Parson’s Nose Radio Theater

A delightful poem by Eugene Field (1850-1895), a nationally known Saint Louis/Chicago columnist, and also The Poet Laureate of Children for his work including "Wynken, Blynken and Nod", "The Duel" and "Little Boy Blue", written for his eight children. Performed by Peter Kovner. For more about us, for more podcasts, and / or to make a tax deductible donation, please go to www.parsonsnose.org.

By Hoyt Hilsman. Was it a miscarriage? A short one-act play, part of an ongoing collection by Mr. Hilsman, "Political Rights and Wrongs" which also includes "The Librarian" and "The Subsitute". First presented in the "Parson's Nose New Play Series" in the Fall of 2022. Starring Mary Chalon and Heather Taylor. Produced and directed by Lance Davis. For more PNT Radio Theater podcasts, please go to iTunes, Spotify, or www.parsonsnose.org, where your tax-deductible donations are always welcome. Please send your feedback to lance@parsonsnose.org. And please spread the word.

By PNT Resident Playwright Hoyt Hilsman. Premiering in the Parson's Nose "New Play Series" in November 2022. One of an ongoing series of "Political Plays" by Mr. Hilsman. Performed by PNT Players Jill Rogosheske and Paul Perri. Directed and produced by Lance Davis. 11 minutes. Brief adult language. For more podcasts, and more about Parson's Nose, please go to www.parsonsnose.org. Tax free donations are always greatly appreciated.

How rarely we listen to the most audacious (and treasonous!) response to oppression in American History! 56 men met in cramped quarters in the hot, muggy, Philadelphia June of 1776. The windows were nailed shut lest spies report on their discussions.  They argued about taxation, slavery, big states vs. small states. The one mission that became clear was the need for independence from English tyranny. They signed a document declaring to all that a new nation had been founded. They  sparked the fire that lit the world. #audiodrama @PNTheater #podcast

Jean Giraudoux's modern fairy tale, written in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944. Speculators threaten to destroy the neighborhood, and all Paris, by drilling below for oil. Can the fanciful "little people" save their beloved Chaillot? A beautiful story of empowerment and hope. Starring the Parson's Nose Players, Mary Chalon as Countess Aurelia, Jill Rogosheske, Marisa Chandler, Heather Taylor, John Lee, John Harnagel, Gary Lamb, James Calvert, Barry Gordon, Paul Perri, Ronny King and Lance Davis. Original score by Tom Peters. Adapted by Lance Davis. Running Time: two glasses of wine.

Henry G. Lee was a poet, a South Pasadena High graduate, and a soldier in World War 2.  He was captured while defending the Bataan Peninsula and spent the war in a POW concentration camp. His poetry, found wrapped in canvas and buried beneath his tent, expresses the reality, the despair and the longing experienced by his men. He died in a Japanese "Hell Ship", bombed by American planes. 

"You are a man, and so am I." In 1848, former slave Frederick Douglass published at letter to Thomas Auld, his former slave master, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his escape. The eloquence, power and dignity of this self-taught man proclaims his rightful place in the pantheon of American heroes.

Parson's Nose believes it is our privilege and joy to know these great works. 

Performed by acclaimed American actor/director/producer Gregg T. Daniel. Produced by Lance Davis. "No More Auction Block" Paul Robson. "You Better Mind" Bessie Jones

Running time 26 minutes.

For more about us and for all of our Radio Theater podcasts, please go to parsonsnose.org where you can sign up for our NoseLetter. We are also on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can subscribe to our podcasts on Spotify and iTunes. "Alexa, play Parson's Nose Radio Theater"!

All those Irish beggar children. What's to be done? If you have a better solution, let's hear it. Jonathan Swift, Trinity College Dean, presents "a Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents and Country." Adapted and recorded by Lance Davis for Parson's Nose Radio Theater. 17 minutes. Also available at www.parsonsnose.org. It's rough sailing for small theater groups.Please consider subscribing. Donations much appreciated.

We're so fortunate to have long time friends who coincidentally happen to be wonderful artists. Such is the case with Mr. Warren C. Bowles, a compatriot from University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, Angers France, and a founding member of the Mixed Blood Theater, actor, director, and teacher, in arts-vibrant Minneapolis. "Bowles" stopped by for a PNT reunion last week while visiting LA, and we harassed him into giving us a bit of his favorite Shakespeare, The Tempest. Two bits, actually. Caliban's plea to escape his enslavement, and Prospero's plea to the audience to free him to go back to Naples. Two short speeches that once again display the imaginative genius of the boy from Stratford. Who else would put poetry into the mouth of a half human/ half beast. Who else would ask the audience' breath to fill his sails back to his homeland. So effortless. (5 minutes)

Welcome to Russia! Anton Chekhov's hilarious one-act comedy. A Cossack soldier. A country widow. A debt. "I'll bring her down like a chicken!". Starring Parson's Nose Company members Christina Carlisi, Barry Gordon and Lance Davis. Adapted by Lance Davis. Music by Thomas Peters. Sound engineering by Dave Bennett. 32 minutes.

Hans Christian Andersen was one of the world's most creative authors of fairy and folk tales, popular with both young and old in the 19th Century. Born in the little town of Odense, in Denmark, he overcame much to become a "Danish Treasure". His works, filled with the whimsy and pathos of his own life, have been celebrated throughout the world.

A classic American ghost story by Walter B. Gibson. Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow, uses his extraordinary powers - "soon to be available to all law enforcement agencies" - to bring evil-doers to justice. Introduction and adaptation by Lance Davis. Starring John Rafter Lee, Mary Chalon, Barry Gordon, Jill Rogosheske, James Calvert and Marisa Chandler. Sound by Dave Bennett. All 46 PNT podcasts are available 24/7 on Spotify, iTunes, or at www.parsonsnose.org. Please consider subscribing. For more about us, please go to www.parsonsnose.org. Your tax deductible donations at www.parsonsnose.org are greatly appreciated. Live "radio style" performances of The Shadow will take place in our "Bump in the Night" production at our theater. Details at www.parsonsnose.org "Live Events".

Another Parson's Nose Radio Theater classic! Edgar Allan Poe, writer, poet, American Gothic pioneer, creator of the "detective genre", gives us his tale of revenge and murder. Adapted by Lance Davis. Performed by Parson's Nose Company members Gary Lamb and John Harnagel. Sound by Lance Davis and Dave Bennett. (15 min.) Make your tax deductible donation at www.parsonsnose.org

O Henry's lyrical, 1906 New York story of the innocent and hopeful Miss Leeson, who takes the magical Skylight Room in Mrs. Parker's boarding house. Adapted for radio by Lance Davis. Starring Jill Rogosheske as Mrs. Parker and Marisa Chandler as Ellie. Sound by David Bennett. 15 minutes. 

Do listen to all 45 episodes of Parson's Nose Radio Theater at www.parsonsnose.org, where you can find out more about our coming season! Tax deductible donations greatly appreciated.

Welcome to Episode 42 of the Parson's Nose Radio Theater. Tonight, our PNT New Plays Workshop presents "Angela", a one act play by PNT Resident Playwright  Hoyt Hilsman. A detective. A suspect. And at least one victim.

"Angela"  is performed by PNT company members Mary Chalon as Angela, and Jill  Rogosheske as Detective Howe. Directed by Lance Davis, with sound by  Dave Bennett. Please note, "Angela" contains realistic dialogue, intended for mature audiences. (26 minutes)

For more about us, and all 41 of this season's episodes, please go to www.parsonsnose.org. We are available free to all, 24/7, on iTunes, Spotify, "wherever you get your podcasts". Donations and subscriptions are deeply appreciated. Please spread the word.

Deemed "the best farce of the 19th Century" by the New York Times. Before "Fawlty Towers" was "Box and Cox", an immensely popular one act play, written in 1848 by British playwright John Maddison Morton. A souffle of silly comedy performed by PNT Company Members Barry Gordon, Mary Chalon and Lance Davis, with sound engineering by David Bennett. 30 minutes.

A bit of background about Kenneth Grahame and his sources for "Wind in the Willows."

Denmark's genius storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen, tells the tale of a Papa who goes to the fair. Adapted and performed by Parson's Nose Radio Theater Artistic Director Lance Davis, with sound by David Bennett. 12 minutes.

PNT is a 501c3 nonprofit theater, now in its 20th season "introducing the classics" in Pasadena, California. In this Covid environment we're bringing back the tradition of The Mercury Theater and old time radio. For more about Parson's Nose, and for all of our podcasts, please go to www.parsonsnose.org. And tell your friends! Tax deductible donations are more than welcome in these times.

A twenty minute tribute by Hoyt Hilsman to the irreverent wit and musical brilliance of Mr. Tom Lehrer.

"The Vatican Rag", "Werner von Braun", "New Math" and "The Elements" were just a few of his smart, sometimes wicked contributions to the 1950s coffeehouse scene of Dave Brubeck, Mort Sahl, Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Written by Hoyt Hilsman. Performed a bit by Lance Davis. Sound by Dave Bennett. Give a listen!

 The classic adventure every school boy and girl should hear. Performed by PNT Company member Barry Gordon.

 A young girl does her part to create America. Performed by PNT Artistic Director Lance Davis.

 The women at home also serve.

Performed by PNT Company member Jill Rogosheske.

 by Julia Ward Howe. Performed by PNT Company member Paul Perri.

 The American Poet...

 The lady in the harbor. Performed by PNT Co-founder Mary Chalon.

 You must go away to appreciate home. Performed by PNT Cofounder Mary Chalon.

 Written by legendary American poet Langston Hughes. A call to America to live up to the promise Walt Whitman described. Performed by PNT Company member Taylor Hawthorne. 

 By Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Following in the footsteps of Langston Hughes. Performed by PNT Artistic Director Lance Davis.

.Thank you for listening! Lift your glass to the greatest experiment in democracy the world has ever known.

Welcome to our Parson's Nose Radio Theater "New Works!" Series, with Hoyt Hilsman's tribute to actor/singer Cliff Edwards, whose career ran from vaudeville to Broadway to Hollywood, "Ukelele Ike" performed classic tunes that swept America, from "Jada" to "When You Wish Upon a Star". Written by Hoyt Hilsman. Performed by Lance Davis and Mary Chalon. Sound by Dave Bennett (18 minutes)

Edgar Allan Poe. Icon of the American Gothic movement. Creator of the "detective" genre. Poet. Master of the "horror" genre. A tragic life lasting only 40 years.

In 1879 Mark Twain announces his candidacy for president.

Performed by PNT Company member Mr. Paul Perri.

Sound by Lance Davis and Dave Bennett.

Music by Lance Davis and Creative Commons.