TribLIVE: “Give the people what they want” is Bricolage Production Company’s motto when creating shows for the Midnight Radio series.
The popular series returns for a fourth season with four brand-new live radio shows reminiscent of classic 1940s radio broadcasts — three for adults and a special Midnight Radio Jr. show aimed at ages 6 to 12.
Each monthly episode will be created around themes chosen by audience members during the previous season.
The show is performed live with vintage sound effects generated on stage.
4 comments:
The midnight radio series sounds pretty awesome! I wish I would have heard about them before, this definitely would be something I would be interested in checking out. Bricolage seems to have a product here that I would think would attract a very wide audience. I think they would definitely have a good amount of the older generation interested in it just because of the style, and a lot of younger generations get very interested in things from the past as well. Too bad this article is almost a month old… It would be really cool to see how they took on this challenge.
I'm embarrassed that I've never been to one of these Radio Shows - before I leave Pittsburgh I should definitely get to one. Part of the problem is that they sell out so quickly. That's great - there's so much talk about how to get audiences into the theater. Bricolage is filling the demand for this kind of performance. I wonder if they knew it was going to be this popular, I doubt it. How can you predict that? It's one of the unfortunate things about programming and season selection. You need interested and invigorated audiences to pay your bills and help fund your theater. To do that you'll need to present good and compelling stories. There's not much market research you can do to find the right formula. Some may say Bricolage is proof of Rocco Landesman's Supply-and-Demand mentality, but you can't predict the demand. I think it's evidence that if you stick to your mission statement, and it's sound, audiences will buy your product.
this actually isn't the first time that I heard about this show. It really is an interesting throw back to a different age of theater. You don't really hear about radio show anymore ( at least on t in the story telling sense of the word. This also really connects with class because in stagecraft: sound we are working on creating follies sounds much in the same way they they make sounds for midnight radio. What I wonder is if they are putting their voices through a processor to make the recording sound old fashioned or if the whole thing just sounds like live talk radio. Also it would be interesting to see how they add different time period specific phrasing to the show. Is it meant to be contemporary or does it actually take place in the era of radio shows.
I like the fact that they are doing "Third Man" because there are different versions of the story. Perhaps they will choose one that relates to today's black market. It would be interesting if they set the play in modern times with modern sounds. What I wasn't sure about was the company's motto and the fact that they allow the audiences to choose the themes for the next series of shows. The motto states, "Give the people what they want." I've found that when we don't give people what they want, new emotions arise, audiences are forced to confront important scenarios they've been avoiding, etc. I'm not sure we should allow audiences to choose what they should see. We are in fact artists. What do we think the audiences NEED to see (or hear). Change in the world always happens because people see and hear things that call them to action. Perhaps this company might try looking at important issues of today, rather than recreate the long-gone past?
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