EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 7 p.m. April 18 (media are also invited to attend rehearsals Monday 9 a.m.-2 p.m. or 4-6 p.m.; contact Laurel Thomas Gnagey for location)

EVENT: Students in English 346 American Sounds: Radio Drama and Comedy, 1930-1962, will present three 15-minute radio dramas, complete with authentic sound effects.

PLACE: U-M Museum of Art, 525 S. State St., Ann Arbor

DETAILS: Grab a friend and head to the nearest set of uncarpeted stairs. Close your eyes and listen as she goes up and down the steps. Can you hear a difference?

Earlier this semester, students in English 346 did a version of this exercise as they learned what it takes to make realistic sound effects for classic radio drama.

“We learned that going upstairs sounds like skiff, skiff, skiff, skiff, skiff and going downstairs sounds like clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk,” said Michael Byers, associate professor of English language and literature.

Students in the course learn about the Golden Age of Radio and are challenged to write and produce original dramas or comedies, complete with authentic sound effects. The performance will include two mysteries and one children’s show.

A few days before the performance, students were rehearsing TinTin, a story about a journalist who stumbles upon a plane crash and two counterfeiters. His nose for news ends up getting him into trouble with the pair and with the law, as the crooks attempt to frame the hero.

It was up to Randy Lockett and about a half-dozen other students to help TinTin come to life with sound effects.

“I’m playing the shoes in this episode,” said Lockett, a senior English major, explaining how he has to take an ordinary pair of dress shoes and make the characters walk and run on various surfaces like gravel and the metal gang plank on a ship.

Various gadgets were divided among team members, including an old dial phone, a metal file drawer and a set of door knobs that make the sound of a gun being cocked.

A cherry stoner that is cranked to remove the pit from the small fruit becomes a locomotive on the tracks, but only for scenes outside. A wooden drying rack for a fly rod reel line used in fishing provides the steady clickety-clack for a scene inside the train car. A meat grinder makes the grinding, screeching brake sounds as the train comes to a stop. An old school bell is rung to signal all aboard.

Byers, who refers to himself a fan and aficionado of the genre, said his aim for the course is not just to help students develop an appreciation for radio drama. He calls it his “secret mission” to share its historical place in the lives of a several generations.

“We learned a lot about politics of radio which is very interesting, and how a lot of these radio shows reflected movement, or social unrest, or were backed by the government, or were disliked by the government, and I found that very interesting,” said Eva Mooney, a classics and English literature major.

“It’s a class that is very deeply rooted in an actual legitimate love of the time period and of the medium,” said show announcer Caleb Browner, an English major, who called the class a great find.

More information:

• Read the full story
• Michael Byers