height=207 alt=nemesis.jpg hspace=10 src="/Images/Imported/Performing%20Arts%20review%20thumbnails/nemesis.jpg" width=150 align=right vspace=10 border=0>"The Intergalactic Nemesis" is bringing back the lost art of the live radio show with "a mix of 'Star Wars' meets 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,'" complete with live sound effects and a studio audience. Its national tour stops at Oklahoma City Community College on Tuesday.
It's 1933 and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Molly Sloan and her assistant Timmy Mendez are working on a story that turns out to be even bigger than they imagined. They soon are responsible for saving the planet from an invasion of sludge monsters from the planet Zygon.
CREATION
Austin, Texas-based Jason Neulander is the co-creator and plays the announcer. He said the show started as a serial and on Austin' local National Public Radio affiliate.
"It was wildly popular with a live audience," Neulander said, so in 1994, they decided to take the show on the road.
Neulander said the show is all about the audience, which sets it apart from regular plays.
"The audience is basically like the studio audience for a live radio broadcast of this radio drama," he said. "They become an active participant in the show."
SOUND EFFECTS
Another unique aspect of "The Intergalactic Nemesis" is the live sound effects, created right in front of the audience's eyes and the job of soundman Buzz Moran, who uses different props to create basic noises.
"You really have to scramble to get the sound of door opening and people walking inside and then the door closing, and at the same time, you have to create the ambience inside the room," he said.
"?Lisa Janssen
