Here is the Starpheonix’s preview Article for Dead Air, which opens tonight!
http://thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/local-arts/live-5-play
Thump. Crunch. Click. Pop.
Sounds like something freaky is going on at Live Five.
Dr. Frightful Presents: DEAD AIR is all about sound. It’s a live radio play on stage and writer Grahame Kent is kept busy as the sound technician.
“The effects have been getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” Kent said this week. At first, he used a gun for the sound of a gun but that was just so literal.
“Now we have a seat belt for the gun loading and two pieces of wood for the gunshot — or a balloon. I want the audience to see one thing and hear something different.”
The show evolved from a playwriting class taught by Kenneth Williams whose advice was to write about what you love. Kent loves zombie movies. He wrote a zombie play.
“The first draft was atrocious because the thing that makes zombie movies scary is their numbers, but it’s really hard to do that on stage. I quickly learned the difference between film and theatre in one draft.”
Then Kent’s brother said why don’t you do it as a radio play and Kent thought “why don’t I.” Subsequent drafts improved.
“I gave the actors a better story and made the show funnier.”
DEAD AIR opens Nov. 20 at Live Five
The play launched at the Saskatoon Fringe, then expanded to a handful of fringe fests across the country in 2014.
“I did not expect the response we got. People lined up to see our show in every city. People really liked it, I think, because it’s not conventional. It’s a zombie play but it’s funny. It’s not funny because the zombies are funny, it’s funny because you can see the inner workings of the show,” Kent says.
That includes the lettuce. It makes the crunch of zombies dining.
“The lettuce is the one thing that’s always been in the show. People remember the show because of the lettuce.”
DEAD AIR features Danielle Roy, Jenna Berenbaum, Devin Wesnoski and Grahame Kent. Andrew Taylor directs.
Live Five/Neverending Highway
Dr. Frightful Presents: DEAD AIR by Grahame Kent
Nov. 20 to 22 and 26 to 29 at The Refinery (609 Dufferin Avenue)
Tickets $23.50 (adults), $21 (student, senior)
Box office: 306-653-5191 or online www.livefive.ca
Neverending Highway Productions 