The War Of The Worlds Airs Tonight

The last few weeks have shot by in nothing but a blur. Work life is changing and evolving, music is moving, I’ve been involved in another festival, thrown a bunch of gigs and managed to pull off my third theatre production of the year, again donning one of the producer hats available from The Devious Theatre Company’s hat box.

It all comes down to tonight.

The Devious Theatre Company (of which I’m involved in running and have been since May 2006) proudly present our own version of H.G. Wells’ classic ‘The War Of The Worlds’, airing tonight on KCLR96FM. You can pick up KCLR in Carlow, Kilkenny, south Kilkenny and areas of Waterford and surrounding counties. If you’re well outside the range or would like to listen in from foreign soil, you can do so by hitting the station’s website on KCLR96FM.com.

Fitting it should fall on the 70th anniversary of the original broadcast by Orson Welles, October 30th 1938.

We’ve been working on the show solid for the past 2-3 weeks with many a late night had in the recording studio (including this Tuesday gone) in the buildup to handing over the finished production to the station yesterday.

As a company we’ve built up a nice reputation in Kilkenny. War Of The Worlds marks our fifth production (fifth new production as we brought one show back for two further runs in 2006 and 2007) and our first foray into the world of theatre for radio. We’ve concentrated so much on the visual - sets, costumes, lighting, makeup, props, the venue, our advertising, promotional photos, posters but this show turns it on it’s head.

The Bigger Picture

Taking a step back to look at the bigger picture, I have to hand it to the lads, and ourselves as a company. We’ve come through two tough productions with Trainspotting (June 2008), Smitten (August 2008) and with little or no break we ran straight into The War Of The Worlds, writing an entirely new script, casting, scheduling, sourcing sound effects and learning to concentrate on everything you don’t see. It’s one thing producing a piece of work for an audience who will sit and watch you, but another thing altogether in producing a piece of work for an audience you want to sit and listen to you.

But everyone pulled it together, that’s what we do when we’re working as a proper functioning theme. You’re an actor, but you’re also the producer, the director, the driver, the one that goes for food, the one that remembers to bring biscuits and tea, the one that stays up all night mixing - we’re all of those. So while it’s a brilliant move for the company, it’s a brilliant show of teamwork as everyone had a part to play and everyone played it so well.

Not only that, but they managed to wrap it into a neat bundle that airs tonight around 9:03pm and runs for 53 minutes and 57 seconds. And we did it all without any external technical support. We were offered the use of the radio station for production but we opted to carry the can ourselves knowing we’ve got the ability to pull it off.

I’ve held back from listening to the finished version (we’re having a listening party tonight) though initial feedback from the station calls the show “absolutely fantastic”. Fingers crossed.

I’ll be on the radio later this morning (just after the 11am news) talking about the show. You can listen in live via KCLR96FM.com.

To those of you who are listening in tonight, thank you very much. From myself and all at The Devious Theatre Company I really do hope you enjoy the efforts of the group as much as we’ve enjoyed producing it. If it all goes well then maybe we’ll gun for another one next year. Our thanks too go out to all at KCLR for their support and in giving us the opportunity and airtime to develop another original production.

For those of you who can’t listen in tonight then don’t despair, we’ve something nice in store for you too.

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I’m Going To Destroy Kilkenny And Carlow

photo credit: fdecomite

As Damien mentioned earlier this morning and I blurted out on Twitter yesterday, I’ve finally been able to announce my current project, albeit almost a week past my original October 1st deadline.

Myself and a few of the other deviants are taking on HG Wells’ sci-fi classic ‘The War Of The Worlds’ in a production to be broadcast between 9pm and 10pm, Thursday October 30th this year on KCLR 96FM. While we won’t be doing an actual live performance, we’re taking on all the production (as usual), both pre and post for the show. Just when I thought my evenings were coming back to me and all…

If you want to listen in online, you’ll be able to do so by visiting the KCLR 96FM website. For those who miss the live broadcast, we’re going to look at making a podcast series out of the production (perhaps four mini chapters as well as a full-length release) for release from DeviousTheatre.com in the day or two after broadcast.

I did manage to squeeze off a QIK of the announcement yesterday, in doing show highlighting the new DeviousTheatre.com (relaunched) along with matching top and pants for the MySpace and Bebo.

So why destroy Kilkenny and Carlow? Well, we figured the station Orson Welles so gracefully attacked back in 1938 has already been done and given we’re getting nice airtime on local radio, we thought we’d localise the production, also coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the original broadcast that rocked the US at the time of its release.

Castlecomer will fall, Kilkenny City will lay in ruins and poor Carlow just won’t know what hit it.

Is this a first for Irish theatre as well? Podcasting productions in that manner? I’d like to think it is but should really do a bit more looking into the subject.

That’s enough coming up for air… back to the real world for my Tuesday evening.

Kilkenny Business Award Winners

Back in 2006 I shared a table with some of the McDonalds, Pack Publishing and Kilkenny Active gang, myself and John (Aidan was away on holiday) tucking into a sizeable steak as we’d been nominated for and were attending the Kilkenny Business Awards (nominated in the best service provider category). Nominees had a 20 euro (I think) discount on ticket prices, bringing the cost to 100 a head for the night).

The awards were held in Kilkenny on Saturday night in the Lyrath Estate Hotel and Keith has the lowdown on the results. You’ll be able to catch Keith in conversation with some of the winners on The Bottom Line, KCLR96FM’s business show which airs later tonight.

Overall, there were six categories with 39 finalists, I’ve highlighted the winners below in bold.

Kilkenny Retailer of the Year Award (Sponsored by FBD Insurance)

• Lamber de Bie Flowers*
• Pat McDonnell Paint Sales
• Flowers by Lucy
• Superior Tiles
• Kilkenny Book Centre
• Field’s Jewellers

Kilkenny Service Provider of the Year Award (Sponsored by Electro City)

• Kilkenny Borough Council Garden Crew
• Premier Recruitment Group,
• Blue Wall Technologies
• Springhill Court Hotel Leisure Club
• C&C Security
• Creative Catering
• Taxback.com*
• Gibbins Removals & Storage
• James Phelan Demonstration Farm

Best Small Business Award 2008 (Sponsored by Kilkenny Chamber)

• Vendemia Organic Wines
• Surf Box/Ormonde Technologies*
• Smart Placements
• Rothe House Trust Ltd
• Blueberry Larder
• Kilkenny Print & Graphic
• Hullaballoons
• Kompass Records
• The Reptile Village

Kilkenny Tourism Provider of the Year Award (Sponsored by Kilkenny Local Authority)

• Team Dynamics
• Tullahought Community Group
• A Rural Experience
• Woodstock Gardens & Arboretum
• Springhill Court Hotel
• Kilkenny Rivercourt Hotel*

Education & Training Provider of the Year Award (Sponsored by FÁS)

• Empower Training
• Sharon Roynane Kelly
• Kumon Kilkenny
• Busy Bees Early Learning Centres*

Manufacturing/Product of the Year (Sponsored by SEBIC)

• QEF Ltd
• Kelsey Horseboxes*
• Chesneau Leather
• Fineline Furniture
• Enviroclad Systems
• Moth to a Flame Ltd.

Taxback.com were also presented with the “overall winner” award on the night while Kilkenny’s Kieran Crotty was given a lifetime achievement award. For more background on the awards themselves, check out this article in the current edition (dated April 10th) of the Kilkenny Advertiser.