Yuri Rasovsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Born: | 1944 Chicago, Illinois, United States  |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Audio theater, Writer/Producer |
| Website: | Personal Website |
Yuri Rasovsky (1944- ) is an award-winning writer and producer working in the field of audio theatre (aka radio drama). He founded and operated The National Radio Theater of Chicago from 1973 to 1986 and later formed The Hollywood Theater of the Ear (1993- ). In the 1990s, he forsook radio for audiobooks. Many of his radio plays have been published as commercial recordings or as Internet downloads. In addition, he is a contributing editor of AudioFile magazine.
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[edit] Major Works
Rasovsky has written, directed or produced more than 150 audio plays. Notable examples include:
- The Odyssey of Homer. National Radio Theater. 1980.
- Of Thee I Sing. George and Ira Gershwin, George S Kaufman, Maurie Ryskind. The only complete audio production of the Pulitzer-winning musical. National Radio Theater, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. 1984.
- Craven Street. American Dialogues Radio. 1993. Published by Blackstone Audio. 2006.
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Based on the silent film. National Radio Theater. 1973, 1975. Hollywood Theater of the Ear. Revised 1998.
- Seven Classic Plays: Euripedes' "Medea," Shakespeare's "The Tempest," Moliere's "The Imaginary Invalid," Dumas' "The Lady of the Camelias," Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People," Shaw's "Arms and the Man" and Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." National Radio Theater. 1985. Blackstone Audio. 2003.
- The Dybbuk, Ansky, S. Hollywood Theater of the Ear, Dove Audio. 1999.* Republished Blackstone Audiobooks. 2003.
- 2000X: Tales of the Next Millennium. NPR, The Hollywood Theater of the Ear. 1999–2000.
- The Oresteia. Blackstone Audio, The Hollywood Theater of the Ear. 2007.
He is also the author of the book The Well-tempered Audio Dramatist (National Audio Theater Festivals, 2006), and, with Carol Madden Adorjan, co-author of WKID: Easy Radio Plays for Children (Albert Whitman & Co., 1987).
[edit] Awards and Honors
Rasovsky is the most "decorated" audio dramatist working in the United States. Over the past three decades he has won two George Foster Peabody Awards, five Ohio State awards, three APA Audie Awards, four Major Armstrong awards, two Corporation for Public Broadcasting awards, The Independent Publishers Audio Award, The Gabriel Award, the NFCB Golden Reel, a Joseph Jefferson Citation, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America "Bradbury" Award.
[edit] Biography
The son of a haberdasher and a bookkeeper, Rasovsky grew up in Chicago’s Southeast Side. He studied intermittently at The Art Institute of Chicago, The American Academy of Fine Art, Columbia College and Chicago State University. In the early 1960s, he worked at WBKB-TV during the day while apprenticing at Bob Sickinger’s Hull House Theater at night. After a three-year stint in the Army, he worked variously as a free-lance feature writer and reviewer, cartoonist and stand-up comic, while acting and directing in Chicago’s developing local theater.
Under the mentorship of Dick Orkin, his first radio plays began monthly broadcast over WNIB FM in January 1963. Audience and critical attention was immediate and favorable. Within two years, he was invited to move The Chicago Radio Theater to fine arts station WFMT as a weekly series. (The station’s Midnight Special program still airs his “Chicago Language Tape,” a comic routine he created and recorded in 1964.) Retitled the National Radio Theater of Chicago, the series began national syndication in 1981, with the help of the largest corporate grant for independent public radio, $750,000 from TRW. The series led off with his eight-part Odyssey of Homer, for which he won his second Peabody Award.
During this time, Rasovsky continued writing for periodicals such as The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago magazine and Stagebill. He helped found The Chicago Alliance for the Performing Arts and American Independents in Radio. He was a producing consultant for CBC Toronto, and directed E.L. Doctorow’s only play, Drinks before Dinner, for the BBC. He became known as a skilled grantsman and an outspoken critic of the public radio system, as well as for the quality of his productions.
Leaving the Radio Theater in 1986, he acted in a couple of stage productions, and worked briefly for The Museum of Broadcast Communications and The University of Chicago. In 1991, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he currently resides with actress Lorna Raver. It was here he began his association with AudioFile magazine and Blackstone Audio, which has published several of his major radio plays and commissioned new works. In 1993, he syndicated the five-hour historical drama Craven Street. In collaboration with NPR, he produced the 26-week series 2000X, hosted by Harlan Ellison, in 1999. The Well-tempered Audio Dramatist, a book on theory and practice that he started in 1989, was finally completed and published in 2006.
At this writing he has more than 150 audio plays to his credit, a smattering of non-dramatic radio features and fifty-seven published audiobooks.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notable Relatives
[edit] External links
- Yuri Rasovsky Homepage, last revised 3/14/2007
- The Well-Tempered Audio Dramatist, A Guide to the Production of Audio Plays in Twenty-first Century America, by Yuri Rasovsky, last modified July 18, 2006
- Lodestone Catalog, Audio Theater, with Yuri Rasovsky
- 2000X from NPR® Futuristic storytelling, About the Producer
