Radio Play Sneak Peak

We're so excited about premiering our first radio play! We'll be performing it live this Sunday 12/7/14 in the Marshall J. Gardner Center in the Miller Beach Arts & Creative District.

Here is a "Butterbird Christmas" Sneak Peak to wet your whistle. Our lead, Maggie, meets her terror of a 1st grade teacher, Miss Sespal.

(production services provided by Almost Fairytales )

Our founder, Dr. Meg G. DeMakas, was interviewed recently on PBS's "Eye on the Arts" program. She discussed "Butterbird Christmas at length with the host, John Cain. View their entire interview here.

You can RSVP for our Sunday premiere via Facebook at this link.

Art Teacher’s Resource Fair at the Munster Performing Arts Center

On September 27th 2014 Mandi Renslow and Meg DeMakas ran a booth at the annual Art Teacher’s Resource Fair at the Munster Performing Arts Center in Munster, Indiana. This is a lovely event where area artists and non-for-profits showcase their products. We were there to market our “Butterbird Christmas” live performance on 12/7/14 and to explain to teachers how we can offer creative arts activities for the students at their schools. 

Seven teachers from seven different schools signed up to have our organization bring experiential learning projects to their schools. Along with having a table set up we participated in the artistic activities that were going on around the art gallery networking away the whole time. It was a wonderful event!!!

Announcing Our Cast & Crew

We are so happy to be working with such a great cast and crew! Look for these Family Folklore Players at their first performance on Sunday, December 7, 2014 from 3-5PM at the Marshal J. Garden Center in the Miller Beach Arts & Creative District in Gary, Indiana.

                                    Introducing the Cast for “Butterbird Christmas”:

                                               The Cast of the Family Folklore Players

Narrator                                                 Shavon King

Mom                                                      Beckey Swerdon                             

Dad                                                        Clarence Knight

Katie                                                      Lilly Haddox

Maggie                                                  Jianna Harrison

Sam                                                       Ethan Elliott

Nina                                                      Sydney King                      

Miss Sespal                                          Mandi Renslow                  

Susie Zipperfield                                  Lilly Haddox

Mrs. Zipperfield                                   Janine Harrison

Announcer/ Gramps                             Ron Nichols

Gammie                                               Connie Nichols                 

Grandma                                              Darlene Martinez

Grandpa                                               Ron Nichols

Dougie                                                 Gabe Messer

Puppy                                                   Promise Joy Renslow-Wiler

Sound Effects                                       Dawn Haddox

                                                              Seth Odenthal

These awesome folks performed their parts for us in August. We had to do it ADR style. ADR is short for Audio Dialogue Rerecording. Normally radio plays are performed with a group of actors meeting up together. Each actor gets his/her own microphone and it is done in a fancy studio. However, our budget didn’t all that for us. So, instead we recorded everyone individually. This means that our sound editor, Jessica Renslow, will go into each file and manually piece it together like a giant jigsaw puzzle! (We’ll explain the ins and outs of post-production in a later update.)

 

Casting Callout

Now it was time to market the idea and buy some much needed equipment.  Along with doing an email blast of the flyer to many community websites, the Family Folklore group went door to door plastering the community with the flyers.  A two week contract for advertising on the Miller Marquee helped bring in local voice actors!   

To learn more about making a radio play our Executive Director had lunch with a producer from the SAG-AFTRA Senior Radio Players who explained how to set up, practice and present a radio play. Then On Tuesday July 22nd at 7 p.m. two of our board members took the South Shore train to Chicago to the Chicago Cultural Center and enjoyed a radio play, entitled “Radio as You May Remember It!” 

Inspired and recharged we were ready to start our auditions. Family Folklore held them in late July. Several people came and auditioned. They also consented to being interviewed for our documentary. After filling out permission slips, they were videotaped being interviewed with our freshly purchased light kit brightening the room.