Wait for the Beep:
Stories Inspired by Telephones and the Messages People Leave behind Behind
Curated by the Third Coast Festival in collaboration with Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Imagine this scenario: A cell phone rings and the owner is no where in sight…so you pick it up. The screen reveals that there are unheard messages and, driven by curiosity, you listen to them. What unfolds is a mini drama, dripping with the familiar themes of love, revenge, loneliness, betrayal. Could this happen? Maybe, but what you’re listening to is one of five cell phone “plays” commissioned by the Third Coast Festival in collaboration with Steppenwolf’s new production of Sara Ruhl’s “Dead Man’s Cell Phone.”

How did the cell phone plays come to be?
In early 2008 the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago invited the Third Coast Festival to work with audio producers to create audio “plays” for cell phones based on a simple premise...that a series of phone messages can tell a story, and reveal strange and interesting details about the phone owner’s life.

The invitation was directly inspired by Steppenwolf's production of the darkly humorous "Dead Man’s Cell Phone," by Pulitzer finalist Sarah Ruhl. Three of the commissioned cell phone plays are currently featured as an audio installation in Steppenwolf's Upstairs Theatre lobby, the other two were presented at a Third Coast Festival Listening Room on April 9th.

They are all here for your listening pleasure, because who doesn’t enjoy a little bit of eavesdropping now and then?

Stories from the Heart of the Land
Curated and produced by Jay Allison and Emily Botein

The words "nature story" may conjure fact-filled, science-laden educational segments about insect colonies or environmental devastation. But that's not always what you're in for. Case in point - Stories from the Heart of the Land, a radio series made up of 31 very different and sound-rich personal stories that focus on the human connection to land and the landscape. These stories tackle huge, abstract questions through single, focused voices, revealing so much about how we interact with the natural world around us. Or in some cases - would rather not.

Here are three selections from Stories from the Heart of the Land. You can hear the rest of the series (six, one-hour shows), see some related, beautiful photographs and find out much more about the project here.

(Photo above by Elizabeth Arnold)


Stories from the Heart of the Land comes from Atlanta Public Media and was funded by the Nature Conservancy. Music for the series was composed by Bill Frisell.

Divided Families: The Hidden Cost of Migration
by Catrin Einhorn and Linda Lutton

Right on time, here's a love story that stretches across two decades, thousands of miles and an international border. Rocio and Francisco are married but have kept their family together by living apart for the past 19 years. Rocio's raising their children in Michaocan, Mexico, while Francisco's working two jobs in Rolling Meadows, IL and sending his earnings back home. The couple's decision to live this way comes as the global economy is pushing thousands worldwide to make similar choices. Reporters Linda Lutton and Catrin Einhorn straddle the US/Mexico border to tell Rocio and Francisco's complicated story.

Divided Families: The Hidden Cost of Migration was produced for Chicago Public Radio's 2007 series on immigration, Chicago Matters: Beyond Borders. The story was edited by Julie McEvoy and mixed by Mary Gaffney.

Little Black Train
by Nora Harrington

Eighty-two year old Daphne Reed is married to and madly in love with a man 30 years her juinor. She's been thinking a lot about death recently, and about the future years her husband will likely spend without her. Producer Nora Harrington talked with Daphne and with others about their fears and beliefs about mortality. After her 53-year old father died, Harrington wondered if becoming more familiar with death would make it easier to deal with. Through a series of brave and deeply personal conversations with elderly friends and her own mother, Harrington comes to understand the value of talking about a subject most choose to avoid.

Live? Die? Kill?
by Karen Michel

Soon after 9-11 producer Karen Michel moved to Pleasant Valley, NY, from a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood in Brooklyn. At that time overt patriotism wasn't so unusual, but still, Michel wanted to know more about her new, American flag-flying neighborhood.  So she selected sites within a 30 mile radius or a 30 minute drive from her country-suburban home, looking for a diversity of occupation, inclination and age, and asked anyone who'd answer three questions:  "What do you live for? What would you die for? What would you kill for?" This story is the result of at least one hundred interviews distilled into less than a quarter hour of radio.

This story was originally produced for Wisconsin Public Radio’s To the Best of Our Knowledge.