Towards the end of October 1938, a then emerging “boy genius” theater and radio dramatist named Orson Welles staged a live broadcast on CBS radio which he later claimed was done in part to make people question the then new radio format of receiving information just as they did the newspapers. Welles and his crew, which did not have a program sponsor and so ran without any interruption to notify listeners of its ultimately fictional nature, detailed the invasion of New Jersey and subsequent destruction of the U.S. East Coast by Martians, an idea borrowed and adapted from H.G. Well’s “War of the Worlds,” published at the close of the 19th century.

From October 9th thru the 10th of 2020, and using On-Demand audio broadcasting technology complete with art displays throughout by Mrs. Goettl’s class, the Stanley-Boyd Drama Club staged its own protest against the pervasive effects of fear with “War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast.” Cast members for the modern theatrical production included Ethan Pawlak, Jared Envick, Samuel Denzine, Hailey Schneider, Carla Phillips, Hannah Hazard, Brielle Thompson, Aden Lechleitner, Clarence Mikalauski, Syd Beltoya, Joseph Henderson, Cyrus Hood, Abby Myers (including backstage sound effects) and Damen Hood, with featured artwork for the all audio (no video) presentation made by Mrs. Goettl’s Art Class. Artists from Mrs. Goettl’s class whose work was featured in the broadcast included Abby Myers, Alley Nagel; Aydden Marten; Blake Paul; Briana Smith; Brock Phillipi; Carly Verbeten; Carson Oemig; Carter Lewallen; Thomas Anderson; Carter Peterson, Delani Mercier, Easton Walters, Jared Fitzl, JJ Heller, Larissa Sockness, Lillian Pahl, Maree Felt, Mason Kaz, Raegan Christianson, and Sierra Close.

With each of the On-Demand broadband actors voicing several different characters, and special mention given to a senior (Jared Envick) who had come back to share one last presentation after starting in fourth grade, the On-Demand broadband program opened with an echo gong effect.

“Hello and welcome to this unique theatrical experience created by the Stanley-Boyd Drama Club,” the audio begins in echo-format, then switching to a single stable voice.

“We hope this broadcast finds you healthy and well,” the announcer relates, inviting listeners to listen as though they were back in their living room, circa 1940. “Sit back and enjoy a throwback performance of the War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast.” Starting out five minutes to performance, the cast is heard talking, before announcer Freddy Filmore comes on the air.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen,” he announces. “We are just two minutes away from going live.” Introducing the cast, Filmore then announces the station as “WBFR, Playhouse of the Air,” a radio theater of the type common to Welle’s era. Set ten years after the fact in 1948, “War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast” as hosted by Freddy Filmore makes an announcement.

“Good Evening, ladies and gentlemen. I’m Freddy Filmore, here with you every week to present those classics of theater, the stage, and the screen, along with those headline- making true-life stories. Tonight, we present you with the latter,” he says, “For it was ten years ago, during the final days of October 1938, that the Martians landed.” Bringing its audience a recreation of memorable scenes from the 1938 broadcast, Filmore goes on to interview the screenplay creator Harry Koch, who we learn went to sleep peacefully that fateful night ten years ago and learned from his barber the next day, while a very intense Welle’s later brushes aside the pleas of John Houseman in the sound room to take listener’s frantic calls into consideration during a program break. As it turns out in the broadcast, one Professor Richard Pierson of Princeton survives to trek north into New York, to find that the otherworldly invaders have succumbed to earthly diseases from which they had no immunity. Along the way listeners were treated to the first part of a conditional Si Clause in the imperfect subjunctive (Si supieras/”if you knew”), itself taken from the Spanish tango hit “La cumparsita” to introduce a pun in the broadcast, though without revealing its outcome.

Using drama to attack the lack of knowledge as a primary driver behind fear and going on to reference the interrelation between drama and life, the Stanley-Boyd Drama Club’s virtual presentation shifted in its emphasis over the last 30 minutes or so to the aftermath of Welles’ “Halloween prank,” with a shifting radio dial used to switch between allusions to the 1937 Hindenburg disaster of New Jersey, the internment of Japanese citizens in World War II “to protect them and us,” McCarthyism as displayed during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, a recording from the fictional “War of the Worlds” broadcast that sounded like (but wasn’t) then President Roosevelt, the Cuban Missile Crisis in which President Kennedy raised the national defense level to DEF-CON 2 but did not invade the island of Cuba, the emergence of CNN in the 1980s as the first 24 hours news channel, 9/11 in New York City, the Obama administration confronting ISIS/Daesh in the Middle East, finally closing with President Roosevelt’s memorable quote that, “the only thing we have to fear is, fear itself. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear…,” the drama sets forth the consequences of caving in to paranoia and dissension. So what happened to Welles for allegedly causing panic?

Despite his “Halloween prank,” Welles would go on to Hollywood and fame, directing “Citizen Kane” among other films, while the somewhat rushed (six-day) screenplay writer for his prank, Howard Koch, would also go to Hollywood, giving the world “Casablanca,” though perhaps with less shock to himself or others as to the goings on.

Submitted Photo.