Students I’ve worked with would find it hard to believe, but I was not around during the heyday of radio dramas.  No, I got acquainted with those thrilling days of yesteryear thanks to The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre which I would listen to on my transistor radio before falling asleep.

There was something unique about those performances that have always stuck with me.  I like to call it “theatre of the mind.”  It’s that ability through sound to immediately transport an audience to another place and time or make them lean forward in anticipation of what is about to happen next.

Right now, seven other actors and I are trying to recapture some of that magic through our radio adaptation of the Jimmy Stewart film, It’s A Wonderful Life, on Saturday, November 7, for an intimate socially distanced audience of 175 guests at the PAC.  Since most of you reading won’t be able to join us in person, we’ll be making it available to everyone through various other media:

• On WQXE radio  at 6PM on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day;
• On HCECTV; and at 1PM on Thanksgiving Eve, 6PM Thanksgiving Day, 1PM Christmas Eve, and 6PM Christmas Day; as well as
• For the first time, you can enjoy our performances On-Demand from the convenience of your couch.  Go to thePAC.net for more details on this exciting new offering.

Who would’ve ever thought that the way forward for performing arts in these troubling times would end up being a giant step into the past?