Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Toys Of Our Trade



Okay, okay. I am the world's worst photographer and I admit it.

What I wanted to capture was a little bit of the craziness that my friend Kathleen and I have put together for the radio plays we're the Foley artists for at the Monticello Opera House, being performed this weekend.

The plays are old, actual radio play scripts from the forties and fifties, ranging from the ridiculous to the absurd and the actors stand in front of the microphones and read the scripts and drop them where they are, just as they did back in a real radio studio back in the day.
The day which, I feel I must point out, when people were obviously far more entertained by far less than they are now.



We're doing a Fibber McGee and Molly, an Our Miss Brooks, a sci-fi thing called Plan X, a bit of a news broadcast from WW II Germany (I think), a sort-of horror piece called Strange (which wouldn't scare a high-strung six year-old), and a long, melodramatic piece called Dark Journey, which we have all taken to calling Dark Endless Journey.

For these pieces, Kathleen and I get to do the sound effects. We're supposed to do them all using technology they would have had in the forties and fifties and we mostly do although we cheat a little bit here and there with prerecorded sounds for a rocket, a ray gun, a car crash.

Things like that.

But it's amazing what you can come up with without the technology. You see that fan? With that fan and a piece of paper, Kathleen can make the most convincing sound of a fighter plane you've ever heard. We've got a miniature door to open and close, an old telephone to pick up and slam down, a garbage can to kick (and boy, is that satisfying!) china to break (same there), an unidentified piece of farm equipment and a sash weight to create the sound of a safe closing, train whistles, Jello to pour for the sound of a Martian drink I can't remember the name of, wax paper to rattle, a toy piano to play, an entire cabinet built to load up with crazy, crazy stuff to open for Fibber McGee's closet, a turkey call, toy ray guns and noise-makers, frog clickers, jewelry and small brass bells to create the sound of an oriental marketplace, and a slide whistle.

I'm sure I've forgotten something.

And the knitting? That's mine. I knit on stage when I'm not producing sound effects. Kathleen usually crochets. We drink something out of coffee cups (water in our case) and pass a flask when the going gets tough. That's part of our little schtick. Really, Kathleen and I get to have the most fun because we not only get to break china and do slide whistles, we also get to do all of this with the straightest faces you can imagine, just two working women wearing hats from the forties, doing the prosaic job of creating footsteps and ray gun sounds on the radio. We come wearing our gloves, we put then away, we sit in our stools, we settle down to business.



We try very hard not to trip in our pans of cat litter which we walk in to make the sounds of trudging through the Martian sands.

I'm going to be really sad when this is all over on Saturday night. Oh, I won't mind eating dinner with my husband at a reasonable hour and I won't miss the dark drives to and from Monticello, but damn! I AM going to miss playing with my friends, cracking each other up, the different personalities, the joy of seeing it all come together, the hilariousness when it doesn't.

Which is why I'll have to try and get involved with the next production. I wouldn't mind being an "actor" again, and I'm sure I will be some day. But until then, I'm happy to be anything they'll let me be. It's addicting, this stage thing. Not so much the performances for me anyway; it's the people I get to play with. It's the fun we get to have. It's the feeling I get when I drive up to the Opera House and get out of my car and lug all my gear up the beautiful old steps to the theater and am greeted by people I've come to know and really care about. It's looking out and seeing all those seats and it's thinking about all the people who have been on both sides of that stage in the last hundred years and knowing I am, in my own little way, being part of it.

And we get applause too!

Shit. Am I lucky or what?




8 comments:

  1. this is so cool! have you always done this? I just watched a documentary on foley artists and their work...amazing!!!!

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  2. That is pretty darn cool for sure. Sorry to hear that is ending soon but awesome that you had so much fun. Hope you get a new production soon. Have a good weekend. And so glad Obama was elected President.

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  3. I think I'll just copy and paste your blog onto mine for the day. Except I'll have to have it change "Foley" into "Acting". See you tonight!

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  4. AP- hmmm. Perhaps Kathleen and I should have seen that documentary. As it is, we're totally making it up as we go.

    Mr. Shife- I'm glad Obama was elected, too!

    Jon- I'm telling you, Plan X is the best thing on the menu for tonight.
    And you know what? She DID care about you. For awhile, anyway.

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  5. I'm sorry I'm going to miss it tonight. It's always fun to see my mama doing something she loves. And it looks like you and Kathleen have a very nice set-up going for you.
    Break a leg (maybe off of a chair for some sound effect?)!

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  6. I have spent time on and behind the stage, but this is something I have missed out on. I love the power of sound. It amazes me beyond belief. If I had another ounce of energy, I would check into community theatre here. But, I guess it will have to wait.
    Thank-you for this post. Is there anyway you could do a youtube or vimeo post? Just a thought.

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  7. You Are lucky! :)Have fun!

    I wish I knew how to knit. I used to crochet afghans, but haven't done it in years.

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  8. Just Me- I doubt we'll be filmed. Thank god, as it were. And besides, I don't even now what vimeo is. I've just now learned to embed youtube vids to my blog.
    You'll just have to imagine the glorious goodness which we will be.

    And Nicol- the knitting is giving my carpal tunnel terrible fits but I don't care. It's worth it.

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