GOSHEN —
Samuel Yoder wants you to experience “War of the Worlds.” He can’t stand “War of the Worlds.”
“I promise it won’t be like the Tom Cruise movie,” said Yoder, director of the “War” production debuting Friday at Goshen’s New World Arts theater. Disdain for the Cruise version obvious, he added, “I don’t know why they made it.”
Different “Worlds,” it seems.
“War of the Worlds” is an H.G. Wells’ novel about a Martian invasion of Earth. It was also adapted into a 1938 Orson Welles radio play that famously spooked some listeners who thought it was an account of actual events.
The late ’30s were a different time media-wise, Yoder indicated. Certainly there was no Internet.
“When you had three big radio (broadcasters) across the United States, this was a big deal,” he said. “If one of them’s broadcasting something crazy, you have to worry.”
The New World “War” is being performed from the same script Welles used for his show. It’s also being recorded for a possible radio broadcast later.
Yoder favors the minimalist approach. As such, don’t expect to see aliens or spaceships in the downtown indoor venue. There isn’t a way to do that in the New World space that isn’t campy or kitschy, in Yoder’s view.
“(We’ve) got some serious camp elements in the show, and I’m OK with that. I like that,” he said. “What I will not stand for is kitsch.”
“War” includes 21 characters played by seven actors who differentiate the roles by altering their voices.
“There’s three microphones set up in front of the stage,” Yoder said. “They read their lines into that.”
This “War” is an homage of sorts to the era of the scripted radio play. Put another way, the show includes Martians but it’s not about Martians.
“It’s about the history that it’s honoring — a history of thinking your way through theater,” Yoder said. “Not accessing an effects archive of CDs when you need to make a sound effect. Not prerecording all your music onto a CD and spinning it during the beginning of the show.
“It’s about seeing what people did to make those archives,” he said. “It’s about taking a piece of history that is still sort of relevant in the world of big media and taking it to now.”
Some tweaks have been made to the 1938 version. Welles’ all-male cast now includes women, for example.
“We’ve changed a few of the things to make it more modern, and that’s been fun,” Yoder said.
In keeping with radio narrative tradition, audience imagination is key. Theater-goers will also be part of the show. The audience will be recorded providing crowd noise — applause, screams, etc.
“It brings the audience into this world of radio, and this world of theater and storytelling,” Yoder said. “... I think it will be a good time because it’s interactive.”
If you want to go
What: “War of the Worlds”
Where: New World Arts, 211 S. Main St., Goshen
When: Fridays and Saturdays this weekend through Jan. 28 at 8 p.m., with a 3 p.m. Sunday matinee Jan. 22
Tickets: Admission is $10. For tickets, call 1-800-838-3006 or visit the website www.newworldarts.org.
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