Saturday, December 30, 2006

Quite a Year

The older you get the faster the years fly by. I never thought that was true until I got - older. This was a busy year at CRT. A quick recap

JANUARY
Signed with our new publisher, Blackstone.
Was asked to do DANDELION WINE for Ray Bradbury
Began writing the script for CAPTAIN BLOOD

FEBRUARY
Recorded A VISIT WITH AESOP on the 6th, with JT Turner. The show then waits several months for the music score as we start the produce ...
CAPTAIN BLOOD - which starts recording on the 22nd.
Editing begins on CAPTAIN BLOOD

MARCH
CAPTAIN BLOOD recording is finished on the 26th, after a total of 8 sessions.
Editing continues; the show is being edited in two different formats - as a complete 7 hour continuous story, and in 17 half hour episodes for broadcast on our XM show.

APRIL
In a post production marathon for the entire month, working 15 to 20 hour days, and 125 music tracks, CAPTAIN BLOOD is complete at the end of the month and is sent off to Blackstone for a summer release. Total running time is 7 hours!
Also, worked on the DANDELION WINE script. The script was written by Ray for the stage, so sound effects and music cues and some minor alterations needed to be done to make the show work in audio. Ray approves the alterations and the show is cast.

MAY
DANDELION WINE records May 9th and May 11th, with retakes on the 15th and 16th.
Jeff begins the scrore. The month is spent in post production for this show.

JUNE
DANDELION WINE is completed towards the end of the month. 54 music cuts are created in record time for the production, and very long editing days once again. The first copy we burn is sent off to Ray.
POWDER RIVER Season 3 resumes on June 5th (Production was delayed in December 05 for CAPTAIN BLOOD) with and episode entitled TILL DEATH DO US PART. Sam Donato flies back from Florida to take part in the episodes. Sam was in the original season of POWDER RIVER as Sheriff Wilkins. He was killed off when he told us he was moving to Florida! POWDER RIVER continues recording season 3 for the month.
CHRIS SNYDER joins CRT as a post production Producer! He takes over production of POWDER RIVER.

JULY
Ray Bradbury writes and says he loves DANDELION WINE! Very kind words. He offers us SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and we immediately say YES! WHEN! he sends the script an hour later via email - THAT'S when! Awesome script!
POWDER RIVER continues recording.
on the 17th, REX TRAILER comes to Studio G and records two episodes of POWDER RIVER play Britt's father. Rex is a Boston TV Icon, and was on the air for 25 years on the show BOOMTOWN! What a night!
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW wins the Ogle Award for Best Fantasy Production of 2005!
28th - CAPTAIN BLOOD is released!

AUGUST
POWDER RIVER season 3 completes production on the 7th with the episodes THE WAGON BOY, THE NEW OWNER, and MOMENT OF TRUTH.
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES records on the 28th.

SEPTEMBER
TREASURE ISLAND is re-made! I was never happy with the original production we did in 2001 - so we did the whole thing over! Pretty much a new cast with Joe Zamparelli and Tom Berry returning to their original roles. Chris Snyder edits the show in 3-D sound.PHIL BYRNES, a detective mini-series by Sable Jak starts recording on the 25th
Jeff starts music for A VISIT WITH AESOP

OCTOBER
1st - THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW is released on CD world wide! Barnes and Noble carries it in their stores as a Halloween Special!
9th - the first episode of our new series FATHER BROWN is recorded. M.J. Elliott is writing the scripts.
13th - Guesting on THE JORDAN RICH SHOW on WBZ to plug the upcoming DANDELION WINE release, and SLEEPY HOLLOW.
16th - POWDER RIVER begins recording season 4. Production continues thru October.


NOVEMBER
1st - Blackstone releases A CHRARLES DICKENS CHRISTMAS SET on CD.
Recording continues on POWDER RIVER. PHIL BYRNES continues in Post Production, the final episode is recorded on the 27th.
21st - A VISIT WITH AESOP is completed!
CRT signs a TV Development agreement for one of our series! Can't say any more at this time - but it's COOL

DECEMBER
2nd - New Production is recorded - title cannot yet be revealed!
9th - DIBBLE DOES CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK starts previews at the Michael Weller Theatre in NYC for a holiday run.
13th - DIBBLE opens Off-Broadway, produced by the Broken Watch Theatre Company.
19th - POWDER RIVER season 4 is completed with 10 episodes. The episodes were cut from 20 to 10, as we needed more time on SOMETHING WICKED.
30th- DIBBLE closes in NYC
30th - Happy Birthyday, Mom 1920-2001. :(

Thursday, December 28, 2006

SOME NEW XM SHOWTIMES!


Well here's some cool news! For any of you out there who listen to us on XM Radio, we have been added to the Saturday schedule! In addition to the Mon-Fri. show, we are now on Saturdays, starting at 12 noon (EST) until 2:30pm - where all five episodes played that week will be repeated back to back. These are followed at 2:30pm with THE NEW DIBBLE SHOW in addition to it's normal times, Sat. at 7:30am and Sun. 2:30pm EST).
So, here's how it looks now

THE COLONIAL RADIO THEATRE program
MON-FRI: 2:30am, 10:30am, 6:30pm (EST)
SAT: 12:00pm to 2:30pm (EST)

THE NEW DIBBLE SHOW
Sat. 7:30am, 2:30pm (EST)
Sun. 2:30pm (EST)

XM has been very good to us, and these newly added showtimes are fantastic!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

NEW SERIES


For our XM listeners, CRT will be releasing a new series come January! It's called THE DEAD LINE and deals with mystery and suspense! 15 great episodes produced and written by Jack Ward of Sonic Cinema in Halifax. We don't normally release works by other producers (have only done so once before), but I loved Jack's stories and wanted to give them a larger audience.

Also on XM in January, look for our new production of Robert Louis Stevenson's TREASURE ISLAND. Starts next week I think.

While those are playing on the air, we start production on FATHER BROWN MYSTERIES, which star J.T. Turner! Awesome scripts by M.J. Elliot. We have one in the can and 15 total are planned.

DIBBLE closes in NYC this Saturday night. I had hoped to attend the last performance, but I am behind schedule with SOMETHING WICKED and need to keep working on that (its already late - but its gonna be a good one!)

thats all for now!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Summer is Coming!


Summer? On Christmas Eve? Maybe not, BUT the release of our 1st collaboration with Ray Bradbury is only days away - and THAT is exciting!! For months now I've been talking about our production of DANDELION WINE that we were lucky enough to have produced for Ray, and on Jan. 5th, the wait is finally over! We recorded the show in May, and the original plan was for a Dec. 1st release, but it got bumped to January. Ray wrote a sequel to DANDELION WINE (50 years after writing the original)called FAREWELL SUMMER, and I hear it's quite good and people who liked the original are really enjoying it. Exciting times here at CRT!