“I was looking for something that would stretch the muscles that students have yet to use,” said theater teacher and director of The Edgar Allan Poe: Afterlife Radio Show, Krischelle Hansen. 

The PCHS Theatre Productions Conservatory class is hosting the Edgar Allan Poe: Afterlife Radio Show April 20th through April 24th. Students are encouraged to attend the live broadcast and support their peers. 

Tickets can be purchased through the Park City Miners website or through scanning the barcode on one of the nearby production posters. Tickets are only $5.00 per person. The live broadcast will be held on Tuesday, April 20th through Saturday, April 24th, at 7:00 PM. Once tickets are bought, individual emails will be sent out, providing a link to the show. 

Senior and Edgar Allan Poe in the production, Lance Rothchild, described the plot of the play as, “a radio play in which Edgar Allan Poe recasts the stories of poems he has written. There is an overarching narrative; bringing a funny, creepy, and weird experience.” 

This is like no other production created in PCHS history. This production is non-visual, meaning it is solely auditory. 

Technical manager and assistant director of the Edgar Allan Poe: Afterlife Radio Show, Jason Jensen, announces, “It gives the actors the opportunity to express themselves in a different way.” 

In this play actors are given the ability to display their character’s traits and emotions through their voices rather than their body language.  

Hansen shared her inspiration for making this play only auditory. “I wanted to take it back to the old radio shows that used to play, at night, when everyone would sit around the radio and listen to the stories.” 

Hansen also shared that she wants the plays to be more mentally stimulating than visually stimulating. 

This production switches between two different casts, the red cast, and the yellow cast. Students in the Theatre Productions Conservatory class are occasionally required to take part in certain productions, therefore, there must be two different casts to fulfill this need. 

Jensen stated, “Finding a play that can suit all of the cast is very difficult. The best way to do this is to actually do something like this where we can split the class into two different casts and allow each of them equal opportunity to perform.” 

For this reason, there will be two groups of students performing on different nights. 

Foley artists are able to create sound effects live. Except for the use of some music, none of the audio or sound effects are pre-recorded. 

“All of these different sounds that you will hear throughout the show, that help bring it to life, are all performed by other students who are operating props and devices, in order to create that sort of sound effect,” Jensen shared. 

Jensen also vocalized that if it wasn’t for COVID-19, there may have been an actual live audience attending these plays. He also thought it would be important for the audience to understand who foley artists are and what they do. 

Senior and Cat in the play, Lindsay Miller, claimed, “I think it’s [the foleys] probably one of my favorite parts of the show, honestly.”

Jensen spoke on the background of Poe’s writing and the goal of the play. “Definitely one of the interesting things about Poe’s writing, in general, is that you can kind of take a lot of meaning out of it or none at all, it’s really up to the audience. Our intent with doing this is to kind of allow that opportunity to the audience.” 

Miller shared her love for the production and hopes that this play will get more students interested in joining theatre. 

“We would really hope that audience members would log on and listen to the show and take the opportunity to be entertained, while also helping support the arts, in this time of crisis,” Jensen said.