Get Hitched in Tillamook
The Tillamook Association for the Performing Arts will turn back the dial to the golden age of radio with “Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play,” opening this Friday, Sept. 4.
Combining classic suspense with the nostalgia of an old-fashioned radio broadcast, the production brings three Hitchcock stories to the stage: “The Lodger,” “Sabotage” and “The 39 Steps.”
“The Lodger” follows the mounting suspicion surrounding a mysterious tenant, while “Sabotage” tells the story of a woman who begins to suspect her husband is involved in something sinister. “The 39 Steps” adds a fast-paced tale of mistaken identity, danger and an ordinary man suddenly caught up in an international conspiracy.
Rather than presenting the stories as conventional stage plays, “Vintage Hitchcock” recreates the atmosphere of a live radio broadcast from an era when families gathered around the radio and allowed voices, music and sound effects to conjure entire worlds in their imaginations.
Audience members can even choose how much of that world they want to see. Close your eyes and the actors’ voices, music and sound effects provide everything needed to imagine the action. Open them and another part of the performance is revealed, as actors and Foley artists create that world in full view of the audience.
The cast members take on multiple characters throughout the production, sometimes switching roles within the same story. Alongside them, Foley artists produce the sound effects live, creating everything from footsteps and opening doors to animals and countless other noises needed to bring each scene to life.
Watching those effects being made adds another layer to a production that is part theater and part exercise in imagination, recreating the experience of listening to radio drama while revealing some of the theatrical magic behind it.
With suspense, humor, classic storytelling and plenty of nostalgia, “Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play” offers a different way to experience familiar stories and a glimpse of an entertainment form that once brought families together around the radio to discover what happened next.
The play runs through Sunday, Sept. 20, with performances at 7 pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 pm on Sundays at the Barn Community Playhouse, located at 1204 Ivy Avenue in Tillamook.
Tickets, $15-$20, available by calling 503-812-0275 or go to tillamooktheater.com.