• Skywave Audio Theater for the Week of March 26, 2022

    3/26/2022 For Laramie The Coward 3/25/1956
    3/26/2022 Lux Radio Theater A Man’s Castle 3/26/1939
    3/26/2022 Yours Truly Johnny Dollar The Jolly Roger matter, 4-5 of 5 3/22/1956
    3/26/2022 You Bet Your Life The Secret Word is Money 3/22/1950
    3/26/2022 Inner Sanctum Death is a Double Crosser 3/26/1948

  • Skywave Audio Theater for the Week of April 27, 2024

    The Six Shooter “Crisis at Easter Creek” 4/15/1953
    Father Knows Best “Old Father Time” 4/23/1953
    Dr. Kildare “Philip Van Court’s Amnesia” 4/26/1950
    Philo Vance ” The Cipher Murder Case 4/26/1949
    Inner Sanctum “Song of the Slasher” 4/24/1945
    Orbit One Zero “The Cylinder” 4/28/1961
    The crisis requires Britt to approach the deadliest man in town.
    The Six Shooter “Crisis at Easter Creek” 4/15/1953
    Is the father of the family aging rapidly?
    Father Knows Best “Old Father Time” 4/23/1953
    When mind and body both create the malady, how can Kildare come up with a treatment?
    Dr. Kildare “Philip Van Court’s Amnesia” 4/26/1950
    Can Vance decipher the message in time?
    Philo Vance ” The Cipher Murder Case 4/26/1949
    Will the song spell the end of the songwriter?
    Inner Sanctum “Song of the Slasher” 4/24/1945
    What will they find when they open the cylinder from under the sea?
    Orbit One Zero “The Cylinder” 4/28/1961

  • The Canterville Ghost Walks Again!

    WPR’s 9XM Players will put on performances in Wausau on February 9, 2018, in Eau Claire on March 24, and in Mineral Point on May 5.

    The Canterville Ghost Comes to Door County

    My stage adaptation of the classic supernatural story by Oscar Wilde takes to the stage at the Door Community Auditorium in Fish Creek on Saturday, July 22, at 8 pm. Tickets are available at wpr.org/100

    Oscar Wilde

    The show will be broadcast live from the Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield on Saturday night, August 12, at 8 on the Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio and streamed over wpr.org.

  • Lincoln Portrait Rings True at Concerts on the Square

    Lincoln Portrait:

    An iconic photograph of a bearded Abraham Lincoln showing his head and shoulders.

    During the July 17, 2019, Concert on the Square, I narrated Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait in a performance with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra before an audience of about 25,000. Lincoln’s words ring as true today as they did when he wrote them. You can see the concert on Wisconsin Public Television’s website, wpt.org.

  • Lincoln Portrait Rings True in 2019

    An iconic photograph of a bearded Abraham Lincoln showing his head and shoulders.

    During the July 17, 2019, Concert on the Square, I narrated Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait in a performance with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra before an audience of about 25,000. Lincoln’s words ring as true today as they did when he wrote them. You can see the concert on Wisconsin Public Television’s website, wpt.org.

  • Teaching Today: Frontiers or Frontlines?

    On May 24, 2017, it was my pleasure to give the keynote address for the UW Colleges colloquium at UW-Fox Valley. The audience of faculty from around the state was lively and attentive. The topic “Teaching Today: Frontiers or Frontlines?” dealt with the purpose of college (not just for job training!), my own rather wayward college career, and the challenges facing college teachers in an environment of rapidly changing technology and shifting priorities.

  • Saturday, February 17, 2018

    From sound without pictures–radio–to pictures without sound–silent films.

    Yesterday I co-hosted the Duck Soup Cinema vaudeville with veteran emcee Joe Thompson onstage at the Capitol Theater in Madison prior to the showing of Mantrap starring “It Girl” Clara Bow.

    Actually, silent films played to the sound of the theater organ, and the Duck soup showing of Mantrap featured the Grand Barton Organ, played throughout by composer and virtuoso Jelani Eddington.

  • The prose of John Muir Blends with Celtic music for a Memorable Indoor Outdoor Experience

    John Muir - Wikipedia

    Sierra Club founder John Muir (1838-1914) was one of those rare scientists who was also a great storyteller. Muir and his times come alive through his prose in The Story of My Boyhood and Youth and other writings. It’s great stuff! And it combines very nicely with the Celtic style music of Chance.  Join Chance and me at the UW Memorial Union on Sunday, November 4, 2018, at 2:30 for a memorable indoor outdoor experience.

  • Radio Madness and I Return to Green Bay

    On Saturday, May 19, 2018, at 3 and 7 pm, I’ll host two Old-Time Radio recreations presented by Radio Madness in the Brown County Central Library.

    Saturday, February 17, 2018

  • Coming November 11–Chasers!

    Set in an era of scoops and flashbulbs and Ponzi schemes, Chasers comes to Wisconsin Public Radio at 8:30 on Saturday night, November 11. Tune in to https://www.wpr.org/programs/old-time-radio-drama

    and see if you can identify the mysterious fleeing felon before two competing reporters do…