A long-lost radio play about a monstrous “Chicken Heart” will beat back to life this October as part of The Oswego Players’ “Foretold Tales: An Anthology of Terror”.
Probably the most unique offering of the season, Foretold Tales will present nine classic stories over its October 24th, 25th, 26th run, creating a truly anthology and repertory event. Director William Edward White compared the production to sitting down and turning on old-time radio.
“I grew up listening to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater and WRVO’s nightly ‘Theater of the Mind’. Every night there was something different, suspense, horror, science fiction. That’s what we’re looking to bring to the stage this October.”
The production will be on the stage of the Frances Marion Brown Theater at Fort Ontario, Oswego, NY. Curtain times are 7:30PM on Friday and Saturday, October 24th and 25th, with a 2PM matinee on Sunday, October 26th.
The anthology series will be broken into nightly themes or “episodes”: Mad Scientists, Future Tense, and Nine Lives. Included among the Mad Scientists Friday night offering is a re-creation of Arch Oboler’s legendary lost Light’s Out program “The Chicken Heart”.
Broadcast live on February 23, 1938, the weird tale about the disembodied organ that escapes the laboratory, grows, and devours all in its path has no surviving recording. Oboler himself did a 7-minute version recreation in 1962, but the original is the stuff of legends.
“I knew of it from a recorded comedy routine I listened to growing up. Then I discovered there was an actual radio show. After that, I have always wanted to bring the full story to life,” White commented.
Along with the murderous fowl, the night of Mad Scientists will also include George Bamber’s 1959 Suspense story “Return to Dust”, and “I of Newton”.
Since each performance is an “episode” in this event, a special ticketing price is being offered. All seats will be $13 each per performance, with a three-day ticket for the entire event of just $26. Tickets may be purchased online at www.oswegoplayers.org , or by calling the theater box office at (315) 343-5138.
In addition to the three episodes, nine story anthology, the Players will be offering a special “Foretold Taste” preview night on Wednesday, October 22 at 7:00 pm. That evening will feature selections from the entire run, including “The Chicken Heart”, along with “Little Old Lady”, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, and “The Obsolete Man”. Admission that night will be just $5 at the door, with all proceeds for the preview night going to help fund the Lawrence E. Rose and Marion Green Scholarship Funds.
“The goal is to take our audiences back to the golden age of Radio Theater. Placing them in the middle of the sights and sounds of an old-time broadcast studio – one that will take them into an adventure through the theater of the mind,” White added.
This project is made possible through the CNY Arts Grants for Regional Arts and Cultural Engagement regrant program thanks to a New York State Senate Initiative supported by the NYS Legislature, the Office of the Governor and administered by the New York State Council on the Arts.
The cast of “The Chicken Heart” – part of The Oswego Players radio anthology stage production “Foretold Tales: An Anthology of Terror” – keep careful eye on what beats under glass. Come see if it manages to escape. From left: Michael Moss, Norman Berlin, III, and Christopher Best.