Radio Plays - The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles

Vocal Development

Volume - The degree of loudness or intensity of a voice.

Rate - How fast or slow you speak.

Pitch - The highness or lowness of voice

Flexibility - The manipulation of pitch to express emotion.

Projection - The placement and delivery of volume, clarity, and distinctness of voice for communicating to an audience.

Articulation - The clear and precise pronunciation of words.

Diction - The pronunciation of words, the choice of words, and the manner in which a person expresses himself or herself.

The Ultimate List of Tongue Twisters

Unique New York

Three free throws

Red Leather, Yellow Leather

I thought a thought.
But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.

One-One was a racehorse.
Two-Two was one, too.
When One-One won one race, Two-Two won one, too.

Say this sharply, say this sweetly,
Say this shortly, say this softly.
Say this sixteen times very quickly.

Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers! (Repeat. Increase the tempo.)

Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep.
The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed Shilly-shallied south.
These sheep shouldn’t sleep in a shack; Sheep should sleep in a shed.

Red Bulb Blue Bulb Red Bulb Blue Bulb Red Bulb Blue Bulb

Red Blood Blue Blood

I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won’t wish the wish you wish to wish.

She sells seashells on the seashore.

Mix a box of mixed biscuits with a boxed biscuit mixer.

A proper copper coffee pot.

Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat.

Betty bought butter but the butter was bitter, so Betty bought better butter to make the bitter butter better.

I thought a thought.
But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.
If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn’t have thought so much.

How much wood could a wood chuck; chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood.

Comical economists.

Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Sascha sews slightly slashed sheets shut.

She should shun the shinning sun.

The big black back brake broke badly.

The big beautiful blue balloon burst.

A shapeless sash sags slowly.

Smelly shoes and socks shock sisters.

Which wrist watches are Swiss wrist watches?

Dick kicks sticky bricks.

Shave a single shingle thin.

Stick strictly six sticks stumps.

Cinnamon aluminum linoleum.

New York is unanimously universally unique.

Cooks cook cupcakes quickly.

Flora’s freshly fried fish.

A bragging baker baked black bread.

Buy blue blueberry biscuits before bedtime.

She sold six shabby sheared sheep on ship.

The sixth sick sheik’s son slept.

These thousand tricky tongue twisters trip thrillingly off the tongue.

Silent Films 2016

The Radio City Rockettes!

The Rockettes are a precision dance company. Founded in 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri, since 1932, they have performed at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York City. During the Christmas season, the Rockettes present five shows a day, seven days a week. Perhaps their best-known routine is an eye-high leg kick in perfect unison in a chorus line, which they include at the end of every performance. Their style of dance is a mixture of modern dance and classic ballet. Auditions to become a Rockette are always in April in New York City. Women who audition must show proficiency in several genres of dancing, mainly ballet, tap, modern, and jazz. Normally, 400 to 500 women audition yearly.

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is performed annually at Radio City Music Hall. Numerous other shows are performed in American and Canadian cities by a touring company of Rockettes. It is one of the most-watched live shows in the United States, with over 2 million viewers per year. The Rockettes have performed annually at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since 1957 as the last pre-parade acts to perform. The NBC Rockefeller Center Tree-Lighting Ceremony  also traditionally includes a performance by the dance troupe.

Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds - Radio Broadcast 1938 - Complete Broadcast

The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938 and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.

The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated "news bulletins", which suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a 'sustaining show' (it ran without commercial breaks), thus adding to the program's quality of realism. Although there were sensationalist accounts in the press about a supposed panic in response to the broadcast, the precise extent of listener response has been debated. In the days following the adaptation, however, there was widespread outrage. The program's news-bulletin format was decried as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast, but the episode secured Orson Welles' fame.

A Brief History of Radio Drama in America; Radio Play Project

Radio drama is over 70 years old, and, for all serious purposes, has been dead for 50 of those years, being used only occasionally in the classroom as a novelty or curiosity. During the middle to late 1940's, radio drama reached its peak, then, with the advent and expansion of television, it quickly faded into history. Before the 1920's formal radio programs were unknown. Most broadcasts were one time events consisting mainly of talk and music. Broadcast hours were irregular, usually four or five hours a day, and the only regularly scheduled broadcasts were weather reports. Once in a while, musical events such as symphonies and operas were broadcast from the locations where they were being performed. Occasionally stage plays were broadcast from the theatre, and sporting events were broadcast with play-by-play announcing.

In the mid 20's, larger stations began to develop programs using announcers or narrators. These programs used definite openings and closings and were built around specific program ideas. Radio drama was born in 1927, when networks began adapting short stories, and even writing original scripts, for broadcast.

During the last part of the 1920's many one-hour, sponsored network programs started. Musical variety and concert music programs were the most popular forms during this period. Some of these network variety programs used a different format each week—a musical program one week, a talk or a debate the next week, and perhaps a dramatization the third week. During this period the network schedules included two or three minstrel variety programs and a comedy variety program using a series of several comedy acts in a half hour. Song-and-patter teams, usually two person teams that used talk between songs, became popular during this period. Later on patter-only comedy acts appeared. The Amos 'n' Andy show was one of the first to use this format. At first Amos 'n' Andy presented patter five nights a week for fifteen minutes each night.

During the 1930-31 season, the comedy dramatic form became an important part of radio programming, when Amos 'n' Andy adopted a story line. Amos 'n' Andy was so popular that the program survived even into the TV era.

In the early 1930's national advertisers recognized the potential for radio advertising and became willing to buy air-time and sponsor programs. As this happened, networks competed for their share. The result was the development of many new program forms. Among the new program types were: vaudeville variety programs, dramatized news programs, programs built around a comedian, advice/interview programs, amateur contest programs, town meeting programs, daily network news programs, daytime "soap opera" serialized drama, after school juvenile serialized adventure drama, and hillbilly variety programs. As network daytime serials became popular, stations developed daytime schedules.

In order to survive the depression years, many local stations scheduled commercial religious programs, programs with cultural appeal (country music for instance), and astrology programs that included strong appeals for donations to keep the show on the air. During this time, local news programs were usually one fifteen-minute broadcast per day, getting their news from daily newspapers.

In the early 1940's, radio programs reflected America's involvement in World War II. As the number of news and human interest programs grew, evening variety, musical, quiz, and audience participation programs shrunk. During this time, evening dramatic programs exploded in number.

As a result of the country's involvement in the war, the number of hours per week devoted to news broadcasts nearly doubled. It was probably this abundance of war news that propelled the spectacular growth of evening dramatic programs. As listeners grew tired of war talk, they turned to other programs for escape. The forms that offered the most escape were comedy-variety, comedy drama, and thriller drama. As a matter of fact, one of the dramatic series created during this period was entitled Escape. During the 1944-45 season, the networks scheduled 8 hours of comedy variety, 8 hours of comedy drama programs, and 14 hours of thriller drama each week. By the end of this period, networks offered 47 hours a week of dramatic programs during the evening and on Sunday. Thriller drama programs counted for about 25 hours of these each week.

In the early years of television, not enough homes had a TV receiver and national sponsors were hard to find, therefore, production costs had to be controlled. It was too expensive to create new forms and take a chance on an unknown show, so the forms that existed at the time on radio were moved directly to television. In fact, many of the successful radio series went directly to television. Gunsmoke, an extremely successful western drama, was one among several that could be heard on radio and seen on TV. Suspense, radio's longest running thriller series, was another.

Web Resource: balancepublishing.com

Radio Play Project (3 people per group): 

Students will create their own radio play, Murder Mystery. 

Materials Needed: 

plot mountain, sound effects, recording device, lots of imagination

Duties:
Playwright: It is the responsibility of the playwright to write the actual script for the radio drama. The other members of the group will provide creative input, but the playwright will be held accountable for actually writing the script on paper.

Foley Artist: It is the responsibility of the Foley artist to create the sound effects for the radio drama. This person will be responsible for ensuring that all props are brought to the recording studio when needed. The Foley artist will make sure that the playwright includes all sound effects in the script.

Advertising Executive: It is the responsibility of the advertising executive to write the commercials for the radio drama. This person should decide where the commercials should be placed in the script and inform the playwright of these decisions.

Have you signed up for Remind yet?

Remind is an easy-to-use communication tool that helps teachers connect instantly with students and parents. 

Instead of sending home an endless paper trail of student letters, etc… I will use Remind to keep students and parents informed about upcoming events, assignments, fees, etc… The only device you need is a cell phone.

Step 1 - Type the Remind number where you ordinarily enter a phone number.
Step 2 - Type your class code where you ordinarily post your text message.
Step 3 - When prompted, type and send your name.

Once you’ve done this you will be registered to receive messages.

My Classes:

Remind Number: 81010

Intermediate, Proficient and Advanced Dance Class Code: @561ab

Remind Number: 81010

Beginning Theater Class Code: @561abc

Remind Number: 81010

Intermediate, Proficient and Advanced Theater Class Code: @9eb3b2

Silent Film History

Silent Film History




Silent Film Project - Your group will use your mime, pantomime and combat mime scenes to create a silent film by mapping it out on a storyboard.

Storyboard - A sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a movie or television production.



What should be on my storyboard?
Shots and Signs - Each square represents a shot (video recording of scene work) or sign. The lines below the square are designated for writing descriptions of what happens in your scenes/shots.

Types of Shots - Close-up, Long and Mid-range (You should have at least one close-up and mid-range shot in your film).

What is on a sign?
Dialogue - "Oh no! Watch out!!!"

Project Example/Previous Student Work