Back to earth and the Ozarks on Monday, when I hit the ground running organizing and attending rehearsals for Davis Creek Rounders and Blackberry Winter bands, because both of them were to perform on Friday (June 18) at the Old Time Music Ozark Heritage Festival in West Plains, my home town. Dennis and I are from West Plains, Linda lives in Dora and Van in Willow Springs. Billy Ward and Tedi May live near Branson, and Bo Brown lives outside Springfield. So for our Thursday first performance outside the studio, at the Campbell 16 Cinema in Springfield, the four of us from east drove to Springfield and convened at my friend Steva’s house. Steva and her cat, it must be mentioned, are remarkably good sports, for we filled every corner of the place with sounds good and bad until we arrived at a consensus. It made for a good rehearsal for the next day, when we all met in West Plains for the festival. The 2 p.m. set with the Rounders was technically good but personally miserable. The sign at the Civic Center read 102° when we stepped off the stage. Temps had moderated to the mid-90s by 6 p.m., when Blackberry Winter began its set. We’re something short of perfect, but not half bad for just two days practice with all of us together. I have high hopes for the future, and you would too if you’d heard us.

It was a hot hot day and much of the crowd took shelter under the shade of big trees.

Now it’s a brand new week, and NATF is in town. That’s National Audio Theater Festival to you non-audio theater types, and its members hold their week-long national workshop in West Plains each year in the last week of June.Wicked good fun, and a great learning experience. The superb voice actress Barbara Rosenblatt is with us again this year, along with NPR’s Renee Pringle and renowned Missouri storyteller Gladys Cogswell. I can hardly wait. Workshops, classes and rehearsals begin tomorrow.

An excerpt from Ozarks Public Radio;  Hello! I’m Marideth Sisco for These Ozarks Hills. I know many people think of the Ozarks as a laid back place to settle down. But for people who work in radio, for at least one week out of the year, West Plains is a real hot spot. It’s not just the temperature, although it does happen at the end of June. For that’s when West Plains plays host to the National Audio Theatre Festival… continue reading at Ozarks Public Radio