{"id":18471,"date":"2016-04-22T00:29:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T07:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=18471"},"modified":"2016-04-20T17:55:07","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T00:55:07","slug":"comic-book-radio-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/04\/22\/comic-book-radio-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Comic book radio show"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth<\/em> comes to York Theatre April 30 and May 1. (photo from Jason Neulander)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The story takes place in 1933. And, were it not the full-color cartoon panels being projected onto a large screen, you might feel as if you were also back in 1933 while watching the live performance of The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth<\/em> at York Theatre April 30 and May 1.<\/p>\n

Target Earth<\/em> is the first instalment of a trilogy that follows \u201cPulitzer Prize-winning reporter Molly Sloan and her intrepid research assistant Timmy Mendez,\u201d as they \u201cteam up with a mysterious librarian \u2026 named Ben Wilcott. Together, they travel from Romania to Scotland to the Alps to Tunis to the Robot Planet and finally to Imperial Zygon to defeat a terrible threat to the very future of humanity: an invading force of sludge-monsters from the planet Zygon!\u201d<\/p>\n

The dozens of characters are voiced on stage by three actors. They are joined by a Foley artist, who creates all of the sound effects, and a pianist\/organist who provides the music soundtrack. The full-color comic book is projected onto a movie screen. In Vancouver, the actors will be Rachel Landon, Brock England and Jeff Mills, with Kelly Matthews in charge of the sound effects and Harlan Hodges on piano and organ.<\/p>\n

The series \u2013 comprised of Target Earth<\/em>, Robot Planet<\/em> and Twin Infinity<\/em> \u2013 is produced and directed by Jason Neulander.<\/p>\n

\"photo
Jason Neulander (photo from Jason Neulander)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neulander grew up in New Jersey and went to college at Brown University in Providence, R.I., where he majored in theatre.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight out of school, I founded a company called Salvage Vanguard Theatre in Austin, Tex., where we developed and produced new plays. The Intergalactic Nemesis<\/em> came out of that company, originally as a radio play,\u201d he told the Independent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran Salvage from 1994 to 2008 and built the company up to a point where it\u2019s now something of a local institution. They\u2019re still going strong without me. In 2008, I decided to focus entirely on The Intergalactic Nemesis<\/em> and got invited to bring the show to the Long Centre for the Performing Arts [in Austin]. The venue there was 2,400 seats and I felt like that was too big to house my little radio play. So, I came up with the idea of projecting comic book artwork to create a visual spectacle to fill the room. That version of the show premi\u00e8red in 2010 and we\u2019ve been on the road with it ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on an original idea by Ray Patrick Colgan, the touring show was adapted from the radio drama by Colgan, Neulander, Jessica Reisman, Julia Edwards and Lisa D\u2019Amour. The comic-book artwork for Target Earth <\/em>is by Tim Doyle with Paul Hanley and Lee Duhig; the sound effects were created by Buzz Moran; and Graham Reynolds was the composer. Others, of course, helped bring the whole production to fruition.<\/p>\n

For his part, Neulander said his biggest inspiration for The Intergalactic Nemesis <\/em>was his kids. \u201cI wanted to make something that I could enjoy with them,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s actually worked out pretty well! Artistically, this show is all about pushing my own inner-kid buttons. I was 7 when Star Wars<\/em> came out (the first one) and 12 when Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/em> came out and I love that kind of storytelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my favorite memories as a kid was watching the old Flash Gordon serials and the old Ray Harryhausen movies on TV with my dad on Saturday mornings. When I was a little older, I got really into golden-age sci-fi short fiction, like Bradbury and Asimov and those guys. When I was a young adult, I discovered golden-age Hollywood movies for myself \u2013 His Girl Friday <\/em>hugely influenced our script. I kind of backed into both radio drama and comic books, so maybe those are actually a little less influential on the show than those other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there is no overt Jewish aspect to the story, Neulander said his sense of Jewish heritage played a role in its creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis show is all about the heroes defeating the bad guys more through smarts than through violence,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe main male character is a librarian, so I feel like there\u2019s got to be some Talmud in there somewhere. But, more than that, I think my upbringing taught me that if you work hard, you can succeed against all odds. I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s solely a Jewish thing, but it\u2019s definitely what the story of this show is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Target Earth<\/em> won\u2019t just take you to another time, but place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so much fun!\u201d said Neulander. \u201cIt\u2019s like getting to watch an animated movie and seeing how they do it all at the same time. The visual images are just beautiful to look at and then you have three voice actors playing so many characters, often in the same scene, you have one person using all these unusual objects to make sounds you never thought they could make (my favorite is a trail from a box of mac and cheese), and the music just soars. You really do get taken to another world.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Neulander is taking a creative break from the Intergalactic<\/em> world \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m just wrapping up a script for a thriller, which will be my film directing debut\u201d \u2013 the series\u2019 shows keep touring. This summer, said Neulander, \u201cwe are taking Twin Infinity<\/em> to the fringe festival in Edinburgh in what we think will be a very splashy U.K. premi\u00e8re.\u201d<\/p>\n

But first, Target Earth<\/em> and target Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been itching to get to Vancouver for a few years now,\u201d said Neulander. \u201cI think that your city really is one of the ideal places for this show. I just think audiences are going to eat it up! Can\u2019t wait to get there!\u201d<\/p>\n

Shows are April 30, 4 and 7 p.m., and May 1, 2 p.m. Tickets start at $25 from tickets.thecultch.com<\/a> or 604-251-1363.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth comes to York Theatre April 30 and May 1. (photo from Jason Neulander) The story takes place in 1933. And, were it not the full-color cartoon panels being projected onto a large screen, you might feel as if you were also back in 1933 while watching the live performance of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[5728,880,5726,5725,5727],"class_list":["post-18471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-comics","tag-cultch","tag-intergalactic","tag-neulander","tag-sci-fi"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}