WRW RETROSPECTIVE REDUX

"A memoriam for Sam A. Mowry"

Written and Produced by

John F. Barber

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
©2024 Re-Imagined Radio. All rights reserved (except those granted by the Creative Commons license)

Re-Imagined Radio
Season 12, Episode 9, September 16, 2024

Final draft

WRW RETROSPECTIVE REDUX

A memoriam for Sam A. Mowry, founder of the Willamette Radio Workshop

Re-Imagined Radio
Season 12, Episode 9
Final Draft

Premier broadcast: September 16, 2024

Written and Hosted by John F. Barber

Sound design, Music composition, Post-Production by Marc Rose

Graphics by Holly Slocum

Synopsis
In July 2023, Re-Imagined Radio celebrated more than two decades of radio storytelling by Willamette Radio Workshop,a radio theater troupe based in Portland, Oregon, and active in the Pacific northwest since 2001, founded and directed by Sam A. Mowry.

In July 2024, Sam Mowry died. This episode is a memoriam to an accomplished stage and radio actor, a big man with a big voice. A mentor and friend who is sorely missed.

Color Code
Yellow highlighted text = sound effect(s), either pre-recorded or created for episode, or pre-recorded audio used as content in this episode.

text example = text that could be deleted as needed.

Magenta highlighted text with strike through = text deleted for episode timing

MUSIC = pre-recorded

MUSIC = bespoke, created for this episode

COLD OPEN
SFX: SAMPLES FROM "THE HITCH-HIKER." ENDS WITH RAILROAD CROSSING SCENE.
SFX: CROSS FADE TO . . .
MUSIC: RIR THEME
HOST OPEN
ANNOUNCER
Welcome to Re-Imagined Radio, a program about radio storytelling. With each episode we combine dialogue, sound effects, and music to engage your listening imagination. This episode is no different, and here to tell you about it is John Barber, producer and host.
HOST
Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us.
Our episode is "WRW Retrospective,[ree-duhks] Redux."
SFX: SAM MOWRY, FROM OPENING OF "WHY I'LL NEVER GO BACK TO ALBUQUERQUE."
"OUR NEXT STORY IS . . . A STORY. WELL, THAT'S THE WAY IT STARTS . . . BUT ONCE AGAIN, THE PERCEPTION IS ALL.
HOST
That's Sam A. Mowry. Founder and director of Willamette Radio Workshop. You heard him earlier also, during the episode opening.
And he's absolutely right. Perception IS everything.
You see, this episode of Re-Imagined Radio is a memoriam for Sam, who died July 20, 2024.
Just a year earlier, in July 2023, we offered "WRW Retrospective," an episode about Willamette Radio Workshop. Sam Mowry was our guest.
So, this episode is a [ree-duhks] redux, a look back. A revisiting of that earlier episode, plus samples from Sam's appearances in Re-Imagined Radio productions. A memoriam to celebrate his huge contributions to radio storytelling and Re-Imagined Radio.
While listening, please visit our website, reimaginedradio dot FM. There, on the "WRW Retrospective, Redux" archival webpage, you'll find more information and a copy of our script, which you may like to follow as you listen.
Thank you for joining us as Re-Imagined Radio presents "WRW Retrospective, [ree-duhks] Redux."
MUSIC: CINEMATIC TRANSITION
HOST
Willamette Radio Workshop, abbreviated as WRW, is a collaboration of actors, writers, singers, musicians, and sound designers interested in radio theater. Their live performances and studio productions of radio stories span two decades and have attracted regional, national, and international attention, along with several awards.
WRW was founded in 2001 by Sam A. Mowry, an aspiring theater and radio actor, living in Portland, Oregon.
Let's begin our story there, the origin, with samples from our 2023 conversation with Mowry.
STORY 1: ORIGIN
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
Thank you so much for having me, John. I feel like saying having "us," as the Workshop.
HOST
It's a pleasure to visit with you, Sam, and the Workshop. Let's start with some context. How did you begin this adventure?
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
We started in October of 2001. The way we started is always kind of fascinating to me because I've been a stage actor for forty years. I've always loved radio. My father was very much into radio. I have several album collections of The Shadow and ahh Fibber Mcgee and Molly and ahh things like that.
I was reading the newspaper and checking for auditions and there was this thing about ahh a meet up at the Library for people interested in doing radio dramas. And I was like, "That sounds interesting. I wonder how that would happen?"
So I went, and showed up, and it was at the Library in their big meeting room, and first thing I noticed was there were like eight other theater people I knew who were there and I didn't know that they were into radio. They didn't know that I was into radio. And we sat there and a young man, Michael Hopcroft . . . Ummh . . . The the spiritual godfather of the Willamette Radio Workshop because he had this meeting . . . And he got up and explained his vision which was a science fiction series where everyone would record their pieces at home and then send them to him and then he would cut them all together.
Now, for all of us stage actors, we were like, "Oh, my god! That sounds terrible! Ahh, not working with each other. How would we know how to read something if we didn't get feedback?"
So, we listened to his pitch and then people started talking about reservations they had about that kind of thing and it was basically, "You'll record something on the mic on your laptop and send it to us and . . . and . . . six months from now we'll have the finished product" and we just weren't really game for it (laughs). You know . . . Now . . . Then, that would sound totally bizarre. Now, I realize that's what, you know, 80% of the audio drama podcasts out there that's how they're done. 
STORY 2: INTEREST ESTABLISHED
HOST
It sounds like you were put off by the proposed switch from stage acting to radio theater. What changed your mind?
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM 
What happened was . . . after the meeting, we started talking to each other in a little group and then I noticed these two people over by the side of the room. They were talking with each other and I had very much liked what they had said in the process, and they obviously had more of an understanding of how . . . you know . . . edit and put things together just from the questions they were asking.
And so, we came over and started talking to each other and it was Marc and Rob. Just hit it off right away, I'd say. And they started telling us about a project they were working on called Dry Smoke & Whispers. And he was like, "Yeah, we've just come to town and yeah we're looking for more actors and seems like there are some people here that are involved in radio, wanna be involved in radio."
And I was like, "Well sure. Come over to my house. I've got a two car garage and we can . . . You know . . . We rehearse in there. We can come in and you can audition all the actors you want." And . . . ahh . . . We did and it was a great experience and they are both geniuses when it comes to radio drama. And, ahh, you know, we . . . ahh . . . Pretty much everybody who auditioned ended up doing something in the show.
HOST
Just to clarify, when you say you met "Marc and Rob" at that meeting, you're talking about Marc Rose and Rob Cannon. Marc is with us today, and we'll hear from him soon. Rob is a graphic designer and writer. He collaborates with Marc to produce their Dry Smoke & Whispers radio series.
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
Yeah, and that was just the beginning of a . . . ahh . . . beautiful friendship and Marc and I have done . . . I can't even count the number of shows we've done over twenty years.
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
STORY 3: FIRST PERFORMANCE
HOST
Willamette Radio Workshop is noted for adapting classic radio dramas, and offering innovative radio theater. How did this evolve?
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
We would meet in the backyard of Rob Kowal and Mary Robinette Kowal, award-winning science fiction author.
We . . . we'd just sit around in a circle and talk about what we wanted to do and what we liked and what we didn't like and what we liked about radio as opposed to theater or movies. And . . . as we went around eventually came down to well we needed to do something, we needed to do something that already had handled all the problems of audio drama for us to figure out how to move forward.
So we decided to do, surprise, surprise, "War of the Worlds."
HOST
"The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air is the most famous radio drama ever broadcast. Your first public performance and you decide to go big. What happened?
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
It was wonderful, but we didn't have microphones, we didn't have computers or anything to do sound effects. It was all just us acting out what we thought a live radio show would be.
And we loved it and we had great audiences . . . and so we said, you know, what can we do next?
STORY 4: LIVE RADIO LIVES
HOST
What WAS your follow up to "The War of the Worlds?
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
We next had . . . ahh . . . ahh . . . KBOO Radio and Dmae Roberts has a show called "Stage and Studio." And every one once in a while she would hit a point where she was going to miss a show. And she had heard about our show and said, "Hey! Would you like to do a live radio show for us?" I was like, "Sure!" 'cause I'm not afraid of anything.
HOST
(DEEmay)Dmae Roberts is a two-time Peabody award-winning radio producer and writer. Her radio show adds national quality arts, literature, and media to our regional arts scene. That was a big break for you, Sam, and WRW. Tell us what happened!
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
Tuesday morning, at 10 o'clock in the morning, was our time slot. So, all of our unemployed actors ahh (LAUGHS) agreed to do the show. And we did something that . . . uhmm . . . my wife Cindy wrote for us, which was called "The Call of the Mummy."
She had never written for radio before, but I played her a bunch of my favorite stuff . . . and . . . just said, "I need this show in a week" and she wrote it and we rehearsed for a week, then we did the live show and it was . . . It was pretty rough . . . Umm . . . (LAUGHS). But it was live radio theater and . . . uhmm . . . and we just really kinda got us all very excited by the process . . . of doing it.
One of the things ahh I always loved . . was our . . . our . . . our slogan, which was "Live radio lives." And then Chris Porter of course said, "Or it could be live radio lives." So now, whenever I put that on any of our promotions it says "Live radio lives, live radio lives."
MUSIC: TRANSITION
STORY 5: NAME AND EARLY PERFORMANCES
HOST
When you first started with live performances of radio theater did you call yourself Willamette Radio Workshop, or did that name evolve over time?
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
Yeah, pretty much because we couldn't agree on what we wanted to do, so of course we argued over things like "what name."
Our inspiration was always Orson Welles . . . he was the god of radio, as far as we knew. And, a lot of people were saying, "Oh, we should just be the Mercury Theatre on the Air."
And I thought that was . . . you know . . . meah . . . not very original.
So, I was like . . . you know, "He did a lot of work for the Columbia Workshop, and you know we have the Columbia River here." Uhm . . . and I said, "Well, again, it will be confusing for people." So, we said, "Oh, why don't we make it the WILLAMETTE Radio Workshop, because, you know, that's the other big river around here."
HOST
So the word "workshop" in your title is a nod to the Columbia Workshop, and their experimental approach to radio storytelling on CBS radio, 1936 to 1943, and then again from 1946 to 1947.
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
Exactly. And that's what I've . . . I've always wanted to . . . that to be essence of what we do, is to be a workshop where we try things out, and try different things. 'Cause my favorite part of being an actor in theater is the rehearsal process where you try things and they fail. Sometimes they fail. Sometimes they succeed. But . . . uhmm . . . You're always striving to do something new and different. And so I thought that would be a good . . . ahh . . . touchstone for us as a as a company to do that.
MUSIC: RIR THEME FOR BREAK
THE FUSEBOX BREAK
HOST
That's Sam A. Mowry, founder and director of Willamette Radio Workshop. Sadly, Sam died in July 2024, so this episode is our memoriam to him. I'll return after we hear about The Fusebox Show, produced by our other guest, Marc Rose. Fusebox is a different kind of radio storytelling, full of quirky conversation and comedy, driven by a madcap but purposeful design. Here's a sample . . .
SFX: THE FUSEBOX SHOW TEASER 
HOST
Learn more at The Fusebox Show website, thefuseboxshow dot com.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, FADE UNDER AND OUT FOR THE FOLLOWING
STORY 6: DIRECTING & COLLABORATING
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. I'm John Barber. Our episode is "WRW  Retrospective [ree-duhks] Redux" a memoriam for Sam A. Mowry, founder, and director, of WRW, Willamette Radio Workshop, who died July 2024.
Content for this episode includes samples from our 2023 conversation with Sam, "WRW Retrospective." In that episode I asked Sam how he prepared actors for the performances for which WRW is noted. Let's listen to his response.
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
Yeah, that's a great question and part of it is you know is the thing I do most . . . is . . . ahhm . . . is work with the actors and help them to have a living performance when you're reading. Because that's something that I'm . . . I'm a voice actor for my day job.
And I've got a lot of experience of reading scripts and cold readings and  . . . ahh . . . something I do well enough to support myself, so that's good.
And so . . . Most of my work as a director is working with the actors. And then when it comes to sound design and music design and things like that get the most brilliant people you can to work with you.
We would get together and talk about what we were looking for and what I wanted, but I always left most of it up to the designers because they're sound designers, you know, or musicians. But, what we kind of developed as a style of Foley and in sound design as well, is more kind of a suggestive thing. We, we create an atmosphere to listen to, and that's what we want in music, and sound design, and Foley are things that propel the show, bring you into the space.
And, sound design, like . . . and great Foley, are that you don't notice it . . . you know, when you're listening to it. It just fills a space, and creates the space. And . . . try to keep things as essential as possible. And, and, that's ahh one of my jobs, as the director, is to help shape . . . ahh . . . What  we consider essential.
And there are times that I am overruled. You know, I'll say, "I don't wanna do this," and you know they're kinda like, "Let's try it. Let's do it." And we get together and we run through it and I hear the sound effect of the Foley and I'm like, "Yeah, you're right, that works."
I love radio because it is a very collaborative experience.
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
STORY 7: COLLABORATION WITH RIR
HOST
Speaking of collaboration. It was 2013 when Willamette Radio Workshop and Re-Imagined Radio first collaborated. A production of "The War of the Worlds." On the occasion of its 70th Anniversary. A live performance at Kiggins Theatre in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Standing room only.
Based on that success, in December, we offered a live performance of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.
Here's Sam, introducing the performance, setting the stage, making us all feel welcome and part of the family.
SFX: MOWRY'S INTRODUCTION TO 2015 CHRISTMAS CAROL PERFORMANCE.
MUSIC: TRANSITION

STORY 8: MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN
HOST
The elements of radio storytelling are scripted dialogue, sound effects, and music. In our 2023 conversation, Sam spoke about scripts and sound effects as creating spaces for listeners. This is what he had to say about music in Willamette Radio Workshop productions.
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
Music, is, is, is key, and another one of the things that makes our productions sound so good is that we've had so many wonderful musicians working with us. Ahhh, one of the shows that was on . . . ahh . . . Re-Imagined Radio earlier in the year was our "Hiro & Liling," and, ahh, Peter Armetta composed the music for that. And, it it's beautiful. And, ahh, we did "St. James Infirmary" where Gaylin Huckins put together a jazz group to ahh basically play variations of "St. James Infirmary" as the interstertial music and as underscoring for certain places.
Ahh, Marty Gallagher . . . ahh . . . one of my favorite things that he did for us was . . . ahh . . . "The Wind that Shakes the Corn" and it was written by Sam Gregory . . . And . . . It starts off as a . . . as a narrator and I imagined a small mid-western Presbyterian church that my grandfather used to preach at in the distance and you could hear this pump organ playing this very mournful little tune . . .
SFX: MUSIC FADES IN UNDER THE FOLLOWING, GRADUALLY INCREASING IN VOLUME.
. . . that when Marty sat down and started to play that it just completely set the entire production.
SFX: SAMPLE FROM "WIND THAT SHAKES THE CORN."
SAM
(MUSIC)
The wind blows through time, through space, over the landscape of memory. It's the middle of the previous century, in the autumn of the year. The landscape of gentle hills rolls into the distance covered with rustling fields of corn, dark oak trees, their leaves brilliant orange in the golden autumn light, stand beside white frame houses nestled in the corn fields. The sky and roads are a light gray which fades to white in the distance.
HOST
Marty did a great job evoking place and space didn't he? Just that bit of music and my imagination takes over, creating a world and a way to be in that world.
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
He's great at that. Marc is great at that, at finding a style of music or instrumentation that provokes an emotional response beyond just kinda like, "Oh, that sounds pretty," or "that fits there." It, it, ahh, it it creates emotional depth and resonance to what's happening.
MUSIC: SFX ENDING FROM "ALBUQUERQUE" AS TRANSITION. ALLOW FOR DECAY OF THIS SFX AT END. 
HOST
Let's talk about Marc Rose. He's a three-time Emmy Award winning sound designer. He produces his own radio shows, Fusebox and Dry Smoke & Whispers. He has composed musical themes for AT&T, Jack Hanna’s Wildlife Adventures, Busch Entertainment, Capitol Radio London, and many independent films. Sam, tell us a story about working with Marc to achieve sound design for a Willamette Radio Workshop performance.
SFX: SAMPLE UNDERSCORING FROM "WAR OF THE WORLDS"
SAM
I remember . . . One of the first times Marc and I worked on "War of the Worlds" and he created a new . . . ahh a stunning ahh underscoring underneath it and you know we had rehearsed several times and then he came in with the music and what was amazing was I was able to just read it and the natural flow and sweep of the piece that came up to the end just timed out perfectly. It was like the first time I read it to the music we both finished right where it was supposed to be (LAUGHS) it was just kinda like. That's . . . that's absolutely perfect and he does that time and time again.
When we did "The Martian Death March" he had some lovely underscoring . . . ahh . . . Which had so many . . . ahh . . . pathos-filled speeches and moments and the music just . . . ahh . . . brought such extra emotional depth and weight to the piece. I love to do it over and over.
SFX: MARC ROSE FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
MARC
You know, if I could . . . if I could just add one thing here that . . . that's . . . that occurred to me during all those working with all those things . . . is having worked with these actors over a period of years . . . you . . . you really start to get a sense for how they might approach something. Not predictive . . . But you . . . you get a sense for what the timing might be and I think that helped a lot in those two instances you just cited, Sam, because I could . . . I could hear them in my head. Like how they would do this and how . . . where . . . where they might take a turn or whatever, and so it was ahhh . . . ahh . . . kind of inviting them to do what they were going to do by default anyway but . . . ahhh . . . yeah I . . . I too . . . I was sorta stunned (LAUGHS) to see the results of that.
HOST
Another collaboration between Willamette Radio Workshop and Re-Imagined Radio was "City of Weird," short, otherworldly dramas, each adapted by Sam's wife and gifted writer Cynthia J. McGean, from City of Weird, an anthology about "Keep It Weird" Portland, Oregon.
Here's Sam's introduction for the live performance. Listen to how he, an actor's actor, not only foreshadows what lies ahead, but builds an engaging and immersive momentum.
SFX: SAM MOWRY, INTRODUCTION TO "CITY OF WEIRD"
HOST
And, there were performances of more serious radio theater. Like "The Case Files of Dr. Moreau," a story about human interference with nature, adapted by Portland playwright William E. Gregory from the 1896 science fiction novel The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. Gregory also died in 2024, so our sense of loss is doubled as we listen to Sam's introduction and the first scene where he voices the character "Wolf."
SFX: INTRODUCTION AND FIRST SCENE FROM "CASE FILES OF DR. MOREAU"
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
STORY 9: THE FALL OF THE CITY
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. Our episode is "WRW Retrospective [ree-duhk] Redux." I'm John Barber, sampling from a 2023 conversation with Sam A. Mowry, founder and director of Willamette Radio Workshop, and Marc Rose, award-winning sound designer who has contributed to several WRW performances and productions. One WRW performance relied heavily on sound design and sound effects. Let's listen to their responses when I asked about producing "The Fall of the City." First, Sam Mowry . . .
SFX: SAM MOWRY ABOUT "FALL OF THE CITY"
SAM
I came across that ahh online. And Archibald MacLesh, who I had known a lot  about as the ahh . . . Poet Laureate of  the United States and I had heard a lot about and he wrote JB and he had written some things for stage but I had never heard of "Fall of the City." And then, I saw the Orson Welles was involved so I was more excited and I listened to it and just loved the whole piece. I love poetry. I love the political . . . ahh . . . mileau . . . it listens . . . Marc and I were talking earlier and said, "it's it's been perfect for every generation since it was written."
Sadly, we don't learn these lessons.
But ahmm it's a beautiful piece and so uhmm I brought it back and played it for the whole group and everybody loved it and we decided that we go ahead and do it.
And, talked to Marc about it and he was like, "Oh, yeah, I love that." And so, we, he came in on it and we . . . we did it in one day we recorded over at PCC's Sylvania's theater . . . ummhm . . . ahh . . . we were able to rent the theater for a day and we had the entire cast in there and we recorded the whole thing in one day. We did all the live Foley of the . . . the crowds and . . . ahh . . . Just a . . . it was just a really special day and then . . . ahh . . . Rob, who was producing it with me, Rob Kowal, and we were talking about it and Marc was going to do the sound design and he said, "Oh, well, give it to me and I'll, I'll let you know when I'm done," and it seemed like it was just a couple of days (LAUGHS). It might have been longer but it seemed like an impossibly short amount of time.
He . . . showed up with this and it was just perfect. It was the most amazing sound design I'd ever heard. I couldn't believe it was us when I (LAUGHS) was listening to it.
And . . . ahh . . . that's one of the things that I always talk to young audio dramatists when they're talking about you know, "what's the most important thing."
It's kinda like to have an idea of the space you're in. And that seems to work best for actors too when you're talking to them, you know, "imagine the space you're in." You know, when I was the reporter and I'm whispering into my microphone because something's going on in the distance and other times when I'm screaming over the sound of the mechanical monster that's ahh coming into the city. Just . . . ahh . . . what creates the the various spaces you're in.
And . . . ahh . . . there's a beautiful moment with Linda Gertz . . . ahh . . . playing the the the dead woman who rises and comes and speaks to the town the city and you know she had just a wonderful sense of being one lone person in the middle of this huge and a whole city surrounding her and Marc was able to create a sound design that just perfectly evokes that. And, it's not an easy thing to do and it was amazing.
HOST
For listeners not familiar with "The Fall of the City," the setting is a huge, open plaza of an unnamed city where THOUSANDS of people are gathered.
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
Yeah.
HOST
The Columbia Workshop hired a large number of extras for the original recording of the crowd scenes and used the Armory Building in downtown New York, as a sound stage. You and Marc had maybe a dozen people. So, the sound design magic that Marc created is really quite impressive and definitely makes one feel present, part of the event that is happening.
SFX: MARC ROSE FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
MARC
I think it's important to note too that the crowd and their feet steps and every that's all an active performer in this particular story. It's not just a background, it's an actual element. It's an interactive element.
HOST
That's Marc Rose, sound designer. Let's listen to this sample from "The Fall of the City," sound design by Rose, and performed by Willamette Radio Workshop, with Sam A. Mowry speaking the part of the correspondent describing the events he witnesses in the plaza of the great city.
SFX: SAMPLE FROM "FALL OF THE CITY." MOWRY, THE CORRESPONDENT REPORTS FROM THE CITY SQUARE.
 MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION

STORY 10: MORE COLLABORATION WITH RIR 
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. Our episode is a memoriam for Sam A. Mowry, founder  and director of Willamette Radio Workshop, who died in July 2024. We just listened to samples from "The Fall of the City" where Sam, as a correspondent, described the events he saw and heard in the plaza of the great city.
In retrospect, we should say that Willamette Radio Workshop, under Mowry's direction, was always experimental, willing to try new approaches to radio theater.
SFX: SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
But that's the thing, John, I think you pushed me. I always shied away from doing comedy because I always thought that they were really based on the performer and ahhm and you were like, "We should really do funny" and we did "Laugh Your Dial Off." A bunch of comedic shorts and I loved 'em. 
MUSIC: RIR THEME, OPEN. ESTABLISH, THEN FADE OUT UNDER THE FOLLOWING.
THE RIR BREAK
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. I'm John Barber, producer and host. With each episode we explore radio storytelling using voice, sound effects, and music. Here are some examples . . .
SFX: RE-IMAGINED RADIO AUDIO TRAILER 
HOST
More information and listening opportunities are available at our website--reimaginedradio DOT FM.
Re-Imagined Radio is also available as podcasts. Subscribe, listen, like, and review wherever you get your podcasts, or our website.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, RETURN. ESTABLISH, THEN CROSSFADE TO THE FOLLOWING
STORY 11: FIGURSKI
HOST
In January 2022, Re-Imagined Radio launched an ambitious radio adaptation of Richard Holeton's pioneering hypertext novel, Figurski at Findhorn on Acid. Here's Richard Holeton to tell you about his novel.
SFX: RICHARD HOLETON INTRODUCTION FROM "FIGURSKI AT FINDHORN ON ACID"
HOST
Our adaptation of Richard Holeton's novel, "Figurski at Findhorn on Acid," was intended to be a radio sensorium.
SFX: SAMPLE, SAM MOWRY FROM "WRW RETROSPECTIVE"
SAM
And I and that's what I love about working with you John, you always inspire us to do more and different and outside of our comfort zone and ahh finding exciting ways to ahh work for new new new adventures in audio.
I love working with YOU because your depth of knowledge of shows and scripts and genres is unsurpassed in my my book.
You've done an amazing job and you really are the the lightning rod for audio drama in the Pacific Northwest and I think around the world
HOST
Sam's performance as Frank Figurski was stellar. In this sample, he appears before the crowd at Friday Night Sharing, to explain the mystery of his presence.
SFX: FIGURSKI SPEAKS TO CROWD, EXPLAINS HIS PRESENCE. ENDS WITH SWIRLING MUSIC.
CODA
HOST
His declining health kept Sam from live performances. But, he was very productive in the studio. Here's a sample from "Through the Turnstile," a dramatic story featuring Sam and Tom Beckett.
SFX: SAMPLE FROM "THROUGH THE TURNSTILE." ENDS WITH AMBIANCE OF EMPTY SPACE.
HOST CONCLUSION
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. Our episode is "WRW Retrospective [ree-duhks] Redux," a memoriam for Sam A. Mowry, founder and director of Willamette Radio Workshop, who died in July 2024. He was a big man, with big dreams, a big voice, and an even bigger heart. He is and will be missed.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, ESTABLISH, THEN DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
HOST CREDIT ROLL
HOST
This episode of Re-Imagined Radio was written by John Barber.
Sound Design, music composition, and post-production by Marc Rose.
Graphics by Holly Slocum Design with Sydney Nguyen.
We produce Re-Imagined Radio with support from KXRW-FM (Vancouver, Washington) and KXRY-FM (Portland, Oregon).
Episodes are archived at our website, reimaginedradio DOT FM. Podcasts are available at the major platforms, or our website.
This is John Barber, producer and host. Thank you for listening.
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This is a production of Re-Imagined Radio. Our radio broadcasts are heard on local, regional, and international community radio stations.
For on demand streaming, point your browsers to our website, reimaginedradio (all one word, no punctuation) DOT FM. 
Thank you so much for listening, and please, join us again for another episode of Re-Imagined Radio where we'll continue our exploration of radio storytelling.
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