Beowulf Alley’s Old Time Radio Theatre Schedule For 12/2010 Thru 3/2011

Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 South 6th Avenue, announces its schedule of radio shows from December 2010 though March, 2011. All performances are held at the theatre. Please note that we will have one change in the Tuesday schedule on Monday, December 20 to accommodate a very special guest that you will not want to miss! Admission is $8 cash at the door for adults, $5 for children 6-13 years and children under 6 are free. And something new! Tickets purchased at least one day in advance online only via PayPal and Google will receive a $1 discount on each adult ticket purchased. The box office phone number is (520) 882-0555.

Directed by Sheldon Metz, the OTRT Ensemble Company includes: Ryan Amstutz, Jon Benda, Janet Bruce, Butch Bryant, Gerri Courtney-Austein, Laura Davenport, Samuel De Jesus, Evan Engle, Sydney Flynn, Vince Flynn, Audrey Ann Gambach, Barbara Glover, Bill La Pointe, Elizabeth Leadon, Butch Lynn, Steve McKee, Whitney Morton, Joan O'Dwyer, Shannon Brooke Rzuildo, Mike Saxon, Jeff Scotland, Danielle Shirar, Ina Shivack, Terry Thune, Pat Timm, JarEd Stokes, Brian Wees and John Vornholt .

December 7, 2010

MY FRIEND IRMA: Irma Wants Money For Christmas (December 16, 1952), followed by ACADEMY AWARD THEATRE: Brief Encounter (November 20, 1946).

My Friend Irma continues to be our most requested show. One of radio's funniest comedies, it starred Marie Wilson, Diana Lynn, John Lund and a host of radio and TV greats. Most notably, it was the kick off for two of comedy's greats, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. My Friend Irma, and it's popularity and wacky ensemble of misfits, allowed it to go on to two movies, comic books and a huge TV success. There is a laugh every 4.5 seconds.
Academy Award Theatre was a CBS radio anthology series which presented 30-minute adaptations of plays, novels or films, from March 30, 1946 through December 18, 1946. Rather than adaptations of Oscar-winning films, as the title implied, the series offered "Hollywood's finest, the great picture plays, the great actors and actresses, techniques and skills, chosen from the honor roll of those who have won or been nominated for the famous golden Oscar of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."
Based on Noel Coward's play Still Life, Brief Encounter is a romantic, bittersweet drama about two married people who meet by chance in a London railway station and carry on an intense love affair. Sentimental yet down-to-earth and set in pre-World War II England, the film follows British housewife Laura Jesson, who is on her way home, but catches a cinder in her eye. By chance, she meets Dr. Alec Harvey, who removes it for her. The two talk for a few minutes and strike immediate sparks, but they end up catching different trains. However, both return to the station once a week to meet and they grow closer, sharing stories, hopes, and fears about their lives, marriages, and children. Brief Encounter was adapted as a radio play on the November 20, 1946 episode of Academy Award Theatre, starring Greer Garson.

December 20, 2010 - Special Holiday Feature with our own MAYOR BOB WALKUP!

Two wonderful holiday stories, The Great Gildersleeve Christmas Show (December 22, 1948) and A Christmas Carol (December 24, 1934), will be presented for a family holiday treat.

The Great Gildersleeve ran on radio from 1941-1957 and was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve enjoyed its greatest success in the 1940s. Actor Harold Perry played the character during its transition from the parent show into the spin-off and later in a quartet of feature films released at the height of the show's popularity.

On Fibber McGee and Molly, Peary's Gildersleeve was a pompous windbag who became a consistent McGee nemesis. "You're a haa-aa-aa-aard man, McGee!" became a Gildersleeve catch phrase. The character was given several conflicting first names on Fibber McGee and Molly, and on one episode his middle name was originally revealed. Gildy admits as much at the end of "Gildersleeve's Diary" on the Fibber McGee and Molly series. In this episode, Gildy invites the Judge to Christmas dinner, and a simple dinner turns into the party of the year.

Back before television, a holiday season tradition in America was listening to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens as performed on radio by Lionel Barrymore and narrated by Orson Welles with The Mercury Theatre group. The music was composed and conducted by the legendary Bernard Herrmann. Few actors ever gave more meaning to the character of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge than Lionel Barrymore who first took on the radio role in 1934.

Originally aired live on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1934, this radio broadcast will live in the memories of those that heard it for a lifetime. If you remember listening, and want to recapture those magical days of your childhood Christmas, or have never heard it, but want to experience the magic of live radio theatre and create new memories for you and your family, Beowulf Alley Theatre presents this special holiday treat and allows you and your family to use your imagination in recreating one of classic literature's most read pieces. "God bless us, everyone."
January 4, 2011

MYTH-INFORMATION THEATRE: Mystery of the Missing Goddess

(original by Avilynn Pwyll of Old Pueblo Playwrights*)

Bob and Ray

Suspense: Dark Journey
Beowulf Alley Theatre's Old Time Radio Theatre Company will present an Old Pueblo Playwrights' new, original radio play by Avilynn Pwyll and a classic production from the golden days of radio. The audience will enjoy their presentation of SUSPENSE: Dark Journey, first broadcast April 25, 1946 and then be drawn forward to the past in MYTH-INFOR MATION THEATRE: The Mystery of the Missing Goddess, plus a special bonus.

SUSPENSE: was a CBS radio anthology series, which presented 30-minute adaptations of plays, novels or films, from 1942 through 1962. One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, it was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," and focused on suspense thrillers-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era. Approximately 945 episodes were broadcast during its long run, and more than 900 are extant.

In Suspense: Dark Journey, we learn that if we really want something to happen, we can will it to happen. At least that is what the main character, Ann Brody, believes. She concentrates on what she wants her boyfriend to do and then, using her power of will, she makes him do it. This episode starred Nancy Kelly as Ann. Years later, she won a Tony Award (1955) and a nomination for an Academy Award for her role in the play and movie, The Bad Seed. "This is a tale well calculated to keep you in... Suspense!"
MYTH-INFORMATION THEATRE: The Mystery of the Missing Goddess takes us on a mythical romp forward to the past, the days of Greek Mythology, with ancient Olympians such as Zeus, Hecate, Persephone and all the others. Of course, any resemblance to the real Greeks gods is purely in your imagination. Swift Mercury: "A goddess with torture in mind is not something you want to see."

As a special Bonus, OTRT will present some Bob & Ray Skits from the 1940's.

January 18, 2011

Fibber McKee and Molly: Fibber Meets a Racketeer
Calling All Cars: The Execution of John Dillinger
The audience will first be drawn back to October 28, 1941 and Fibber McGee and Molly: Fibber Meets a Racketeer. Following this is one of theatre and radio's favorite true police mysteries, Calling All Cars: The Execution of John Dillinger, first presented July 25,1934.
"T'ain't funny, McGee!!" One of radio's greatest hits and one of the longest running shows in radio history, Fibber McGee and Molly, starred Jim and Marion Jordan as the beloved couple. premiered in 1935 and ran until 1959, long after radio's golden days had passed. It is considered by many to be the origin of situation comedy itself. In this episode, Fibber is threatened by a gangster and enlists Mayor LaTrivia to help...
FIBBER:

Mort Toops. Just had a baby.

MOLLY:

Boy or girl?

FIBBER:

Who, Mort? He's a boy. Wife's a girl, though.

Calling All Cars is a classic among police dramas and one of the earliest of the genres. It aired from 1933 to 1939 and is one of the most classic police dramas of all time. Believed to be a precursor to the popular police drama Dragnet, Calling All Cars portrayed the real life and true crime stories of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The day-to-day, tedious routine of how the cops catch the bad guys was explored in fairly meticulous detail, with each episode offering an epilogue at the end on how justice was finally meted out. No gangster was more important to Tucson than John Dillinger. This evening's presentation details the finale to the case in front of the Biograph Theatre where he had just seen Clark Gable in Manhattan Melodrama.
February 1, 2011

Overman On His Way Out (Original by Warren Bodow, OPP)
Dragnet: The Big Rain

An original radio play Overman On His Way Out, by former radio executive and Tucson/New York playwright, Warren Bodow, opens the evening followed by a classic production from the golden days of radio, Dragnet: The Big Rain.
Overman On His Way Out takes us on a humorous romp of a normal, plain man who is convinced he knows when and where he will die, and takes it all in stride.

- "Overman: I'm dying Friday. - Scottie: This Friday? - Overman: This Friday. - Scottie: Honest? - OVERMAN: Honest and true. (A beat of silence.) - Scottie: Then I'll call Eddie."

Dragnet, most noted as one of early television's first police dramas, created by and starring Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday, Badge number 714, was perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural drama in media history. The series gave millions of audience members a feel for the boredom and drudgery, as well as the danger and heroism, of real-life police work. Dragnet earned praise for improving the public opinion of police officers. mIn it's short run. Before television, it was one of radio's top-rated shows. While "Just the facts, ma'am" has come to be known as Dragnet's catchphrase, it was never actually uttered by Joe Friday; the closest he came were, "All we want are the facts, ma'am" and "All we know are the facts, ma'am"."Just the facts, ma'am" comes from the Stan Freberg's parody St. George and the Dragonet.

February 15, 2011

The Longfellows Get Lucky (original by John Vornholt, OPP)
Inner Sanctum: The Horla

The audience will first be treated to an original radio show written for OTRT, The Longfellows get Lucky, written by award-winning novelist and playwright, John Vornholt. Following this we present one of the most favored episodes of INNER SANCTUM, The Horla.
It's 1952 and The Longfellows Get Lucky. How would your family act if you had just won a major prize in a magazine contest? Well, here we find out how the average American family responds in a most humorous manner. "JUDITH: Oh, hi, Jennifer. I didn't see you there. I'm filling out a very important questionnaire about ants. If I get ten questions right, I qualify to win 50 free ants. JENNIFER: Well, they're sleeping with you, not me. "

Inner Sanctum was one of radio's most popular and suspenseful anthologies, running from January 1941 to October 1952.

The series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense, and its tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like Suspense and The Whistler The early 1940s programs opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself as, "Your host, Raymond," in a mocking sardonic voice. A spooky melodramatic organ score punctuatEd Raymond's many morbid jokes and playful puns. Raymond's closing was an elongated "Pleasant dreeeeaams, hmmmmm?" His tongue-in-cheek style and ghoulish relish of his own tales became the standard for many such horror narrators to follow. The program's familiar and famed audio trademark was the eerie creaking door which opened and closed the broadcasts.

March 1, 2011

Lights Out: Cat Wife
Vic and Sade: Melvin Landed a job
Lights Out: Chicken Heart (requested by several people)
March 15, 2011

Life With Luigi: Springtime and the Dance Instructor
The Shadow: The Silent Avenger

*Old Pueblo Playwrights (OPP), organized in 1989, is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging the creation of new dramatic works by Arizona authors. Its members are writers -- both professional and aspiring -- who meet weekly to hear readings of their works and to discuss those works critically. OPP membership is open to any interested writers of dramatic works for stage, film, radio, or television (as well as to any other artists in those disciplines).

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