Looking for thoughts & ideas from everyone out there playing in the internet tubes:
As I’m doing some prep-work for my next directing project, I’m wondering…
What do YOU think of when you think of “The War Of The Worlds”?
Images, sounds, ideas, whatever comes to mind, the top 2 or 3 things that you think of when you think of “The War Of The Worlds”?
Tony Caselli 
I was in a show based around 1940s radio dramas in high school and we listened to War of the Worlds as a cast. I remember all of us on the linoleum floor in a classroom huddled up with the lights off, just listening. That sense of togetherness, with no visual, just the sound, was amazing. The only other time I remember having it was in my US History class on 9/11/01, when we all huddled around a tiny little radio, listening to the second tower go down.
I’ll bet listening to the WOTW broadcast like that was a neat experience, especially as you were about to perform it! Neat!
WOTW
Great Rock Opera version from the 80’s with incredible narration by Richard Burton.
Re: WOTW
Ooh, I’ve never heard of this one – I’ll definitely check it out! Thank you!
I remember Dakota Fanning’s scream from the latest film version. It felt like she screamed every 2 minutes; it was overdone, lacked variety and was overly intense. That production tried to turn up the terror factor so high that it lost the ability to frighten me and became almost a parody of itself.
Agreed! I wasn’t a fan of that version either! 🙂
WOTW
Had a neighbor in the old ‘hood’ probably in his late 60’s 20 years ago. His wife continued to give him shit WHENEVER she could about him packing the family up on that night[they had 3 kids and lived somewhere in Jersey at the time] and driving them all the way to Philadelphia to escape the invasion. I guess he grabbed his 80 year old parents too and packed all 7 of them into an old Chevy. He was never amused and pretty much pissed off about it still. NOBODY that I have ever spoken to or read about that got fooled by it found it funny. This was a pretty together cat too an electrical engineer for Litton at the time.
JMManfredi
Re: WOTW
John, that is absolutely awesome. Love that. Love the reminder that a lot of folks were PISSED!!
WOTW
I picture the sincere gathering of people around the radio, hear the crackly sound of the radio, the shaken voice of the announcer. I picture smart people duped. My mom wasn’t alive, but I can still see the look on her face when she told me about it – her look of total disdain for the broadcast. LT – inmylittletown.blogspot.com
Re: WOTW
Yeah, it’s a scary thing, the “end of the world” scenario!
The sound of the lasers from the original movie. Not sure why but that one sticks with me. Also the narrators voice. So what are you working on? Care to share?
Spencer
Spencer –
No problem sharing! I’m working on the next show I’m directing, which is the co-production between Williamston Theatre and Performance Network Theatre, “It Came From Mars” by Joseph Zettelmaier. It’s a lot of fun, and takes place in 1938 in a radio station where some folks who do their OWN radio theatre hear Orson Welles’ scary WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast and freak out!
You may want to check out this episode of Radio Lab. It spends an hour exploring the WotW broadcast, how people reacted, and what about the broadcast made them react that way.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/03/07
Jesse, that’s wonderful! Thanks for the link!!
THANK YOU!!
THANK YOU!
These are all GREAT responses and food for thought!
Thanks folks! Really helpful!
(Even you anonymous folks… don’t think I won’t track you down. Okay, you’re right, I probably won’t. But thanks anyway!) 🙂