Theatre Production

Past event
Oct 30, 7:30 PM to 11:59 PM, Nov 1, 2020

Have you seen everything Netflix has to offer? Have you watched all of the HBO movies? Are you dying for new content? Well how about some local theatre?

The Mount Mansfield Union High School Theatre Department presents The 1938 Orson Welles Radio Play "THE WAR OF THE WORLDS" - scheduled for a streaming debut on Oct. 30th - the 83rd Anniversary of the original radio broadcast.

YES - "The show must go on!"  And this show will go on Broadway!   "BroadwayOnDemand" that is, with a streaming performance on the night before halloween.   And it's suited perfectly for halloween and for the whole family.

The premiere of the MMU Theatre Department's production of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS - falls on the 83rd anniversary of the original radio broadcast.  The show will be released worldwide for "Streaming on Demand" on BroadwayOnDemand - Starting on Friday Oct. 30th at 7:30 pm.  The show will continue to be available for viewing throughout the entire Halloween weekend.  

Tickets are $8. for a single ticket and $14. for a family ticket, so the whole family can enjoy the show together.  (and you can watch it as many times as you like over Halloween weekend. Tickets are available at BroadwayOnDemand.com. Type in Mount Mansfield - and it will take you directly to the show.

WATCH THE TRAILER at the link BELOW (volume up)

https://www.broadwayondemand.com/watch/channel/watch-now/series/fHSJhOAGHbeX-the-infamous-19[...]ler

For you history buffs out there some History of the infamous radio broadcast:

It was Oct. 30 - 1938 - A Sunday evening. Families were tuned into the radio all across the country. Many turned in on time to hear the weekly radio play - performed by Orson Welles & his cast of radio players in The Mercury Theatre on the Air, on the Columbia Broadcasting System.  But thousands of people tuned in late. (Many of these people were tuned into NBC Radio - listening to The Chase & Sanborn Hour - staring Edgar Bergen & his ventriloquist dummy - Charlie McCarthy. And by the time they tuned in, the broadcast was well on it's way.)

Those many thousands of latecomers missed the beginning of the program which announced that this was a play called "The War of The Worlds." When they tuned in they heard news bulletins interrupting regular programming, telling of martians landing in New Jersey. Thousands of people were in fear for their lives. The next day, the newspaper headlines told how thousands of people had been fooled by the broadcast.

In our MMU Theatre Production of this play we are incorporating the reactions of those radio listeners who tell of the terrible fear they experienced that night. Several thousands of people were so terrified, that they ran into the streets, drove away in their cars, or called the police for information about how to escape. Essentially - they planned for what they believed would be their last night on earth ! (On the day after the broadcast, the director & Star, Orson Welles, denied that he thought the broadcast would cause such a panic.)  

The radio broadcast of WAR OF THE WORLDS was considered by many to be the original "Fake News." 

The premiere of the MMU Theatre Department's production of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS - falls on the 83rd anniversary of the original radio broadcast.  The show will be released worldwide for "Streaming on Demand" on BroadwayOnDemand - Starting on Friday Oct. 30th at 7:30 pm.  The show will continue to be available for viewing throughout the entire Halloween weekend.  

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