Yuri Rasovsky

Yuri Rasovsky (July 29, 1944 â€" January 18, 2012) was an award-winning writer and producer working in the field of radio drama in the United States.

He founded and operated The National Radio Theater of Chicago from 1973 to 1986 and later formed the Hollywood Theater of the Ear (since 1993). In the 1990s, he forsook radio for audiobooks. Many of his radio plays have been published as commercial recordings or as Internet downloads. His new plays are being released by Blackstone Audio. He died in 2012 of esophageal cancer.

Major works

Rasovsky wrote, directed, or produced more than 150 audio plays. Notable examples include:

• The Chicago Language Tape. WFMT. 1972.
• The Odyssey of Homer. National Radio Theater. 1980. Winner of a George Foster Peabody Award.
• Craven Street. American Dialogues Radio. 1993.
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Based on the silent film. Hollywood Theater of the Ear. Revised 1998.
• 2000X: Tales of the Next Millennium (series of 26 one-hr programs). NPR, Hollywood Theater of the Ear. 1999â€"2000. Winner of a Bradbury Award.
• Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls. Blackstone Audio, Hollywood Theater of the Ear. 2007. Winner of three Audie Awards: Best Audio Drama, Best Audiobook Original and Distinguished Achievement in Production.
• The Maltese Falcon, with Michael Madsen, Sandra Oh, Edward Herrmann. Blackstone Audio, Hollywood Theater of the Ear. 2008. Grammy nominated. Winner Audie Award: Best Adaptation.
• Saint Joan, with Amy Irving, Edward Herrmann, Kristoffer Tabori, Gregory Itzin, Armin Shimerman, Granville Van Dusen, et al.. Blackstone Audio, Hollywood Theater of the Ear. 2010. Winner Audie Award: Best Audio Drama of 2010.
• The Mark of Zorro, with Val Kilmer, Blackstone Audio, Hollywood Theater of the Ear. 2011. Grammy nominated.

Books

He was the author of The Well-tempered Audio Dramatist (National Audio Theatre Festivals, 2006) and, with Carol Madden Adorjan, co-author of WKID: Easy Radio Plays for Children (Albert Whitman & Co., 1987).

Awards

Over the past three-plus decades, Rasovsky's audio work has won:

• two George Foster Peabody Awards,
• three Grammy nominations and another Grammy Award,
• five Ohio State awards,
• nine Audie Awards,
• four Major Armstrong awards,
• four Publishers Weekly Listen Up awards,
• two Corporation for Public Broadcasting awards,
• the Independent Publishers' Audio Award,
• the Gabriel Award,
• the NFCB Golden Reel,
• Mark Time Lifetime Achievement Award,
• Booklist Editor's Pick
• the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Bradbury Award.

Notable relatives

• Barney Ross
• Solomon Rosowsky
• Baruch Leib Rosowsky

See also

• Thomas Lopez
• National Audio Theatre Festival
• Norman Corwin
• Arch Oboler
• Giles Cooper

References

External links

• Yuri Rasovsky Homepage, last revised Nov 19, 2010
• The Well-Tempered Audio Dramatist, A Guide to the Production of Audio Plays in Twenty-first Century America, by Yuri Rasovsky, last modified July 2006
• The Chicago Language Tape on YouTube, 1972
• Yuri Rasovsky's Radio Plays