HEAR Now: The Audio Fiction and Arts Festival

• Website: http://www.hearnowfestival.org/

HEAR Now: The Audio Fiction and Arts Festival is an annual event taking place in Kansas City, Missouri, during the month of June. It is produced by the National Audio Theatre Festivals organization. The festival features spoken word storytelling in many different forms and offer discussions on various related topics.

HEAR Now is the audio equivalent of a film festival for contemporary audio story-telling in all its forms: live and scripted solo performances, multi-voiced, classic radio drama, experimental narrative, and much more. This four-day Festival will offer a multi-faceted program showcasing the many forms of audio fiction and sound art storytelling in theaters and other “listening” venues. The Festival will present audio fiction programs that exemplify traditions of craftsmanship, as well as aesthetic and technological innovation.

The 2014 HEAR Now Festival will be a gathering place where the work of master storytellers is celebrated and shared. In addition, the Festival will expose its audiences to recent developments in audio preservation by showcasing newly restored and archived award-winning audio dramas. The Festival will offer live and recorded programming at local theaters and other venues in Kansas City. HEAR Now will also offer Moderated discussions and panels for conversations and the exchange of new ideas – an immersive experience in all aspects of the art and craft of audio fiction and sound art story-telling.

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 2014 Hear Now Festival.