UnionDocs

Radio Cabaret is a variety show where radio stories come to life before your eyes. Producers bring the traditions of public radio to the stage through storytelling, musical performance, visual animation, theater and live interviews. Performances range in topic but share a common reference to audio documentary.

This hour unfolds like a living breathing radio magazine with a radio host (disembodied MC) and a variety of acts:

- A story about a man falling in love with the kissing booth girl at a party – with music mixed live on stage, and bits of interview tape used as just another instrument in the mix.

- A performance about a multi-identitied karaoke dj, in which the dj will appear live on stage performing his work as his story unfolds in radio form.

- A performative lecture about storytelling using recorded interview tape which interacts with a live interview between a storyteller and her subject.

- An examination of bird behavior that reconciles science with folklore, using surround sound voices.

- An audio construction of the world shared by a woman and her grandmother.

- A collaborative summary of sounds from the previous performances composed by audience member keystrokes.

This evening will feature the work of public radio journalists Sharon Mashihi, Audrey Quinn, Laura Mayer, Rachel James, Kaitlin Prest and Brendan Baker. Their performances will vary in length from five to fifteen minutes.

Sharon Mashihi is a New York based radio producer and screenwriter. Her audio pieces have aired on KALW, MPBN, KUOW, and Public Radio Remix. She is a graduate of the radio program at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and holds a BFA in film from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Her most recent feature-length screenplay, The Ticket – co-written with Ido Fluk – is being produced by Wendy Japhet and Pam Koffler at Killer Films.

Laura Mayer has been working with Sara Fishko on The Fishko Files since October 2009. Laura is a graduate from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Her personal radio work has appeared on the Third Coast Festival’s Re:sound, WBEZ’s Eight Forty-Eight and Time.com.

Rachel James is a radio documentary producer and media artist. As a documentarian Rachel promotes principles of integrity and playfulness. She has interned at Radiolab, has reported for This American Life, holds a MA in Adult Education and Community Development, University of Toronto, and is a graduate of the radio program at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. From multimedia installation to documentary radio, Rachel constructs worlds that honor story through listening. Her research explores narrative translation in the context of death, aging, and memory.

Kaitlin Prest is creative director of Audio Smut, a sex positive documentary radio show broadcast on CKUT 90.3fm in Montreal. She was awarded the 2010 National Community Radio Awards’ Outstanding Achievement in Documentary for part of a series exploring the gentrification of Montreal’s Red Light district. She produces radio drama, sound installation, listening parties and all sorts of other documentary audio experiments. She is currently a collaborative fellow at Union Docs.

Audrey Quinn is a multimedia science journalist in Brooklyn, NY. After getting bitten by a few too many lab mice as a neuroscience researcher, she realized she much preferred talking about science than doing research herself. She’s had the pleasure of working with Radiolab, PRI’s The World, Deutsche Welle Radio, the Distillations podcast, and a number of NPR affiliate stations. She blogs about healthcare for CBS Interactive, and she’s also been a producer for web-based videos.

Brendan Baker is a producer, engineer, and musician based out of Brooklyn, NY. He designs sound for The Onion News Network, records and produces audio tours for Antenna Audio and Pimzlo Media, does studio engineering for The Argot Network, and runs concerts for El Taller Latino Americano. His work has appeared on WNYC & PRI`s Studio 360, Curtis Fox Productions (including some editing for The New Yorker: Fiction and Campaign Trail and podcasts). He is the co-recipient of the 2011 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Gold Award for Best Documentary for his work on the podcast Love and Radio with Nick van der Kolk.