The Willamette Radio Workshop is excited to announce that they have been honored with the Crystal Communicator Award of Excellence for our production of The Fall of the City by Archibald MacLeish. Fall of the City is a seminal piece of Radio Theater, originally presented in 1937 by the Columbia Workshop, with a cast of 200, including Orson Welles, Burgess Meredith and Paul Stewart. As The Fall of the City begins, a dead woman who has appeared in the town square for 3 days saying nothing finally speaks and she tells of the arrival of a mysterious conqueror, warning “The city of Masterless men will take a master, there will be shouting then, blood after.”
A debate ensues where the people must decide how much of their freedom they are willing to risk for a sense of security from a mysterious conqueror. The Fall of the City is a wonderful radio piece, speaking directly to the issues and political choices we face today. The timeless power of poetry and the spoken word meet in this verse drama written especially for radio by this Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
The timely nature of this story inspired us to re-imagine the piece, using the entire script and a brilliant modern sound design by Marc Rose, we feel this is our best work to date.
Cast and Credits
Original Music by Marc Rose
Recorded by Robert Kowal
Produced and directed by Sam A. Mowry
The production featured: Sam A. Mowry, Chris Porter, Linda Goertz, William S. Gregory, Holly Spencer, Tim McKennie, Ricardo Delgado, Mark Homayoun, Adam S. Moore and Atticus Welles Mowry.
Sound Design and engineering by Marc Rose
Recording by Robert Kowal and Michael Gandsey
Foley conductor Martin Gallagher
Produced by Sam A. Mowry, Robert Kowal and Marc Rose
Co-Producer and dramaturgy by Cynthia McGean
The Fall of the City was recorded at PCC Sylvania in Portland, OR.
Special Thanks to Richard McAdoo of the Estate of Archibald Macleish and Margaret Howland from the Archibald MacLeish Collection at the Greenfield Community College Library.
The Fall of the City is a copyrighted work produced with the permission of the Estate of Archibald MacLeish.