little bits of ideas come together

From Corrie 6/16/09:

I heard the radio play Sorry, Wrong Number back in college when I was delivering pizzas. I hopped in the car just as the play was starting--I remember hearing the announcer say that it was Agnes Moorhead in the title role. It's from the Suspense Radio Series, which ran from the 40s through the 60s. Sorry Wrong Number begins with a woman who overhears 2 men planning to kill a woman. Through the course of the play our housebound heroine tries desperately, frantically, to get someone, anyone, take her seriously and help her stop these 'cold-blooded killers' before they murder this 'poor, innocent woman who is all alone'...

I was absolutely riveted. I got to the address and sat in the car and let the pizzas get cold so that I could hear how it would play out. It’s a wonderful script with all those great Suspense clues along the way.


There’s Agnes (later).

I wanted to play this part, though when I first heard it I was way too young. So I wanted to figure out how you pull off a radio play on stage.

This script was turned into a movie with Barbara Stanwyck, and I tried to watch it, but it was drawn out to feature length and visually kind of boring, and I think I fell asleep. (A great single set play-turned-movie is Tracy Letts’s Bug, directed by William Friedkin. He keeps that set fresh and hot.)

There’s Barbara in all her Blonde, B-cup Glory.

The script was also made into a TV Miniseries in the late 70s. I haven't seen that one, but the stills look wonderfully Dynasty-y.

Anyway, I kind of forgot about the play for a few years until I saw the bank of windows here at the Fishtank. I’ll put up a picture of those windows as we start to dress them, but it’s a big picture window plus 3 more big windows, with room to play, but tightness for the weird visual tension the play needs to pop.

Heidi’s dogs Bruno and Falstaff guarding the window

So here's the concept: I'll be in the windows, miked. Set designer Gary Campbell is transforming the window bank into a 1940s parlor/sitting room. David Kiehl, the sound designer, will be out on the sidewalk and my lines will be sent out over the PA to the audience, who will also be sitting and standing outside.

5 Shows:
Saturday, June 27th, 8:30 pm
First Friday, July 3rd, 8:30 and 10 pm
Monday, July 6th, 8:30 pm
Saturday, July 11th, 8:30 pm

STAY TUNED.