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RuyaSonic Radio Drama Workshop Scripts & Scores
My radio drama scripts and pre-recorded musical scores are available for others to conduct their own workshops and productions. I charge a traditional performance royalty to perform my plays. That fee differs depending upon the use--educational, broadcast, stage, etc. I deliver the scripts as PDF format files via e-mail. They can be viewed and printed on any Mac or PC, using the free, downloadable Acrobat reader program. You can view a sample script of my "Life's Little Ups & Downs" soap opera demo in PDF format. The pre-recorded musical scores are available as downloadable MP3 files of the music cues, and at some later date, MP3s of the sound effects too. In addition to getting the scripts and scores, I also provide special instructional materials to explain how to mount these plays using my unique "Good, Fast, Cheap & Fun" production style. While I do sell "packages" consisting of scripts and pre-recorded music cues, I do not sell the mechanical sound effects devices I employ. However, I can instruct you in what to buy and build for your own sound effects kit. Please note that each script contains an SFX "cookbook," explaining what to use and how to "play it." Here's a sample of a SFX cookbook listing--but the script you buy will contain exactly the effects for the specific program. Also, I am available to conduct full radio drama workshops in person. While I'm based in Los Angeles, I do travel a good deal, doing radio workshops and shows. In 2008, I'll be teaching at the National Audio Theatre Festivals Audio Theatre Workshop Missouri June 22-28. I do hire out to conduct workshops anywhere. I accept payments through the free and secure PayPal service. www.paypal.com Tony Palermo's Radio Workshop Repertoire My radio drama workshops offer programs in a variety of genres, demonstrating radio’s dramatic spectrum. The scripts are specifically written to feature classic radio drama conventions and techniques. However, actual old time radio scripts used very few actors and perhaps two sound effects artists. My special workshop scripts employ from nine to twenty participants, including as many as four to ten sound effects artists. This makes them especially well suited for small troupes, educational workshops, and family programs. The scripts are also written to distribute the lines between many characters, because it's not much fun to be "spear carrier" on radio. Also, note that these scripts are suitable for ages 9 to 99. They have not been "dumbed down" for students. These scripts and scores have been used by the Museum of Television & Radio in Los Angeles and New York, the United Nations FPA program around the world, by high schools, colleges, libraries, community theaters, and also produced professionally in Hollywood. They were created by me, Tony Palermo, and I retain all rights, including the right to grant use of them for a royalty fee--based upon the venue and use. These programs generally run about 20-27 minutes, depending upon the actors' pace. Shows running longer or shorter are noted in the descriptive blurbs below. A Christmas Carol is Tony Palermo's very faithful adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic story of Christmas, memory, and redemption. This radio drama adaptation has been performed and recorded by Hollywood professionals, community theatre troupes, colleges, high schools and elementary students also. This script is very true to Dickens language and theme. It also boasts an authentic score of Victorian Christmas Carols and spooky ghost music. I offer three radio versions--30-minutes, 40-minutes and 60-minutes (in addition to a stage play version.) For valuable information about how I've approached this adaptation and suggestions for how you handle your production, see my program notes CAST & CREW - Total: 22-30 (10-14 actors. 5-8 sound effects artists, 1 sound effects chief, 1 engineer, 1 director) A Christmas Carol script & score for radio - Details about how you can produce my radio adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic.
Also: Visit my Christmas Carol stage play webpage for information on performance rights and downloadable PDF samples.About that Ark... is a short comedy where a certain
600 year-old animal lover/amateur sailor seeks a mass "pet adoption" to take
aboard his "cruise ship" before the weather changes--but must first undergo a
"Home Inspection" by the local pet orphanage. This show was written for Peter
Falk as the Skipper, with Monty Python's Eric Idle as the suspicious home
inspector ("What is this? A houseboat?"), JoAnne Worley as the zany loose-cannon
wife, Joan--of Ark, and Jane Russell as the cruise ships' Entertainment
Director. Sound effects include building the Ark, thunder, a stampede, rain,
doors, and a variety of animal "voices." This short program--about 12
minutes long--plays like a Monty Python sketch, with a ridiculous twist ending.
The musical score sounds kind of Biblical, but religion takes a back seat to
comedy here. (There's nothing sacrilegious though.) Blast-Off! is
an 1957-style science fiction anthology series similar to
Dimension X. This story, “Greetings from the Planet
Killer” takes place 40,000 years in the future
where women have evolved into fierce space warriors.
The show features a spy mission to "Planet X," evil blob
creatures, a doomsday machine, a space battle and startling
twist ending. The electronic musical score features classic
1950s synthesizer sounds. See
program notes for
more
While our heroine resembles Xena, the warrior princess,
there are plenty of good male roles including evil aliens, a
robot, and an ambitious minister of alien-tology. A 10-minute version of this story is available under the title "Tales of Outer Space," below. Colonel Frothingham, Intrepid
Antiquitist
is a comic adventure following the British know-it-all, Colonel
Cuthbert T. Frothingham as he seeks ancient treasures across the world to add to
the collection of the British Museum. In "Egypped Again!", the
Colonel, heiress/patron Harriet Nittlebee and Murgatroyd, the latest in a long
string of ill-fated aides to the Colonel, stumble upon the tomb of the first
Egyptian Pharaoh, Amen Ra and run smack into the Colonel's dastardly nemesis,
Leslie Slewmarten--as well as booby traps, a gibberish-spouting pastry chef, a
mis-translated ancient tale, a pit of vipers, and Sekhmet, the Sphinx-monster
that guards the tomb. This short program--about 12 minutes long--plays like a
Monty Python sketch, with a cliffhanger ending. Grim Scary Tales is a horror anthology series similar to Lights Out or the Inner Sanctum Mysteries. The series itself is set in 1955, so the horror is not as gruesome as contemporary horror films or fiction. We offer two different episodes; Both include humorous ads at the very end--to leaven the horror. "The Pirate's Curse"
is set in 1720, where pirates, lost in the
Sargasso Sea, find the fountain of youth... and its
horrid curse! This classic-style radio drama features a
swashbuckling naval battle, a mysterious sea of lost ships,
a ghostly survivor of Columbus' first voyage, a raging
tempest, and terrifying twist ending--all wrapped in a
spooky orchestral score. “Crusade of Terror!”
takes place in Turkey in 1205 A.D. with a crusader army
conquering a city, but finding something truly terrifying in
the caverns below. The story serves as a subtle allegory for
the political “witch-hunts” of the McCarthy-era. See
program notes for
more information. Hare Dryer
is a comic telling of an urban legend. Here, the family dog
brings a neighbor's dead bunny rabbit home as a trophy. The
dog's owners try to clean up the dead bunny and drop it off
on the neighbor's doorstep--as if the animal had died of
natural causes. However, a twist ending delivers a marvelous
payback to the sneaks. This 10 minute program has been
enjoyed by workshops--and broadcast audiences--around the
world. It employs an authentic soap opera organ score and
simple sound effects. Teenagers especially enjoy performing
this short play. Hawk of the West
is a western, similar to The Lone Ranger or
Gunsmoke. In this original episode, "Injuns at Coyote
Creek," deadly night-time raids threaten to start an
Indian war! Here, our mysterious lawman, The Hawk, is
caught in a buffalo stampede while his Indian companion,
Uzumati, is captured by an angry posse! Only Prairie Rose,
the tough lady rancher, and Chief Thundercloud, can help our
heroes survive this slam-bam action adventure. And far from
stereotype, in this western, the Indians ride to the
rescue! This show is actually a re-write of our Lone Ranger
episode. Due to trademark issues, some venues cannot risk
using the Lone Ranger character, but since our script was
original, we're able to present this program with our new
hero and sidekick. Please note, even though this is a
horse-opera, girls have plenty to do in this
show. In Old
California depicts California history through the
lives of ordinary people. Our episode, "Golden Dreams,
Golden Nightmares," recreates one man's adventures in
the gold fields of 1849-1850. Our hero pans for gold, meets
other fortune hunters, tours the crowded camps and booming
cities, and gets caught up in gold fever--with all its
enterprise, greed, and hardships. This historical fiction is
a dramatic and rollicking western that features an authentic
folk music score chock full of banjo, mandolin, guitar,
autoharp, dulcimer, harmonica and more.
Inspector Rufflethorpe is a 1938-style detective
program similar to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
This program is a classic British-style whodunit, with an
English manor and a fresh corpse. In this episode, "The
Twitshyre Murder Case," Inspector Rufflethorpe, of
Scotland Yard, and his assistant, Everett Frimly are called
to a country manor in Margate to investigate the mysterious
locked-room murder of Lord Archibald
Farquhar-Bensington. The list of suspects includes Lady
Margaret Bensington, Colonel Cuthbert T. Frothingham, the
mysterious Countess Valeska, Gretchen Laytherly--a West End
ingénue, her beau, Ralph Stellsmore; the rakish personal
secretary, Reginald Sklemsdale, and the family solicitor,
Kirwood Crumpton, Esq. There's a ghostly séance, a series of
baffling murders and a monument to deductive logic when the
culprit is finally unmasked. See the
program notes for
background info. A snippet/parody of this story appears in
Part One of our Rick Lowell - Private Eye
series. This "jolly-good show" features a classic
1930s-style organ score. Life’s Little
Ups & Downs is a 1953-style soap-opera similar to
The Guiding Light and Young Widder Brown. In this
episode, Barbara Jones copes with her brother Raymond’s
strange illness. In a clever use of radio, we venture
inside Raymond’s head to re-live his Safari plane crash
and jungle ordeal. Meanwhile, Barbara’s arch-nemesis, Audrey
Snead, plots revenge, and a strange package arrives. Our
lively show features classic soap-opera organ and several
commercials for “Klenso--the modern way to clean.” See
program notes for
more.
Please note, even though this is a soap-opera, boys have
plenty to do in this show
The Lone Ranger
program (an original script) is also available in a
no-problem-with- trademarks version titled
"Hawk of the West" Radio Ranger
is a contemporary super hero with radio-like powers--he can
turn invisible, fly through the air and has a sonic ray
blaster, but his powers fade when he goes under a bridge!
This episode, “Invaders from Earth," pits
Radio Ranger and his scientist cohort, Betsy Blake, against
the invading mole-ites of the subterranean warlord, Zorg,
who seeks to steal Los Angeles landmarks including a certain
famous mountain-top museum to use as his underworld palace.
It features a techno-synthesizer score. Rick Lowell - Private
Eye is a1940s-style detective drama series similar to
The Adventures of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe.
We currently produce a three part series called, “The
Stuff That Dreams are Made Of.” Here, Rick Lowell
searches for a movie-prop from The Maltese Falcon
and runs into Nazi agents, crooked dames, snooty art
dealers, actors playing English detectives, and dangerous
gangsters. This exciting and often humorous show is packed
with classic 1940s Los Angeles settings, “hard-boiled”
dialogue, and colorful characters. It is especially popular
with adults, but kids get a kick out of it too. Please note
that it's not necessary to do the series in order--each show
is a complete thrill. See
program notes for more. Shakespeare's
Macbeth is a radio adaptation of just Act 4, Scene 1,
where the ambitious warlord, Macbeth visits the three
witches and receives the baffling prophecies that will spell
his doom. It is rendered with music and sound effects and
William Shakespeare's dialogue intact. This show was used
for a workshop for high school teachers and runs only about
10 minutes in length, making it suitable for production
within a single classroom period.
Shakespeare's Richard III is a radio adaptation of
Act 5, Scenes 3-5, where the usurper, Richard III
battles the Earl of Richmond and his army. There are plenty
of inspiring speeches and a terrific battle sequence here.
It is rendered with music and sound effects and William
Shakespeare's dialogue intact. This show was used for a
workshop for high school teachers and runs only about 10
minutes in length, making it suitable for production within
a single classroom period Tales of Outer Space
is the shortened workshop version of our
Blast-Off! program--an original 1957-style science
fiction anthology series similar to Dimension X. This
story, “Greetings from the Planet Killer,”
takes place 40,000 years in the future where women have
evolved into fierce space warriors. The show features
a spy mission to "Planet X," evil blob creatures, a doomsday
machine, a space battle and startling twist ending. The
electronic musical score is done entirely using 1950s-style
synthesizers. This shortened version of the full Blast Off! show listed above, was used for a JPL-sponsored teacher workshop. It runs only about 10 minutes in length, making it suitable for production within a single classroom period |
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TONY PALERMO is an audio
theatre producer, performer, and educator living in Los Angeles, California.
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