H.G. Welles’ timeless story of a war between aliens and the human race will be fed through radios on Halloween night at 11 p.m. and 15 AHS theater students will be making up its broadcast.
The AHS theater department received the opportunity to perform War of the Worlds on the radio show “Broadway Bound” with Chris Alan when Alan heard that AHS would be putting on the show Greater Tuna for its fall play on Nov. 8, 9, and 10. Alan’s show is comprised of doing profiles of high school shows around the Northern Virginia area and being a fan of Tuna due to its radio broadcasting elements, he presented the opportunity of doing a Halloween broadcast of Welles’ tale to theater director George Bennett a few weeks ago.
“People were calling in [to Alan’s show] with enthusiasm about us doing Tuna and he offered us the opportunity to do War of the Worlds when he heard all of the positive feedback about our fall show,” Bennett said. “I had a minor in radio T.V. in college, so I love this opportunity!”
A group of 15 students comprised of students enrolled in several of Bennett’s theater classes, including IB theater, have been recording the broadcast for the past few weeks at Alan’s studio. Alan has been professionally producing the show with a catalogue of effects that will give the show the realistic effect that the script requires.
“I’m feeling really excited about doing this radio broadcast. It is a really unique opportunity,” senior Laura Hackfeld said.
Another factor that makes this radio broadcast of Worlds so unique is that several of the main characters names have been changed to names of AHS faculty and staff. This was done to get more students and faculty engaged in listening to the broadcast on Halloween night.
“I’m playing Professor Bennett, the last surviving human on earth,” Hackfeld said. “This will be a great sneak peak for the fall play, so tune in on Halloween night.”
To hear the full show, tune in on Oct. 31 to www.FairfaxRadio.com from 11 p.m. to midnight and listen in to see which faculty and staff members become part of the show.
