Bradbury 100 - new episode

Time for another all-new episode of my audio podcast Bradbury 100. This week I'm joined by filmmaker and visual effects artist Christopher Cooksey to discuss the challenges and joys of bringing Ray's work to life in the visual realm.

Christopher is the co-producer of Bill Oberst Jr's stage production Ray Bradbury - LIVE (Forever). Ostensibly a one-person show, it's really a visual feast. Bill, alone on stage (except for one dance scene), is nevertheless able to walk around Bradbury's world with the aid of visual projections and audio effects. This video, from Christopher's Youtube channel, shows some of the work that went into making the visuals for the show.

 

 

To put Bill and Christopher's work in context, in the first part of the podcast I talk about Bradbury's own use of audio-visual elements in his stage plays. You can find Ray's plays in print in a number of books. Dramatic Publishing carries nearly all of them for would-be performers and play producers, and there are some play collections aimed at general readers. The introductions and production notes in these are often as entertaining as the plays.

Find out more about Christopher Cooksey from his extensive Youtube channel and from his website.

And now, enjoy the episode:

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 22 - with film-maker Christopher Cooksey

Bradbury 100 - Episode 15 - Happy Halloween!

Halloween - a fine day to celebrate Ray Bradbury!

In today's new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast, I talk about Ray Bradbury's use of October and Halloween in his fiction and non-fiction. With three October-based books in his body of work (The October Country, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Halloween Tree), you'd be right to think that Bradbury loved the Autumn months, and claimed Halloween as his favourite holiday.

To match the frightful Halloween theme of the episode, I have as my interviewee this week the Emmy Award-winning actor Bill Oberst Jr, who has been dubbed both the "King of Horror" and the "nice guy of horror". Bill is renowned for his amazing roles in independent horror films, but has also appeared in a broad range of roles in film and TV.

 

But the real reason for speaking to Bill is that he plays the part of Ray Bradbury in his one man show Ray Bradbury: Live Forever!

 

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 15 - with actor Bill Oberst Jr

 

Show Notes

Bill Oberst Jr's website is here: https://www.billoberst.com/

And the website for his remarkable stage show Ray Bradbury: Live Forever is here: https://raybradburyliveforever.com

His achievements are detailed on his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Oberst_Jr.

His extensive credits in film and TV are on his IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2454994/

And his Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/ActorBillOberstJr/

Finally, Bill's own podcast is the glorious Gothic Goodnight: https://bill-oberst-jr-gothic-goodnight.captivate.fm

 

 

Miscellaneous

In the US, the NEA's "Big Read" programme continues, and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is again a popular book for communities of readers to gather around. LA-based Bradbury would probably be pleased to hear that nearby West Hollywood will play host to a number of events linked to F451. Details are here.



Illustrator Gary Gianni - whose artwork has accompanied the words of Melville, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Louis Stevenson and many others - has created illustrations for a new chapbook, The Nefertiti-Tut Express: a Story in Screenplay. The text is taken from a previously unpublished Bradbury screen treatment dating originally from the mid 1970s. Originally due to appear in 2011, I hear that the book will be out during 2012. More details on the curious history of Bradbury's text can be found on Gianni's website.



Last year, Michael O'Kelly staged Live Forever, a play about Ray Bradbury's life. Now, he has a short film which is being entered into a film festival, and which is intended to be part of a much longer DVD study of the author. More details in this story from the Ventura County Star.



If you happen to be in Denver, Colorado, in April you can see a production of Bradbury's stage play version of Fahrenheit 451. Details are here.

Live Forever!

There has been a lot of information bouncing around the web about Michael O'Kelly's recent stage production Live Forever: the Ray Bradbury Odyssey. Whereas a number of Bradbury's own books and plays have autobiographical elements, this seems to be the first attempt to present an outwardly biographical play about Bradbury himself, albeit with a fantastical treatment.

The most interesting article I have seen so far is this one from the Ventura County Reporter, which also mentions film director David Zucker and his stated aim of getting a film version of the play off the ground.




Audio update: Colonial's Martian Chronicles audio adaptation now has a release date - 7 June 2011 - and is available for pre-order from Amazon.