NBC BEST PLAYS: The Petrified Forest, originally aired 9-20-1953; remade for Sonic Summerstock Playhouse 2023 by the Narada Radio Company

In the midst of the Great Depression, Alan Squier, a failed writer, now a disillusioned, penniless drifter, wanders into a somewhat frowzy roadside diner in the remote town of Black Mesa, Arizona, at the edge of the Petrified Forest. Here he meets owner Jason Maple, his daughter Gabrielle, and Gramp, Jason's father, who regales anyone who will listen with stories of his adventures in the Old West with such characters as Billy the Kid. Eventually the diner is overrun by gangsters, headed up by Duke Mantee, who has escaped prison and is being chased down by the law.

The Petrified Forest was a 1935 stage play by Robert E. Sherwood, made into a 1936 film that starred the principal actors of the stage play, Leslie Howard (Squier) and Humphrey Bogart (Mantee). 

CAST:

Darren Rockhold as ANNOUNCER

Les Marsden as GRAMP MAPLE

Gino C. Vianelli as BOZE HERTZLINGER

Bobby Vela as the TELEGRAPH LINEMAN

Paul Arbisi as JASON MAPLE

Carole Krohn as GABBY MAPLE

Ebony Rose as PAULA

Chuck Wilson as MR. CHISHOLM

Stephanie Stearns Dulli as MRS. CHISHOLM

Carl Thomas as JOSEPH

David Ian as JACKIE and the RADIO VOICE

Dana Gonsalves as DUKE MANTEE

Duane Noch as RUBY

Tre' Minor as SLIM

Frank Guglielmelli as the LEGION COMMANDER

Pete Lutz as ALAN SQUIER

Music was sourced from the public domain.

Recorded over Zoom in July 2023, with actors from Texas, California, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Originally released 8/13/23 on the Mutual Audio Network as a feature of the 2023 Sonic Summerstock Playhouse festival.

SONIC SUMMERSTOCK PLAYHOUSE '23:

BBC Radio 1966 production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, remade by the Narada Radio Company.

ANNOUNCER: Julia Eve

GEORGE was played by Dana Gonsalves

LENNIE by Les Marsden

with Pete Lutz as CANDY

Chuck Wilson as THE BOSS

Austin Hanna as CURLEY

Victoria Fancki as CURLEY'S WIFE

Norman Cline as SLIM

Paul Arbisi as CARLSON

Doug Fain as WHIT and

Carl Thomas as CROOKS

Produced & directed by Pete Lutz; mixed & mastered in Corpus Christi, TX by 63audio

Recorded over Zoom in June 2023, with actors from England, Texas, California, Kentucky and Illinois. Originally released 7/30/23 on the Mutual Audio Network as a feature of the 2023 Sonic Summerstock Playhouse festival.

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, a new production of Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre, is set to launch on Tuesday, May 30th, 2023, to all the online retail sites, including Amazon, Audible, Apple Store, Ratuken Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Downpour, and Walmart.

Listen here to a scene from this production and please support this excellent production company by making your purchase of their dramatization of Lewis Carroll's timeless classic.

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS - By Lewis Carroll

Adapted for audio by Diane Vanden Hoven – Directed by George Zarr

Post Production: David Farquhar

Release Date: May 30, 2023, Everywhere Audiobooks Are Sold.

Cast In Order of Appearance:

GEORGIA LEE SCHULTZ - Alice

NOELLE DUPUIS – White Queen

PETE LUTZ – White King

SKYE GOULBOURNE – Tiger Lily

TRISHA ROSE – Rose

ASHLEY BANKER – Red Queen

GEORGE ZARR – Conductor

ROB TYMEC – Paper Man

HEIDI STEWART – Beetle

ELLIN WALLIN – Owl

BILL CRAVEN – Tweedle Dum

KEITH BURNETT – Tweddle Dee

JOHN JARVIS – Humpty Dumpty

JEFF DUPUIS – Messenger

MICHAEL CROUCH – White Knight

Project Audion recreates an extraordinarily rare and early lost episode of the classic audio drama Suspense. When CBS premiered the the show in June 1942, it wasn't immediately evident that it would become one of the all-time great radio dramas, running for 20 years and nearly 1000 stories. Indeed, in this (just Suspense's fifth-ever episode, from July 15, 1942), while all the typical ingredients are in place (in this instance, a murder aboard a moving train) the show hadn't quite yet settled into the style that would soon define classics like 1943's "Sorry, Wrong Number." Heard for the first time in 80 years, our recreation of this lost Suspense episode -- "The Witness on the Westbound Train" -- is taken from the single known surviving script. It features the same transcontinental cast of vocal actors who appeared in Project Audion's very first episode, along with additional talented voices who have appeared in Project Audion shows during the past three years.

The Cast: 

MARK: Pete Lutz, TX

JOE: Doug Fain, KY

DORIS: Patte Rosebank, Canada

CONDUCTOR: Denny Thompson, CO

LAWRENCE / RANDOLPH: John Mauldin, TN

BILL / BAGGAGEMAN: Dick Huitema, FL

ANNOUNCER / WAITER: Robert Stevenson, IN

DIRECTION / PRODUCTION / SOUND: Larry Groebe, TX

PROJECT AUDION - The Lineup: "The Scared Schoolmarm Scrape"

Project Audion’s newest cross-country OTR recreation is an episode of the police drama "The Lineup" which hasn't been heard since it was originally broadcast in January 1952. The Lineup was added to the CBS radio schedule after Dragnet became a massive hit, and ran for four years on radio, plus six years on television and a 1958 movie.

The lead cop role (which was portrayed in 1952 by Bill Johnstone, who was a former "Shadow" and “Whistler”) is here played by Ed Dennis, an actual law enforcement officer for four decades. He even used his own handcuffs in the show's final scene.

Our full cast: Ed Dennis / Illinois

Dan Keenan / Colorado

Chris Marcellus / Utah

Angela Young / Florida

John Bell / Alabama

Barry Katz / Florida

Kim Titus / Texas

Denny Thompson / Colorado

Tom Wilkins / Illinois

Ken Raney did SFX from Texas, Denny Thompson directed, and Larry Groebe produced the show.

PROJECT AUDION #40: I Was a Communist for the FBI

(Orig. rel. 3/10/23) 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.

MATT CVETIC: Jeff Billard, MA

KAY MORONI: Holly Adams, NY

ANTON REISLING: Pete Fernbaugh, WV

DORA REISLING: Julie Hoverson, WA

BEEKER OF THE FBI: Caleb Fisher, VA

COLBY: Greg Vestal, TX

ANNOUNCER & VOICE: George Taylor, TN

Production, direction, and audio by Larry Groebe, TX

THE MUTUAL STAGE: Charade

Hearkening back to such classic series as Lux Radio Theatre and Mercury Theatre On the Air, The Mutual Stage presents all-new adaptations of films and stage plays, sourced from the public domain. In our inaugural effort, director/producer Pete Lutz has assembled an Oscar-worthy cast to bring you his adaptation of the hit 1963 film, CHARADE. Get set for comedy, adventure, and romance, as we tell the story of a recent widow whose husband stole a quarter of a million dollars -- and now his partners want that money back! NARADA RADIO COMPANY

CAST:

Darren Rockhold as THE ANNOUNCER

Jack Ward as THE HOST

Greg McAfee as GRANDPIERRE, BARTHOLOMEW, MARINE

Karim C. Kronfli as PETER JOSHUA

Rhiannon McAfee as REGGIE

Gwendolyn Lim as JEAN-LOUIS

Lisa Michaud as SYLVIE

Dana Gonsalves as GIDEON and BRITISH DELEGATE

Pete Lutz as TEX, GENDARME, EMBASSY TELEPHONE OPERATOR, MONSIEUR FELIX

Ian Federgreen as "BARTHOLOMEW"

Chuck Wilson as SCOBIE

Tanja Milojevic as ITALIAN DELEGATE

Carole Krohn as FRENCH DELEGATE

Geri Elliff as FUNERAL ATTENDANT, WAITER, VENDOR, CRUIKSHANK'S SECRETARY

MUSIC BY Dr. Ross Bernhardt

Adapted, produced & directed by PETE LUTZ

PROJECT AUDION 39 - Little Ham from Harlem, by Langston Hughes

Project Audion presents a world premiere of an unrealized radio play by the famed Black poet Langston Hughes. What might radio drama's Golden Age of the 1930s, '40s and '50s have sounded like had Black creators been allowed time on the airwaves? Back then, radio was almost exclusively a stage for White entertainers, with only a handful of secondary roles and occasional guest appearances offered to people of color. In 1943, Langston Hughes took the lead characters from a successful theatrical comedy he had written eight years earlier - "Little Ham from Harlem" - and proposed creating a daily soap opera around them. Hamlet Jones of the Singing Shoe Shine Parlor, and Tiny Lee, his "stout but beautiful" lady friend, would have been the main focus of radio's first Black soap opera. It would have taken the radio audience around Harlem life as Hughes knew it, encompassing everything from numbers-running to local night spots. But "Little Ham" would have not been just a soap opera. It was also full of comedy, and each episode was deliberately scripted to feature songs from the cast worked into the action. Langston Hughes wrote the show's first two 15 minute episodes, then shopped his concept to networks, syndicators, and advertising agencies. But in the 1940s, no one would take a chance on such a progressive idea. As Hughes noted some years later, 'My Agents stated flatly "It is just abut impossible to sell a Negro writer to Hollywood or radio, and they use Negro subject matter very rarely."' His two completed scripts for "Little Ham" were filed away, unproduced and unheard. Now Project Audion brings the show to life for the first time.

"Little Ham from Harlem" features the talents of Black actors from across America, and is preceded by an interview with Dr. Vanessa Valdez, Director of City College of New York's annual Langston Hughes festival, who offers insights into Langston Hughes' work and impact.

Our cast features:

LITTLE HAM: Lee J. Green, NE

BUSTER: Robert Stevenson, IN

SHINGLE: Willie Macon, FL

PAPA MACK: Carl Thomas, TX

TINY LEE: Yle Blackburn, CT

SUGAR LOU: Tabetha McNeal, VA

LAWYER / STRANGER: Sean Massey, TX

ANNOUNCER / CUSTOMER: Norval Soleyn, NY

with production and direction by Larry Groebe in Texas

Craufurdland Castle in Fenwick, Ayrshire, keeps its secrets close. It has been held in the same family for almost two thousand years.  It is the early 1800s.  Janet Craufurd, Lady of the house, writes in her diary, charting the progress of renovations to the estate which has suffered years of neglect.

But Janet’s mind is not easy. She suspects that the house has its own story to tell – a story lost in a secret passage, in hidden rooms, in dusty books and neglected papers. And someone is watching her as she searches for answers; someone she cannot see but whose presence she senses as she works.

There Goes Craufurdland is the final play in An Ayrshire Trilogy, three audio dramas which celebrate Ayrshire and its people. The Trilogy is supported by Creative Scotland.

In 1786, Robert Burns sent a copy of his book, Poems, Chiefly in The Scottish Dialect, to Mrs Frances Wallace Dunlop of Dunlop in Ayrshire. She was so taken with it, and with him, that she became his patron and later, his confidant.

But the voices of these two strong and determined characters still resonate across the years through their letters. Their friendship endured for a decade before their differences drove them apart. The Lady and The Poetfocuses on this platonic relationship, which was like no other in Burns’s short and eventful life.

The Lady and The Poet is the second play in An Ayrshire Trilogy, three audio dramas which celebrate Ayrshire and its people. The Trilogy is supported by Creative Scotland.

An angelic fantasy tale set on a remote Scottish island. The bees have all left , apparently forever, and spring has not arrived. Everything is out of kilter and only Breagh, it seems, can put it right. High Spirits is about finding friendship and facing fear. “You’re a child of the air. Your job is to cross the barriers that separate the different elements in this world. Your job is telling stories, and bringing back harmony.” High Spirits is part of An Ayrshire Trilogy, three audio dramas which celebrate our rich history and culture. The Trilogy is supported by Creative Scotland.

Continuing our special run of Christmas and holiday shows, we proudly present the latest release from our friends at Project Audion: My True Story: A Christmas to Remember.

Project Audion's December classic radio recreation is a lost episode from a virtually-lost series - how’s that for a Christmas present from the past! “My True Story" was on the air from 1943 to 1962 on three networks, but it's all but forgotten today, as maybe 10 vintage recordings survive from perhaps 5,000 original broadcasts!

A daily cousin to the daytime soap operas, "My True Story" produced a nearly hour-long complete drama five days a week - an astonishing achievement. Our Christmas Eve 1958 episode (#3,833), also titled "The Orphan In The Auditorium," asked the question, "What happens to a child who unexpectedly meets Santa Claus?"

It's full of poignant, heart-tugging emotion for the holidays, and was recreated from an original script saved by the 10 year old actress who played “Dot,” with a far-flung Zoom-based cast performing live…

Wendy: Holly Adams, NY

Dot: Rachel Pulliam, MO

Momma / Mother Sams: Sharon Grunwald, NJ

Santa: Ken Raney, TX

Announcer: John Bell, AL

Rachel Pulliam directed, and Larry Groebe created the music and handled production

Old-time Radio Essentials continues its 3rd season with an episode of Broadway is My Beat – "The Lars Nielson Murder Case"! This one's Paul's pick, and there's lots of police procedural-goodness in the selection, followed by fast-paced discussion of its merits by the three co-hosts. Will our upstairs neighbor call the cops on us for talking too loud? Tune in and find out!

And since we're on the subject of finding things out, while you listen you'll learn if we feel this entry meets the following criteria:

Your feedback means a lot to us! A review at iTunes or at your usual podcatcher would be appreciated.

Next Time: Pete uses his turn to bring in a special guest!

Season Three of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! This time it's Dave's pick -- but he's invited Essential Listener Marshal to choose something for us to enjoy and discuss. (NARADA RADIO COMPANY)

And since we're on the subject of discussion, we hope to determine whether this entry meets the following criteria:

Your feedback means a lot to us! A review at iTunes or at your usual podcatcher would be appreciated.

Next Time: An episode of Philo Vance!

Horror Fest '22: THE CELLAR Miniseries 2, Episode 2: The Game, by John Bell & Becky Beach

In this specially curated collection for Halloween 2022, we will be presenting a wide selection of new, old-time radio (and other) horror programs. For our ninth, we are proud to present "The Game" by John Bell and Becky Beach, the Third Place winner in The Cellar's scriptwriting contest in 2019. 

In this new production, made especially for World Audio Drama Day 2022, a laid-back guy and his prudish date go to the home of a fun-loving couple for game night. Some experiments with a Ouija Board lead to the unexpected arrival of an uninvited guest, who insists on taking over the evening...and a few other things! NARADA RADIO COMPANY

CAST:

CADAVERA QUIVRY: Angela Young

ANNOUNCER: Robin Robbins

BOB:  Dana Gonsalves

ALTON:  Pete Lutz

SHARON: Angela Young

ELLEN:  Rachel Pulliam

THE STRANGER: John Bell

Directed by Pete Lutz

Produced by John Bell

Theme music composed and performed by Tom Rory Parsons

Horror Fest '22: THE CELLAR Miniseries 2, Episode 1: Terror on Edge Island, by Adrian Cory

In this specially curated collection for Halloween 2022, we will be presenting a wide selection of new, old-time radio (and other) horror programs. For our eighth, we are proud to present "Terror on Edge Island" by Adrian Cory, the First Place winner in The Cellar's scriptwriting contest in 2019. 

In this new production, made especially for World Audio Drama Day 2022, a small band of climate scientists travel to an island off the coast of Norway to study the effect of climate change on its fjords and permafrost, with a secondary study of the prehistoric, primitive life that once thrived there. What else they find is something you'll soon find out for yourself! NARADA RADIO COMPANY

CAST:

CADAVERA QUIVRY: Angela Young

ANNOUNCER: Robin Robbins

PROFESSOR LINFORD NOBLE: Jordan Scavone

DR GUNTER SCHMIDT: Thomas Rippert

DR GARY STILES: Les Marsden

DR ANNE HOLLOWAY: Angela Young

CANUTE: Orlando Segarra

Produced & Directed by Pete Lutz

Theme music composed and performed by Tom Rory Parsons

Project Audion presents a recreation of the radio series "My True Story." Imagine compressing a whole soap opera storyline into about 45 minutes -- that's "My True Story" -- full of love, heartbreak, and triumph five days a week for nearly 20 years starting in 1943. But only a dozen or so episodes survive out of literally thousands that were broadcast, so this is a chance to hear a show you never knew about.

Our episode from October 30, 1958 is entitled "Mother's Little Witch" and asks the question: "Can a woman, unequipped to earn her living, make a good life for herself and her child?" Our transcontinentally transcribed cast stars Jessica Matthews, Dorothy and John Farrington, Bob Beaumont, Jan Welch, and Duane Noch.

Rachel Pulliam directed, and Larry Groebe produced and provided music.

(Orig. released 11/12/21)

Horror Fest '22: Project Audion 35: Midworld

In this specially curated collection for Halloween 2022, we will be presenting a wide selection of old-time radio (and other) horror programs. For our sixth, we are proud to present a remake of a radio play that was broadcast only once, in 1939: MIDWORLD, "Return of the Werewolf", from the Texas State Network.

Horror stories work so well as audio drama because all the awful deeds take place in your mind's eye. That's why radio spawned such classic shows as Lights Out, Quiet Please, Inner Sanctum, and...Midworld? 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!

CAST:

Bob Beaumont in California

George Taylor in Tennessee

Frank Guglielmeli in Pennsylvania

and helmed and produced by Larry Groebe in Texas

HORROR FEST '22: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

In this specially curated collection for Halloween 2022, we will be presenting at least four radio programs originally aired on BBC radio. For our fourth, another dramatized tale by Ray Bradbury, "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

Composer ..... David Paul Jones
Sound ..... Paul Cargill
Produced/Directed by Pauline Harris

Set in 1960's Illinois this gem of modern Gothic literature is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a "dark carnival" one Autumn midnight. These two innocents, both aged 13, (Will is born one minute before Halloween, and Jim one minute after) save the souls of the town (as well as their own). This is a vivid variation on the eternal theme of the fight between Good and Evil. A thrilling, chilling, richly kaleidoscopic sound world ensues; a shimmering mirror maze that reflects your older or younger self, depending on your desires, and a magic carousel that plays Chopin's Funeral March forwards - with each rotation you gain a year, and rotating backwards - you get younger.

Cast:

Will: Theo Gregory

Jim: Joseph Lindsay

Charlie: Henry Goodman

Mr Dark: Kenneth Cranham

Mr Coogar: Gerard McDermott

Lightening rod salesman: Gerard McDermott

Miss Foley: Barbara Barnes

Dust Witch: Buffy Davis

Robert: Taran Stanzler

Young Miss Foley: Amelia Clarkson

Jed: Ethan Brooke

Originally aired 11/04/2011 on BBC Radio

(Obtained from archive dot org.)

HORROR FEST '22: The Chamois by Daphne du Maurier

In this specially curated collection for Halloween 2022, we will be presenting at least four radio programs originally aired on BBC radio. Next up, another dramatized tale by Daphne du Maurier, "The Chamois."

HORROR FEST '22: The Alibi by Daphne du Maurier

In this specially curated collection for Halloween 2022, we will be presenting at least four radio programs originally aired on BBC radio. First up, a dramatized tale by Daphne du Maurier, "The Alibi."

(Obtained from archive dot org)

In this original production written, directed and produced by Rachel Pulliam,  a famous, blind host during the Golden Age of radio is fired when his beloved horror serial is canceled. Once he learns his replacement is a 12-year-old, will it destroy him, or can the show still go on?

This script was the 2020 First Prize Winner in the Marian Thauer Brown Audio Drama Scriptwriting Competition.

CAST: (in order of appearance)

ANNOUNCER: Rachel Pulliam

RITA: Raven Anderson

CECIL ELLIOTT: Glenn Hascall

VINCENT TIERNEY: John Bell

EMERSON CAMPBELL: Pete Lutz

SECURITY GUARD: Ian Shaffer

SANDRA TIERNEY: Marisha Tapera

RICHARD NESBIT: Boyd Barrett

LUCY HENSHAW: Delaney Brittingham

JUNE HENSHAW: Andrea Richardson

HOTEL CLERK: Bethany Baldwin

MARTY JENKINS: Joe Stofko

MISS EAGLE: Sharon Grunwald

'WESTON U' SPOT: Nicee Wagner

'WESTON U' SPOT: Jalen Frisbee

ALISTAIR BELLAMY ('THE COTTAGES' SPOT): Dan Ware

POLICEMAN: Jarman Day

Dedicated to the loving memory of Viktor Aurelius and Jeff Niles

Music: Dr. Ross Bernhardt

Sound effects: Gina Moravec and freesound.org

Art: Karl Nordman

Today is a good day to listen to Bad Day at Black Rock, Project Audion's latest radio drama recreation. We're going far afield with this 1959 show, because by this time in America, television had killed off the great radio movie adaptation series like "Lux Radio Theatre." In other countries like Australia, radio drama still thrived through shows like Caltex Theatre. They adapted Bad Day at Black Rock from the gritty, Oscar-nominated 1955 drama with Spencer Tracy, where one man takes on a dying town that harbors a dirty secret. Now Project Audion recreates it with a transcribed-live coast-to-coast cast which includes:

MACREEDY: Les Marsden (CA)

SMITH/JENKINSON: Pete Lutz (TX)

COLEY/ANNOUNCER: Tom Konkle (CA)

DOC: Dana Gonsalves (TX)

SHERIFF/CONDUCTOR 2: John Bell (AL)

PETE: Austin Hanna (TX)

HASTINGS: Gino Vianelli (CA)

LIZ: Jesirae Kesler (TX)

VOICE/SAM/CONDUCTOR 1: Larry Groebe (TX)

Pete Lutz directed, & Larry Groebe produced

(Orig. rel. date 7/3/22) Sonic Summerstock Playhouse returns with of this very special remake of a BBC Sunday Night Theatre episode from 1958, "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" by Herman Wouk. We hope you enjoy it! It was recorded over Zoom using actors in California, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, and Alabama. Directed by Pete Lutz and starring The Narada Radio Company

Gareth Severn as the BBC ANNOUNCER

Les Marsden as CAPTAIN QUEEG

Dana Gonsalves as LIEUTENANT MARYK

Austin Hanna as LT JUNIOR GRADE KEITH

Tom Konkle as LT KEEFER

Carl Yowell as LCDR CHALLEE

Chuck Wilson as CAPTAIN SOUTHARD

Joe Martinez as DR LUNDEEN

Paul Arbisi as DR BIRD

Rachel Pulliam as PETTY OFFICER URBAN

John Bell as CAPTAIN BLAKELY

Jessica Mathews as the STENOGRAPHER

Ebony Rose as the ORDERLY and

Pete Lutz as LIEUTENANT GREENWALD

Additional voices: Dave Robison, Edward Champion

Music for this production was composed and performed by Dr. Ross Bernhardt.