Erik Bauersfeld

Erik Bauersfeld is a leading American radio dramatist and actor. From 1962 to 1991 Bauersfeld worked for America's first listener-sponsored radio station Pacifica Radio's KPFA as its Drama and Literature Director. From 1986 to 2004 he was KPFA's Director of Special Projects.

In 1986 Bauersfeld established the Bay Area Radio Drama (BARD) whose mission is to develop audio art works for radio, Internet, libraries, and other venues. The National Endowments for the Humanities and for the Arts have funded many Bay Area Radio Drama projects including an “Eugene O’Neill Radio Series,” seven plays under the direction of José Quintero, with sound design by Randy Thom, and an eighth directed by Edward Hastings. BARD also has produced original radio dramas by more than 30 Bay Area writers and theater artists including Sam Shepard, Susan Griffin, Ed Bullins, and Ellen Sebastian Chang. The productions have had national and international distribution.

Bauersfeld was the first voice to be recorded for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back.

elected Productions

* The Eugene O’Neill Radio Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Executive director, Erik Bauersfeld. The plays were directed by José Quintero with commentaries by Travis Bogard and broadcast nationally by National Public Radio. Several were selected for international broadcast by the BBC London, WDR Köln, and Australian Radio. Included were O’Neill’s four one-act sea plays (S.S. Glencairn); Hughie (with its original cast, Jason Robards and Jack Dodson); The Emperor Jones (with Joe Morton), and The Hairy Ape (George Dzundza). Sound design was by Randy Thom. A final program, O’Neill’s Lazarus Laughed, the first full-length production of the play was directed by American Conservatory Theatre director Ed Hastings with sound design by Jim Mckee (Earwax Studios) and Barney Jones as Chorus Director. The music was written and directed by Lou Harrison. (1987-1995)
* Hörspiel/USA Project: in collaboration with WDR Klön, The Goethe Institute, and KPFA-FM Pacifica Radio, BARD produced seven modern radio dramas translated by Robert Goss, including: Houses, Jurgen Becker; Ophelia, Gerhard Ruhm (directed by Klaus Schöning); Centropolis, Walter Adler; The Other and I, Gunter Eich. Sound design for the plays by Jim Mckee. (1987-1991)
* BARD series, including The Horla, adapted by Guy de Maupassant story (sound by Jim Mckee); and Object Piece, Drury Pifer (sound by Randy Thom) (1992)
* “Art on Film Conference” (Metropolitan and Getty Museums) Moderated panel on sound in relation to art (1991)
* “PrixItalia,” represented National Public Radio, President of Radio Drama Jury, Perugia, Italy (1990)
* European Broadcasting Union, represented NPR at conference, Florence, Italy (1990, 1987)
* Sound Design Conference, In association with Randy Thom and Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound Studios presented a conference for 50 American radio producers (1989)
* “Mind’s Eye Theatre,” contributed to many productions, including a three hour version of Dracula by Bram Stoker (1988)
* Babbitt, 29 half-hour installments of Sinclair Lewis’s novel, performed by the Los Angeles Theatre Works for KCRW-FM in Santa Monica; editing and sound production with Jim Mckee, Earwax Productions (1987)
* “Tales from the Shadows,” in collaboration with Jim Mckee and Earwax Studios, adapted and produced a series of 13 bizarre classics by Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Poe, Lovecraft, Kafka, Bierce, and others for KCRW-FM in Santa Monica and others; distributed by NPR and Pacifica (1987)
* "Dream of a Ridiculous Man" an adaptation of Dostoevsky's story, broadcast on KPFA-FM Pacifica Radio (1967).