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Showing posts from July, 2014

Summer Vacation

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One of the best things about working hard, is playing even harder.  Normally, my idea of a vacation is to engage in some kind of activity that stimulates me, but might wear someone else out.  I'm an athletic person by nature, so my time off tends to be filled with bicycling, hiking, jet skiing, ATV riding and the like.  Not so with this vacation! I'm on my way to beautiful Reno, Nevada, to enjoy a little trip with some of my girlfriends.  On the agenda:  two shows, a day at the spa and a cruise on Lake Tahoe.  I don't expect to break a sweat the whole time! When I return, I'll be in the final sprint of a two year marathon to write and produce Gadzooks! A Comically Quirky Audio Book.  I intend to come back refreshed and ready to bowl over the fans of the Quirky Audio Book Series with my latest creation.  Until then, Bon Voyage and a Happy Summer to All!

Meet Gadzooks! Actress Lesley Mendenhall

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Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, I found myself at the ripe old age of 5 sitting on the stage at The MUNY in St. Louis ........blindfolded........with thousands of people watching......with the American and Japanese flags in my hands, pondering the meaning of life... while my "Mother", Cho-Cho-San, (Madama Butterfly), sang an amazingly stunning aria and then...killed herself ..theatrically of course......would be great if there was some fabulous segue to my now many .....ahem...years later...voice acting career, but alas...let's just say I danced, then sang (I did stop to get a degree in Opera performance along the way...) across the US, and now, after life experiences a wee bit too colorful to detail here, much prefer the peace and quiet of the recording studio.  ( Lesley is represented by TGMD in Los Angeles, STARS in San Francisco, and Talent Management Group in Salt Lake City ). A Note From Adele It was an honor for me to work with Lesley

Review of The Ghost of Dibble Hollow

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The Ghost of Dibble Hollow by May Nickerson Wallace is probably my first “summer read” as a child http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Dibble-Hollow-Nickerson-Wallace/dp/B0007DXC1O/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405429805&sr=1-1&keywords=the+ghost+of+dibble+hollow/ The story takes place during a family trip to Dibble Hollow, a setting where young Miles Dibble had mysteriously disappeared many years ago. Pug Dibble, still a boy himself, engages on a spooky adventure to find out what really happened to his long, lost cousin. Oftentimes, books that I read many times as a child and then re-read as an adult, don't hold their value. I found The Ghost of Dibble Hollow to be just as delightful and adventurous as it was so many years ago. What was so intriguing? I suppose it was the combination of an interesting ghost, a secret hide-out and a wild treasure hunt. I was so pleasantly surprised by how well The Ghost of Dibble Hollow held up, I'm

Meet Gadzooks! Actress Andra Harbold

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I grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, studied theatre at Middlebury College in Vermont, and earned my masters at the University of London Goldsmiths College.  Over the past year, I collaborated with Robert Scott Smith to create three original projects at the Leonardo for the POPUP@LEO series: SENSES 5, LOVE, and MIND OVER MATTER. The projects led us to found a new company, Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory, based in Salt Lake City.  Additionally, I work as a freelance director, Equity actor, dramaturg, and teacher. A Note from Adele Andra Harbold returns to Straight to Audio Productions to resume her role as Moon McKenna. Listeners first met Moon in Yikes! Another Quirky Audio Book. Fans of the series will be happy to hear Andra continue on in that role in Gadzooks! A Comically Quirky Audio Book set to release on September 22, 2014. On a personal note, Andra is not only a talented actress, she's a joy to work with! I appreciat

Review of With or Without You by Domenica Ruta

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Rarely ever have I experienced such mixed feelings about a book as I've had reading Domenica Ruta's memoir, With or Without You http://www.domenicaruta.com . This tome provides the world with a horrifying peak at Domenica's life with her abusive, drug addled mother, Kathi. I was drawn to reading this book after hearing Domenica's “Here and Now” interview on NPR, one in which she came across as a very wise and strangely sweet person clinically describing a childhood where she lived in a house filled with garbage and was fed a steady diet of drugs by her mother http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/03/11/domenica-ruta-book . At times, I felt like Domenica was tattling on some of Kathi's relatives, describing their struggles with money and healthy relationships, sometimes in a very petty tone. On the flip side, Domenica exposes her Uncle Vic as a child molester and a family who knew of this abuse and chose to ignore it. It&#