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The first of the WideScreen Audio Live performances I saw was The Ray Bradbury / Mary Higgins Clark Radio Show. This was especially presented like old time radio as if A Memory of Murder and My Gal Sunday were network radio shows with episodes titled “It Burns Me Up” and “A Crime of Passion.”
The radio announcer made three appearances. First, he introduced the short, lead play: “Hello. You’ve made your way to A Memory of Murder based on the short stories of mystery and terror by Ray Bradbury. This time, ‘It Burns Me Up.’”
Next, he introduced the second play: “And now, My Gal Sunday, the story of . . . Today’s Mary Higgins Clark story: ‘A Crime of Passion.’ We find . . .”
Finally, during a break in the performance: “You’re hearing ‘My Gal Sunday,’ based on . . . Now, let’s return to our story, ’A Crime of Passion.’ It’s the next morning . . .”
Before the plays got underway, the director, David Ossman, gave a short introduction to old time radio. He recounted how, in the fifties, he had been witness to an old time radio performance of The First Nighter Program. The cast would dress up and there were even clothes and hair changes.
For these two plays, in addition to the organist and foley to the left, and the actors in the center, there were a group of actors to the right described as “The Walla Company.” In radio (TV and film, also) walla is the name given to sounds of a crowd in the background. In this case, however, a few members of the walla group had lines as characters in the play.
Oustside the RiverPark Center, the storm reignited and threatened the power at one point. But it settled down to just rain on the roof as an occasional distraction.
It Burns Me Up was a short ditty by Bradbury which may, or may not, have revealed the cause of the lead character’s death. It ends on a note that reveals the bitter thoughts of the lead character as he imagines the worst he can do to the indifferent townspeople from his powerless position. This included a rather impressive sound effect from the foley man to represent the lead’s last, involuntary, deed.
The other 3 plays I saw (My Gal Sunday: A Crime of Passion, Flemming, and Remember WENN: Armchair Detectives) were all light-hearted. And while I love me some light farce, I like a little grit now and then, as well. Anyone expecting a Bradbury play to be all about a wonderful childhood and sunny daffodils has not read a lot of Bradbury. From early 2005 to May, 2007, I read the majority of Ray’s published fiction. His tales are often about the dark thoughts we hide inside, cruel children, and tragic endings. Some found the play dark and disturbing. Well then—good! The play worked.
But like I said, I like some light farce. The second half of the show (making this two plays for the price of one) adapted one of the short stories from Mary Higgins Clark’s My Gal Sunday, a collection of tales of Sunday, a woman of modest background who worked her way to a a seat in Congress, and her new husband, the 44-year-old ex-President of the United States, Henry Britland IV. Its premise is happily inspired by the 1937 radio program, Our Gal Sunday, which was about Sunday, an orphan girl from a mining town who married England’s richest and handsomest lord, Lord Henry Brinthrope.
The story uses one of mystery’s oldest traditions, the well-off husband and wife team who tend to solve crimes. In this case, an old friend of Henry’s seems to have killed an ex-girlfriend. Sunday only has a week before Congress is in session again, so they must solve the murder quickly.
Since the “Hilary Booth, Registered Nurse” episode of Remember WENN, I’ve been curious how an audio play would handle the sound of a kiss. For MGS, they chose to discreetly fade the audio before the kiss. There was more fun with the audio. While Henry spoke by phone from his plane to Sunday, the audio was treated live for ambiance. Of course, we could see the foley artist providing other audio support such as footsteps and doors opening and closing.
Henry was played by Gary Sandy, of WKRP in Cincinnati fame. He had not been in the previous It Burns Me Up. With a voice deepened by time and a beard, he looks much like the character of President Sheridan, as played by Bruce Boxleitner, from the last year of Babylon 5. He was quite good, taking to his leading man role like Daffy Duck to riches (okay, Ehrman said to avoid the usual cliches).
Even better was Amy Walker as Sunday. Amy had been in the previous It Burns Me Up as the lead’s wife. Only her appearance here (clothes, makeup, body language, facial expressions) was so different, I didn’t know it was her until late in the show. And then only because I looked at the cast credits. She was marvelous. Cameras probably love her; light certainly does.
The walla was used in this show as the mob of reporters waiting to pepper Henry, Sunday, the suspect, and anyone else who got close to them, with questions.
Like the performance of The First Nighter Ossman had described, there were several changes in attire to make the performance somewhere between just reading into a microphone in a studio and a full-out play with set design.
I found it all enjoyable: both plays, the music and foley, the walla group and thespians, the lighting and audio engineers.
Of course, it was Friday, the 13th. I would have liked to have seen the traditional Tome of the Tomb play, “Don’t Look Now,” which is performed every Friday the 13th by station WENN. But, I hoped I could still see it on Saturday, the 14th.
Congratulations to Steve Amos for receiving the 2008 Angie Award for the category of Live Radio Theatre — Best Sound Design — Ray Bradbury's It Burns Me Up and Mary Higgins Clark's My Gal Sunday.
Of course, camera use during the play is prohibited by law. The images above were taken by the Festival’s official photographer, Bryan Leazenby. For a much better look at images of the plays, visit the Festival's Photo Gallery. Bryan can be contacted at bryan@onsiteimages.biz for prints. I did and I’m quite pleased.
Once the play was completed, however, I assumed picture taking was safe. I tried a shot of the stage so people could see how it was laid out. Unfortunately, it was a dark room with dark drapes and it was nearly all black. After some strong processing, I managed to raise the visibility at the cost of fidelity.
I then approached the foley artist, Tony Brewer, and asked if I could take a picture of him with his props. He consented. These two pictures came out better since the area he was in was still lit.
