INTERVIEW: ‘War of the Worlds’ comes alive in NYC radio play
Photo: War of the Worlds — The Radio Play continues through Nov. 5. Photo courtesy of Eric Bondo / Provided by Everyman Agency with permission.
SITI Company has been around for three decades, and to celebrate their 30th anniversary, the company’s creatives have been enjoying a “Radio Play” tour that consists of performances of Radio Macbeth, War of the Worlds — The Radio Play and A Christmas Carol. Now, with Halloween season coming to an end, there are only a few chances left to enjoy War of the Worlds, which continues through Nov. 5 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the Westbank Cafe.
War of the Worlds re-creates the infamous radio broadcast from Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre. For the unbeknownst, the year was 1938 when Welles took to the airwaves in New Jersey to inform the listening public that Martians had attacked planet Earth. The radio play dramatizes the events of this highly influential broadcast.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Darron L. West, sound designer for the radio play. He also co-directs with Anne Bogart. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
For those who may not know, what exactly is a radio play?
A radio play, at least my/our company definition of it, might be a performance that is both live for a strictly listening audience and also for a live audience in the room with the performers. The live audience gets the advantage of seeing “behind the curtain” as it were. In the case of our War of The Worlds production, the live audience gets to see Orson Welles and company create the show before our eyes — his frantic mid-broadcast script changes and what it might have been like to be in the studio with the Mercury players on that October night when they changed the rules of broadcast radio forever.
Do the actors break the fourth wall?
They do not. Our in-person audience get to experience the event as if they were behind the glass in the control room while the company weaves its tale of the Martian landing in Grovers Mill, New Jersey.
What’s the experience like designing the sound for a radio play?
Well, there is much more responsibility on the sound design to assist in telling the story — creating the tone and setting, the location for the listener and the watcher. But the most thrilling aspect is being able to really design for an audience’s imagination. Orson Welles used a term “word picture,” which I just love. The script provides the words, and the sound provides the “picture” in the audience’s mind. A listener can create an alien invasion much more vividly in their mind than anything I might be able to do on stage.
What do you like about this version of War of the Worlds? Does the script allow for maximum creativity?
The surprising thing about digging back into War of the Worlds is how prescient it still is 84 years later. It debuted on the radio on a cold October night and caused turmoil almost from the moment it came over the airwaves. Never had a radio drama used fake news bulletins to interrupt a broadcast before. The Mercury production that night actually changed a number of laws about what can and cannot be done on the public radio waves. Of course, humanity is still dealing with “invasions” of “the other” in one way or another, so the essence of the story is timeless. We are speaking the original text with no changes from 1938, so I’d say it’s held up pretty great over time.
Are you a fan of the horror and sci-fi genre?
What a great question. I am indeed — from those old pre-code Universal monster movies to Mike Flanagan’s work. Did you see his Haunting of Hill House series on Netflix? I’m pretty picky though — I’m more interested in movies like It Follows than say Saw.
What’s it like working with Anne Bogart as co-director?
We’ve been working together since 1993 — director and sound designer. And it’s evolved organically over the years to me taking on a big dramaturgical function as part of my sound design work and, more recently, a directorial role. The War of the Worlds — The Radio Play was actually the first show I’d say I helmed more than half. But, we do think alike, so it’s pretty seamless when we’re in the room together. She’s an amazing artist to have gotten to spend 30 years with, and it’s been fun learning and challenging one another along the path that SITI company has taken.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
War of the Worlds — The Radio Play, presented by SITI Company, continues through Nov. 5 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the Westbank Cafe. Click here for more information and tickets.
