A comment left on one of my Wait Until Dark posts suggested that my experience at Court Theatre might make for a good radio essay.
Beth, I like your description of how you feel after doing this work, an emotional “hangover.” This seems like the kind of thoughtful topic you would talk about on Chicago Public Radio, especially with the connection to the local theater scene! Is it in the works?
I ran that idea by the folks at Chicago Public Radio, and they agreed to send Joe DeCeault, one of my favorite producers, along with me on one of my visits to a rehersal. Joe was with me there for hours, recording me talking with the director and the actors, then following me around with a microphone while I toured the set.
In the end, though, none of that sound made it on the finished piece. My guess is that Joe ended up with so much sound and background material that it just got too complicated. So he kept it simple – just my voice, telling the story of my fifteen seconds of fame. I was disappointed –I really liked the voices of all the people involved with Wait Until Dark and thought the variety would make for a more interesting piece on the radio.
After giving it a bit more thought, though, I realized Joe’s task as a radio producer is much like mine as a journalist — for some stories you can do hours and hours, days, even weeks of reporting and then have to narrow it down to a 500-word story. A lot ends up on the cutting-room floor.
I’m heading down to Court Theatre with a few friends tonight. I know it’s crazy, I’ve seen the play twice already, but I just want to go again. Plus, the friends coming with me are really fun!
It’ll be interesting to find out if any of the folks at Court heard the piece — it aired this morning on Chicago Public Radio’s 848 show. If you missed it, you can take a listen online to see (okay, hear) what you think. Although it wasn’t exactly what I expected, I hope the radio piece does produce the result I hoped it would. That is, I hope it encourages more people to go out to see Wait Until Dark. They better act fast, though — the show closes this Sunday.
I thought the piece was good. While it may come as a shock to some who know Beth as anything but bashful, she actually hates hearing her own voice. So I think that’s why she’d hoped there’d be other voices to break it up. But Joe at WBEZ always does a great job of drawing out Beth at her natural best.
I also thought it was great! And I don’t know if it was my computer that I was listening on – but it did seem that talking overlapped- like you were still talking to someone in the background but went on with the story on top- loved the “blah, blah, blah” – and I can see your hands moving. It is always as if you are at the kitchen table telling your story. If I were in the Chicago area, I would definitely go see the play! Enjoy your encore visit.
No, it wasn’t’ your computer—it was Joe’s expertise with sound production! After he recorded the two-hour rehearsal visit, Joe had me come to the WBEZ studios to tell the whole story there — I spent about a half-hour in the studio. Joe took all that tape then and did this tricky thing where I’d be telling the story, then have it sound like I was kind of drifting off, and then take tape from later on in the story and splice it in there. When I thought about this technique later on,
it occurred to me that Mike would probably *love* to have a fancy sound machine like Joe uses. It’d come in handy when I’m sitting across from Mike at the kitchen table going on and on and on when gee, a two-minute summary would do!
Hi Beth,
I heard the piece on 848 this morning and enjoy reading your blog. I just have to say I’m glad your humor hasn’t changed. Your still the same as you were when we were kids. Oh my gosh the memories. Pastor Sterz and all.
I liked this piece and the overlapping voice. You sound very natural and upbeat–great closing line about being a “zen master!” I think there’s more to be said about how dwelling on your blindness made you feel (temporarily at least) more aware of it than you normally are, and that that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Something to file away for another story, whether or not for radio!
Ray, how sweet of you to take the time to find me here at my blog! Glad you heard my piece on the radio, and thanks for complimenting my sense of humor –good to hear that after *all these years* some things don’t change.
Linda, thanks for pointing that out. You’d think that I’d be thinking about being blind all the time –after all, every time I open my eyes I’m reminded. But it’s odd how, after some time, you just stop thinking about it.
It takes another person, sometimes, to remind me that some of my thoughts are worth, well, rememberring!Thanks for your suggestion to put this thought away to use in some future writing — I’m considering writing a book about the memoir-writing class I teach for senior citizens, maybe I can work it in somewhere in there.
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