{"id":12684,"date":"2010-04-15T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=12684"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:41:43","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:41:43","slug":"original-radio-drama-debuts-on-whus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/04\/original-radio-drama-debuts-on-whus\/","title":{"rendered":"Original Radio Drama Debuts on WHUS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Justin<\/a>
Justin Miller, foreground, a junior, and Corinne Goodman, a freshman, act in the WHUS radio drama 'City of Stones.' Photo by Jessica Tommaselli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

College radio has always been a place for discovering new music, offering alternative opinions on the news, and experimenting with new approaches to sound not found on commercial airwaves. Sometimes, doing something new on the radio can mean reviving an old concept in a new way.<\/p>\n

Since late March, WHUS has been airing an original 10-part radio drama written and produced by Zachary Langlois, a junior history major at UConn. Several other students are involved in all aspects of the production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City of Stones\u201d is a spy drama set in Istanbul, Turkey, on the eve of World War II, in which two Americans become involved with an Italian national who is spying on Russians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time period is a personal favorite,\u201d says Langlois, whose first effort as a playwright was in high school. \u201cIt was a turbulent period just before things took off in the 1940s, around the time the Axis alliance was created.\u201d<\/p>\n

Period music often is used as a transitional device between scenes, and sound effects such as the tapping of typewriter keys and city street noise are used behind the narration and dialogue of the characters. Duke Ellington\u2019s \u201cEast St. Louis Toodle-Oo\u201d serves as the opening theme for the series.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Trey<\/a>
Trey Nowell, left, a sophomore, and Justin Miller, a junior, act in 'City of Stones.' Photo by Jessica Tommaselli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The radio drama is broadcast on Saturday mornings at 9 a.m. during a program titled \u201cFiat Flux,\u201d which was created by WHUS programming director Chris Sampson to provide a regular time slot for new programming and special projects outside of the station\u2019s regular mix of varied music and public affairs shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to survive the industry changes and technology shifts, radio must present unique and compelling content,\u201d says Sampson. \u201cOriginal radio theater is one way to do this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWHUS has always been willing to take chances that would not be viable in commercial media, but which are culturally rewarding,\u201d Sampson adds. \u201cOne of our staff, Jason McMullan, pioneered this particular frontier with his Athena Radio Theatre. Now, with Zach\u2019s original serialized radio drama, we are taking the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the students involved in the production bring previous acting experience to the project, from either high school productions or comedy groups. The actors say there are different challenges with acting on radio instead of being on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s harder to get into character,\u201d says Justin Miller, a junior classics major who plays the lead role of Jack Moody, the recently fired journalist who finds himself stranded in Istanbul and suddenly involved in international intrigue. \u201cAnd when we do other parts, the accents need to be maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corinne Goodman, a freshman animal sciences major, says the fundamental difference between being heard but not seen is the biggest acting challenge: \u201cYou have to incorporate everything into your character\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students say the project is a great learning experience for everyone involved, offering opportunities for creativity and problem-solving throughout the production process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different from my normal radio experience because of how much goes into producing it,\u201d says Nick Stevens, a sophomore marketing major and member of the WHUS staff who is the production coordinator for the drama. \u201cThere\u2019s much more of a technical end to it because of differentiating between monologues and dialogue, and adding sound effects to bring a film-noir style script to life on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much like a network television series, the student cast and production crew has completed the first half of the series and is working to finish the last group of episodes as the spring semester winds down.<\/p>\n

Langlois says it is too soon for the group to rest on their laurels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of satisfaction in having accomplished something, but there is still a lot of work to be done,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Episodes of \u201cThe City of Stones\u201d will be available for download from the WHUS website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘The City of Stones,’ a spy drama set in Turkey on the eve of World War II, was written and produced by students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-12684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 04:06:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12684"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37382,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12684\/revisions\/37382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12684"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=12684"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}