Just Wrought

Recovering playwright, once won a STRANGER Genius Award for theater. Now writing a bloated novel about… G-d help me! Theatre.

Tag: The Back of the 358

  • A Few Things Wonderful about “Something Wicked…”

    A Few Things Wonderful about “Something Wicked…”

    You’re not crazy. You’re just overdue. There hasn’t been a new episode of Sandbox Radio Live! in over three months! 

    Relax. 

    Episode Seven: Eye of the Beholder  is on its way, packed with the sort of goodies you’ve grown accustomed to: plays by Elizabeth Heffron and Vincent Delaney, music by Jose Gonzales and the astounding Sandbox Radio Orchestra, my own noir-angel detective series, Markheim (word has it Sam’s due for a drop in), all tied together by Leslie Law’s expert, effervescent direction. Plus you can expect some brand new stuff like a poem by Elizabeth Austen read live by the author, or a brand new comic serial by Scot Augustson set in Seattle. (You’ll want to order your tix quick, since we always sell out.)

    But before we get to all that, I need to make up for a deleterious omission. With all the crazyness of the holiday season, plus world premiering my first full-length play in four years, Ballard House Duet, I neglected my self-appointed duty of telling you the things I love about the previous episode of Sandbox Radio Live! –  Something Wicked This Way (available for download here.)

    “Backscatter” by Vincent Delaney

    Big Stu does his duty on the Sound FX TableVince never disappoints with his sharp suspenseful writing, but this turn at modern horror would make Rod Sterling go goggle-eyed.  All props to the Sandbox Radio sound fx team.  Give a listen and tell me they don’t make it sound exactly like an airport. (This brings up a larger fascination for me when listening to these podcasts: how the live audience participates in and fuels the recording. There’s this extraordinary recursively looping sensation as you listen to them listening to you listen to the show in the future.) My favorite character in this one had to be Big Stu.  Somehow Eric Ray Anderson manages to add 300 pounds through the sheer suggestive power of his voice.

    “The Back of the 358 –  #7” by Paul Mullin

    Not much I want to say about these since I wrote them, except maybe that Kathryn Van Meter utterly nails the drunk chick.  Oh, and also, the likelihood that there will be any new pieces in this vein is slim,  given how King County Metro’s elimination of the Free Ride Zone has completely flattened the floridly diverse ecosystem that was once the back of the #358.

    “Muscle Memory” by Omar Willey

    This chillingly smooth and nasty pastoral will captivate you into a skin-crawling reverie.

    “Quinceñera of the Damned” by Scot Augustson

    What do you get when Mexican kitsch culture collides with Austrian Alpine snobbery in a fairytale context?  Something you can be pretty sure Scot Augustson conceived. Favorite line (impeccably delivered by the peerless Annette Toutonghi): “Gunter will think I’m a crazy clown gypsy whore.”

    “The Back of the 358 – #8″ by Paul Mullin

    It’s never not unnerving to have to relive my #358 adventures as staged by some of Seattle’s finest actors.

     “Here it Comes” by Charles Leggett with the Sandbox Radio Orchestra

    Chuck and friends rock another original blues number, this time folding some astro-physics in, cuz… ya know… Chuck rolls like that.

     “The Back of the 358 #9” by Paul Mullin

    Please tell me this trip is almost over. If this woman punches or pukes on me, I’m gonna be highly irked.  (Favorite line {which I can say in modesty because I overheard it}: “At least in jail I get three meals a day and someone to love me.”)

    “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe

    No one intones the American classics like Richard Ziman.  And his sweet spot is Poe. 

    “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Paul Dukas, arranged by Bruce MonroeRob Witmer blowing Some Sorcerer's Music

    A mind-crackingly original arrangement: the kind of blastingly cool cut you can only get at Sandbox Radio.

    “Markheim – Episode 6” by Paul Mullin

    Per custom, I’m including the script for this below the fold.

    “The Back of the 358 #10” by Paul Mullin

    So long shirtless drunk chick!  May you find the peace that eludes your every semi-lucid thought.

    “Shadow of Agnes” by Emily Conbere 

    I raved about Emily’s first Sandbox Radio outing, “Sound Thieves” here, but who knows?  She could’ve fluked her debut success. She didn’t. This piece seals the deal and is quite possibly one of the creepiest short pieces I’ve ever heard.

    Amy Love in Something Wicked

    Again, don’t take my word for it.  Go to the podcast and listen.  And then get your tickets to our brand new show, available here through Brown Paper Tickets.

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  • Sandbox Radio Shoots Bumber

    Sandbox Radio Shoots Bumber

    I know, I know.  The biggest complaint about Sandbox Radio Live! is that the super fun recording sessions are always sold out, making it damned tough to watch the magic being made.  Of course, the final magic is always eventually available to you as a podcast.  In fact, Episode 5: “An Unexpected Twist” just recently dropped and is available here .

    Tracy Hyland

    But now Seattle’s beloved arts festival Bumbershoot is offering a one time solution to this conundrum.  This coming Labor Day (September 3) is your chance to see a “best of Sandbox Radio Live!” at the Center Theatre in the Armory, which has about thrice as many seats as our usual venue.  We will start at 7pm and pack an episode’s worth of fabulousness in just one hour. 

    Here’s what’s in store:

    “Notes from the Workplace” by Vincent Delaney

    “Why We Run” by Scot Augustson

    PSAs for Hanford Challenge and World Arts Access

    A blues tune from Charles Leggett and The Sandbox Radio Orchestra.

    Ads from “The Back of the 358” and a teaser for what’s coming in Markheim by Paul Mullin

    “T-Minus” by Elizabeth Heffron

    “Barcarolle” from Tales of Hoffman featuring special guest soprano Heather Curtis Mullin,  and more!

    You read that correctly.  My wife will be singing.  And I will be acting: reprising my role of Sam, Prince of the World, in my on-going noir angel detective series, Markheim.  That makes this Bumbershoot performance the very first time that Heather and I have shared a professional stage.  So come see Sandbox Radio Live! at Bumbershoot and watch some hot history being made.

    Paul & Heather Mullin