|
Welcome to The Beer and Ear
Theater!
Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, a town in southeastern Wisconsin. When he reached his early twenties, he formed the Mercury Theater, a troupe of actors who achieved national acclaim through their performances on radio.
I was born in northeastern Illinois, not too far from Kenosha. When I reached my mid-forties, I formed the Beer & Ear Theater, a troupe of actors who got together to drink beer and perform plays from the heyday of radio drama.
Yes, the parallels between Welles and myself are unnerving. In fact, listen to our performance of “Three Skeleton Key.” There, you’ll hear me slur some of the very lines that Welles recited in the infamous “War of the Worlds” broadcast.
However, unlike the Mercury Theater, the Beer & Ear Theater is less a well-respected theatrical association and more an idea for a party.
You see, my music and sound crews only
had 15 minutes to prepare, taking from a small supply of cheesy sound effects and whatever else was on
hand, before going "on-the-air" with each show. My
actors also had only 15 minutes of prep, and they found themselves with doctored
scripts--lines in one script that weren't in the script of the person across the microphone from them--forcing them to either ad-lib or
otherwise maintain a professional demeanor. Between all that and
the beer, professional demeanors went out the window, and we all had a lot
of fun.
As of this date, we’ve had two such parties. In the spring of 2004, we performed episodes from
Buck Rogers, The Romance of Helen Trent, and Broadway is My
Beat. The CD that resulted is titled “Bored Now” (a phrase that fans of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer probably recognize). In the autumn of that same year, we held our first Halloween Beer & Ear party, and we performed episodes of
Lights Out, Five-Minute Mystery, and Three-Skeleton Key, the latter being a radio play used on both Escape and Suspense. Since most participants wore costumes, I titled that CD “Radio Drama: with Costumes.”
Tim Prasil
Creator of The Beer and Ear Theater |
