Photo via Facebook / Peninsula Players
All that is old becomes new again. At least in our virtual world during this Age of Pandemic. And that includes the Peninsula Players winter reading series, “The Play’s the Thing.” How perfect it is, then, that we return to the world of audio play for none then that engaging detective of literature and film, The Thin Man.
The Players are presenting two tales of suspense and intrigue: The Case of the Goofy Groom and The Valentine’s Day Episode, based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett. And instead of crowding around a large audio console as our forefathers did in the 20th century, the 21st century provides some additional benefits.
“It’s all over Zoom,” explains the show’s director, Kevin Christopher Fox. “I’m on my tenth show, I think. Huge learning curve. Tons of experimenting, all of this terrain new to me and the actors, in terms of trying to get decent fidelity and performance conditions.”
And instead of crowding around microphones in a small studio, the actors today sit in their own individual spaces and “call in” the performance, figuratively speaking. And the audio only approach does provide greater flexibility with casting—but with a catch
I think the biggest difference is age doesn’t matter in the least. We’re just voices., Fox points out. “To the audience’s ear, that character is exactly as old as they say they are in the script—we don’t want or need to know better. We’ve had actors in roles they would never be cast in on stage, due to the difference with the age of the character.”
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Given the learning curve with the world of Zoom, Fox and PP’s Artistic Director Greg Vinkler (also in this show) tend to rely on actors they’ve previously worked with, “...well, internet connection is a thing,” Fox says. “There’ve been a couple instances where the actor’s connection was on the unreliable side and they weren’t comfortable doing a live show. Hard to believe casting was impacted by the internet connection, but...this whole year’s been hard to believe.”
Artistic Director Vinkler has found that there’s a lot of common ground between the live reading pre-Pandemic to what’s currently being “staged” via the virtual readings.
“Actually I find that these radio programs are about as close as you can get to the live play readings we normally do,” he says. “At the live readings people sit and listen to the actors read the plays from music stands. That’s all it is—the actors, the words and the audience’s imagination. Which is very much like radio—you sit and listen and use your imagination.”
And again, like the classic “olden and golden” days of radio plays, The Thin Man returns, just as mysterious as ever, resurrected with a 21st century twist.
“Technology has given us a chance to have a live performance experience together in a world that hasn’t really allowed that for the past year,” says Fox, adding, “It’s definitely as meaningful for the artists and human beings making it as it is for the human beings hearing it.”
The Thin Man -The Case of the Goofy Groom and The Valentine’s Day Episode, runs April 5-6 online only. All readings are free. For more information, call: 920-868-3267, or visit the Facebook event for the production.
