In a few hours, I’m heading to the theatre for the final rehearsal for tonight’s performance of The War of the Worlds, as part of the 2015 Sci-Fi Fest.
I have the great honor and privilege of playing Orson Welles as Professor Pierson. It’s a bit of a dream come true for me, because I’ve been listening to the infamous 1939 broadcast of War of the Worlds since I got my very first cassette player in the late 70s. I can recite most of it from memory, but for tonight’s performance, it was important to me that I didn’t just mimic Welles’ performance. I need to make the character my own, and to do that, I’ve been reading and performing the scenes just like I would to prepare for any other character I was creating.
I thought it would be interesting to share some of my rehearsal process, so I recorded myself yesterday, and put the recording on my Soundcloud.
It’s about ten minutes long, and I think some of you may find it interesting, and maybe even entertaining. You can listen to it there, or push play here:
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I’ve been listening since I got my first vinyl of it. Great going.
Thanks for sharing that with us! Well done 🙂
Break a leg and have a lot of fun.:-) Congratulations.:)
I’ve always wanted to start a “radio series” (I’m not sure what it’s called lol), thank you for inspiring me. 🙂
No! Wait! You can’t stop there!!
Noy only am I impressed by your performance, but also the words you’re performing. We need more writing like this!
Good luck tonight! I know you’ll be brilliant!
Mark
Break a leg.
Have fun! Looks like a great event!
Break a leg! Here’s a cool Radiolab podcast about the history of the show, including (starting at about 30minutes in) how the show was rewritten a bit, translated, and performed in Quito, Ecuador with amazing results. I had never heard the Quito story, it adds a whole new dimension to the legacy of this play.
Fabulous! You’re going to rock the house tonight!
Hard to believe these days that at the time of its original broadcast people panicked because they believed it was a live report.
Sounds good, Wil, all those audio books have paid off.
I love your voice. I think you are holding back. You seem the sort that would place more fervor .. again dig your voice 🙂 have a great rest of day …
You have a really good voice for this!
My word…that is very nearly an all Star Trek performance of WotW.
Dude! Radio Free Burrito episode! This would be amazing to just dump into the podcast feed. My podcatcher screwed up and marked a 2013 episode of RFB, and I discovered that 1) I really MISS Radio Free Burrito, and 2) even OLD radio Free Burrito is much better than NO Radio Free Burrito.
I absolutely love Orson Welles production of The War of the Worlds. I admit that when the Mark & Brian Radio Program did a re-creation of the broadcast for Halloween one year at the Museum of Television History when I was in High School, I played hookey so I could listen to the broadcast.
So, what I’m trying to say is – will this performance be available for live streaming or download (paid or otherwise) after the fact? Because I will totally buy this off Audible (or Amazon or the iTunes store or whatever).
I wonder this as well.
I wish, because it was an amazing performance.
Unfortunately, because our copyright system in America is so terribly broken, the family of Howard Koch, who wrote the script for the 1938 version, has been able to assert a copyright claim even though the material is nearly 80 years old, and they have been able to effectively prevent recordings of its performance from being released.
This is a huge disappointment to me, and it makes me really angry that copyright law prevents awesome things like this from being experienced by people who would love them.
Damn, that sucks. America really needs to get our copyright laws updated for the 21st century.
Maybe something you should think about for a future project: Writing and/or producing a new radio drama (I know, $$$, but I’d pitch in on a kickstarter for something like that, especially if you voiced in it as well).
I have not been this excited since your Wil Wheaton show. I love War of the Worlds and use to listen to my grandparents laughing over the original program that caused so much panic for people when it aired on the radio. Later I listened to the record. My uncle Carol Honey wrote books on what aliens would really look like and why. He did research all over the world on UFO sightings. I can’t wait to hear your War of the Worlds. You do indeed have the voice for it and have no doubt what you bring to it will be just as great as the original. Karen (I would be listening to it right now if the house wasn’t already asleep making me be patient for tomorrow. You are so kind to make it possible for me to hear it too. Thank you.)
The performance was awesome, as was Wil as Orson Welles. (I had a small part as a policeman so I saw it close up.) As far as I know, the performance was not recorded and thus will not be available for future listening or viewing. Apparently the rights to do that were too expensive. A huge shame, too, because the show was fabulous.
I FINALLY FOUND THE TIME TO LISTEN TO YOUR DEMO. YOUR VERSION WILL BE REALLY GREAT. YOU HAVE THE VOICE AND THE SOUL TO MAKE IT AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE AND I CAN NOT WAIT TO HEAR IT. KAREN NAYLOR
War of the Worlds is what got me interested in Science Fiction as a child (7 when I first heard a recording at my uncles house) and to this day, holds a special place in my heart. I wish I would of known about this event before today, for I would have gotten onto a plane to see this performance. Your quick recording really took the character into your own and I personally feel it did great justice, thank you for sharing it with all of us.
Hey Wil. My name is Harrison. I’m with Spurfest: we’re a Canadian national festival of politics, art and ideas, that’s been going on for a couple of years now. We’re hoping to have you join our talk on “Are We Alone Together in the Universe?” this year. Feel free to send me an email at [email protected] to let me know if you’re interested. Thanks man.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing this Wil! I use to listen to that in my Walkman under a blanket!!
I finally realised who you performance reminded me of, not Orson Welles (you said yourself you didn’t want to emulate him) but Ron Serling in his introductions to the the classic Twilight Zone episodes.
I’d love to hear/see the event, especially you and Michael Dorn playing your parts!