Harper Joy Theater’s production of “Kid Simple: A Radio Play Made Flesh”, which will open on Wednesday, Nov. 10, is the story of a young inventor named Moll who creates the “Third Ear” for hearing sounds that cannot be normally registered. The play pays homage to radio dramas with two unusual elements: A “Foley artist” who plays sound effects from a booth, and a narrator stationed above the set who struggles to keep the sound and story of the production under control.
“The play is difficult to categorize,” said Assistant Professor of Theater Chris Petit, the show’s director. “It’s sort of a science fiction/action adventure/coming-of-age story.”
The theft of this machine, and Moll’s quest to get it back, drives the plot forward. After joining forces with a virginal boy, played by sophomore Nik Hagen, both fight a shape-shifting mercenary. Although the play is heavily indebted to radio drama: a form of storytelling that was more popular in the 1940s: the dialogue and humor are snappy and contemporary.
“Sound effects, both acoustic and computerized, make Kid Simple a different sort of experience than most of the plays I’ve seen or been a part of,” says assistant stage manager freshman Melanie Medina. “Most plays don’t have sound effects that are so essential to the script.”
In “Kid Simple,” however, sound is a central element. The plot is focused around sound. The action onstage is constantly complemented by sound effects.
“Sound . . . functions like a character in the play,” said Petit. “The play is driven by what you hear as much as by what you see.”
For the first half of the play, these sounds act as normal sound effects do: enhancing and accenting the action playing out on the stage. During the second half, however, they take on a life of their own and become analogous to the human characters.
The Third Ear serves as both a catchy element that drives the plot and a physical locus for these sounds. On the stage, it’s represented by a booth decorated with mechanical junk and covered with a curtain.
“It’s set up in a way that he’s sort of at the back of everything,” said Hagen.
At times different characters will step back and interact with the machine. At other times, the Third Ear merely acts as an onstage reminder of how important sound is to “Kid Simple.”
When the curtain is opened, the Foley artist is visible inside the Third Ear.
“He sits at a table and he has a bunch of like, sound effects,” said Hagen. “He’s basically the machine. He’ll play all these noises and stuff . . . it’s not so much a big prop as it is a table with gadgets and things that has somebody behind it.”
Played by first-year Nick Budak, the Foley artist has a wide array of broken instruments and miscellaneous noisemakers. He plucks, strikes and plays his props in as events unfold on stage.
The Foley artist dictates what can be heard. The narrator, played by junior Lauren Moscovis, dictates what can be seen. She tracks the events as they unfold on stage. The plot, however, is not so easy to keep down.
“As the play goes on, it starts to lose its typical structure,” said Hagen. “The sounds start mutinying . . . the narrator starts not knowing what’s going on, and she has to say things on the fly, and she goes through a period of self doubt. ”
In a traditional radio play, the narrator is important in relaying complex events to an audience who must visualize for themselves what’s happening onstage. In “Kid Simple,” however, the play slips away from the narrator’s control, and she is directly tied rather than distanced from the events of the play.
“She has a hard time when the order of the play starts jumping the tracks and following its own course,” says Budak. “She struggles with the feeling of obsolescence.”
“Kid Simple” will be on the Freimann Stage of Harper Joy from Wednesday, Nov. 10 through Sunday, Nov. 14. Tickets are eight dollars for students and twelve dollars for adults.
