A Sandy update for those asking: my family seems to be fine. They're always well-prepared for everything, with food stores, a generator, etc. As of 11PM Eastern, my sister had no cable TV but still had power. There has been some damage of course—here's a picture from a local website:
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Anyway, today I went to Everyday Monsters: A Twilight Zone Trilogy, which was a dramatic reading of adaptations of three episodes from the show: "Third from the Sun" "It's a Good Life" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." Though there were some stammers, a missed cue or two, and the lighting set-up was pretty much just borrowed from Assassins, it was a lot of fun.
The material wasn't straight from the shows—some adaptation was necessary. For "It's a Good Life" for the example, the television made by Anthony was actually audio from the episode proper—which had already been performed in an earlier scene. That made Anthony seem even more menacing, and not so completely guileless.
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It's good that you made changes to the script. Real good.
The Matheson piece was actually one of the weaker ones—we're a little far from that level of atomic age angst, and the "it's called...Earth" twist was weak at the time. "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" still works pretty well, especially given that 5 million people in the US right now have no power...even as some of their neighbors still do. So the suspicion and anxiety of the episode was applicable to the current moment.
I especially liked the guy who played Rod Serling, who had the suit, and the cigarette, but was not doing a vocal impression. He did have to wait a few seconds at the beginning of each "episode" only because our audience giggles were challenging him to giggle with us, but he did extremely well once he got started. Ultimately, the evening was played for laughs: we all knew the episodes going on, so were all enured to the "twists" and the horror—all we could do is appreciate nostalgia, and nod along with the camp. A successful evening for what it was; certainly better than Assassins.
Anyway, today I went to Everyday Monsters: A Twilight Zone Trilogy, which was a dramatic reading of adaptations of three episodes from the show: "Third from the Sun" "It's a Good Life" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." Though there were some stammers, a missed cue or two, and the lighting set-up was pretty much just borrowed from Assassins, it was a lot of fun.
The material wasn't straight from the shows—some adaptation was necessary. For "It's a Good Life" for the example, the television made by Anthony was actually audio from the episode proper—which had already been performed in an earlier scene. That made Anthony seem even more menacing, and not so completely guileless.
It's good that you made changes to the script. Real good.
The Matheson piece was actually one of the weaker ones—we're a little far from that level of atomic age angst, and the "it's called...Earth" twist was weak at the time. "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" still works pretty well, especially given that 5 million people in the US right now have no power...even as some of their neighbors still do. So the suspicion and anxiety of the episode was applicable to the current moment.
I especially liked the guy who played Rod Serling, who had the suit, and the cigarette, but was not doing a vocal impression. He did have to wait a few seconds at the beginning of each "episode" only because our audience giggles were challenging him to giggle with us, but he did extremely well once he got started. Ultimately, the evening was played for laughs: we all knew the episodes going on, so were all enured to the "twists" and the horror—all we could do is appreciate nostalgia, and nod along with the camp. A successful evening for what it was; certainly better than Assassins.