New West Theatre exploring the realm of radio plays

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New west Theatre is  still here. But instead of being on stage at the Yates Theatre, they are on the air performing old school radio plays for the next two weeks.
 They air Thursday nights at 8 p.m.New West Theatre artistic director Kelly Reay. Photo by Richard Amery
“We’re still here and though people can’t interact with us face to face, we still want to interact with our audience,” said New West Theatre artistic director Kelly Reay.


 Last week, they debuted  their first night of classic Alfred Hitchcock plays.
 They continue in  the Hitchcock vein tonight with “ The 39 Steps” and Sherlock Holmes’  ‘Murder at the Casbah.’


“ ‘The 39 Steps’ was written as a radio play to perform on stage. So if we were performing it live, we‘d have a set that looks like a radio station,” Reay said.
“And ‘ Murder at the Casbah’ is a classic Sherlock Holmes mystery, that is solved like only Sherlock Holmes can,” he continued, adding they just finished recording next week’s production of ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” sandwiched between two episodes of Flash Gordon.


“Those have been a lot of fun to do, looking at science fiction through the eyes of  the 1930s,” he said.

People who want to hear the shows can e-mail New West Theatre and they will be sent a link.


 Most of the plays have been public domain and will be available through the public domain, except the Hitchcock episodes.


“ They were on our website for a few days because we could only air them for a specific window. The public domain shows will be up for longer,” Reay said.

Like all theatre companies, they are experimenting during Covid.

 

“It’s going quite well. New West Theatre, like all theatre creators are having to experiment. But we’re able to change things as we go. So while it’s been a learning curve, it’s been quite fruitful,” Reay continued, adding he has been impressed with the actors.

 


“We’ve been alternating our casts. Kathy Zaborsky and Rylan Kunkel have been creating soundscapes on alternate weeks and Nicola Elson has been creating a sound effects bank,” he said.

 “It’s all recorded in one take, so there is no post production. It’s all created live,” he continued.


Being  new to the company, it’s been exciting  seeing another side of these great singers , dancers and actors, but they are really great actors,” he said.


“ It’s been great to look at these old Hitchcock stories and put our own spin on them,” he said, adding they begin rehearsals for their August drive in production on Tuesday. That show begins Aug. 12.


 Sign up for the link at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . The shows begin  at 8 p.m. tonight, July 16 and next Thursday, July 23.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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