Written as a movie screenplay, this work entails a series of simultaneous events – described from a variety of vantage points. Its four main characters: a Texas sailor, a Mexican prostitute, a Mexican-born pachuco (gangster) and his girl friend, an enigmatic "witch." Moving in violent motion through the modern-day American West, they are as much atmospheric conditions hurtling through space as they are human beings of flesh and bone. Told in a sonic environment of raw musics and sound effects, Reunion is a desperate journey across the borderlands of the American psyche, the dreams of surviving it and passing through the wilderness to the promised land... that hopeless rapture. Narrated by Jo Harvey Allen with Maria Zuniga; music by Terry Allen and performance by Allen with Lloyd Maines on guitars. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.

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Biography

TERRY ALLEN (Sante FE, New Mexico) has pursued a wide variety of artistic interests, including musical and theatrical performance, sculpture, painting, drawing, video, installation, and radio works. From 1983-86 he worked almost exclusively on a body of work called Youth In Asia – pieces on the collective trauma we know as the war in Vietnam.

In addition to his numerous one-man and group exhibitions, stage performances and music recordings, Allen has produced four major works for radio: Torso Hell (1987), created for Soundings, KPFK-FM, Los Angeles (host: Jacki Apple); and three NEW AMERICAN RADIO commissions: Bleeder (1990), Reunion: A Return To Juarez, and DugOut(1993). Other Radio Works and Recordings Dug-Out (1993).

The fictionalized history of a man born in the late 1800s who runs away from home to play baseball, and a woman born in the early 1900s in a half-dugout (a small house partially built into the side of a slope or hill), who grows up to be a piano player and a beautician. Told by Terry Allen, Jo Harvey Allen, and Katie Koontz, with original music by Allen.

Bleeder (1990)

A fictional audiobiography of an enigmatic Texas gambler, religious fanatic, possible gangster, magician, and hemophiliac. With a riveting voice performance by actress Jo Harvey Allen and original music by Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.

Torso Hell (1987)

Written as a movie screenplay, Torso Hell's darkly surrealistic plot centers around the fate of four soldiers blown to pieces in Vietnam and brought back to life by "some weird miracle". The hero is literally a torso. A radio horror movie, Torso Hell is also a commentary on Hollywood Vietnam films. With vocal performance by Terry Allen and Jacki Apple and original music by Allen. Created for "Soundings," KPFK-FM, Los Angeles (host: Jacki Apple) and "High Performance."