From the cultural district of Fairfield, Iowa, and the Midwest’s first solar powered radio station, KRUU, welcome to The P5K Radio Workshop, bringing you original radio theater in the vein of the classics. Through the powerful medium of radio and the power of your imagination, you will travel to new places, meet fantastic people, and experience outstanding thrills. Whether it’s classic radio drama or the dozens of other pulps, dime novels, serials, and films of our favorite eras, we love wearing our influences on our sleeves. And, if you’re anything like us, you’ll be able to find echoes of some of your favorite old-time stories in our own work.

Run by Corey Hickenbottom and Gregory Gallagher, The P5K Radio Workshop is glad to bring you tales of adventure, mystery, excitement, and drama. In The Perplexing Case of the Perilous Prom, an all-American boy detective must find out the identity of the mysterious “Panama” who threatened his high school’s prom in order to save the dance from disaster. Hidden Gem of Kumbundu follows a globetrotting cartographer and adventurer after his boat is shipwrecked while mapping the darkest heart of Africa. In the three-part Truth… Over the Airwaves!, an ace reporter for a small-town community radio station takes on the nefarious gangster who killed his best friend. And that’s only the beginning.

Airing periodically on KRUU’s Sunday night radio show The KRUU Theater of the Air, The P5K Radio Workshop now has a permanent home on the web at thep5kradioworkshop.wordpress.com, where you can listen to all of our current content and keep up-to-date on our upcoming productions. Speaking of which, we are currently looking for actors of any age in putting together our current production, Murder at Sea, a thrilling adventure tale in the vein of 1960s spy films. We are most in need of a suave and charming, yet cowardly leading-man and a strong-willed, yet soft leading-woman, each in their late-20s to early 40s. You can get in contact with us through our website, or by e-mailing us at kruutheateroftheair@gmail.com.

If you’re not sure where to start, Off the Map: Hidden Gem of Kumbundu or Danny McLipstick in the Perplexing Case of the Perilous Prom are both very accessible, light, and fun – and some of our best produced to date.

Thanks to the Fairfield Iowa Flickr Group, I was introduced to Guy Harvey’s photography. He’s been busy lately taking shots of Fairfield Iowa and has compiled a great set of photographs titled “Fairfield Iowa Scenes”.  You have likely seen Guy out around town in the sunset hours with his Pentax.   I love his eye for capturing “urban” Fairfield, as well as his creative shots using long exposure times.  Here’s what he has to say about “Fairfield Iowa Scenes”:

One of the things that keeps my photography motivated is to shoot themes. Urban Fairfield is one of them. I started shooting down town Fairfield in 2008 and has intensified since moving a couple of blocks form down town. I find there are so many interesting details in the buildings and so many contrasts from the Golden Dome, to Depot Street around the rail tracks, to brightly painted thriving businesses to the old and decaying. I am a color shooter, so I look for color as well as pattern and shape. I hope the images give people a deeper appreciation for this amazing small town and the diversity of the people here.

Interested in networking with other local photographers and sharing your work?  You can join Guy and other local photographers on the Fairfield Iowa Flickr Group.  Flickr is a free online service for sharing photos and videos, and anyone can join the Fairfield Group.  Despite it’s small size, Fairfield Iowa has a very active Flickr group featuring a variety of talents and perspective.

Have an idea for a 10 minutes short film Drama or Documentary? Film it, upload it to YouTube and submit it to the Iowa Short Film and Script-Writing Contest. Or if you’re not an aspiring director, write the script and submit it to the film festival – two winning scripts will be translated to film by experienced directors.

FairfieldVoice will be featuring entries submitted to YouTube. Tag your entries with “fairfieldfilmfest” and then insert the link to your video in the comments section below. We’ll cover each entry with a dedicated blog post, and harness the Fairfield Twitter and Facebook community to make it go Iowa viral.

Who knows, the Fairfield Iowa Film Festival could launch your short film to national recognition.

The details:

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The best poetry slam and live jazz venue in Chicago (and perhaps anywhere) is The Green Mill. It’s the home of the Uptown Poetry Slam, the original poetry slam, and is the home to one Mr. Mark Smith, who founded the entire concept of slam poetry. I was a regular attendee and recorded the slams for about a year and a half, and had the opportunity to see a LOT of amazing slam poets.

Of the few who stand out for me all these years later, one will grace our fair city with her performance July 1st and 2nd at the Convention Center: Tennessee Mary. Mary was a graduate (I believe) of the University of Iowa theatre program. Her poetic performances span humor, gut-wrenching introspection, and a performance aesthetic that touched me many many times. Her poetry is rich and deep and subversive. Mary was a member of the Green Mill Slam Team in 2000.

To be honest the Civic Center is perhaps not the best venue for slam poetry – alcohol, audience participation and a raucus interaction in a dimly lit room are almost necessary for the genre. When Mark Smith came to town a few years ago we hosted him in the upstairs space of Revelations. It was well attended and we had great feedback, but it’s not the same as the Green Mill (but then very little is).

Irrespective of all that, Mary Fons is not to be missed. She’s got amazing talent. She’s a wonderful person. And she threw pretty much the best party I ever went to in Chicago.

[Disclaimer: Although I knew Mary at the Green Mill, I haven't seen her in over 5 years, so it's hard to know if she would even recognize me. So I don't have a vested interest except to say she's amazing ].