Director's Note
I have been very lucky to be able to work with a very talented and hard-working group of actors and technicians to create these radio plays.
We have all had to adjust so much over the past 12 months. We have lost many things, not least the opportunity to do a musical this spring. When I sat down to try to figure out how to do something theatrical this spring, I have to admit I was at a loss. Thankfully, I received a text from a talented friend who teaches theater in California. He was sharing the link to the radio shows that he was directing and I was immediately inspired by his example. Indeed, I only knew of “The Hitchhiker” because he directed it and I was happy to swipe it.
We are lucky that these shows from the Golden Age of radio fit our current restrictions very well. They are almost tailor made for performance in a pandemic. We set up microphones across the front of the stage in the Harrington Theater so that actors could remain 6 feet apart. We placed two sound effects stations in the rear aisle of the theater and a Stage Manager station at the top of the aisle where she could be easily seen by all actors and crew since all cues had to be indicated silently. And thankfully, masks did not impact the sound quality. We could even include students who are remote learners by bringing them in through zoom and putting a laptop in front of a microphone. (You can see some of our set up in the "Photos" tab to the left or in the menu.)
We rehearsed for several weeks before adding sound effects and we then recorded each show in one take with a minimum of post-production editing. All the sound effects you hear were recorded live while the actors spoke rather than adding them afterwards. In doing so, we tried to recreate the experience of a live radio broadcast as well as we could.
Thanks go out to the cast and crew, Paul Belanger, Randy Shorts, Jane Carlton, Dan Mercurio, Robin Silverman, Mark Taylor, Pam Sheldon, Trey Cassidy, Peter McKone, Jaime L’Heureux and the parents of the cast and crew for their support of this project. It is very much appreciated.
We had a great deal of fun putting these shows together for you. It was wonderful to create something for an audience. We hope you enjoy them!
Chris Sheldon
We have all had to adjust so much over the past 12 months. We have lost many things, not least the opportunity to do a musical this spring. When I sat down to try to figure out how to do something theatrical this spring, I have to admit I was at a loss. Thankfully, I received a text from a talented friend who teaches theater in California. He was sharing the link to the radio shows that he was directing and I was immediately inspired by his example. Indeed, I only knew of “The Hitchhiker” because he directed it and I was happy to swipe it.
We are lucky that these shows from the Golden Age of radio fit our current restrictions very well. They are almost tailor made for performance in a pandemic. We set up microphones across the front of the stage in the Harrington Theater so that actors could remain 6 feet apart. We placed two sound effects stations in the rear aisle of the theater and a Stage Manager station at the top of the aisle where she could be easily seen by all actors and crew since all cues had to be indicated silently. And thankfully, masks did not impact the sound quality. We could even include students who are remote learners by bringing them in through zoom and putting a laptop in front of a microphone. (You can see some of our set up in the "Photos" tab to the left or in the menu.)
We rehearsed for several weeks before adding sound effects and we then recorded each show in one take with a minimum of post-production editing. All the sound effects you hear were recorded live while the actors spoke rather than adding them afterwards. In doing so, we tried to recreate the experience of a live radio broadcast as well as we could.
Thanks go out to the cast and crew, Paul Belanger, Randy Shorts, Jane Carlton, Dan Mercurio, Robin Silverman, Mark Taylor, Pam Sheldon, Trey Cassidy, Peter McKone, Jaime L’Heureux and the parents of the cast and crew for their support of this project. It is very much appreciated.
We had a great deal of fun putting these shows together for you. It was wonderful to create something for an audience. We hope you enjoy them!
Chris Sheldon