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• Buy Now - Telling Tales of Civil Warriors - Vol 1
"Timothy Patrick Miller with Ambrose Bierce Telling Tales of Civil Warriors Vol 1"
Scene 1) A Little of Chickamauga
Scene 2) An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Scene 3) A Son Of The Gods
» Purchase and Download Vol 1 - MP3 - $9.99
• Buy Now - Telling Tales of Civil Warriors - Vol 2
"Timothy Patrick Miller with Ambrose Bierce Telling Tales of Civil Warriors Vol 2 "
Scene 1) One Of The Missing
Scene 2) A Resumed Identity
» Purchase and Download Vol 2 - MP3 - $9.99
• Buy Now - Telling Tales of Civil Warriors - Vol 3
"Timothy Patrick Miller with Ambrose Bierce Telling Tales of Civil Warriors Vol 3 "
Scene 1) Chickamauga
Scene 2) The Mockingbird
Scene 3) A Horseman In The Sky
» Purchase and Download Vol 3 - MP3 - $9.99
:: Recent Reviews
Telling Tales of Civil Warriors: A MAGICAL REALITY CHAUTAUQUA SHOW
Ambrose Bierce
Performed by Timothy Patrick Miller
*reprinted from Audiofile Magazine feb/mar 2007
"...I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read the greatest American short story,which is "Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce. It isn't remotely political. It is a flawless example of American genius, like Sophisticated Lady by Duke Ellington or the Franklin Stove..."
Kurt Vonnegut, 2005
Timothy Patrick Miller's '96 cassette volume Civil War Tales of Ambrose Bierce is now rereleased for download under a new title and greatly expanded. The tales reflect the author's personal experiences as a Union soldier, not to mention his penchant for the fantastic and the macabre and for mordant humor. Miller has lightly edited the material for oral delivery. As narrator, he contibutes a flexible, deeply resonant voice; a gift for the dramatic; a sensitivity to atmosphere; and a thorough understanding of nuance. Bierce may have been an uneven writer, but Miller is a consistently excellent performer, elevating the weaker selections and bringing out the best in the good ones, especially the classic "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."
Y.R.
American Listeners Theatre 1 hr. Audio Program
$9.99
"Miller is to Bierce what Holbrook was to Twain and that's high praise, indeed!"
review of live performance: Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster
There are a couple of good reasons why Hal Holbrook's "Mark Twain" did so well as a traveling one-man show. For one thing, the material came from Mark Twain and for the other, Holbrook was so seductive as Twain that the level of believability in the character was overwhelming. In Timoth Patrick Miller's one man show on the legendary Ambrose Bierce, both mojos are working as well - Bierce was a brilliant writer who could seduce, then scare the ink off the paper and Miller's Bierce is a character you can't take your eyes's off. This guy is good.
Miller is an accomplished actor who hails from Texas and brought his Ambrose Bierce show up to Woods Hole last November for a benefit. This year he's back for another tour and fresh from his summer appearance at the Gettysburg Theatre Festival, presenting his "Magical Reality Chataqua." His character, Ambrose Bierce, was a columnist and journalist with the Hearst Newspapers and an amazing short story writer. Perhaps his most enduring work is "The Devil's Dictionary," in which he defines words according to his own view of the world, such as: "noise, n. A stench in the ear. Undomesticated music. The chief product and authenticating sign of civilization." Aside from this wildly funny and still popular dictionary, Bierce wrote unflinching, sometimes brutal, short stories.
If you haven't read "Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" find it and read it. You'll never forget it.
(Editors Note - MP3 Preview: click here to download and LISTEN to Timothy Patrick Miller performing "Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge")
Bierce became part of his own immortal mystery by disappearing in 1913, presumably in mexico with Pancho Villa, though there has been much speculation on that. For all any of us know, he could be lost at the Airport Rotary.
Miller is to Bierce what Holbrook was to Twain and that's high praise, indeed!
SOME MEMORABILIA:
This recently found old Review is of the Show from which A MAGICAL REALITY CHAUTAUQUA SHOW grew. That Show was called THE STORYTELLER and it was part of a wonderous, outrageous, magical time in the Adventures of Austin. The Review was written by John Bustin, late great Dean of Texas Theatre Critics.
"In theatrical jargon the word presence is used to describe that special quality that enables one performer to dominate the stage where another merely occupies it. An actor who makes an audience notice him not by showy tricks or up-staging his fellow performers has presence. We have a number of fine actors in Austin, but I cant think of anyone who exudes presence the way Timothy Patrick Miller does. He is quite simply a remarkably compelling actor. Miller has had some fat roles since coming to town in everything from Shaw to Tennessee Williams and he has enriched all of them. He's probably never had as great a vehicle for displaying his formidable talents, though, as a one man show he is currently doing called THE STORYTELLER. Each sketch presents Miller as a different persona. There's droll humor, and wild black comedy in Bierce's OIL OF DOG, but the one that perhaps best suits Miller's larger than life poetic style is THE HOST OF THE AIR. It's a really hypnotic performance.
Neatly linking the assorted pieces together into a unified whole, Miller manages the even more incredible trick of making us believe totally in whatever character he's portraying at the moment. It's a marvelous tour de force,of course,but it's also some of the most literate and spellbinding entertainment I've seen in too long a time."
:: Purchase: A Magical Reality Chautauqua Show
"Timothy Patrick Miller with Ambrose Bierce Telling Strange Tales"
You can now purchase American Listeners Theatre audio programs through digital download at payloadz.com.
Click the above link or here to purchase an MP3 of "Timothy Patrick Miller with Ambrose Bierce Telling Strange Tales" for only 6.99.
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:: Meet Timothy Patrick Miller
Timothy Patrick Miller is the award winning Voice Actor/Narrator and Principle Performer of American Listeners Theatre presents A MAGICAL REALITY CHAUTAUQUA SHOW featuring greatest tales of Americana Legend and Lore which are strikingly significant to contemporary listeners. He has won the Audio Publishers Associations AUDIE AWARD and was recently selected for Audiofile Magazines EARPHONES AWARD honoring his three volume collection: TIMOTHY PATRICK MILLER with AMBROSE BIERCE"TELLING TALES OF CIVIL WARRIORS". Visit www.cdamericana where great listening may be accessed by Digital Download. On stage his roles range the theatrical spectrum from "The King" in Saroyans "Cave Dwellers", to Captain Jack Boyle, the title character in O'Caseys "Juno And The Paycock", Vladimir in "Waiting For Godot", Alfred Doolittle in Shaws "Pygmalion,Dick Dudgeon in his "The Devils Disciple", Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" and the nine characters of John Henry Faulks delightful Texas folk comedy "Pear Orchard Texas" to name a few. Millions of young people throughout the country listen to him regularly as a narrator providing the audio presentation of their written texts in his work with national textbook publisher HOLT RINEHART WINSTON. He was the voice of the Red Cross messages of hope after Hurricane Katrina and has voiced countless commercials and corporate industrials over the years. In the gaming world he is known as ADMIRAL DANE in the Nintendo "Metroid" series and as the originating narrator of THE TEXAS LOTTERY there are SOME people who have become stinkin' rich immediately after listening to his voice. No promises tonight,of course, but y' never know...
:: Reviews & Kudos
AudioFile Magazine RealTime Reviews:
A MAGICAL REALITY CHAUTAQUA SHOW: Telling Strange Tales
Ambrose Bierce
Read by Timothy Patrick Miller
[Editor’s Note: The following is a combined review with THE MAYPOLE OF THE MARYMOUNT.]--Timothy Patrick Miller's calling his recording series American Listeners Theatre may cause one to think wrongly he's presenting audio drama. More revealingly, he subtitles his readings of Ambrose Bierce A MAGICAL REALITY CHAUTAUQUA SHOW, suggesting not only the fantastic nature of his subject matter, but the bombast associated with the lecturers and readers of ye olde Chautauqua Circuit. Indeed, as exemplified here in a fine Hawthorne tales and two acclaimed Bierce chillers, he is worthy to share the dais with such spellbinders as Dickens, Bryant, and his old literary foe Twain. He has a sonorous, finely-tuned "instrument," which he uses with masterly, expressive skill. To this he contributes a deep understanding of his texts and an ear for the euphony of great writing. Y.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
American Listeners Theatre, 2006 • 45 min. • Audio Program • Audio Theater
Trade Ed.
(DD) $6.99
Praise for The Civil War Tales of Ambrose Bierce
"Miller's voice easily evokes officer, soldier and Southern gentleman. Anyone who likes Civil War fiction should listen to this work." - M.T.F., Audio File Magazine
" This book captures, in short, the niche in which audio most excels: great tales well-told, straight-to-audio collections from the American Listeners' Theatre, an Austin company, are a bull's eye for short-story purists, Civil War buffs and historians." - By Joe Stafford,
Austin American Statesman Staff
"[Miller's] style is straightforward, relying less on characterization than on the power of the narrative. It becomes quite easy to lose oneself in these tales, each a ringing denunciation of war told with graphic realism." - By Rochelle O'Gorman Flynn, Boston Globe Staff
Praise for Critically Acclaimed One Person Show - Timothy Patrick Miller with Ambrose Bierce: "Last Seen In Texas"
"Miller's Bierce is a character you can't take your eyes off. This guy is good. Miller is to Bierce as Holbrook was to Twain" - Michael Lee, Cape Cod Voice
"Timothy Patrick Miller is a brilliant actor. This is a magnificent show and a marvelous performance" - Gabor Boritt, Head of the Civil War institute, Gettysburg
"This play is magic. I knew it would be good but never dreamed how good" - George Muschamp, Artistic Director, Gettysburg Theatre Festival
"Timothy Patrick Miller leads his audience down winding paths of lore as if playing the pied piper's pipe. An enjoyable adventure." - Jaimie Smith, Austin American Statesman
"Eerie and enthralling" - Dan R. Goddard, San Antonio Express News
:: The Legendary Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, original star columnist of the Hearst newspapers, master of the short story, author of the infamous Devil's Dictionary and America's greatest antiwar satirist-answered Abraham Lincoln's first call to arms and enlisted with the Federal forces in the first week of the war. He was 17.
» Visit the Ambrose Bierce Site: http://donswaim.com
He fought bravely and gallantly throughout the war, was severely wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and mustered out of the service after Appomattox, having risen in rank from Private to Brevet Major. A skilled map maker with some military education at the Kentucky Military Institute, - Bierce became a scout and topographical engineer.
The mobility of a scout enabled him to see more of the war than his fellows. Engaged in mapping the movements of the enemy and finding a safe passage for his own forces, Bierce came to know the entire theatre of war-the vast scope of the human element-of man engaged in the most horrendous of human activities in the very heart of his homeland. This experience caused Bierce's stories of our great family rebellion to be regarded as the most incisive and poignant chronicles of the Civil War ever written. Bierce was seen for the last time in November, 1913 in San Antonio giving rise to tales of innumerable exotic sightings and speculation about his fate.
This Appears To Be The Last Known Interview With Ambrose Bierce, Our Great Satiric Warrior For The Republic, Before His Daring Disappearance. BIERCE, FAMOUS AS AUTHOR, VISITS HERE ON WAY TO MEXICO FOR TRUTHFUL FACTS.
Traveling over the same ground that he had covered with General Hazen's brigade during the Civil War, Ambrose Bierce, famed writer and noted critic, has arrived in New Orleans. He has traveled in a haphazard fancy-free way, making a trip toward Mexico . The places that he has visited on the way down have become famous in song and story-places where the greatest battles were fought, where the moon shone at night on the burial corps, and where in day the sun shone bright on polished bayonets and the smoke drifted upward from the cannon mouths.
For Mr. Bierce was at Chickamauga; he was at Shiloh; at Murfreesboro; Kenesaw Mountain, Franklin and Nashville. And then when wounded during the Atlanta campaign he became one of Mr. Lincoln's Special Agents and, for a time, fought River Pirates on the Mississippi. He “has never amounted to much since then,” he said Saturday. But his stories of the great struggle, living as deathless characterizations of the bloody episodes, stand for what he “has amounted to since then.”
Perhaps it was in mourning for the dead over whose battlefields he has been wending his way toward New Orleans that Mr. Bierce was dressed in black. From head to foot he was attired in this color, even carried a walking cane, black as ebony and unrelieved by gold or silver. But his eyes, piercing as when they strove to see through the smoke at Chickamauga , retained all the fire of the indomitable fighter.
“I'm on my way to Mexico, because I like the game,” he said. “Various international interests are involved in some shadowy business down there. I want to see it. Some of these characters seem to wish our Republic ill, and I want to get at the true faces of the case. Then we'll see what can be done about it. I want to take a trip diagonally across from northeast to southwest by horseback, and then take ship for South America, go through the high valleys of the Andes and across that continent and come back to America again.”
“Perhaps after I have rested I will work again - I can't tell, there are so many things –“ and the straightforward eyes took on a faraway look, “there are so any things that might happen between now and when I come back. My trip might take several years, and I'm an old man now.”
Except for the thick, snow-white hair no one would think him old. His hands are steady, and he stands up straight and tall - perhaps six feet - the very picture of a mythic warrior bard banishing dark forces.
In late December 1913 Ambrose Bierce vanished into the mists of legend.
No one has ever been able to prove he actually died.
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