As a producer...

When I was a "regular" on Days Of Our Lives, I became intrigued by the soap opera format. When I got the job on Days, I played close attention, watching the scenes I wasn't in, and studying my scripts carefully. I found soaps are an extraordinary art form, a kind of archetypal story-telling for modern times. Well...not only was I intrigued, I took the crazy notion to create my OWN soap opera. Going against every trend in modern life (my agent thought I was nuts, but later became a big supporter), and being the kind of person who sometimes likes to shoot the rapids  -  I decided to create my show for radio, and thus began my producing adventures.

The rest, as they say, is history. Although radio drama was (and still remains) virtually a lost art in the U.S.A., this has never been the case in the U.K., where radio is every bit as big a deal as TV is to Americans. They even have a Radio Guide similar to TV Guide. When I had successfully test-marketed the show in the States and had a "body of evidence" that the show worked - including increased ratings in every one of its time slots - I took the show on the road and had a booth with the L'Amour family (they were selling audio versions of Louis L'Amour stories) at the N.A.B. (National Association of Broadcasters).

Imagine my surprise when two people from the BBC began pointing and exclaiming "It's her! It's her! Little did I know, the head of BBC's Radio 5 had been trying to find me. By the start of the next season, my one-of-a-kind radio drama Milford-Haven, U.S.A. became the first (and still only) American radio serial program to air on the world-famous BBC network, where we wound up with 4.5 million listeners! Tapes of my hit radio drama are now available too. (True story: My Aunt Madelon took a long drive cross-country with a set of 20 Milford-Haven tapes. When she arrived at my house, having not seen me in several years, did she say, "Hi! Great to see you"? No! She jumped out of the car and said, "What happened to Zackery??" Ha! I hooked her!) It's certainly a great set of tapes for the car. People are now acquiring the whole collection! It's available online at Amazon.com.

Since then, I continue to produce, and absolutely adore the process. When you hear my audio books, you'll discover I have an unusual producing style, in that I combine elements of audio drama (I learned so much from creating my radio show) with the classical reader's theatre approach. Consequently you'll hear a judicious use of original sound effects -- some, gathered from sound recordists around the world, and some created by my long-time collaborator, foley master David L. Krebs.

Among the classics of travel-adventure literature are the writings of John Muir, and I'm thrilled to say my publishing company now offers two audio books by this great naturalist, both taken from his Alaska writings. First is the audio book Stickeen, the haunting story of the intrepid traveler and his favorite canine companion. Second is the audio book, Travels in Alaska, Muir's journals of wildlife and glaciers, native peoples and early 1900s fellow-travelers. While teaching at University of Alaska, Fairbanks Summer Fine Arts Camp, I befriended the fabulous Lee Salisbury, the founder of the UAF Theatre Department, and the well-known "voice" of NPR and PBS in Alaska. Lee's reading of these stories is spellbinding, and the audio books also feature original music by my gifted friend Marilyn Harris, bird sounds from the ornithology collection of the University of Alaska, and original sound effects by David L. Krebs, so immediate you'll believe you're standing beside Muir as he chips out footsteps along an ice bridge stretching across a glaciar's chasm....

Some of the work closest to my heart is the work I do with my best friend and spiritual sister Erin Gray. Several years ago we started PurlGray Productions, and last year we wrote and produced a Public Service Announcement on domestic violence, and created a domestic violence web site as well, to help battered women. This is an issue we both care about deeply, and we both work with Haven House, the oldest shelter for battered women in the U.S., Erin as a board member, myself as an advisory board member. We recently won an award for our domestic violence work from Women's Peacepower in Tampa, Florida. What fantastic women run that organization, and what an honor it was to be included, especially because it helps us help others.

One of my most challenging -- and rewarding -- projects happened when one of my dearest friends asked me to co-produce with him. It was he who got me started on producing audio books. Dan Hamilton -- an Emmy-award winning director -- and I produced the audio book The Hidden Legacy: Uncovering, Confronting and Healing Three Generations of Incest. Dan and I knew this would be a healing project, and from day one it was, and continues to be. When we finished the project I had paperweights engraved for us which say: The Healing Continues, our theme. Written by Dan's step-mother Barbara Hamilton, this book details a heroic odyssey through a treacherous emotional landscape. Once again Marilyn Harris provides one of the most haunting piano scores you'll ever hear. And there are other interesting musical inclusions.

The author at one point in her life was tremendously uplifted by the song "Leave Me Alone" which was recorded by Helen Reddy. Pursuing the rights for over a year, Capitol Records proved to be a maze full of the unhelpful and the uninformed. However I contacted the songwriter Linda Laurie who'd actually recorded the song before Helen did, and whose charts Helen had used. Linda gave us the rights to her recording, a recording which was never heard as widely as it should have been, so this was another healing thing about the audio book. Another song which meant a great deal to Barbara Hamilton as her own healing began to emerge, was the unparalleled song "The Rose" by my incomparable friend Amanda McBroom. Amanda gave her share of the rights in one second flat, and we used Amanda's own recording of her song (rather than Bette Midler's), completing a theme throughout the project of using creator's own works. While this audio book may not be for everybody, Dan and Barbara and I know it is for everybody serious about healing this widespread problem.

Erin and I plan to do an audio version of our book & seminar Act Right. And right now I'm working on producing the first audio books of the Milford-Haven novels! I'll keep you posted on my next producing projects. And if you have a book or project you think belongs in an audio format, let me know!