“THE WAR OF THE WORLDS” by Howard Koch, October 27th and 28th
Directed by Brian Emeney
Following the successful reading of “A Christmas Carol” in December, we're planning another script-in-hand performance as part of the 2017 Criterion studio season.
This time, we're aiming to recreate an infamous moment in American radio history:
the Orson Welles company’s live US radio broadcast of H.G. Wells's sci-fi classic
“The War of the Worlds” on Hallowe’en 1938. It was reported at the time that the broadcast caused chaos as listeners across America believed that the dramatisation was in fact “live news” and the reports of aliens attacking U.S. cities were real.
We have secured the rights to Howard Koch's original radio script, and director Brian Emeney will be aiming to recreate the atmosphere of a live radio studio broadcast,
with 6-8 actors reading into microphones and engineers playing in “live” sound effects.
We have timed the two performances to be as close as possible to Hallowe’en 2017,
for what we hope will be an authentically spooky seasonal treat.
Brian will be holding an open reading and auditions, as follows:
Open Reading: Criterion Bar: Sunday June 25th at 7.30
Auditions: Criterion Bar: Sunday July 2nd at 7.30
The reading and the auditions are open to everyone, and anyone interested in working on the production in any capacity is welcome to contact Brian at bjemeney@aol.com.