in Beverly Hills. The imaginative plays--written by students were performed by professional actors and the students--featuring everything from killer robots to talking lizards to magical wishing wells to conniving Elements. (4/26/2006)
April 19, 2006 - Los Angeles - California Artists Radio Theatre - PERFORMANCE FOR BROADCAST
The California Artists Radio Theatre presented a live radio-on-stage musical, Klondike Kate, by Willard Manus. It starred Leslie Easterbrook and William Windom, with piano accompaniment by Ken Stange. Peggy Webber directed. Tony performed the sound effects and engineered--and he will be doing the post-production also. This program will be aired in several months on XM Satellite Radio.
This rousing show traced the real life of vaudeville singer/dancer “Klondike” Kate Rockwell, who thrilled Yukon gold rush audiences and romanced both novelist Jack London and theater impresario Alexander Pantages. Kate recalled her life and loves in between belting out turn-of-the-20th century songs such as Hello, My Baby, A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight, Smile, Darn You, Smile, and the sentimental show-stopper My Evening Star. (4/20/2006)
March, 2006 - Nationwide - BROADCAST/WEBCAST
L.A. Theater Works' 2-hour A Tale of Charles Dickens, with sound effects performed by Tony, was broadcast on select NPR stations, XM Satellite Radio. This marvelous production was recorded in October 2005. It is a fictionalized version of Charles Dickens' life in the London of the 1830s and features the wonderfully talented Antaeus Company. See below for details of the performances. The program will be out as an audiobook--at bookstores and libraries across the U.S. in several months. (3/25/2006)
February 22 through March 26, 2006 - Across the U.S. - 23 PERFORMANCES
Tony toured nationwide with L.A. Theatre Works' traveling production of Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue. This was a hybrid form of radio-on-stage where Tony--from a riser on-stage-- provided live sound effects as actors moved about a minimal set of furniture while miming actions (opening doors, throwing things, making lunch, dialing phones, etc.) Mics were positioned strategically across the stage and the actors crossed to the couch, terrace, kitchen, etc., as the drama required, pausing to deliver their lines at the mic. The format resembled the earliest days of television.
The cast included Hector Elizondo, Elizabeth Ward Land, David Manis, Sharon Madden, Lynne Marta and Diane Adair. Sharon Gless and Richard Masur took over the lead roles midway through the tour. Rob Blasko was the stage manager. The production played 1000-2700 seat auditoriums from California to Virginia, from Maine to Florida, with a few dates in the Midwest thrown in. It was very successful, artistically and financially. (3/27/2006)
February 11, 2006 - Los Angeles - UCLA - WORKSHOP
Tony taught a radio drama production workshop at UCLA as part of their continuing education program.
The class produced Tony's mistaken identity comedy, About That Ark, complete with massive adopted pet stampede, animal sounds effects as language and a "Titanic Mistake" made by the home inspector from the pet orhanage. Sound effects chiefs Stefan Goodreau and Rosa Palermo had their teams' hands and feet busy. Tony also performed scenes with SFX and gibberish from Colonel Frothingham, Intrepid Antiquitist. This workshop could lead to a 6-week class on the history and technique of radio drama. More later... (2/11/2006)
OLDER NEWS...
Click here for Radio Activity News - Current -- News 2007 - News - 2005