[Note: If you're unfamiliar with Chatterbox Audio Theater, I encourage you to visit our website or read my introduction to the troupe.]

Chatterbox Audio Theater started in Memphis and has been producing shows here since 2007. Luckily there’s enough talent in the Bluff City to keep us busy for a good long while, and to keep pace with our ever-growing ambitions for the organization. At the same time, though, we’re already branching out.

Kyle Hatley, our Artistic Director, moved to Kansas City last year, where he’s enjoying great success as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Though several states away, Kyle remains an integral part of Chatterbox, and in fact has been producing work there for about a year now. I’m proud to say that one of his first undertakings in KC was to mount a live performance of the Chatterbox show “Six,” which ran during the annual Kansas City Fringe Festival; the show’s run was extended, and it was voted one of the “Best of the Fringe.” Kyle has since launched an ambitious three-part psychological horror series, “Surfacing,” and he has several other big projects brewing. As if that weren’t enough, he’s been able to align Chatterbox with the University of Missouri – Kansas City, where he now teaches a course on audio theater.

Dave Mickle, our Managing Director, is the third member of what I lovingly refer to as Chatterbox’s “Inner Sanctum.” Dave built our amazing website, which he now maintains and upgrades as necessary. He also takes the lead on a lot of business-related projects, including Chatterbox’s application for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. So it was with great trepidation that I met with him over lunch a few weeks ago, after he confessed that he had “news.” His company was relocating him to San Francisco. (I guessed it was either that, or his wife was pregnant.) He’s since moved to the beautiful Bay City, but, like Kyle, he remains deeply involved with Chatterbox. In fact, he’s continued his work for us without missing a beat.

Sure, it’s a little different. We used to have Inner Sanctum meetings in my living room, talking for hours over beer and snacks. Nowadays, when the three of us meet, we’re each sitting in front of a computer in a different state — and, in Dave’s case, two time zones away. But it’s a minor inconvenience. Recent advances in technology (podcasting, digital recording, etc.) already underpin everything Chatterbox does. We’ve just added online meetings to the mix.

So is Chatterbox in danger of losing its Memphis-ness? Hardly. One of our upcoming shows, “Dead and Gone,” is set here; we collaborate regularly with area arts organizations (including Theatre Memphis, Germantown Community Theatre, and Voices of the South); we’ve conducted several projects in local schools; and we continue to offer a way for Memphis talent to be heard around the entire world. Collaborating across the country only expands our horizons. For example, Kyle and I are planning an ambitious Halloween project that will unite the troupe’s Memphis and Kansas City contingents. That way, Kansas City listeners will hear what Memphis can do, and vice versa. Everybody wins.

If you’re interested in keeping up with what Chatterbox is working on, you can sign up for our email newsletter on our website, and become a fan on Facebook.

Happy listening!

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