|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
Peter Russell
|
Who knows what future lurks behind the revival of radio drama?
Steven Thomas Oney believes he does, and to that end he has established the Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater. The Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater is made up of a group of professional and amateur actors and technical people. The group is looking forward to making only enough money to continue the project. Any personal reward may come in the form of career advancement, says Steve.
"We really see it as a community service project," he said. "We're going to do original mysteries set on Cape Cod and we're going to do them as professionally as possible.
Unlike the original radio drama era of the 1920s and '30s, this group does not perform live. Its mysteries are recorded, overdubbed, blended with musical tracks and mixed and remixed until the desired sound is achieved.
John Todd's HT Recording Studio in Dennis is the technical home of the Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater. While he admits to having been skepticla about the group when first contacted, Mr. Todd said he is impressed by its professionalism.
"Steve Oney called me one day and told me he was interested in radio. I get a lot of that, but he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He said that he agreed to participate in the project for as long as it was fun and not work."
HT Studio is best known by musicians and radio people who use it for recording commercials and demonstration and master recordings. The theater group, which uses the studio free of charge, gets high marks from Mr. Todd.
"There are projects that pay me that I throw out," he said. "These are really excellent people."
Mr. Oney said that radio drama has faded to the point of being a "lost art", but he believes there may be a potential for its revival because of radio's reletively low production cost. He said that it costs "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to produce a half hour of television drama, whereas a half hour of radio could cost a slittle a $1,000.
In listening to tapes of early radio mysteries, Steve dis his homework. "I've listened to some of the old shows. There seems to be a great mixture of really good shows and some really bad ones."
In developing a detective to solve the mysteries, Steve found Captain Waverly Underhill, a retired Cape Cod police officer. Underhill may not be a totally original creation, however.
"All detectives are very similar; it's really different to create a new one. They all have a touch of Sherlock Holmes, Lieutenant Columbo and Phillip Marlowe," he said.
Many of the early radio mysteries are now considered to be overplayed melodramas that bordered on the farcial. Mr Oney said that he would rather avoid that. "It's easy to get very camp with this sort of thing," he said. "You can't have the creaking door and the ghoulish laugh."
There is, however, the organ music, which was standard fare for radio drama. It is 50 years later and the sound is modernized, but the keys are still pressed at the most chilling moments. The musical scores are original and composed by Mark Birmingham of Cotuit.
Robin Russell