Theater of the mind

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 10th. Thank you for joining us here at WORLD Radio.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: bringing radio drama to the stage. And Myrna, what’s this I hear you landed a part in a radio drama?

BROWN: I did! I’ve always wanted to do radio drama, and I was chosen to be Mamie in Gunsmoke!

REICHARD: What?!

BROWN: No joke. My first line is “Howdy, Stranger! Welcome to the Longhorn. I’m Mamie.”

REICHARD: [Laugh]

BROWN: Here’s the rest of the story!

From the bravado of a 1950’s announcer…

ANNOUNCER: Around Dodge City there’s just one way to handle the killers and that’s with a U.S. Marshall and the smell of Gunsmoke! (theme music)

… to the folly of an 18th century English adventurer…

SIR PERCEY: Anything. Just let me be the first behind the curtain to glimpse the mystery man..

Robert W. Gardner has never heard a voice he couldn’t mimic.

ROBERT: I remember dad bought a big reel to reel recorder and my brothers and I, we would take his albums and we would take old Mad Magazine cartoons and we would make our own shows that we would put on his reel to reel recorder and do all the voices and the accents. From the German dialect to the Frenchman and of course, the British, like the Scarlet Pimpernel…..

And on this evening, it’s his directing voice bouncing off the walls of the South Baldwin County Community Theater.

ROBERT: Alright, let’s go to sound cue 23…light cue 22…

The former radio deejay is leading a cast of men and women, affectionately known as snowbirds. Northerners from various walks of life who spend their winter months in beach towns like Gulf Shores, Alabama. Tom Metter is from Indiana…

TOM METTER: I was a professional photographer for 35 years.

Jan Vest…Illinois…

VEST: I was a CEO of a large medical practice.

81-year-old Theodore Pitsiois was born in Greece

THEODORE: I sailed for a number of years as a merchant marine.

And Tom Pence is from Michigan…

TOM PENCE: I used to operate a nuclear power plant. So I like to see people glow.

ROBERT: We’re going to start with light cue 100…

Pence means it! He’s been Robert Gardner’s lighting director since 2018. That’s when the small coastal town began hosting the Annual Radio Theater Festival, a three-day return to the Golden Age of Radio.

ROBERT: We’re talking about the 1930s, '40’s, and '50s specifically. I remember my mother telling me about how they had a radio in the home and as the radio shows were on, grandpa would say, get out from in front of the radio. I’m listening. Everybody would stare at the radio as it was playing in the living room.

ROBERT: Places..places…

It’s the third night of rehearsals. In addition to their various backgrounds, Gardner’s team is made up of both professional and untrained actors. He says sometimes variety produces challenges.

ROBERT GARDNER: A community theater has to include the whole community. And in theater you have people from every walk of life and every ideology and all of that we leave outside. We don’t bring drama to the stage.

Gardner is also a licensed preacher and associate pastor. He says that training keeps him grounded.

ROBERT: You’re wanting to present a message. You’re wanting to not just uplift but also to instruct.

As they prepare to transform the 126-seat auditorium into a community parlor, each script gets a thorough reading. The Bickersons is a classic sketch comedy series from the 1940’s, about a husband and wife who spend nearly all their time together in relentless verbal war.

BLANCHE AND JOHN: John come back here… oh hello. Where have you been? Working…

Then, there’s the beloved western, Gunsmoke...

FESTER: Good Morning Mr. Dillion.. Oh how you Festus…

The second act features The Scarlet Pimpernel, about a mysterious Englishman during the French Revolution.

SIR PERCY BLAKENEY: You’ve packed my things? Yes, Sir Percy.

Traditional stage productions rely on elaborate sets and costumes that catch the eye. Radio drama however, is theater of the mind, using sound and words to inspire imagination.

GUNSMOKE SCENE MATT DILLION DIGGIN: I found something here… if I could only get it loose…

You hear that digging? Cynthia Mayo is creating that sound effect from the far left corner of the stage. Using a garden-size shovel she rehearses moving pieces of gravel across a bucket. Mayo and 14-year-old Daniel Dumas are Gardner’s Foley crew. They produce sound effects live on stage.

ROBERT: Foley effects are called that, they’re named after a fellow whose last name was Foley who back in the old days of radio created the sound effects that you would hear.

After four days of rehearsals, it’s opening night.

ROBERT: (OPENING MUSIC) Well good evening folks and welcome to the Radio Theater festival. This is our fourth time doing this….

Beams of bright light strategically highlight six black music stands lining the dark stage. The cast and crew are waiting in the green room for one last word from their director.

ROBERT: Hey folks I can’t thank you all enough for coming to be part of this once again.  Almighty Father, we thank you for this opportunity to be a blessing…

Gardner says before the pandemic it was easier to determine if a performance was well received.

ROBERT: We used to do what we would call the 'grip and grin'. The cast would head out the lobby so that as people exited the auditorium they would come by, and tell you how good it was.

Now, he says there’s another way to measure success.

ROBERT: It’s a small town, Gulf Shores. They’ll see you out and about and they’ll say I saw you in that and then they will tell you their story.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.