Randy and I attended Graceland University, acted in plays together, and eventually both of us got theatre degrees. We haven’t seen each other in many years, but we keep in touch via social media. I was excited to talk with Randy since he’s a fellow writer. This is part one of a long conversation about our passion for stories.
Randy Murray was born in rural Southern Illinois, the 5th generation on the family farm. He attended Graceland College (now university) in Lamoni, Iowa, where he received a BA in Theatre and Speech Communications, followed by a Masters of Fine Arts in Playwrighting at the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
After college he began work in the early high tech industry as a training developer and instructor, followed by roles leading marketing departments and product management, and ultimately, business management. He capped his career as a business writing and communications consultant for large businesses and marketing agencies.
His play, Grimaldi: King of the Clowns, was performed after his graduation in the SIU main stage season in 1986 as well as preformed for the American College Theatre Festival. It has subsequently been preformed at Howard Payne University and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
His book, Writing Assignments, is available on Amazon.com.
He remains active as a writer and playwright and is an avid ukulele player and performer. He lives in Westerville, Ohio, outside of Columbus, with his wife, Diane. His two adult daughters, one a musician, the other a painter, both have careers in the arts.
Plays, Myths, and Stories discussed in this episode.
Greek Myths
Star Trek the original series
James Blish, author of Star Trek novelizations of the original Star Trek series, and Cities in Flight
War of the Worlds radio show by Orson Wells
The Federal Theatre Project
The Common Theatre Project
Plays by William Shakespeare discussed:
Love’s Labor Lost, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night
Patrick Stewart reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets on YouTube
The Globe Theater in London
Hadestown Music, lyrics and book by Anaïs Mitchell developed with and Directed by Rachel Chavkin (Tony Winner)
Gilgamesh
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
Antigone by Jean Anouilh based on Antigone by Sophocles
Birthright a novel in progress by Randy Murray
“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” ~ Roger C. Schank, Cognitive Scientist.
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.
Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.
The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.
Sage Woman Chronicles 