KZMU Presents: the 2022 Radio Play Festival

Conditions were different in 2021. Rather than cancel or postpone our event due to the pandemic, we reframed how the radio play was created and presented so that we were able to keep this creative and engaging event alive in a way that is safe and accessible. We shrank our cast and crew to a tight eleven, rehearsed in the stage room of a local arts center which allowed for social distancing (and masks), and ultimately remotely broadcasted the play, titled Choreomania, in three episodes, free and live, from the arts center. Our efforts were received with tremendous gratitude from the local community and listeners abroad. Out of 96 entries, Choreomania received the highest award from the Hear Now Audio Fiction and Arts Festival’s Podcast Palooza, a juried competition for recorded sound works.

Now entering our seventh presenting year, we are faced with the challenge of continuing this tradition on the heels of social unrest and a global pandemic. More than ever, KZMU’s broadcasted presence in the community is vital. After fourteen months of not being able to safely gather in person or travel and experience other places, people are yearning for safe and meaningful ways to connect with their community, the world, and their own imaginations. For our next play, we want to build from what we accomplished during the pandemic and begin to offer it as a live in-person event once again.

As we enter our 30th year, KZMU is approaching our annual radio play a little differently.

Instead of writing, producing, and presenting a single radio play with a designated cast and crew, we’re adapting the classic amateur film festival model to allow multiple teams of community members, both local and regional, to create and produce short radio play vignettes. COVID-permitting, these vignettes will be played in front of a live audience, with accompanying live Q&A panels and specially designed visuals. We are really leaning into the radio element of this and emphasizing the engagement of the imagination of the mind and to that end, there will be some visual components of the event, but little to no live acting.