21 July 2013
This Is It
21/07/13 06:16
(NOTE, The title come from the theme song for the Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show the first verse of which goes
Overture, Curtain, Light
This is it. The night of nights
No more rehearsing and nursing a part
We know every part by heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy8dVZ5r_kU
This proves that I know WAY too much obscure cartoon trivia.)
The Radio Play show opened this weekend. ( http://ladysmiththeatre.com )The weeks of rehearsals are done. The music and sound effects are all worked out. Wednesday was the Dress Rehearsal, and Thursday was the Preview. This weekend we opened to a decent if not an overwhelming audience, the place was about half full. They seemed to have a good time and those of us in the cast got a lot of kind words of appreciation for our work. So it seems we’re off to a good start.
We even got some press this week.
The Nanaimo Daily News had a brief piece listing the show and its times:
http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/news/marina-sacht-llt-radio-troupe-to-perform-old-time-shows-1.543835
The Ladysmith Chronicle also had a nice write up as well, with pictures and everything. However they require an online subscription to read it. (Seriously? I mean, you are the newspaper of a town of 8000. You’re lucky to get enough ad revenue to keep going, and yet you want to restrict your online access like you’re the bloody New York Times? Really?!?) But what’s important is that the word is getting out. Crowds will grow over time as long as we keep doing a good job.
Most importantly, we’re having fun. I have a total of six roles. In the Philip Marlow I’m the Announcer, who has a smooth, Ted Baxter voice. Then I play Phipps, a “strange bird” that’s the “flunky” of the dead writer. He’s investigating how a libellous paragraph appeared in a movie gossip newspaper article. For his trouble he gets killed after just two pages of dialogue. Nobody seems to mind though as he’s a whiny weasely twit with a voice that sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. I enjoy doing him because he’s so different from me. (He is, isn’t he?)(Let me think about that one - marsh) Lastly I’m the Police Inspector that has one line. I play him like Sargent Friday from Dragnet; clipped words, no nonsense, just the facts.
In Fibber McGee I’m Harlow Wilcox, the Announcer with a bit of an unhealthy fondness for Johnson’s Wax (the sponsor). He appears a couple of times and works Johnson’s Wax into nearly every conversation. Then I’m The Old Codger, a funny old fellow who likes to tell stories and regularly forgets what he was talking about. Lastly I’m Charlie, one of the piano movers. For him I used a base voice with a New York Accent. I think I like Fibber more than Marlow. In Fibber I get a lot of laughs with the Old Man. It’s all in the delivery. Even better I like Harlow Wilcox who has a chunk in the middle where he gets two paragraphs of the worst puns ever written. Then Molly says “Honestly Mr. Wilcox, do you know what you deserve for a sales pitch like that?” to which I get to answer “Yes I do Molly, but it’s OK because I have a pillow in my pants.” which makes a delicious double entendre. That always gets a laugh though I suspect in 1947 when this was first broadcast my delivery might have gotten the show in trouble.
So we’re off and running with the show. This is just the first of four weekends and then we’re done. Then a break for a month or so and then figure out what Christmas Panto I can hook up with.
I like doing this.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: From the show.
My View From the Wings
The whole stage. Note, no set, or rather, as we're putting on a radio play so the mics, mixer table and sound effects corner ARE the set.
The Announcer for Marlow
Phipps
The Inspector
Harlow Wilcox, the Announcer for Fibber (I suspect he's the identical twin of the announcer for Marlow)
The Old Codger talking to Molly
Charlie, The Piano Mover
Overture, Curtain, Light
This is it. The night of nights
No more rehearsing and nursing a part
We know every part by heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy8dVZ5r_kU
This proves that I know WAY too much obscure cartoon trivia.)
The Radio Play show opened this weekend. ( http://ladysmiththeatre.com )The weeks of rehearsals are done. The music and sound effects are all worked out. Wednesday was the Dress Rehearsal, and Thursday was the Preview. This weekend we opened to a decent if not an overwhelming audience, the place was about half full. They seemed to have a good time and those of us in the cast got a lot of kind words of appreciation for our work. So it seems we’re off to a good start.
We even got some press this week.
The Nanaimo Daily News had a brief piece listing the show and its times:
http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/news/marina-sacht-llt-radio-troupe-to-perform-old-time-shows-1.543835
The Ladysmith Chronicle also had a nice write up as well, with pictures and everything. However they require an online subscription to read it. (Seriously? I mean, you are the newspaper of a town of 8000. You’re lucky to get enough ad revenue to keep going, and yet you want to restrict your online access like you’re the bloody New York Times? Really?!?) But what’s important is that the word is getting out. Crowds will grow over time as long as we keep doing a good job.
Most importantly, we’re having fun. I have a total of six roles. In the Philip Marlow I’m the Announcer, who has a smooth, Ted Baxter voice. Then I play Phipps, a “strange bird” that’s the “flunky” of the dead writer. He’s investigating how a libellous paragraph appeared in a movie gossip newspaper article. For his trouble he gets killed after just two pages of dialogue. Nobody seems to mind though as he’s a whiny weasely twit with a voice that sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. I enjoy doing him because he’s so different from me. (He is, isn’t he?)(Let me think about that one - marsh) Lastly I’m the Police Inspector that has one line. I play him like Sargent Friday from Dragnet; clipped words, no nonsense, just the facts.
In Fibber McGee I’m Harlow Wilcox, the Announcer with a bit of an unhealthy fondness for Johnson’s Wax (the sponsor). He appears a couple of times and works Johnson’s Wax into nearly every conversation. Then I’m The Old Codger, a funny old fellow who likes to tell stories and regularly forgets what he was talking about. Lastly I’m Charlie, one of the piano movers. For him I used a base voice with a New York Accent. I think I like Fibber more than Marlow. In Fibber I get a lot of laughs with the Old Man. It’s all in the delivery. Even better I like Harlow Wilcox who has a chunk in the middle where he gets two paragraphs of the worst puns ever written. Then Molly says “Honestly Mr. Wilcox, do you know what you deserve for a sales pitch like that?” to which I get to answer “Yes I do Molly, but it’s OK because I have a pillow in my pants.” which makes a delicious double entendre. That always gets a laugh though I suspect in 1947 when this was first broadcast my delivery might have gotten the show in trouble.
So we’re off and running with the show. This is just the first of four weekends and then we’re done. Then a break for a month or so and then figure out what Christmas Panto I can hook up with.
I like doing this.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: From the show.
My View From the Wings
The whole stage. Note, no set, or rather, as we're putting on a radio play so the mics, mixer table and sound effects corner ARE the set.
The Announcer for Marlow
Phipps
The Inspector
Harlow Wilcox, the Announcer for Fibber (I suspect he's the identical twin of the announcer for Marlow)
The Old Codger talking to Molly
Charlie, The Piano Mover