Category: Live Radio Drama (Page 1 of 3)

Texas Radio Theatre and the Ed Wood of Audio

December 1, 2018 / Jack / 0 Comments

We’re loving the return of Texas Radio Theatre’s feed into the world of activity. Some shows you love podfade forever, but Rich Frolich has brought back TRT with new vigour. In case you haven’t heard, TRT is one of the great originals of the modern audio drama movement- and to just kick up their qualifications a notch or two, most of their shows were live performances.

Most recently, Rich has reintroduced a whole new generation to the decade gone now Schlock Audio Theatre by Charlie Pratt (sometimes misidentified as Chris Pratt’s more talented brother). As well as the B-flick bonanza that Schlock provides on the feed, and the marvellous original content he’s still catching his audience up with, Mr. Frolich also gave us a listen to Judson Fountain. The man they are calling “The Ed Wood” of radio drama. It’s more fashionable to call something so awful that it’s good- “outsider art”- mostly because if you painted such abominations you would be locked outside until the paintings were destroyed in the rain- Fountain’s work is a glorious ode to what was radio drama. Listeners can hear his love of the art form. Judson Fountain pressed his own vinyl recordings, and if you own one of these fractured gems they are worth a pretty penny today.

Luckily for us, the Internet can provide for us what our vinyl collection lacks.

Go check out The (Sort of) Dark and (Mostly) Goofy World of Judson Fountain and enjoy.

Oh, and subscribe to Texas Radio Theatre today and as Rich Frolich would say- “Watch more radio!”

Oh, and Rich… what’s the chances of a live Schlock Audio Theatre/Texas Radio Theatre performance for Mad-con.com?

The Game is Afoot!

July 11, 2018 / Jack / 0 Comments

Lions Den Theatre roars this summer with another grand live radio drama tradition- Sherlock Holmes. Keith Morrison wrote and directed this epic tale of The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Aventures of Sherlock Holmes” starring Jesse Robb as Holmes and Dorian Lang as his faithful companion, Doctor Watson. The rest of the expert cast rounds out with strong performances from Christine Daniels, Ali House, Lisa Renault, Dorian Lang, Colleen MacIsaac, Daniel Morrison, Mark Penny, Sean Skerry and Schoel Strang.

Go check out their performances at Sherbrooke Village, July 14th!

Follow the Facebook page for new events of Lions Den!

Vienna This Halloween Weekend!

October 23, 2017 / Jack / 0 Comments

Virginia’s, New Vienna Community Center will help light up their 2017-2018 season with an evening of live radio dramas “In Living Sound – Back Home” for the end of October.

Check out the Connection article on the upcoming performance:

In its first show of the 2017-2018 season in the newly renovated Vienna Community Center, the Vienna Theatre Company is presenting the live radio drama, “In Living Sound – Back Home,” this coming weekend, Oct. 27-28, at 8 p.m.

#Directed by Patricia Kallman, the ensemble of six actors is performing four scripts from the Golden Age of Radio during the 1930s and 1940s – one humor, one crime, one sweet tale from the Depression and one horror. The ensemble cast includes: Stuart Fischer, Terry Mason, Jay T. Stein, Jocelyn Steiner, John Totten and Kathy Young.

#The first show, “Popeye – Visiting the Zoo,” which is replete with live sound effects by Sherry Kaiser and Roy Kallman, was an episode that aired in the 1930s. In this play, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Wimpy and Matey, the newsboy, visit the zoo in search of adventure.

#Kallman said she paid particular attention to the voices to get them down just right. “They are so distinctive for Popeye and they were so popular. So I thought that would be the interesting vocal part for this,” said Kallman, 70, of the Greenbriar community who co-founded the Alliance Theater in Centreville with Elaine Wilson in 2000.

#HER CHALLENGE was to make the sound effects interesting, she said. “We debated animal sounds. We tried a lot of different things. We tried all kinds of things for the hyena. It would be fun if there were actual animal noises but we did the best we could with them. There weren’t any in the original radio play; we thought we would add something to it.”

#The second play, “Boston Blackie – Blackie and the Fur Trade,” which aired in 1945, was created by Jack Boyle, a newspaper reporter and reformed opium addict while serving a term in San Quentin for robbery. Blackie started out as a jewel thief and safecracker, but then became a detective. The radio series spawned 14 films for Columbia Pictures. In this play, Janet and Harry are fur thieves, and are apparently getting assistance from Boston Blackie. But the hare-brained Inspector Faraday is in hot pursuit and we learn that crime doesn’t pay.

#Kallman said she was trying to recreate a film noir kind of feel to it – “the mystery and the grit,” she said. “I was really amazed when I started researching it; I didn’t know there were 14 Boston Blackie movies,” she said.

#The third play, “The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour – The Church Mouse” first aired on Dec. 19, 1935. Also known as the Rudy Vallee Show, it was a musical variety show on NBC from 1929 through 1936, and into 1939 when it was renamed The Royal Gelatin Hour. In its prime, it was second only to “Amos ‘n Andy” for popularity and showcased many stars of the future. In this play, a meek but scrappy unemployed secretary lobbies for a job in a bank in a creative and unconventional way.

#Kallman said she was trying for something a bit lighter. “It was three times made into a movie and it was on Broadway as a play first,” she said. “I guess it ends up being a love story. I forgot that people were desperately hungry in the middle of the depression. People were trying to get by, so it’s amusing to hear her talk about dividing up a sardine.”

#The final play, “Lights Out – Knock at the Door,” first aired on CBS in 1942. This tale begets the supernatural, when an overly protective mother is done away with by her new daughter-in-law. Arch Oboler took over Wyllis Cooper’s series in 1936 when it had 600 fan clubs. Rod Serling counted the duo as his inspiration for “Twilight Zone,” which was to TV what “Lights Out” was to radio.

#“We all said Halloween is coming and we ought to end up with something scary,” said Kallman. “We read a number of scripts and thought somebody coming back from the dead was interesting.”

#The Vienna Theater Company is presenting the live radio drama, “In Living Sound – Back Home,” Oct. 27-28 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $14. The venue is located at The Vienna Community Center, 120 Cherry St., SE, Vienna, VA. Visit the website at http://www.viennatheatrecompany.org.

Theater review: Coach House opens 90th season with vintage Christie radio dramas

September 19, 2017 / Jack / 0 Comments

From Ohio.com:

Coming next: Radio drama Butter in a Lordly Dish

Where: Coach House Theatre at the Akron Woman’s City Club, 732 W. Exchange St.

When: 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 1 p.m. matinee Sept. 23

Cost: $10 for show only, $35 for dinner and show

Information: www.coachhousetheatre.com/shows/118/ for Brown Paper Tickets order or call 330-434-7741

The live Agatha Christie radio play Yellow Iris made for a fun vintage evening as the drama played out in the elegant, wood-paneled ballroom of the Akron Woman’s City Club on Thursday night.

Yellow Iris was the second of three radio plays to be performed live over three weeks to open the 90th season for Coach House Theatre. The plays, directed by three young female directors, are classic 1940s BBC radio mysteries that were believed to have been lost.

Coach House now has the distinction of being the first nonprofit theater in the world to present the three plays, together called Murder in the Studio. And it’s the second theater, after a professional 2013 production in Clearwater, Fla., to perform the scripts live since their rediscovery in the archives of a London library.

The beautiful ballroom setting is a nice change of pace for the performances, which can be coupled with dinner or seen on a show-only basis. New artistic director JT Buck’s goal is to strengthen the partnership between the community theater and its parent organization, the Akron Woman’s City Club, as well as celebrate a longstanding tradition of producing Christie plays at the theater.

On Thursday night, those who came for the show only had some awkward seating choices, with chairs lined up against the side walls of the ballroom and dining tables in the middle. That left some obstructed seating and some hovering behind dining tables. Open tables left in the ballroom provided much more comfortable seating with good sight lines.

Yellow Iris, directed by Francine Parr of Akron’s Millennial Theatre Project, featured five actors bringing to life an enjoyable murder mystery with detective Hercule Poirot. The actors, dressed in vintage-looking skirts, jackets, suits and hats, walked around and mingled with the diners a bit before the show’s start.

One of the beauties of presenting a radio show, in this case, was that middle-aged actresses could portray young women. They included Michele McNeal as the sultry, deep-voiced Peruvian dancer Senora Valdez and Cathy Csanyi as the 20-year-old Pauline Weatherby.

Joining them were Ryan Dyke as Poirot, a strong actor with a good French accent; Molly Clay playing a waiter and Tony; and Luke Ehlert as party host Barton as well as his friend, Carter. The actors held their scripts and spoke into a stand-up microphone just as they would have in a 1940s radio show.

In this story, the American Barton has arranged a dinner party at the hotel Jardin des Cygnes under mysterious circumstances. A woman calls Poirot in distress and asks him to come help her, but doesn’t identify herself.

Detective Poirot shows up determined to get to the bottom of things, and with his sixth sense, starts sniffing out clues. The tension mounts heading into what appears to be a re-enactment of a tragic event four years earlier.

Most of the five actors created distinct characterizations, but it was at times difficult to determine whether Ehlert was delivering the lines of Barton or Carter, which created a temporary disconnect following the story elements. Csanyi also was guilty of speaking with unnatural-sounding inflection and sounding artificial when her character Pauline was distressed.

Adding to the old-fashioned ambience were Chalker Conrad’s live radio sound effects, including a ringing bell, phone and some drums. And Buck himself played the grand piano and sang a bit during lovely musical interludes.

Buck has created a fun concept, kicking off the season in this style at the club, starting with Miranda Dolson’s direction of Personal Call last weekend. The run will wrap up Thursday through Sept. 23 with the third radio drama, Butter in a Lordly Dish, directed by Rosilyn Jentner. In this story, prosecution barrister Sir Luke Enderby gets his comeuppance in gruesome Christie murder.

Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

Sonic Society Season 12 Bonus: No Sleeping!

June 30, 2017 / Jack / 0 Comments

Tonight Jack is proud to present a special two hour bonus episode of the No Sleep Podcast Live showfrom David Cummings and starring among others our David Ault.

From Midlands to Radio

March 24, 2017 / Jack / 0 Comments

A live Old Time Radio evening is planned at the Midland Seventh Day Adventist Church on April 1st this year. According to the Midland Daily News:

The program features a live radio drama, instruments and a gospel quartet. Audiences can see how radio was produced in the “old days” with songs both vocal and instrumental, and a radio drama story by live actors with sound effects.

The format is the Strong Tower Radio Old Time Radio Variety Hour. This is the 11th variety hour and the second performance in Midland.

Originally cast in Mount Pleasant as a church social program that was so well-received, it took a life on of its own. Other things came out of it including a quartet that now is the station’s musical ambassadors. The Strong Tower Radio Quartet went on to produce a CD and performs concerts across Michigan and they will open both segments to the two-hour recorded session for the Strong Tower Radio Network. The network currently has 10 Michigan radio and one TV station. The program will be broadcast on 90.7 FM

The church is located at 2420 E. Ashman St. The event is free but a freewill donation will be accepted.

If you’re living in the area go support live Audio Drama!

The No Sleep Podcast Tour

February 8, 2017 / Jack / 0 Comments

If you had an ear to the recent Sonic Society episode, our David was getting ready for his trip to North America and his new tour with the No Sleep Podcast team to head from city to city across the great United States to spread the power of live audio theatre. Along with the haunting music of Brandon Boone, go see David Cummings, Jessica McEvoy, Peter Lewis, Nicole Goodnight, and David Ault beginning the eighteenth of February all the way to the 12th of March from Houston to Seattle, Boston to Los Angeles and points between Time for No Sleep!

Crime Classics in Chicago

September 18, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

otrr_crime_classics_singles If you’re in the Chicago area, the Kimball Street Theater will be putting on Crime Classic on October 4th.

From the Chicago Tribune:

“Crime Classic,” an old-time radio drama with Radio Players West and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra trombone section will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4 at the Kimball Street Theater of the Elgin Academy, 261 Dundee Ave., Elgin. It is presented by Chamber Music on the Fox. General admission is $20; student tickets $10. For information, go to www.ChamberMusicOnTheFox.org.

So get your ticket while you can, and go watch some incredible live Radio Drama!

Listening Library

July 22, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

racontour The library used to be a quiet place to read. Librarian’s cold death stares to the noisy have long been fodder for teen movies. But lately, they reflect more of a cross between an Internet and Starbucks cafe. Books are the least of your experience in a library today. For example, the Clark Library allowed their patrons to see and hear a performance of “The Wizard of Menlo Park” last Tuesday night from Ranconteur Radio.

All the details can be found in Tap Into Clark website. Now, how about organizing a radio drama night in your local library?

Final Act Playhouse in July!

June 27, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

2B9C959C8-BE0F-56E8-D8441199FEE5A637 If you’re living in the Des Moines area, now’s your time to get tickets for the upcoming summer playhouse live radio drama there. Final Act Ensemble is bringing back many of your OTR favourites. Check out this Broadwayworld article:

The Des Moines Community Playhouse’s Final Act Ensemble presents their annual summer showcase, an evening of radio shows, 7:00 PM, Tuesday, July 19. Tickets are $10 for all ages and available online at www.dmplayhouse.com and at The Playhouse ticket office, 515-277-6261.

The Final Act Ensemble returns for another installment of nostalgic radio programming, presented in two acts. The first half of the program consists of old-time radio fun with episodes like “Fibber McGee and Molly on Election Day,” “Gracie (Allen) Runs for President,” and “George Frumple Runs for Town Council.” Also on the program: period songs, an installment of “The Shadow” and the return of Dick Tracy, this time solving “Murder at the Mike.”

Go get your tickets today! Make sure you tell ’em “The Sonic Society sent me!”