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HEAR Now is the audio equivalent of a film festival for fans, performers and producers of contemporary audio story-telling in all its forms: live and scripted solo performances, multi-voiced performance, classic radio drama, experimental narrative, and much more.

This four-day Festival offers a multi-faceted program showcasing the many forms of audio fiction and sound art story-telling in theaters and other “listening” venues. HEAR Now presents audio fiction programs that exemplify traditions of craftsmanship, as well as aesthetic and technological innovation.

The 2017 HEAR Now Festival will again be a gathering place where the work of master storytellers is celebrated and shared.

Audio drama, audiobooks, recorded, and live story-telling -- sketches, poetry, spoken word -- alongside academic papers, juried competitions, and presentations on the physics of sound, as well as performance workshops, will round out this intensive listening event for the 2017 Hear Now Festival.

The following schedule is still ’under construction’ and subject to updates prior to June 6, 2017.
avatar for Bill Chessman

Bill Chessman

NATF Playhouse 6/9, AUDIO Tonight 6/10, PODCAST PALOOZA

Bill writes plays for stage and audio.  His works have been performed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, both sides of the San Francisco Bay and both sides of Interstate 80.  His audio plays have been produced by a variety of groups including Pagliacci’s Fools, NATF, and Shoestring Radio Theater. 

Since 2013, he and his wife, Suzan Lorraine have produced over a two dozen radio plays in front of live theater audiences under the Four-Eyed Jacks Productions banner and a number of the resulting recordings have been featured at the HEAR Now Festival, the Atlanta Fringe Festival, in Sonic Society podcasts, and broadcast on the radio.

He has also performed characters and sound effects in a number of audio pieces including NATF’s “It’s A Wonderful Radio Station” (which he also wrote), “The Pied Paper Towel Roll Piper”, “Road Angels”, “Trans-Mars Tango”, “The Son of West Branch”, “William’s Leap For Freedom” and “September/September” as well as “The Domino Lady: All’s Fair in War” and “Battle For L.A.” from AudioComics.