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Center Stage at Southampton Arts Center will present Joe Landry’s “War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast” on October 21 and 22. DANE DUPUIS
Center Stage at Southampton Arts Center will present Joe Landry’s “War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast” on Saturday and Sunday, October 21 and 22, at Southampton Arts Center. Performance times are Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Michael Disher directs this live radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic novel.
“The War of the Worlds” has been both popular (having never been out of print) and influential, spawning numerous feature films, radio dramas, a record album, comic book adaptations, television series, and sequels or parallel stories by other authors. It was memorably dramatized in a Halloween 1938 radio program directed by and starring Orson Welles that reportedly caused panic among listeners who did not know that the events were fictional.
Joe Landry’s radio play, “War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast,” is performed as a live radio play highlighting the day leading up to the infamous Halloween 1938 broadcast — and its unpredictable aftermath.
“Landry’s adaptation of the Wells classic is particularly relevant and pertinent. The persuasive and often pervasive power of print and broadcast journalism has never been more apparent,” said Disher. “The responsibility of presenting facts without speculation or opinion is where undeniable truth lies.”
The Center Stage production will feature Richard Adler, Daniel Becker, Richard Browning, Susan Cincotta, Joey Giovingo, Vincenzo Harty, Jenifer Maxson, Matthew O’Connor, Franco Pistritt and Michaal Lyn Schepps.
Tickets are $20 (SAC members $15) at southamptonartscenter.org or 631-283-0967. Tickets are also available at the door, though reservations are recommended.
Southampton Arts Center is at 25 Jobs Lane, Southampton.
Staff Writer on Oct 5, 2023