Wednesday, October 31, 2007

War of the Worlds

Last night, Oct 30, was the 69th anniversary of the original air-date for War of the Worlds by Mercury Theater on the Air, directed by my hero, Orson Welles. 69 years ago the world went mad over a radio show. What an auspicious night for our first read-thru of ORIGIN with the cast. Very much fun. I heard voice characterizations coming out, some good readings. We laughed a whole lot. I read for an Igor-like voice in a Captain Midnight melodrama.

In addition to ORIGIN, which is 30 minutes long, I'm adding two 15-minute serials of Captain Midnight, originally aired in 1938, the same year as War of the Worlds. Captain Midnight was a children's radio show that played for 15 minutes at 5 in the afternoon. It featured the hero, Captain Midnight, a good-guy pilot and smuggler, with his boy side-kick Chuck Ramsay. I love how perfectly dated these 2 episodes are, how they set the stage for what I'm attempting with ORIGIN, and provide a point of comparison. They're wacky! Way wacky melodrama.

Took my first reservations last night too.

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