Firesign Theatre
SpaceGirl - The Mark Time Radio Show 2012
SpaceGirl: Downloading the Legacy
The Mark Time Radio Show at Convergence 2012 was a huge bit of fun. We had a terrific cast, lots of sound effects, and an enthusiastic audience. We marked the convention theme of “Wonder Women: women in science fiction” with a female heroine played by the fabulous Melinda Peterson. And we celebrated the 15th Anniversary of the Mark Time Awards with two members of the Firesign Theatre in the cast; David Ossman and Philip Proctor always add performance excellence to a production.
SpaceGirl
Linda Kim Shelmerdine discovered her powers as a teenager, when she was a turmoil of solar and hormonal flares. Now she occasionally feels her age, and she’s tired of the way everyone seems to perceive of superheroes saving the world, always in it for themselves. Meet Dr. Creep, the Super Villain, and Senator Mulder Hack, chair of the joint joint sub-sub-committee, and the magnificent Hungarian Dwarf Parade, who are watching over SuperGirl’s personal affairs.
Available now as a download from ZBS.
The Cast: (above, left to right)
Wndy Bowlsby
Tim Liebe
Megan Petersen
David Ossman
Gordon Smuder (Transylvania TV)
Melinda Peterson
Phil Proctor
Rich Fish
Tim Wick
Tony Brewer (sound effects with Brian Wesley)
___________
Music by Eleanor Price.
Sound by Jerry Stearns and Kris Markman.
Produced by Jerry Stearns and Brian Price.
David Ossman - Mark Time himself
FST at CONvergence
With some of the Firesign Theatre at Convergence
Jerry Stearns, Phil Proctor, Melinda Peterson, David Ossman, Brian PriceOver the 4th of July weekend David Ossman and Philip Proctor, of the fabulous Firesign Theatre, attended Convergence, the science fiction convention, at our invitation. They came to help celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Mark Time Awards, along with several of the Award winners. David’s wife, Judith Walcutt, founder of Otherworld Media, was a Guest of Honor of the convention, as well.
We could not pass up the opportunity to invite them both, along with Phil’s wife, Melinda Peterson, to take parts in the Mark Time Radio Show. With a cast like that, and the regulars we always ask because they are so damn good, we couldn’t lose. Well, we could, but believe me, we didn’t. And neither did the audience. SpaceGirl: Downloading the Legacy was terrific fun, and you’ll get a chance to hear it shortly in this space.
But, wait, there’s more. There were several panels that included David, or Phil, or Melinda, or Judith, or some combination of them. On one, titled All Things Firesign, the subject of how the 4 or 5 Crazy Guys worked together came up. It was mentioned that there is an audio piece floating around that demonstrates their process in a rehearsal of the Hellos and Goodbyes section at the end of the 1998 album, Give Me Immortality Or Give Me Death. They have given us permission to post that piece here. It’s 17 minutes long, and 20 MB.
If you’d like to hear more of Ossman at the Twin Cities conventions, check the left-hand column for a link to Coming Soon To A Galaxy Near You, part of a program on the film history of George Tirebiter, performed at Minicon 1996. And give us a couple of weeks and we’ll post the SpaceGirl show, starring Melinda Peterson as SpaceGirl, and Phil Proctor as Dr. Creep.
Mark Time Awards 2011
Jun/17/12 20:03 Filed in: Mark Time Awards | Firesign Theatre
The Mark Time Awards - 2011
Mark Time Awards
GOLD
Brad Lansky and the 4D-Verse
Protophonic
Written by J. D. Venne
Producer, Dieter Zimmermann
www.protophonic.net
SILVER
My Other Self
Stagestruck Audio Theatre
Written & Produced by Bret Jones
&
Our Fair City, Season 2
HartLife NFP
Written by Clayton Faits & others
www.OurFairCity.com
EXCELLENCE IN ADAPTATION
The Martian Chronicles
Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air
Story by Ray Bradbury
Dramatized by Jerry Robbins
Producer, Seth Adam Sher
www.colonialradio.com
&
Logan’s Run – Last Day
Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air
Written by Jason Brock, William F. Nolan & Paul Salamoff
Producer, Seth Adam Sher
www.colonialradio.com
Ogle Awards
GOLD
Intensive Care
Final Rune & AuralStage Productions
Written by James Comtois
Producers, Fred Greenhalgh, Matthew Boudreau, Samantha Mason
www.finalrune.com/intensive-care/
www.auralstage.com/2011/10/intensive-care/
&
Ghost of a Chance
19 Nocturne Boulevard
Written & produced by Julie Hoverson
www.19nocturneboulevard.com
SILVER
The Strange Case of Springheel’d Jack
Wireless Theatre Company
Written by Gareth Parker, Robert Valentine
Producers, Robert Valentine, Gareth Parker, Mariele Runacre-Temple
www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk
---------------------------------------------------
The 15th Mark Time Awards will be presented July 5, 2012 at CONvergence, in Bloomington, MN. Representatives from four of the seven production organizations will be present to accept their awards, as will several past winners and four of the five judges.
Mark Time is a character created in 1970 by the Firesign Theatre. Phil Proctor and David Ossman of Firesign will also be attending CONvergence to help celebrate the occasion, along with their wives, Melinda Peterson and Judith Walcutt. Judith is a convention Guest of Honor, too. And they'll all be participating in events throughout the convention, including the Mark Time Radio Show, just before the Opening Ceremonies.
We encourage you to look up the winners and give them a listen. You'll find some excellent storytelling.
For more information about CONvergence: www.convergence-con.org.
For more about the Mark Time Awards: www.greatnorthernaudio.com/MarkTime/MarkTime.html.
Jerry Stearns
Coordinator, Mark Time Awards
P Has Passed
Mar/09/12 16:47 Filed in: Firesign Theatre
Peter Bergman, co-founder of the iconic audio comedy team, the Firesign Theatre, passed away this morning, Friday, March 9, 2012, from complications related to leukemia.
He was “P”. the PoV character of the Firesign’s How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All, the one who bought the marvelous car from Ralph Spoilsport Motors. He was Lieutenant Bradshaw, who was always on about flat-foot Nick Danger. He was Mudhead, the broken-voiced teenage friend to David Ossman’s Porgie Tirebiter. And he was Mayor P’nissnose, of Billville, the town that Nature Forgot to Hate. He made me laugh.
Besides all that, Peter was once a CBS News anchor. He was the guy who coined the term “Love In” back in 1967, the Summer of Love. That’s when he was the Wizard of Radio Free Oz, that cultural rant radio program on KPFK in Los Angeles where the Firesign Theatre began in 1966, and again as the current audio blog of www.radiofreeoz.com. He made me think.
I was really looking forward to getting to meet him and work with him this summer. We’d invited him to our science fiction convention to perform and to celebrate the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Mark Time Awards for Science Fiction Audio. That’s another Firesign reference. The Awards are named after Mark Time, a short and hilarious skit in which he is the demagogue Prince Arcturus. David Ossman once said Peter was more genuine on mic than in real life. I am sad I won’t be able to meet him, and tell him how much he meant to me and to my sense of humor. I will always hear his voice as Clark Cable on Proctor and Bergman’s TV Or Not TV album. He’ll always make me laugh. Thanks so very much for all you’ve said, Pete.
Here’s one or our favorites of Pete’s, from Dear Friends, Duke of Madness Motors.
He was “P”. the PoV character of the Firesign’s How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All, the one who bought the marvelous car from Ralph Spoilsport Motors. He was Lieutenant Bradshaw, who was always on about flat-foot Nick Danger. He was Mudhead, the broken-voiced teenage friend to David Ossman’s Porgie Tirebiter. And he was Mayor P’nissnose, of Billville, the town that Nature Forgot to Hate. He made me laugh.
Besides all that, Peter was once a CBS News anchor. He was the guy who coined the term “Love In” back in 1967, the Summer of Love. That’s when he was the Wizard of Radio Free Oz, that cultural rant radio program on KPFK in Los Angeles where the Firesign Theatre began in 1966, and again as the current audio blog of www.radiofreeoz.com. He made me think.
I was really looking forward to getting to meet him and work with him this summer. We’d invited him to our science fiction convention to perform and to celebrate the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Mark Time Awards for Science Fiction Audio. That’s another Firesign reference. The Awards are named after Mark Time, a short and hilarious skit in which he is the demagogue Prince Arcturus. David Ossman once said Peter was more genuine on mic than in real life. I am sad I won’t be able to meet him, and tell him how much he meant to me and to my sense of humor. I will always hear his voice as Clark Cable on Proctor and Bergman’s TV Or Not TV album. He’ll always make me laugh. Thanks so very much for all you’ve said, Pete.
Here’s one or our favorites of Pete’s, from Dear Friends, Duke of Madness Motors.