The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company
WINS 2020 NORMAN CORWIN AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN AUDIO THEATRE
The 2020 Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre was presented to a group which has been amazingly active, and producing really excellent audio theatre, both in live performance and in the studio, for getting on toward four decades -- The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company.
Back in 1984, it was William Brown who talked Patrick Stansbury into producing a weekly radio theatre program on a commercial station, and it was Patrick who talked the station into it and then somehow persuaded a local bank to sponsor it. Their very first year, working with two local stations, they did 26 shows...does that sound familiar, somehow? After that, they began producing shows in various venues, doing original material by writers like Tom Fuller, and adapting great stories by great authors. When ARTC wants to do something, they don't do it by halves. If they want to scare you , they go to H.P. Lovecraft...and when they want to do science Fiction, they became the only organization to get permission to adapt the works of Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein, who died in 1988, was probably the single most influential sci-fi author since the genre was born back in 1818; I've loved his work since I was 8 years old and am not a bit surprised that he's still in print over thirty years after he passed away. His widow, Virginia Heinlein, befriended one of ARTC's leading writers, the late Brad Lineaweaver, and ARTC's productions of Heinlein stories are true to the author's art, more honest and skillful adaptations than some big-budget motion pictures I could name but won't. Live shows around the state of Georgia, studio productions -- too many to list here -- and over the years, a great many contributions to the Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop, some excellent plays and a lot of wonderful people. William Brown, Tom Fuller, Bill Ritch and so many others -- engineer Henry Howard joined the Workshop gang early, and became one of the people who made it come together every year. If you heard Henry say "that'll work!" you knew you could depend on it.
The Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre, given annually by The National Audio Thatre Festivals (NATF), is the premier American recognition of lifetime achievement, regardless of media, in the field of audio theatre. It was instituted May 3, 2010, on Norman Corwin's 100th birthday. The first Award was given to Mr. Corwin himself, who is considered the Grand Master of American radio theatre.
The Corwin Award is announced each year on May 3rd by NATF and presented annually at the HEAR Now Festival's Closing Ceremonies.
Since 2010, NATF's Corwin Award recipients have included Tom Lopez, Peggy Webber, Yuri Rasovsky, The Firesign Theatre (Philip Austion, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, Philip Proctor), Erik Bauersfeld, and Marjorie Van Halteren with Legacy Awards to Himan Brown, Stan Freberg and Orson Welles.
Back in 1984, it was William Brown who talked Patrick Stansbury into producing a weekly radio theatre program on a commercial station, and it was Patrick who talked the station into it and then somehow persuaded a local bank to sponsor it. Their very first year, working with two local stations, they did 26 shows...does that sound familiar, somehow? After that, they began producing shows in various venues, doing original material by writers like Tom Fuller, and adapting great stories by great authors. When ARTC wants to do something, they don't do it by halves. If they want to scare you , they go to H.P. Lovecraft...and when they want to do science Fiction, they became the only organization to get permission to adapt the works of Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein, who died in 1988, was probably the single most influential sci-fi author since the genre was born back in 1818; I've loved his work since I was 8 years old and am not a bit surprised that he's still in print over thirty years after he passed away. His widow, Virginia Heinlein, befriended one of ARTC's leading writers, the late Brad Lineaweaver, and ARTC's productions of Heinlein stories are true to the author's art, more honest and skillful adaptations than some big-budget motion pictures I could name but won't. Live shows around the state of Georgia, studio productions -- too many to list here -- and over the years, a great many contributions to the Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop, some excellent plays and a lot of wonderful people. William Brown, Tom Fuller, Bill Ritch and so many others -- engineer Henry Howard joined the Workshop gang early, and became one of the people who made it come together every year. If you heard Henry say "that'll work!" you knew you could depend on it.
The Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre, given annually by The National Audio Thatre Festivals (NATF), is the premier American recognition of lifetime achievement, regardless of media, in the field of audio theatre. It was instituted May 3, 2010, on Norman Corwin's 100th birthday. The first Award was given to Mr. Corwin himself, who is considered the Grand Master of American radio theatre.
The Corwin Award is announced each year on May 3rd by NATF and presented annually at the HEAR Now Festival's Closing Ceremonies.
Since 2010, NATF's Corwin Award recipients have included Tom Lopez, Peggy Webber, Yuri Rasovsky, The Firesign Theatre (Philip Austion, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, Philip Proctor), Erik Bauersfeld, and Marjorie Van Halteren with Legacy Awards to Himan Brown, Stan Freberg and Orson Welles.
