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don't have to memorize their lines and sound effects
are created right in front of the audience,
at Lakes Area Radio Theatre.
[music]
Lakes Area Theatre is an organization made up
of about 150 troupe members that come together
weekly to put a radio theatre production together.
They will rehearse during the week and then on
Friday evenings, we do the show,
it's in front of a live studio audience.
They're recorded and then they are edited in
post-production to be played on our network of
so far, 16 radio stations throughout Minnesota
probably two weeks after the fact,
after they're recorded.
[music]
Lakes Area Theatre actually is the
brain child of Mike Roers.
Mike is an appraiser and he works very long,
long hours and during those times he often time
tuned into old time radio theatre on the Internet.
In listening to those shows,
he discovered a love for audio theatre.
Mike also is active in community theatre so he
loves the whole idea of acting and he just said,
"We have to do this."
And I said, "You know Mike,
I'm, you know it's just not on my radar screen
right now."
But after awhile you know when a seed is planted and
sometimes it starts to marinate and grow,
I thought, "Yeah, we do have to do that."
So I, I called him up and I said,
"Are you really serious about this?"
And he said, "Absolutely," and here we are doing it
and I am having a ball.
Actually everybody in the troupe is really
having a great time.
We went to Europe.
When I returned, I set my sights on courting Bertha.
[music]
Well the play we're doing tonight is
called Courting, Courting Bertha.
In tonight's show I'm playing the part of Potter
Palmer who along with his wife Bertha built the
Palmer House Hotel in Chicago,
which was destroyed just recently after it was
built by the great Chicago fire.
And this story tonight is the love story between
Potter and his wife Bertha and how they worked
together to rebuild the Palmer House Hotel.
I heard about Lakes Area Theatre and Hermes,
the artistic director, actually reached out to me.
She had seen our article about my documentary,
Love Under Fire: The Story of Bertha & Potter Palmer,
and asked me if I was interested in writing a
radio play.
And I was just really intrigued by that,
that opportunity, the thought of that.
I had never writer a radio play.
I liked the idea of just distilling down a story
into just dialogue and stripping away the stage
direction, the setting, everything and just it's
all about the dialogue so I was really intrigued.
And I also liked the idea of supporting local
theatre, it's so important.
People really enjoyed it, people did enjoy the play
but just listening to them sort of react,
laugh to the certain lines,
there's something like within the theatre,
as long as there's no coughing or shuffling or
like where you can tell when the audience starts
getting restless you're, you've lost them,
and tonight everyone was just,
it was quiet and they were laughing when they were
supposed to laugh so that's always,
that's good feedback, that's positive feedback.
We are doing this because we love production work.
We love acting.
It is a new way for some people to learn a,
a new craft within the auspices of acting and
there's nothing better than entertaining people
and having them walk away happy and satisfied for,
for a person's hard work.
We do our shows for audiences every Friday
night and that is when they are recorded.
I then get the opportunity to edit,
which is when I go to my playground because it's
fun to add layers and depth to the shows that
are recorded.
Usually the layers and depth are done with,
with sound effects.
So in the post-production process is when I really
have my fun and a show will come together for me.
The history of radio theatre
goes back to the 1900s.
In the 30s and 40s, 50s it really was at its zenith
in popularity and it was a way of entertaining the
masses through the media that
was available for them.
Some of the radio shows found their way into the
60s and continued to be popular then but that
really, the mid to late 50s into the 60s is when
television really started to boom and movies became
more popular for people to attend and,
and so forth.
So audio theatre really kind of went by the wayside.
It has interestingly enough seen a resurgence
in popularity recently there.
With the, with the advent of the Internet,
there are a lot of groups out there that are doing
audio theatre.
Not many groups are actually producing it for
radio specifically and that makes us
a little bit unique.
I think there's just something within us where
we just love hearing the spoken word it's,
when you're a child you love when your mom or your
dad reads you a story and I think that's kind of
podcasts, radio shows, radio plays,
I think they kind of tap into that.
And you kind of expect a little bit more of the
audience because there's no visual cues,
they have to kind of fill it in,
fill in the blanks for themselves but with a
radio play, you have to listen,
you have to imagine, so I think there's a spot for
it for sure.
[music]
I think listening to radio was more of a
family time to be together.
People were gathered round their radio listening and
not just gazing at a screen somewhere but
actually listening to the story together and I hope
we're doing that for people.