MARK TIME AWARDS
The Mark Time Awards are given in recognition of the best current audio theatre productions in the genres of science fiction (Mark Time Award), fantasy and horror (The Ogle Award), and mystery/detective (The Danger Prize). The 2018 competition launches a new category for best comedy—The Squeeky Pickle Prize. The Runyon Award is open to a production in any of the above genre categories, produced by youth under 18.
The Betty Jo Award is given to the best acting performance among the winning submissions, at the judges’ discretion and The Bradshaw is given out of competition, for “services to the field,” awarded to an individual or group for outstanding contributions to the accomplishment, the advancement, or the preservation of the spoken audio arts. In its fourth year presenting at the HEAR Now Audio Fiction and Arts Festival in Kansas City, the Mark Time Awards will celebrate its 22nd year of honoring good work in the theatrical audio medium.
As a legacy project of the Firesign Theatre, the awards encourage creative use of the audio arts, encompassing skillful use of writing, voice performance, sound effects, acoustic environments, musical elements, and technological tools of the trade. The judging panel is made up of the surviving members of the Firesign Theatre family, the original founders of the Mark Time Awards, previous winners of the awards, and other professionals in the spoken word, broadcast, podcast, and audio arts community.
To encourage the highest quality production values, the Mark Time Awards will now be awarded every two years. The next awards will be open for submission in January of 2020. All Mark Time opportunities will be posted on the website.
Mark Time Award
For Best Science Fiction Audio Theater of the Year
The Ogle Award
For Best Fantasy or Horror Audio Theater of the Year
The Danger Prize
For Best Mystery/Detective Audio Theater of the Year
The Squeeky
Pickle Award
For Best Comedy Audio Theater of the Year
The Bradshaw
For "service to the field" of audio theater.
The BettyJo
(But Everyone Knew Her As Nancy)
for Best Acting Performances in audio theater.
for Best Acting Performances in audio theater.
2018 Mark Time Awards
Mark Time Award Winners
The twenty-second Mark Time Awards for Excellence in Audio Theatre were held in the Grand Ballroom of the Country Club Plaza Holiday Inn, KC, MO on June 7th as part of the Hear Now Audio Festival which is now in its sixth year of convening a forum for audio fiction producers and voice-over talent in the growing market of podcasts, recorded books, and dramatizations. (Audio of the Awards presentation.)
The Mark Time Awards (www.marktimeawards.org) are given to recognize the producers of audio theatre in the genres of science fiction, mystery/detective, horror, fantasy, and comedy. The awards were founded by Jerry Stearns and Brian Price as part of the preeminent science fiction conventions Minicon and later CON-vergence.
The awards originally honored producers in the sci-fi genre only but, over the years, expanded to include the other categories. The awards ceremony moved to the Hear Now Festivals as a presentation venue in 2015 and the administration has been taken over by the Firesign Theatre family as a legacy project to encourage the continuation and development of the audio-driven art form while furthering the education of producers in the field.
This year, the awards were particularly competitive with 31 entries from twelve states nationwide and four different countries. They included a binaural production from the UK, the final episode of a twenty-year-long series from South Africa, and a Grand Master Award to local KC-area producer Darrell Brogdon for his comedy series Right Between the Ears. The ceremony was hosted by Firesign’s still-standing members David Ossman and Phil Proctor.
Continuing a tradition which began with the origination of the awards, the event included a live performance of an original “radio” play in the Sci-Fi genre, “Dialogue with Martian Trombone,” written by Brian Price and Jerry Stearns. The cast included David Ossman, Philip Proctor, Melinda Peterson, Richard Fish, Donna Postel, and Orson Ossman. Live sound was provided from the Foley table of Tony Brewer, with recorded effects by Jerry Stearns. The trombone player was Johnathan Curtman. The live show was directed by Brian Price with Sound Engineer Renee Pringle at the helm.
To encourage the highest quality production values, the Mark Time Awards will now be awarded every two years. The next awards will be open for submission in January of 2020. All Mark Time opportunities will be posted on the website.
Dedicated to our Dear Friends we lost this year:
Alan Gross, “Airship Al”, winner of the 2017 Bradshaw Award.
and
Robert Grossman, cover artist for the class 1970 Firesign LP “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers.”
MARK TIME AWARD
GOLD AWARD
Dieter Zimmermann, Protophonic, Cape Town, South Africa
Brad Lansky and the Result War
SILVER AWARD
Jason Hardcastle, Heorot Media LLC, Wilmington DE
Cerberus Rex
BRONZE AWARD
Erik Saras, Amity Bros., Jersey City, NJ
Marsfall
NICK DANGER PRIZE
GOLD AWARD
William Dufris, Pocket Universe Productions, S. Portland, ME
Sight Unseen
BRONZE AWARDS
Greg McAfee, Downstairs Entertainment, San Diego, CA
Rex Rivetter: Private Eye
James Wortman, Every Now and Then Theatre, Ventura, CA
Houdini’s Secret Life
THE SQUEEKY PICKLE
GOLD AWARD
Darrell Brogdon, Right Between The Ears, Parkville MO
Right Between The Ears: Over and Out Show
SILVER AWARD
Jonathan A. Goldberg, Roi Gold Productions, Westwood NJ
The Fall of the House of Sunshine
THE OGLE FOR FANTASY
GOLD AWARD
Michel Lafrance, The Owl Field, UK
The Fairy Tree
SILVER AWARD
Roger Gregg, Dublin, Ireland
The Muse Unbidden
BRONZE AWARD
David Benedict, Atlanta Radio Theatre
Nairobi Jack Rackham and the Lost Gold…Episode 8
THE OGLE FOR HORROR
GOLD AWARD
William Dufris, Dagaz Media, S. Portland ME
The Floodgates of Willowhill
SILVER AWARD
Kaitlin Statz, Fool and Scholar Productions, Sarasota, Fl
The White Vault (Season 1)
BRONZE AWARD
Todd Faulkner, Uncanny County LLC, NY, NY
Coulrophobia and The Boy Who Cried Martian
THE BETTYJO FOR PERFORMANCE
Julia Whelan, for her role as Amanda in Sight Unseen, from Pocket Universe Productions.
THE BRADSHAW FOR CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIELD
William Stout, the artist who conceived the Firesign Theatre character images used on this website.
and
Matthew Barton, Curator and collector of audio for the Library of Congress, now including the Archives of the Firesign Theatre.
GRAND MASTERS
Darrell Brogdon, for 32 years as writer and producer of Right Between the Ears, the comedy series on Kansas Public Radio.
and
Dieter Zimmermann, for the seven excellent episodes of the Brad Lansky science fiction series, from Protophonic.
The next Mark Time Awards will be held in 2020, so you have two years to write, record and produce your next Audio Theater spectacular show.