The Repertoire Theater Production course (THE269) has established a new theatrical production, called the Radio Theater. Radio theater is a podcast-like production that involves listening to voice actors perform. So, instead of watching the performers act, the audience listens to character interaction.
The Radio Theater is produced by Michael Curry, professor of Integrative Arts Studies and Theatre, with the assistance of Allison Campbell, Associate Professor of Theatre.
Environmental sustainability is this year’s Radio Theater theme. Each episode will focus on a play that’s originally published by a playwright book called, The Future is Not Fixed: Short Plays Envisioning a Global Green New Deal, by Chantal Bilodeau. Students who participate in the Radio Theater read some of the plays from the book and are cast by a character in one play. The theater department hosted auditions on February 6th, where students made wonderful performances.
Michael Curry, one of the producers and professor of THE269, proposed the series should be about environmental sustainability. The idea came out during a brainstorming meeting with the Theater Department on the podcast’s topic.
“Once we had decided to produce a series of radio plays, we were not sure about what the plays should be about,” Curry explains how the radio theater idea came to be.
“I had just finished teaching a course on art and the environment during the January break, and I just asked, ‘What about plays about the environment?’ Allison [Campbell], who is an avid play reader and a deft Googler, came back with, ‘What about this anthology of short international plays called The Future Is Not Fixed?’ We both bought a digital copy of the anthology, read it in two days, and knew we had found our source of material.”
Goucher’s radio theater podcast shows a great opportunity to combine theater and environmental science by using theatrical performances as a creative critique on how humans tackle environmental issues and to predict what the future of climate change will look like.
Goucher’s Radio Theater can be accessible to everyone, not just the Goucher community. Each podcast episode will be posted on SoundCloud so that everyone can hear the performances by the cast. It will also be available through Apple podcasts on the Goucher podcast website. The SoundCloud and Apple podcasts will be available with a link on the Goucher Theater webpage. Students and faculty can send links to their friends and family to spread the news about Radio Theater and listen to everyone’s great work on each episode.
From May 2nd to May 3rd, there will be a live performance of each episode, so that audiences can see and hear the cast playing their respective roles.
As a part of the Radio Theater production, I have a goal of making a creative influence with my interests in creative arts. I have an interest in being a playwright, a person who creates stories, characters, and conflicts in a theatrical environment. I told Michael about my interest and experience with playwriting, and he challenged me to create my own playwright that connects to environmental sustainability.
After a week of brainstorming, I created my very own playwright, Human Invasion. My play is about a couple of aliens who live on Mars. They talk about rumors of humans coming to colonize their planet, which humans call it, “Planet B”! My play will be in Episode 4.
Curry shows his astonishment over the amount of hard work and creativity that has been put on my play. Curry expresses, “I’m very glad to be working with you, Kristen, on your play. It’s great to work on original material, and I’m really delighted with the humor and irony of Human Invasion.”
I’m thankful for the production crew for giving me a chance to use my creative writing skills in the theater! I’m very excited to see my creation come to life and have everyone listen to what I’ve cooked up!
Goucher’s Radio Theater has a lot of heart with great effort to have many creative plays recognized. The people who have worked on their voice ranges for their characters are making excellent progress with their rehearsals. Faculty members, such as Campbell and Becky Free are helping out with the production with their theater experiences.
Campbell makes the Radio Theater a fond memory of Goucher as she prepares to retire at the end of this year. Free helps out with the production by being the cast’s vocal coach, letting them go through a vocal warm-up, and encouraging them to improve their vocal ranges. Everyone in the Radio Theater is doing their best to make sure that their voices are heard. It’s a great experience working in the voice acting field.
As the theater production and the crew make progress with their plays, we hope that everyone in the Goucher community will be excited to hear the iconic voices of students, while developing care and awareness for the environment.
