Rising Above Challenge of First-Ever Radio Play

Last month, the St. Ambrose University Theatre Department kicked off their 2020-2021 season with their first-ever radio play, An Enemy of the People.

Written by Henrik Ibsen and adapted by Tom Isbell, An Enemy of the People, is a captivating play about Dr. Thomas Stockmann who finds himself at odds with an entire town when he dares to speak the truth.

Located in a town renowned for its spa with healing waters, the play opens with the spa's leading physician, Dr. Stockmann (senior T.J. Green) receiving lab results confirming that the spa's water is toxic. Determined to stop offering spa treatments, he promptly asks for the help of the local paper's publisher and top editor, Mary Hovstad (sophomore Peyton Reese) and Alan Billing (senior Luke Peterson), and the head of the Small Business Association, Robin Aslaksen (senior Anthony Duckett).

They all comply, except Dr. Stockman's brother and mayor of the town Peter Stockmann (senior Tyler Hughes) refuses to shut down the town's main source of income and convinces everyone to reject Dr. Stockmann's findings. Despite the turmoil, Dr. Stockmann still pleads his case with the help of his wife Katherine (senior Niki Dewitt) and daughter Petra (sophomore Quinnie Rodman).

For the purposes of performing this as a radio play, junior Micah Dennis narrated at the top of the show, as well as in-between acts.

Throughout the process, cast and crew met multiple new challenges that typically do not arise when acting in front of a live audience. One such challenge was making sure that each actor's voice was distinctive.

"The most challenging part of the radio play was definitely working on the delivery of lines," said Rodman. "You had to make sure you were delivering them in a way where the audience knew what you were talking about without seeing it. There was a lot of experimenting with different deliveries of lines and the replacing of words to help make it more understandable for the radio."

Along with the challenges, this new medium provided the cast and crew multiple opportunities to expand their theatre skills as well.

"We got to dig in deep with character work because we weren't dealing with the physical element," said director and professor Cory Johnson, PhD. "We also got to work with cadence, pacing and – what was really kind of fun to do in post – editing the recording."

While an exact number of people who tuned in is unknown, Jennifer Hemphill from Stephens College and Aaron Scully from the University of Central Missouri listened in order to adjudicate this production for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). Hemphill complimented the original music composed by Aaron Randolph III '02, '10 and the "stunning" ensemble work of the actors. Also, in regard to the end of Act Four, Hemphill said she found herself, "wishing the entire world could hear this."

While different from typical St. Ambrose productions, An Enemy of the People was certainly memorable as well as extremely relevant to current high-tension situations within our country. The Department would like to thank all those who tuned in to hear this wonderful play brought to life.