OUR FEB. RELEASES

February will be an exciting month with TWO CD's being released (and on download too!).

Both hit the streets on FEB. 15th.

PERRY MASON AND THE CASE OF THE SULKY GIRL is the second book by Erle Stanley Gardner, but it was actually the first one we recorded (on May 21, 2008). We released it for download only on Christmas Day of that year, but decided not to give it to our publisher at that time because we were unhappy with the way we were being brushed under carpets. So, we held on to it, and now BRILLIANCE AUDIO is going to town with the series.

In THE CASE OF THE SULKY GIRL - Set in 1933, an impetuous niece who demands her trust fund be released comes to Perry Mason for help. But it's her boyfriend who needs defending when he is charged with murdering her controlling uncle. CRT Players appearing in this production include Diane Capen (Della Street) J.T. Turner (Paul Drake), Kimberly McClure (Frances Celane), Joseph Zamparelli (Dexter Norton), and Quent Risher (Judge Markham). Also in the cast are Nate Conant, Judson Pierce, Elie Hirschman, Sam Donato, Nancy Curran Willis, Jim Cattell, Tom Lupien, Tom Vittorioso, and Dan Powell.
The show was written by M.J. ELLIOTT from the 1933 novel.

This is NOT the Perry Mason set in 1950's television. Gardner wrote Perry a bit more hard boiled in these early books, and that's how we play them out. It's the 1930's with these stories, before the Miranda Rights! If you're looking for Raymond Burr and the toned down Perry of the 50's, you best stick to TV re-runs. If you want to see how Garner originally wrote them, check out our shows, or read the books :) They are a lot of fun!

Our second release in Feb. will be ZORRO RIDES AGAIN - the sequel to our November release, ZORRO AND THE PIRATE RAIDERS. Has Zorro gone mad? That's the rumor spreading like wildfire through Reina de Los Angeles. For a dazzling swordsman wearing cape and mask is terrorizing innocent citizens. Riding with the night, he leaves the Mark of Zorro on his cruel deeds. Already the governor has placed a price on Zorro's head, dispatching a cutthroat army led by the ruthless Captain Rocha to hunt him down. But Zorro's loyal band and a gallant Indian tribe refuse to believe the foul lie. Still, only one man can expose the truth - and unmask the evil impostor.
Kevin Cirone returns as Don Diego/Zorro, and Jeremy Benson takes on the villainous role of Captain Rocha. Hugh Metzler and Shonna McEachern return as Captain Bardoso and Senorita Lolita, and Sam Donato is back as Sgt. Garcia. Rounding out the cast are CRT Players Shana Dirik, John Pease, Bill Hammond,Pete Milan, Jim Hamilton, Seth Adam Sher, Isaac Bean, J.T. Turner, Joseph Zamparelli, Lucien E.G. Spelman, elie Hirschman.
Produced by Seth Adam Sher, the show has a music score by Jeffrey Gage and was written by yours truly with Deniz Cordell.

UPCOMING RELEASE DATES!

Some of our 2011 releases are available for Pre-Order on Amazon!

FEB. 15
ZORRO RIDES AGAIN

FEB. 15
PERRY MASON And The CASE OF THE SULKY GIRL


MAR. 8
THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ

MAR. 16
CAPTAIN BLOOD

MAR. 16
THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER

APRIL 19
POWDER RIVER AND THE MOUNTAIN OF GOLD

APRIL 19
GUNS OF POWDER RIVER

MAY 10
OZMA OF OZ

JUNE 7
VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS. Vol. 1

JUNE 7
RAY BRADBURY'S THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES

JUNE 14
GETTYSBURG

JULY 5
TREASURE ISLAND

JULY 5
LOGAN'S RUN - LAST DAY

JULY 12
DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ

SEPT. 13
THE ROAD TO OZ

A QUICK NOTE

More snow is falling! Enough! It's tough recording in New England with snowstorms every week. Anyway, today I'm working on sprucing up the sound files on KING SOLOMON'S MINES which will see its first REAL CD release on April 12th. Why do I say REAL? Because it won't be released in a hushed whisper with no chance for distribution as was the case in 2008. Later today I need to work on the Paul Salamoff's awesome LOGAN'S RUN script (just radio-izing it).

NEED MORE HOURS IN THE DAY!

Now, yesterday, a friend sent me an email; about a man who passed away in 2008; one of those emails you are supposed to forward to people. Well, I read it, was greatly moved by it, but then went on to other things and forgot about it - until just a few minutes ago when my computer came up with a huge (Blocked in red) headline - BREAKING NEWS STORY - all about Regis Philbin retiring. REALLY? THAT is considered a breaking news story?

Made me think of the email my friend sent.
Here it is.

You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in
The jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .
It's November 11, 1967.
LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.

Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.
He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.
And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!!
Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.
He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho

May God Bless and Rest His Soul.

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we've sure seen a whole bunch about Lindsay Lohan,Tiger Woods and the bickering of congress over everything.

Medal of Honor Winner Captain Ed Freeman



Shame on the American media !!!

PERRY IS OFF AND RUNNING

Our recent CD release of PERRY MASON AND THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS seems to be a popular title and getting some good reviews - except for a few folks who are having trouble with a Perry not played by Raymond Burr, but all in all, good reviews! One thing that is cracking me up are comments that I am TOO YOUNG to play him! One guy said I sound like a "youthful gangster!" Well, considering that I am 50 years of age, anything "youthful" that is mentioned about me is a GOOD thing (William Shatner told me the same thing after he heard me in another program - said I was too young sounding for the role! Made my day!!)

Some of the reviews do not like the fact that we have a courtroom gavel hitting a desk for the scene changes; I thought this would work best (a direct steal from LAW AND ORDER), but some folks think it is a door slamming, and a few thought it annoying. One suggested we use a music bridge.

The trouble is, we are faithful to the books, and the books change scenes at a rapid pace. Because the shows are fast moving, I thought (and still do by the way) think that a music score would be choppy, and also, would take a lot of time. I feel pretty safe in saying that CRT has one of the very best music departments in the modern Radio Theater world, and Jeff is fully capable of scoring a PERRY MASON adventure. The trouble is, we are doing a series of them, and if he were to score them he would be working the entire year on PERRY MASON alone (And we Have other shows to get out the door as well). I thought PERRY had that 1930's feel to it when most movies and radio shows of the day didn't have underscoring throughout. It also moves very fast. I think it works fine as it is. To use short music bridges between scenes (as was suggested by one armchair producer) would become just as annoying over time.
So, the gavel effect may not work for everyone, but so far, the majority doesn't seem to mind it at all :)
Everyone has their own opinions, and that's fine. I certainly don't like everything I see, or listen to, and playing an iconic role like MASON will certainly draw comparisons. If one listens to our show and hears my voice, but is picturing Raymond Burr, it's not going to work for you.

But, we will continue to bring these great stories by Erle Stanley Gardner to radio, and we will hopefully do justice by them, and hopefully they will be a happy and pleasant diversion for the listener for an hour and a half or two.

PERRY MASON AND THE CASE OF THE SULKY GIRL will be released by BRILLIANCE AUDIO on FEB. 15th.

THE CHIMES - 10 New Years' And Still Chuggin' Along!

We recorded our radio dramatization of Charles Dickens' THE CHIMES 11 years ago, and it has been on Audible.Com since 2005. I was surprised (and very happy!), to see that it made Audible's Best Seller list the week of the 1st. Here is the article from American Consumer News.

Another busy week ahead, working on a couple of scripts with fast approaching deadlines.

Also this week we will re-record our production of TREASURE ISLAND, with Joesph Zamparelli and Anastas Varinos repeating their roles as Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins. We have an awesome cast lined up and I cant wait to fire up the mics for the first time in this new year!

Busy week ahead

We have a recording session for THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES in just a couple of hours; and on Wednesday of this week we have two new CD's being released: PERRY MASON and the CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS, and also BARRYMORE. Hope you check them out!

Jeff Gage is in a recording session at this very moment, recording Shonna McEachern's song for our Christmas Special which airs on Dec. 24th on Sirius XM. We will be recording more of the songs in the show on Monday and Wednesday, then we're done. Most of the show was recorded in September, so we're just in the finishing touches stage right now.

THE COLONIAL RADIO VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL will air on Dec. 24th and 25th, ONLY on Sirius XM. It will not be available for download.

ALSO
Sirius XM will be repeating DIBBLE'S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL from 2003. Wow. Seven years since we did this one!?

Also broadcasting Christmas weekend will be our 2004 production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. This is the same version that was just released by Brilliance Audio - but it was cut from 67 minutes to 55 minutes for broadcast - so if you want to hear the entire show you gotta get the CD or download :)

In a couple of weeks we will start pre-production on LOGAN'S RUN - LAST DAY. We plan on recording it in mid to late January, and the release date tentatively set for June 7th. RUNNER! Here is hoping that winter snowstorms do not cancel too many recording sessions this year! We have too much to do!

OZ on CD

Here is the cover to our upcoming release of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ - by Ron Boyd! We recorded this production in November of 2000. We did the first five OZ books that year, and this was actually the last one to be recorded. We had recorded it in May of 1999, but I didn't like it (and the publisher didn't like it either), scrapped it, and did it over after we had completed the others.
Up till now, it has only been available on Audio Cassettes, or download; so we are excited to get it out at last on CD! JAN. 11th is the date!

I think I mentioned before, that we will be continuing the OZ series with book 6, THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ! Which we will be recording soon.

Updates

December already! We're ready for it! We recorded our annual Christmas Special for Sirius XM back in late September, and it should air on Dec. 24th and 25th (not sure of the times yet). December 15th we release PERRY MASON AND THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS and also BARRYMORE by William Luce. I spoke with Bill tonight, and in the morning he is flying to Toronto where Christopher Plummer is in rehearsals for his revival of the play - very exciting! I'll be going in January to see a preview before opening. Can't wait!

And some of you have asked about our production of THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES! Well, it's in editing and we still have some sequences to record, and I hope you will find it worth the wait :)

SPECIAL HOLIDAY PRESENTATION

I hope all you Sirius XM listeners get a chance to hear our newest production when it airs this weekend!

What's in a name?

I was asked in an interview why we call ourselves Colonial Radio Theatre, and not the Colonial Audio Theatre.

To me, Radio Theatre is a classic term. It is instantly identifiable. "But it sounds old" Well, in 15 years we have not had a problem selling them - and I get MANY letters and emails from grade school, middle school, High School kids saying how they enjoy this 'n that (and Dibble gets even more fan mail); so that's not really a worry. If they like the show, they will listen. If they don't like the show, they wont listen, not matter what you call it.

Radio Theatre has a classic sound to it. Audio Theatre sounds like something you buy at Wal Mart for your DVD set-up. So, we call ourselves Radio Theatre. It's not dead, it's not old, it's alive and kicking and not stuck in the 40's or 50's. Bottom line, it's not about what you call yourself - it's about keeping the listener listening.