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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 Eric Martin

Eric Martin

Hoot Gibson Panel 6/9

A graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television, Eric’s thesis was on  performance elements at the Disneyland parks. He subsequently became a Walt Disney Imagineer for three years, and currently produces live entertainment for Universal Studios Hollywood.

In 2010, Eric began studying at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles, and started recording a show called This American Wife, which he imagined as a public radio parody podcast. The program instantly shot to the top of the podcast charts, and was featured on the iTunes main podcast page. Since then, the show has received over 2 million downloads, and has featured original comedy and interviews with The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Superego, and cast members from Mystery Science Theater 3000. A web series version produced with Fremantle Media premiered in 2013 and was featured on the main page of nerdist.com as one of the funniest web videos of the week.

Eric also loves narrative and storytelling. His story “Going Down,” was featured on the Best Of episode of RISK! He also co-produced a monthly storytelling show True Tales of Lust and Love with author Anna David. The show performed at The Mint and M Bar in Los Angeles, was a popular podcast, and culminated in February 2014 with a book anthology from Soft Skull press.

In his spare time (which is admittedly not much), Eric loves to read great books, and watch terrible, terrible movies.