Behind the Creaking Door

How the CBS Radio Mystery Theater revived the art of audio drama half a century ago

By Anthony Head February 15, 2024

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater went on the air 50 years ago, on January 6, 1974. As one of the first national radio anthology series since the mid-1960s, it offered mystery, science fiction, historical, and horror stories; it also had legs: The show lasted nine years, a run that included 1,399 original episodes and totaled nearly 3,000 broadcasts.

Creator and producer Himan "Hi" Brown revived radio theater in part for an audience that remembered and appreciated the medium's "golden age" from the 1930s to the 1950s. Having created some of radio's most popular shows, including Inner Sanctum Mysteries (1941-1952), Terry and the Pirates (1937–1948), and Grand Central Station (1937–1954), Brown's confidence in the CBS Radio Mystery Theater was clear from the outset.

"[Radio drama is] the most personal form of entertainment — just you and the radio and your imagination," he said just days before the show's premier. "It's the theater of the mind. Movies and television can't duplicate it."

'Theater of the Mind'

Broadcast on more than 230 stations, Mystery Theater also attracted younger listeners, who found novelty in the show during its initial run and who remain loyal fans to this day courtesy of websites and video-streaming platforms that preserve every episode.

"In the end, it's a very well-done show, with a bunch of top-notch actors who really knew their stuff," says John Slavney of Madison, Wisconsin, who is currently writing a book on the show's history. Like many original fans, Slavney merely stumbled upon the program in 1974.

"Around the same time, cable TV arrived in Madison, and I was drawn to "The Twilight Zone," "The Outer Limits" and the Alfred Hitchcock shows — all of which I had never seen before. The CBS Radio Mystery Theater afforded the opportunity to listen to stories on the radio — often the same kind of gothic, mystery or supernatural tales that were featured on those TV shows."

Max Powers' documentary 'Don't Be Nice' follows young twentysomething poets and their coaches as they prepare to compete in a national poetry slam competition.

by Frank Scheck September 19, 2019 11:51am

The title of Max Powers’ documentary, about a group of twentysomethings competing in a poetry slam competition, comes from the advice offered by one of their coaches. “Don’t be nice, be necessary,” Lauren Whitehead advises the five-person team comprised of African-American, Afro-Hispanic and gay poets. Her charges take the admonition to heart. They infuse their creations with personal and social issues that form the dramatic crux of Don’t Be Nice.

The film follows the members of the Bowery Poetry Club team — Ashley August, Timothy DuWhite, Joel Francois, Sean MEGA Desvignes and Noel Quinones — over several months as they prepare to compete in the slam poetry nationals in Atlanta. A weekly countdown is provided via intertitles, lending an element of tension to the proceedings.

The doc very much adopts a fly-on-the-wall approach, essentially sitting in as the group and their coaches, including Whitehead, work on their material. “I’m writing as a form of activism,” one of them comments, and that activism is stirred by current events (the film was shot in 2016). We see the young poets repeatedly absorbing televised news stories about black men dying at the hands of the police, including Eric Garner, and reconsidering their artistic choices as a result. (A New York Times story published last year reported that several of the film’s subjects were unhappy with their portrayal in the documentary, which they said exploited racial issues).

Among the poets’ other inspirations is the politically tinged horror pic The Purge, which they use as the basis for one of their most vivid creations.

Teatro Fest NYC 2024: A citywide spectacle of drama, dance, and music unveiled

Saturday, March 2, 2024

The Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY Presents Teatro Fest NYC 2024: A Vibrant Citywide Showcase of Live Drama, Dance, Music, and Latinx Artistry. Featuring 23 Productions and 141 Performances Across 9 Esteemed Latinx/Latine Theater Venues from March 1 to April 30, 2024. Experience World Premieres, Celebrated Revivals, and Cultural Conversations with NYC’s Diverse Latin Community of Artists. The Festivities Commenced on February 26th with a Special Latinx Theater Preview Night in Collaboration with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

“The Library for the Performing Arts is so excited to partner with the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY. Combining excerpts of the performances with a discussion about the work is what we love to do here at the library, and we’re honored to have been serving as Teatro Fest NYC’s kick-off event,” said Doug Reside, Lewis and Dorothy Cullman, Curator for the Billy Rose Theatre Division at the Library.

“All 8 Latino theaters are excited to bring back the fun with Teatro Fest NYC 2024! Back with another array of events that keeps on going for two months nonstop!” said a representative of the Alliance.

“Teatro Fest NYC is Proudly Supported by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as a Founding Sponsor. Festival Sponsors also Feature the Hispanic Federation and the Radio Drama Network Programming.”

“We are so proud to support once again Teatro Fest NYC, an invaluable source of arts and cultural programming for New Yorkers to enjoy for the next two months throughout NYC at nine different venues,” said Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Pat Swinney Kaufman. “Thanks to festival organizers at the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY, there is something for everyone this year, with works that will showcase the best in Latinx performance, including dance, live theatre, music, and education.”

Teatro Fest NYC 2024 performances receive critical support from various entities, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in collaboration with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with endorsement from the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.Additionally, numerous private institutional and individual donors contribute to the festival’s success.

Teatro Fest NYC 2024 represents a dynamic collaboration among prominent Latino theater companies in New York City. With a collective history spanning over fifty years, these companies have garnered numerous accolades, including Obie, Drama Desk, ACE, HOLA, ATI, LATA awards, as well as Mayoral commendations. They have captivated tens of thousands of New York City audiences and students with their innovative original works and timeless Spanish dramas.

For a comprehensive list of Teatro Fest NYC 2024 productions and events, and to purchase tickets, please visit the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY website: latinotheatersny.com

Halloween Eve is “Audio Drama Day”: a century of broadcast drama, 85 years since ‘War of the Worlds’

A major milestone for radio, television, podcasts - October 30, 2023 marks a century of broadcast drama; 85 years since "War of the Worlds"; a decade of "Audio Drama Day"

Vancouver, WA (PRUnderground) October 27th, 2023

While podcasts and audio publishers like Audible have flourished in recent years, regional groups maintained interest in audio drama when network radio drama dimmed. “More recently, the Audio Drama Directory and its associated subReddit deserve credit for helping new audio dramatists find an audience.” She adds, “Before the web, and easy access to podcast and old time radio MP3s, organizations like SPERDVAC and anthologies like Jim French’s ‘Imagination Theatre’ and Himan Brown’s ‘CBS Radio Mystery Theatre’ helped keep the flame alive.”

The first Audio Drama Day was announced at the Parsec Awards in September 2013, in anticipation of the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast in October 1938.

The HOLA Theater Awards were presented at a gala full of stars and personalities from New York entertainment.

HOLA 2023 Hispanic Theater Awards: list of winners The HOLA Theater Awards were presented at a gala full of stars and personalities from New York entertainment.

The Hispanic Organization of Latino Actors (HOLA) held its grand annual gala in which it recognized various personalities that make up the Latino collective of the performing arts and awarded their respective awards for excellence in Hispanic theater in New York.

Congratulations to HOLA on another fantastic HOLA Awards!! RDN is proud to partner with HOLA in all that you do!

Congratulations also to INTAR for your win of an HOLA Award for Vamanos in Outstanding Achievement in Theatrical Design 

Vámonos (INTAR Theatre)
Rodrigo Escalante: set design, Alberto Ruiz: lighting, Germán Martínez: sound, Jennifer Colón: costumes, and Stefania Bulbarella: projections.

By Katie Walsh Sept. 26, 2019 6:47 AM PT

Max Powers makes his directorial debut with “Don’t Be Nice,” a finely observed documentary about a national slam poetry competition that rises above its traditional format to find the personal profundity in the art form. The film follows the Bowery Slam Poetry team as they earn their spots, and then enter a grueling poetry bootcamp with their coaches, Lauren Whitehead and Jon Sands, who push their charges to dig beyond their political platitudes to unearth a poem’s emotional core.

“Do you want to work on writing into vulnerability or do you want to win slams?” Whitehead demands of her team. She encounters resistance from the young poets, and questions how hard to push them to reveal their trauma in this art form that prizes the cathartic release of emotion above all else. She emerges as the star, a gentle but strong presence urging them all to godeeper and push the boundaries of the standard slam poem.

Filmed in the summer of 2016, the film feels like a pre-Trump time capsule. But as the summer unfolds, bloody with the police shootings of unarmed black men, the poems take on significance as a unique way to tell personal stories about the African American experience, whether in joy or sorrow. As they lift their voices to perform a group piece, “Google Black,” the black members of the audience scream in recognition, deriving a sense of belonging from representation. “We will not edit out blackness,” the poets declare, a powerful and potent message captured in Powers’ film.

The members of the Bowery Slam Poetry Team articulate their anguish, invisibility and trauma onstage

Candice Frederick | September 18, 2019 @ 11:20 AM

School spelling bees have often been fodder for documentaries — young people trying to control their sweaty palms, navigate the overwhelming pressure of academic competition, and, if they’re lucky, develop a sense of self along the way. But many of these films, like “Bee Nation” or “Spellbound,” perpetuate a racially monolithic desire to succeed that often excludes black and Latinx adolescents. That’s what makes “Don’t Be Nice” such an interesting watch.

The debut feature from director Max Powers (known for his editing work in films like “Alone Together” and “Big Cheat”) has nothing to do with being able to spell SAT words for cash prizes, but rather using words in a similar competition setting to empower the oppressed. “Don’t Be Nice” centers a group of young black and Latinx adults who make up the Bowery Slam Poetry Team in New York City, struggling to articulate the anguish, invisibility, and trauma they’ve carried in today’s exasperating political climate punctuated by Black Lives Matter and #MeToo.

Each gifted individual is linked by their passion for spoken word poetry, which allows them to grieve openly and to interrogate the micro- and macro-aggressions they encounter on a daily basis, including Trayvon Martin’s murder by police, the assimilation and romantic exoticization of Latinx people, sexual assault, and parental abuse.

Unlike the spelling bees in counterpart films, there doesn’t seem to be a monetary incentive as they enter regional and national slam championships, performing work that is equal parts confrontational and moving. If there is one, Powers doesn’t focus on it. Instead, he explores the spiritual impetus of getting up on stage and confronting a room of strangers — some of whom are their fellow talented competitors — about their deepest vulnerabilities and the things that matter to them. In doing so, he shows how their unique artistry is really an exercise of the human ability to rise above.

Whether for time constraints or another reason, we don’t get to spend a whole lot of time in other areas of these people’s lives, which might have further humanized each character. We only know that Ashley August, the sole woman in the group, is also an aspiring actress because there is one scene where she meets with a casting agent who says that her refusal to reduce herself to playing only “ghetto” roles may result in her not getting any work at all. On top of that, her size puts her in a niche casting arena.

There is one other glimpse of Ashley’s life outside of spoken word, when she’s in the small apartment that she shares with a fellow artist in the group, Mega DesVignes; Ashley flashes the camera her vision board with a top-to-bottom list of goals like “Lose 10 Pounds.” She quickly dismisses them as pipe dreams. And because of that, unfortunately, so do we. Without more expositional filmmaking, each character becomes a bit one-dimensional.