This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area Performing Arts in Times of Corona, we raise the virtual curtain of the Corona Radio Theater for the first part of The Machine Stops, a short story by E.M. Forster, presented by members of theater company Word for Word. Host David Latulippe talks with director Gendell Hing-Hernández, and with founding artistic director (and actor) Susan Harloe about this production, which is also Word for Word's first podcast. Plus, regular contributor Peter Robinson interviews Stanford's thinking man and co-host of Philosophy Talk, Dr Josh Landy about how to approach 2021.
The Machine Stops is a science fiction story, written in 1909 by British novelist, essayist, and short story writer E.M. Forster (1879 - 1970), who is perhaps best known for his novels A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and his greatest success, A Passage to India (1924).
In The Machine Stops, Forster describes a world in which humanity has moved underground and relies on a giant machine to provide all bodily and spiritual needs, with each individual living in isolation in a standard room, communicating via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing apparatus.
Word for Word produced The Machine Stops as the first installment of their new ‘Word for Wordcast’, the creation of which was inspired by Open Air’s invitation to broadcast a live reading of a short story. Word for Word opened the Corona Radio Theater series in April 2020 with Tobias Wolff's story, Firelight.
The Machine Stops will be presented over the course of the coming three weeks. This week’s episode is called The Air-Ship. Next week (January 14) is The Mending Apparatus; followed by The Homeless on January 21.
The Machine Stops is directed Gendell Hing-Hernández, with an original sound design by David R. Molina. Actors: Carla Gallardo, Susan Harloe*, David Everett Moore*, Brian Rivera* **, Ryan Tasker*. Dramaturgy: Delia MacDougall. Sound engineer: Joe Moore. Production manager: Colm McNally (*=AEA **=SAG/AFTRA).
Plus, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic at large, Peter Robinson, talks with Stanford's thinking man and co-host of KALW’s radio program Philosophy Talk, Dr Josh Landy, on how to approach 2021, ....stoically, as an epicurean, or something else....
Open Air with host David Latulippe; heard live on Thursday, January 7 at 1pm, and archived afterwards at this location. Listen now or anytime…