Random Thursdays Radio Theatre...Our Story
The Idea
Randomness can be either comforting or disconcerting, depending on your perspective.
But randomness is the theme of this podcast....random moments from undistinguished days in the lives of ordinary people...days that you don't think twice about, days you might forget even happened. They certainly won't impact the history of human civilization, but these moments mean something to us. And that's our focus...to celebrate, contemplate and lament the random moments of every day life. How did this all come about?
A few years ago, on a random day, Peter Carrozzo was thinking to himself, dejectedly, that he had written a bunch of plays and most of them were sitting in a filing cabinet doing nothing. Although several of his one act plays had been staged there were so many other orphan one acts living alone in anonymity. So Peter called his friend Dany Stravino...actually he sent him a text message because really no one calls anyone anymore...and told him about these plays and Dany said "hey we know a lot of people from many different theaters, so let's get a bunch of our favorite actors together and start reading them." And on another random day Peter ran into his old friend Emilia Horn who he met when she played Ursula in Bye Bye Birdie many many years ago and he was stage manager and he said, "hey we are reading a bunch of plays together and I don't know...do you want to join us?" Figuring she would say no, instead she said "absolutely!" And then Emilia asked "when do you meet?" And Peter said "we usually meet on Thursdays." And she said "that's perfect for me!" So a bunch of actors who all knew each other from the world of local theater, started meeting on Thursdays and reading Peter's plays together with no clue why they were doing so and no real schedule...they would just meet on random Thursdays and then they all said collectively "Hey! That is a great name for this theater!" And they became the Random Thursdays.
After about a year of that, Peter wrote an short play called "Artificial Ignorance" and met Liz Regan who was the sound designer who made amazing things happen with a microphone and some other cool stuff that Peter did not understand. So then Dany, Emilia and Peter said collectively "Hey! Let's make a podcast out of these plays!" Dany and Emilia started directing them and adding more and more of some of our favorite actors to form a company...the Random Thursday Players. Peter said "I have the perfect person to record this" and he emailed Liz and said "do you want to record and mix and do whatever you do to plays to make them a podcast?" Liz said "Yes! I can record them!" But how do you create a podcast about a bunch of random plays...and then they all said collectively..."wait! random stories performed on random Thursdays!? That will be our theme!!" And we were all set to record our first episode in person together....on March 23, 2020. And then quarantine hit....
The Podcast
So in March of 2020, all of these actors and writers and directors and sound designers started wearing surgical masks, and hoarding toilet paper, and making banana bread (and in one case, sourdough starters) and texting each other from their homes saying, "we will record the frst episode next month." Next months kept coming and going with no plays. So then they started to think, with everyone locked in their homes and local theatre being dead, what a great time for a theatre podcast. So Peter sppoke to Liz and she said "if you buy some micophones and get a Zoom account and add in some iPhones, I think we can record everyone from the quarantined safety of our homes." So, as an experiment, we bought some microphones and a Zoom account and recorded our first episode which was Mile Marker 117. It had only two characters and had been reharsed many times. It was the perfect first play to be our experiment. With the actors' lines mixed in with amazing sound effects, you really felt like you were standing on the side of a highway at mile marker 117. Everyone said at the exact same moment "I think this is going to work!"
So more playwrights contributed, more actors and directors joined and rehearsals and recordings of several plays began. No matter how random it all was, we still need some way to tie it all together. So, while watching the Twilight Zone, Peter realized that Rod Serling's introduction worked well in tying together numerous random stories (that and a scary themes that sometimes make me afraid to go into my basement at night). And so, they idea of a host commenting on the stories was born. But Peter, who plays host, lives in the 21st century (although he would rather live in the 19th century...well, maybe the mid 20th century since he is a big fan of indoor plumbing and television). These plays are radio plays which are a concept from an earlier time. That was when Sir Lauden Caulfield, Jr. was born. Lauden is our 1940s host. You can hear him at the start of each epispode as our radio listener is turning the dial looking for something to listen to on his RCA Victor radio. It is SIr Lauden's job to introduce you to Random Thursdays Radio Theatre's very own Peter Carrozzo who then introduces you to each episode. Put it all together and you have a podcast made by people who love theatre, for people who love theatre.
So sit back in your easy chair, grab your New York World Tribune newspaper, slippers, pipe and kniting needles, and enjoy the future of old radio...
...thank you for reading our story and for listening to our show.
