On the
day before Halloween, 1938, millions of Americans tuned in to
a popular radio drama program hosted by Orson Welles. Unfortunately
for listeners that day, Welles' adaptation of "The
War of the Worlds" presented the radio drama as if
it were an actual news broadcast. Fake updates described a "huge
flaming object" dropping from the sky near Grovers Mill,
New Jersey. Actors read lines like "Good heavens, something's
wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. They look like
tentacles to me!" While the beginning of the broadcast
indicated its fictional nature, the explanation wasn't repeated
until more than half an hour later. In the meantime, the panic
that ensued soon made legitimate news headlines, with stories
of people hiding in cellars with loaded guns, or wrapping their
heads in wet towels for protection from Martian poison gas.
It all prompted New York Tribune columnist Dorothy Thompson
to declare that, "All unwittingly, Mr. Orson Welles and
the Mercury Theater of the Air have made one of the most fascinating
and important demonstrations of all time. They have proved that
a few effective voices, accompanied by sound effects, can convince
masses of people of a totally unreasonable, completely fantastic
proposition."
This was
the Golden Age of Radio, which didn't fade until the newer technology
of television took over in the 1950s. Oddly, the effectiveness
of radio wasn't diminished even by World War II, since news
broadcasts spurred a need for escapist evening drama, particularly
thriller drama. During a typical wartime season, then, radio
networks offered 25 programmed hours each week of shows like
"Suspense" and "The Shadow." Even later,
when television was young, many successful radio series were
adapted for the small screen, like "Gunsmoke," which
could then be heard on radio and seen on TV simultaneously.
In fact, only when the number of TV sets began to near the number
of radio sets in American homes did the medium die as a popular
addiction.
But has
it died completely? For a look at those the state of radio and
audio drama production today, I interviewed Sue Zizza, Executive
Director of what has become the National Audio Theatre Festivals.
Zizza also teaches a course on the subject of audio drama at
New York University.
"Back
in 1979," Zizza recalled, "when I was on staff at
a community radio station in Missouri, we put feelers out across
the country to other dramatists in the field. The intent was
to see who was still doing what, and to form a new group of
professionals, utilizing funds provided at the time by public
radio, the NEA and CPB. The suggestion was made to form a training
event, the Midwest Radio Drama Workshop was born. Now, our week
long workshops in Missouri introduce people at all skill levels
to audio drama production." As Zizza further explains it,
"We believe that if you learn how to produce an audio play,
where you're blending voice and music and sound effects and
silence, then you can take those skills and become a better
documentary, film or music producer, because what you learn
through telling your story as audio drama really hones your
storytelling craft."
In addition
to week long workshops, the NATF also sponsors weekend events
around the country, focused on one particular skill, and at
the end an actual performance is staged so that these learned
skills can be practiced. "Take Lindsay Ellison, for example,"
Zizza points out, "who added audio production and direction
to her stage direction and acting skills. Now she's working
with Tom Lopez on the post production of her play. Others take
classes in voice acting, writing, producing, directing and technology.
After learning the fundamentals, they mount a live show as an
effects artist or technical assistant."
In describing
the unique challenges of audio drama, Zizza cites knowing how
to make voices unique “because obviously there are no
body types or hair colors as in stage acting.” Also, knowing
when and how often to utilize sound effects is important, “because
too much sound design only confuses the listener, and should
only be used to support the action, identify locales, or move
characters around a space.” In short, the listener must
be clear at all moments about what is going on. And that rule
has never changed.
But hasn’t
the equipment changed since radio's Golden Age? "Not really,"
claims Zizza. "Many of the props I use today were inherited
from my mentor Al Shaffer, who did sound effects for Bob &
Ray, among others. He taught me how to do horses, walk down
stairs, etc. The only thing that's really changed is that the
microphones are more sensitive now, so you can't get away with
using an old-time prop like cellophane to make fire. Although
corn starch is still used for walking through snow." She's
adamant that sound effects taken from CDs don't work for the
most part, even in our modern, high-tech era. "The acoustic
space is not the same as the space where the actors record,
and you can tell. With animals in a zoo, for example, there's
a reverb which can't be corrected. So getting a sound effects
artist to listen and add effects in real time actually saves
time. Where the science has advanced is really in post production,
with digital recording and editing. But if you don't understand
how the elements of writing and acting and sound design combine
in the final product, it won't matter if you're producing it
digitally, and Pro Tools won't save you."
Zizza says
that part of her funding today comes from the National Endowment
for the Arts, and part from the local arts councils where the
festivals are held, and from individual contributors. The audio
drama community as it exists today consists of "about two
hundred independent companies or individuals producing mostly
new material, although maybe half will produce both old time
and new scripts." For her own part, she produces The Radio
Works, a sampler series which is heard on 70 public radio stations,
and features a different producer each time, with all new work.
Other audio drama companies currently active include the Full
Cast Audio company, the Atlanta Radio Theater, Great Northern
Audio Theatre, ZBS Foundation, Firesign Theatre, Shoestring
Radio Theater, and the Radio Repertory Company of America. Seeing
Ear Theatre, associated with the Scifi channel, produces original
plays for publishers like Harper Audio, like the excellent "Two
Plays for Voices," featuring actors Bebe Neuwirth and
Brian Dennehy performing Neil Gaiman's "Snow Glass Apples"
and "Murder Mysteries." And of course L.A. Theatre
Works, perhaps the most highly regarded audio theatre company,
employs talented professionals like Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha
Mason to record classic plays as audio dramas for distribution
in bookstores, like Neil Simon's "The
Prisoner of Second Avenue."
What does
the future hold? Zizza is cautious, but optimistic. "Full
cast audio is costly to produce, and so there are not as many
titles available. This is also true for public radio stations,
who find it more economical to produce news or talk shows. But
I think the situation is improving over what it was just three
years ago. With all the webcasting and iPod downloading going
on, I think people will seek out audio drama, and already a
new crop of directors and producers are studying the craft the
same way as those who study stage acting. Our challenge is to
produce better quality material, and take those interested to
the next level of skills so that audio theater looks forward
instead of backward."
For
a befitting sampling of full cast stories this month, give a
listen to A
GROWN-UP'S HALLOWEEN, directed by radio drama pioneer Yuri
Rasovsky for Blackstone Audio. "Dedicated to the thinking
paranoiac," the collection includes stories by Kafka, Dostoevsky,
Bierce, Twain, Shaw, and "A. Fiend." (Probably Yuri
himself). Eclectic and unusual, the audiobook was nominated
for an Audie in 2007.
Having
directed my own audiobook "Fame Island," Yuri also
directs and reads a just-released collection of horror stories
by Richard Matheson titled I AM LEGEND, with narrator Robertson
Dean. The title story is about a man who might be the last human
in a world of vampires, and his survival amid the ruins of what
we imagine to be "civilization." Tone is chilling,
and also ironic--even comic--as Rasovsky's choices usually are.