BE ADAPTABLE

In the spring of 2013, Susan McClelland was driving down Main Street in Zionsville, listening to WITT 91.9 FM Zionsville radio.  Just as she came to the 'T' at Ash Street, she wished there was more radio drama to listen to.

And then it hit her:  she could make some herself.  

She called me with her idea and I considered it for quite a long...okay, for about a millisecond.  

YES.  

What a great idea!  

And so we started a radio drama project: Zionsville Radio Players.

We began by adapting classic literature into radio scripts.  Boy, did we adapt.  We wrote, re-wrote, adapted, adapted, adapted.

Susan suggested that our motto should be: BE ADAPTABLE.

How prescient!  

Turns out, adaptation has been the primary activity in our little project.  There just aren't any templates out there for what we are doing.  We're flying by the seat of our pants.  

We're making it up as we go along.  

We've had to re-schedule, re-work, re-write, re-record.  

We've had to back down, back off, back up (as in, return to a previously-visited spot), back up (as in, save our work on flash drive!), back each other.  

We've had to learn how to adapt non-dramatic material to our medium, adapt our acting styles, adapt our directing styles, adapt our schedules.  

And adapt our schedules when we've lost recordings to server crashes.

We've bitten off more than we can chew, we've scheduled more than we could do, we've added and subtracted.   

It's been quite a year, and we've learned a lot.  And there's plenty more to be learned.  

But if there's one thing we've learned it's...BE ADAPTABLE.

Good thinkin', Susan.  

WE'RE AT IT AGAIN

It's time for the first ZRP project of 2014!

May is National Short Story Month, and to celebrate, ZRP will be broadcasting three performances of scripts adapted from classic short stories.  They are:

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs, adapted by Susan McClelland;
The Open Window by Saki, adapted by Patricia See;
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, adapted by Susan McClelland.

The casts:

The Monkey's Paw:
               Mr. White:  Dave Eckard
               Mrs. White: Cindy Wampler
               Herbert: John Griffin
               Sergeant-Major Morris:  Jim Lucas
               Mr. Jacobs: Bill Havlin

Director:  Patricia See;  Assistant Director, Amanda Westendorf; Sound Design by Martin See

The Open Window:

               Hamilton Peabody:  Jaime Johnson
               Olivia Crump:  Leanne Piper
               Clara: Amanda Westendorf
               Mrs. Sappleton: Patsy See
               Mr. Sappleton:  George Piper
               Maid:  Patty Leonardi

Director: Susan McClelland; Sound Design: Susan McClelland

The Yellow Wallpaper:

              The Narrator:  Susan McClelland
               John: Larry Adams

Director: Len Mozzi; Sound Design: Susan McClelland and Len Mozzi

Our introductions and narrations will be done by Roger "Pipes" Manning and our engineering will be done by Jared Boomer at WICR 88.7 FM.

First read-through was yesterday and everyone already sounded GREAT!  These stories are going to be a dynamite way to celebrate National Short Story Month.  To read more, go here:  http://shortstorymonth.com/

Watch this space for further developments!