What if you could enjoy a drama or comedy without having to watch it? Such is the world of audio theater. Back in the early 20th century, radio offered audio theater of all types. The most famous was, of course, The War of the Worlds with Orson Wells’ Mercury Theater.
Out of the “socially distanced” world came the capability for actors to join over Zoom and other platforms to create drama, comedy, and more. I am pleased to help present audio theater. In the space below, you’ll find shows in which I have appeared.
MIDWORLD: “Return of the Werewolf”
Project Audion brings back to life a late-night radio horror show that has been dead for 83 years: a series which was only heard on the two dozen stations of the then-new Texas State Network. A single Midworld script is all that survives from it — a tale of werewolves and ghosts set in the Canadian wilderness. This is the first time the show has been performed since 1939. Watch our voice actors from across the US perform via Zoom or close your eyes and just listen…if you dare!
The Man Called “X”
A spy caper always makes for a good show. Start with a suave man of mystery, sprinkle in some far-off exotic locales, and stir in some evil enemies of democracy and beautiful women. The result: James Bond? No, “The Man Called X” — which broadcast several hundred episodes on network radio from 1944 through 1952. Unflappable British actor Herbert Marshall originally played American agent Ken Thurston, AKA the man called X. Project Audion now recreates the very first episode of “The Man Called X,” from a script which has not been heard since its premiere in July 1944! The action of “The Cage of Europe” is set in wartime Lisbon (you know, where Ilsa flew off to in “Casablanca.” Audion’s recreation features voice actors performing live on both sides of the Atlantic for this half hour of what was described as in 1944 as a “comedy-mystery,” and which eighty years later is still highly entertaining!
What’s black and white and Red all over? “I Was a Communist for the FBI”, that’s what – the Cold-War era radio thriller that purported to tell the real-life story of Matt Cvetic, who posed as a member of the Communist Party while actually spying for the FBI. Whether true or fantastic, these half hour “radio noir” dramas put forward the fears which the Red Menace held for mid-century America. Most episodes of this taut melodrama can be heard today, but a handful of episodes are lost, and Project Audion’s March show is one of them. The script to “Citizens of Nowhere” was pulled from archives in New York and is performed by our nationwide cast for the first time in 70 years.