10/06/2024
Mark Time Award winner Renee Pringle (1954-2023) receives special Corwin Award.
The National Audio Theatre Festivals (NATF) has announced a special Legacy Award of the Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre, in memory of the late Renee Pringle, audio engineer extraordinaire.
A pioneer in audio engineering for broadcast radio and audio theatre, Ms. Pringle helped shape the success of National Public Radio for over 40 years. When she started at NPR in 1979, few women worked as audio engineers, and she was one of the first Black women to enter the field. She passed away much too soon in 2023, after months of struggle with health problems, and is deeply missed throughout the industry and audio theatre community.
Chris Nelson, NPR's Senior Vice President of Technology Operations, remembered, "Renee joined NPR in an era when our engineers carried bulky, 20-pound recorders in the field and everything was recorded on reel-to-reel tape. She recorded and engineered an incalculable number of field interviews, music performances and NPR programs." She edited and mixed countless pieces for Morning Edition and NPR's overnight newscasts, and while her voice did not appear, millions of listeners have heard and enjoyed her work.
In 1994, NPR partnered with the Smithsonian Institution to produce “Wade In The Water,” a 26-part documentary series about gospel music. Renee was the Technical Director for this project, which won a Peabody Award.
This is a very personal and heartfelt Award for NATF. Renee was a longtime engineer for the Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop, which became the National Audio Theatre Festivals in 1999, and her work was essential to the longtime success of its annual programs and productions. She helped advance the audio technology into the digital age, and always did superb work on live performances as well as studio recordings and some adventurous field work. Her production of “William's Leap For Freedom” was a standout in NATF's long history.
More than that, Renee was a dear friend, an extraordinary teacher, and a wonderful companion to all the many people who served on and attended NATF events. Happily, her voice did appear when she worked with NATF, most notably in “Curly Girl,” a play produced for the Workshop's 1992 live broadcast. Renee’s fine voice and excellent voice acting was a highlight of the production.
The Friends of Renee Pringle are establishing an educational fund to provide an enrichment experience in the audio arts for emerging talent. Annual awards will be made through a nomination process. Details will be announced in the coming months. This year's Corwin Award will make a contribution to this fund.
Click here for more info: natf.org
