High School Players Bring Old-Time Radio Theater to Community Seniors

High School Players Bring Old-Time Radio Theater to Community Seniors

Performance Marks Nationwide Effort by Public Schools and Libraries To Rekindle Excitement in Readers Theater Format and Fiction

UNION, Mo., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- A live theatrical reading by members of the Union High School Drama Club - complete with audio effects and musical interludes - took seniors at the Franklin County Seat Senior Center back to the radio days of their youth last week.

The performance of the 1930s pulp fiction story, The Last Drop, by best-selling author L. Ron Hubbard, is part of a free national program sponsored by Los Angeles-based publisher Galaxy Press that now involves more than 400 public schools and libraries.

The dozen young performers were led by Cathy Kapusciak, Union High School's speech and drama teacher, and joined by local Dr. Ava Frick, a local veterinarian and supporter of literacy and arts.

"I grew up appreciating theater of the mind on the radio," Frick said. "I'm excited to bring this kind of entertainment back so that kids and adults today can appreciate how fun a well-told story can be."

According to Frick, she received comments from seniors saying the group was really good: "Several of the audience said it made them feel how it was when people had to listen to a voice and not see a real person and make you feel you were there."

Public schools and libraries who signed up to perform The Last Drop have each received a special Readers Theater Performance Kit enabling them to bring the joy of storytelling to their home town, said John Goodwin, Galaxy Press president.

The Last Drop is one of the titles in the Stories from the Golden Age fiction series, a line of 80 books and audiobooks containing 153 stories written by Hubbard in the 1930s and '40s. Hubbard was regarded as one of the most prolific and popular writers of the golden age writing stories in all popular genres using his own and 15 pen names.

The Stories from the Golden Age series has been rated for middle and high school reading levels and is part of the Accelerated Reader program. In addition, Scholastic has adopted these titles in their Reading Counts program.

"We also have begun putting these performances online at www.youtube.com by searching "The Last Drop" so anyone can see how rewarding they are," Goodwin said.

For more information, go to www.goldenagestories.com.

Source: Galaxy Press

CONTACT: John Goodwin, +1-323-466-7812, ext. 170,
JGOODWIN@GALAXYPRESS.COM

Web Site: http://www.galaxypress.com/
http://www.goldenagestories.com/

-------
Profile: intent