“Lights out … everybody!” Central Florida Community Arts’ Stage 55 is returning to the heyday of old-time radio for Halloween. The group’s Pumpkins & Punchlines show will pay loving homage to an era when household entertainment meant gathering around the Philco.
Stage 55, a theatrical troupe made up of performers ages 55 and up (appropriately enough), might even have a few members with direct memories of those halcyon years.
But even for younger boomers, the format of the radio drama offers prime fodder for fun. Director Christine Hicks used a more modern apparatus—her computer and the internet—to unearth a bunch of scripts to five-minute mysteries that play out like the best of Orson Welles (or of Arch Oboler, a contemporary of Welles’s).
The Stage 55 players will perform those knuckle-whitening radio scenarios in real time while encouraging audiences to solve the mysteries before 300 seconds have elapsed. There’ll even be commercial breaks in between the playlets, with nimble actors improvising product pitches based on audience suggestions.
Other improv games and activities will be part of the performance, with prompts inspiring sketches themed to the spooky season. Improv is a major component of Stage 55, a performing and writing program offered to seniors to help them maintain cognitive health and quality of life.
Pumpkins & Punchlines shows are slated for Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1, at 3 p.m. in Schaeffer Hall at St. John Church in Winter Park. Attendees are encouraged to come in costume.
CFCArts reports that turnout for its previous Stage 55 show, Betsy Ross & Friends, broke the group’s previous attendance record. So maybe buy early? As they used to say on Lights Out, “It is later than you think.”
St. John Church is located at 1600 South Orlando Avenue, Winter Park. For more information, call or visit the website.
