STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Baby, it’s cold outside!!!
So, nestle up by the fire and listen to The Liberty Theater Company’s magical radio play adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland: A Live Radio play.”
The Hailey theater company staged the radio play a few weeks ago, the adaptation written by the company’s Artistic Director Naomi McDougall Jones. And, while you won’t be able to see actor Aly Wepplo pretend to shimmy down the hole as she did on stage, you will be able to hear the sound effects created by Foley Artist David Ian as you listen to the story in your choice of English or Spanish.
Listen in English at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijAwXMhoECo. Escuchela en Espanol at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwOMrTcBGjg.
And, bonus!--Foley Artist David Ian is offering Wood River Valley residents a chance to listen to his work in “Dungeons & Damsels,” a medieval fantasy sword audio drama series at https://open.spotify.com/show/0pdOWubDHtlU7Jb2cIEduw.
The English version of “Alice,” directed by Veronica Moonhill, features Andrew Alburger, David Janeski, Page Klune, Courtney Loving, Karen Nelsen and Aly Wepplo. The Spanish version features Edith Lopez-Millard, Pedro Manuel Miramontes Ortiz, Leonardo Padilla Sacha, Gaby Ruiz, Sergio Ruiz, Rosa Segura and Rosmery Serva.
The Liberty Theater was able to treat a group of youngsters from the Lincoln County Youth Center to the matinee performance, with The Liberty Theater providing the popcorn. And Foley Artist David Ian showed the youngsters—and others in the audience—how he created the sounds for the production using different types of props to help tell the story.
He, for instance, jangled keys to create the sound of a teacup. An egg beater sounds like a bicycle. He can knock coconut halves together to sound like horse hoofs clopping along. Chains can simulate marching knights wearing armor.
Popping bubble wrap evokes thoughts of a fire in the fireplace. Plastic tubing and a shower piece bought in the plumbing section of a hardware store can be used to make the sound of a trumpet. And, when Ian wants to create thunder, he rolls something around inside a balloon.
“I couldn’t bring a life-sized door to the theater so I brought a smaller one,” he said, showing a little door just big enough to stick his head through. “It’s transformative in that something entirely different can sound like something other than what it is.”
Ian said he’s been creating sound for live radio for 25 years.
“You have to try a lot of things—there’s a lot of trial and error to making sound,” he said. “Often, you find something that’s close but not quite right. But it’s a lot of fun figuring it out.”
McDougall Jones, who has starred in a handful of movies, told the kids to watch movies closely next time they go to the movie theater.
“Sounds don’t get recorded at the time the movie is filmed. For most movies the sound effects get put in afterwards,” she said. “So, next time you watch a movie, pay attention to the sounds effects and know that someone like David has spent hundreds of hours trying to create those sounds.”
COMING UP:
The Liberty Theater company will present “A Doll’s House, Part 2” Feb. 7-22. This reimagining of Ibsen’s classic play, directed by David Janeski, picks up 15 years after the original leaves off as Nora returns to face her former husband and the children she abandoned.