Updates

Well, we are finished with THE HALLOWEEN TREE. Ray should have his copy of the finished production by now, and I hope he likes what we have done with his incredible story. In my opinion, it's the HALLOWEEN version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. You should get the book and give it a read - it's wonderful. Our program should be released in the fall.

Now that our job is finished on that one, it's time to focus on KING SOLOMON'S MINES, which is being post produced by Byron Lee. It's due at the end of the month, and what I've heard so far sounds pretty good. The episodes are a little on the long side, so they will have to be re-cut to fit our XM time slot - no, that doesnt mean leaving things on the editing room floor; it means that part of the original episode 1 will now be part of episode 2, and so on and so on. No biggy, we've done it before. I'll say this much, it sure does sound like we recorded it in the jungle!

I hope to have the cast set for MOONFLEET by the end of the upcoming week, as I want to start recording ASAP.

HALLOWEEN TREE - UPCOMING TRAILER

We are in the final hours of editing for Ray Bradbury's THE HALLOWEEN TREE - finally! It will be finished in the wee hours of the morning.

This production was recorded on Dec.2, 2006, and then put on hold until we upgraded our music department. I knew this show needed the very best music we could get, and I decided to wait until we had it. The following summer, of 2007, the music was ready to go, and Jeff started to work on the score. On Jan. 16th, Chris Snyder started post production. Recording for re-takes also took place on Jan. 27 and 28, 2008, Feb.16, and March 3, 2008.

We have 8 very talented (and I DO mean talented) youngsters in this cast; Matthew Scott Robertson, Anastas Varinos (our two stars of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES), Connor Doherty (from GUNS OF POWDER RIVER), Curtis Brauner, Dan Duran, James McLean (POWDER RIVER), Jacob Rosenbaum, and Rob Cattell. These guys poured their hearts out for this production, and it shows.

Two of these young performers have some pretty good gigs going on at the moment! Matthew is about to embark on an eight month tour of Asia in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, while Jacob Rosenbaum is doing some Shakespeare in NYC as the young Macduff to Patrick Stewarts Macbeth!

J.T. Turner narrates the story. In fact, it was J.T. who first mentioned THE HALLOWEEN TREE, back when we were starting work on DANDELION WINE. If it wasn't for him, I probably would not have thought about doing it!

Although the show won't be released until September or October, we are going to be posting a trailer at the CRT website, so you can get a sneak peek! Look for it towards the end of the week, or early next.

COLONIALS FIRST PODCAST

I'm very grateful to Jack Ward and Shannon Hilchie for putting together the first monthly podcast of feature CRT productions! This month it's 2 episodes of POWDER RIVER; "The New Owner," and "The Moment of Truth (containing radios biggest saloon fight)"

This months interview is with POWDER RIVER's producer, Chris Snyder. To hear it, simply go to SONIC SOCIETY and click on "sonic society podcast" in the upper left corner.

It is also available on many podcast sites. Let us know what you think!

OUT OF AFRICA

Tonight we wrapped on KING SOLOMON'S MINES, and the CRT microphones have left Africa for now. I am very happy the way the vocal recordings turned out, and if the completed first episode is any indication, this could be one exciting show! Editing is on schedule, and so is the music scoring. Plans for a May release are still on green light!
Many thanks to a great cast, and a great post production team!

MOONFLEET GOES INTO PRODUCTION

Now that KING SOLOMON'S MINES is wrapping up recording, we are gearing up for our next production, MOONFLEET. Set in the fishing village of Moonfleet during the mid 18th century, the story concerns a 15 year old orphan boy, John Trenchard, who becomes friends with an older man who turns out to be the leader of a gang of smugglers.

It's an exciting adventure in 10 episodes that we plan on airing on XM in June or July. Deniz Cordell dramatized the novel by J. Meade Falkner. The book was extremely popular among children worldwide up until the1970s, mostly for its themes of adventure and gripping storyline. In recent years it has fallen from popularity, possibly because parents thought that smuggling and other immoral activity should not be encouraged. As always, we will tell the story as it was written in 1888. We have not assigned a producer yet, and we are just now starting to line up the large cast. More details later!

FATHER BROWN / THE WIZARD OF OZ

Our FATHER BROWN MYSTERIES will be released in a 4-CD set this April from Blackstone Audio! J.T. Turner stars as Father Brown in this series that has quickly become one of our most popular downloads. 8 episodes are included in this set, titled "Vol.1." Eight more episodes are in production.

This summer, Blackstone will release our WIZARD OF OZ stories! We have produced five in all (a sixth remains unreleased), and this will be the first time they are available on CD! In 2000 we won the Parents Choice Award for these productions in their original release on audio cassette.
THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ
THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
OZMA OF OZ
DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ
THE ROAD TO OZ

Both these releases will have brand new cover art from the amazing design team at Blackstone. What you see here is the cover art for the downloads.

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Scripts and Snow.

Well, the script for BUCK ALICE AND THE ACTOR-ROBOT is really something! Deniz Cordell is penning this one, and I gotta tell you it's a hoot! Walter Koenig read the first 86 pages (thats all we have at the moment) and was impressed! He had a few suggestions, which will be added to the draft, and I think the whole thing should be finished by the end of the month. This will be unlike ANYTHING Colonial has produced before. It's a black comedy, theater of the absurd, and our first time doing sci-fi. The characters are great, and the story is very original. You won't listen to it and say "Oh, this is like ...." Walter will headline this, along with the Colonial Radio Players.
We'll be recording this in the summer, and depending on post-production, we hope to deliver it late fall.

KING SOLOMON'S MINES has been plagued with recording cancelations due to good old New England Ice. Most of the country is going through rough weather, and we are not exempt. I had to cancel two sessions due to my coming down with the flu, and then had to cancel two more due to snow storms. We're trying again next week!

When we taped POWDER RIVER SEASON TWO three years ago we had the same problem. I remember the Custer episodes were canceled twice due to snow. But two years ago, when we recorded CAPTAIN BLOOD from Feb-April, we had NO problems with snow; and I think we had eight sessions for that one.

I'm starting to think about the cast for MOONFLEET. I am hoping to start this one in March.

So much to do!

HALLOWEEN in FEBRUARY

Yes, that's what it feels like around here with our production of Ray Bradbury's THE HALLOWEEN TREE in full swing! The show has been in post production for a while, and we are all thrilled with how it is turning out! I might even venture to say that it is possibly our best effort to date! In just a couple of weeks you'll be able to get an idea of what I'm talking about when we release a teaser for the show. With Chris Snyder working his wonders in the editing department, Jeff Gage turning out a magificent score (with three songs to boot!), and the story by the great Ray Bradbury ... who could ask for anything more? So keep checking the CRT site in the next couple of weeks .. we will post the trailer in the marquee on the home page!

Well, I have been taken out of action with the flu, since last Friday! I've been sick before, but never like this. I had to cancel Monday nights recording session for KING SOLOMON'S MINES, although we did a short 15 min. session for some re-takes that were badly needed for THE HALLOWEEN TREE, so J.T. Turner was here, did his takes, and then I did mine, and each line brought on a coughing fit to die for (I kindly waited for JT to leave before I attempted the lines). But, it's done and now editing can continue!
Feeling a little better today, and in the next couple of hours I'll see about the session scheduled for tomorrow night ... hopefully we'll get it done.