Fright Night

Fright Night brings together three plays that recreate the radio dramas of the 1930s and 1940s, written with autumn in mind. Each is set on the sound stage of a small local station, where the owner, looking for publicity, has opened a broadcast to a live studio audience for the first time. The on-air crew is not thrilled about performing before an audience they can actually see.

The scripts alternate between backstage dialogue among the station staff and the dramas they perform live over the air, and they are meant to be read in order so the exchanges make sense. Every performer takes on at least two roles, the radio worker and one or more story characters, so actors must change voices and move in and out of different characters as the evening goes on.

In Murder at the Station, a body turns up on the premises, yet the broadcast carries on while a hard-boiled detective looks into the death. The script includes two genuine old-time radio episodes along with the staff chatter that comes before, during and after them. Cursed Waters features a list of sea shanties for the cast to sing, with room to add live instruments. The final play opens with an old-time radio episode the company chooses itself, followed by an adaptation of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. While a thunderstorm rages outside, the cast learns that the station may be haunted.

The plays suit community theatre groups with limited rehearsal time, since memorization is light and costs are kept low. This electronic edition is for reading only, and performing the plays requires a separate license from the rights holders.