Old-Timey Radio - The Next Wave of Theatre

(I’m cross-posting this with my book authoring Substack at https://barry626.substack.com. Come check out that site if you’re interested in learning more about the epic fantasy novel I’ve written and currently seeking publication)

I just finished and turned in a 35-page script to an organization that produces audio dramas. They contacted me and were interested in producing a concept I came up with several years ago for the stage, as an regular ongoing series of performances over the span of several months, similar to a limited series on television.

The story was about a fiction radio station in the 40’s, producing their own audio dramas for broadcast. As a stage production, you would see the studio, watch the actors read their scripts “on the air,” see the Foley artist create their sound effects, and so on in a similar fashion to other plays such as It’s a Wonderful Life - A Live Radio Play and Miracle of 34th Street - A Live Musical Radio Play. The main difference would be every week there would be a new frame story every week about the men and women who are producing the radio drama and their behind-the-scenes lives in the post-war era 1940’s, as well as a new radio drama that they perform “live. And it would be entirely original, with a dedicated troupe of actors that would appear every month with a new “episode,” for about 6-8 months.

So this new wrinkle that I’m exploring is that the entire drama would be a radio play. A radio play about a radio play. And if the Pilot episode that I wrote several years ago, and just revised for this new format, is liked by the producers and picked up, it will be one of their flagship audio series for 2027!

I’m excited about this prospect - I would still love to see if performed onstage as a proof of concept of a live monthly stage series, and maybe if this version is successful, it will be.