PRESS RELEASE - March 15, 2008

CONTACT: Ellen Landau (919) 821-4579 x 221

Raleigh Little Theatre presents Radio Gals May 30 - June 22

"Good morning, Glories! Welcome to WGAL, the radio-phonic voice of Cedar Ridge, Arkansas. This is Hazel Hunt speaking. I have just come on the air and I am wondering if anyone is listening."

So begins the day's radio broadcast from the parlor of Hazel Hunt's home in Cedar Ridge, Arkansas. Hazel is the town's patroness of the arts - shrewd, perhaps a bit dotty, but definitely in control of the airways. Upon her retirement as the town's beloved music teacher, she has received a Western Electric 500 Watt Radio Transmitter and creates her own radio station "WGAL," broadcasting inspirational and popular old-time tunes, recipe swaps, local gossip, funnies, classified ads, and sports scores, plus fan mail from her mailbag.

The action of the play takes place on a warm spring day in the late1920's, well before "The Crash." It is early morning as Hazel begins her daily broadcast from her parlor, joined by her associates, the "Hazelnuts," two matronly Swindle sisters Azilee and Mabel, their neighbor America and her slightly more sophisticated cousin Rennabelle, the volunteer fire department's favorite. Last to arrive for the morning broadcast, bearing cream cheese and olive sandwiches for the group is Gladys Fritts, a small town gal with a deep love of poetry, yearning for greater horizons, known as the show's resident Travel Hostess, Gourmand and Seer. The day's broadcast is interrupted by O. B. Abbott, an inspector from the Commerce Department in Washington, who claims that workmen have been receiving the WGAL radio signal in a tunnel under the Hudson River outside New York City, and accuses Hazel of being a "gypsy of the ether!"

The story is based on an actual incident in the life of evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson, who ran a radio station out of her temple in Los Angeles and "wave-jumped," wandering from channel to channel in search of broadcast space that was "clear." This violation of Federal wavelength code caught the attention of the Department of Commerce. Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, sent an inspector to close MacPherson's station. She responded with an angry telegram to Hoover: "Please order your minions of Satan to leave my station alone. You cannot expect the Almighty to abide by your wave-length nonsense.  When I offer my prayers to Him, I must fit into His wave reception. Open this station at once!"

The book, music and lyrics for Radio Gals were written by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick. The two filled the roles of the Swindle sisters in the play's 1993 premier at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock. Their partnership produced several musicals which combine old-time, foot-stomping traditional country music with gospel and blues: they co-wrote Oil City Symphony and arranged the music for Smoke on the Mountain, presented in 2001 by Raleigh Little Theatre in downtown Raleigh in the Fletcher Opera Theater. Radio Gals has been produced from Alabama to Ontario, Massachusetts to California, but has never been seen before in central North Carolina.

A North Carolina native, Craver graduated from the University of North Carolina and was a member of North Carolina's original Red Clay Ramblers for 12 years. After leaving the Ramblers, Mike moved to New York and got involved in theatre and partnered with Hardwick on several projects; he also co-authored Wilder, Lunch at the Piccadilly, and Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. Craver's New York credits include Diamond Studs and Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind.

Mark Hardwick developed, starred in and performed on Broadway in Pump Boys and Dinettes, along with Jim Wann, Cass Morgan, Debra Monk, John Foley and John Schimmel. The first New York performance of Pump Boys and Dinettes was in the summer of 1981. In February 1982, the show was nominated for a Tony award for Best Musical and became known as the most durable and longest running show in the Chicago theatre history ever.  Raleigh Little Theatre produced Pump Boys and Dinettes for sold-out houses in August 2004. Hardwick also composed the incidental music for the 1975 Broadway production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, starring James Earl Jones. He was crowned one of the "New Faces" of the NYC theatrical world in the early 80's. Mark had roles in Woody Allen's "Broadway Danny Rose" -- Mark played the "Blind Accordion Player", and also the Paul Brickman film "Men Don't Leave" (1990) with Jessica Lange, Joan Cusack, Kathy Bates and Chris O'Donnell.

Raleigh Little Theatre is the oldest continuously operating community theatre in the area, celebrating its 72nd performance season in 2007-2008. The professionally directed, non-profit community theatre produces a variety of productions each season with 11 fully-staged shows, ranging from Broadway and Off-Broadway-style musicals and non-musicals to family programs. The Theatre's home at 301 Pogue Street is a City of Raleigh Historic site and includes three performance spaces-the Cantey V. Sutton Main Stage Theatre, the Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre, and the Louise "Scottie" Stephenson Amphitheatre next to the Raleigh Rose Garden. In addition, RLT produces an annual holiday show, Cinderella, in the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts' Fletcher Opera Theater in downtown Raleigh .Two performance series include seven shows for adults and four shows for families with children ages five and up. The theatre has an active volunteer base of more than 600 individuals who act on stage or assist behind the scenes in technical and administrative roles. The theatre also runs an active Theatre Education Program, enrolling more than 900 young people, ages 4-18 years, for classes during the school year and for summer camp programs.

Radio Gal's four-week run opens on the theatre's Cantey V. Sutton Main Stage at 8:00pm on May 30. Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening performances are scheduled for May 31, June 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, and 21; matinees at 3:00pm are scheduled on Sundays June 1, 8, 15 and 22. For reservations or information call the Raleigh Little Theatre box office (919) 821-3111 noon to 5:00 weekdays or visit www.raleighlittletheatre.org to purchase tickets on line. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.

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