This week we wrap up our month-long celebration of the poet laureate of radio, Norman Corwin, who celebrated his centennial this month.

We tie together a month of great programming with a documentary by the BBC that lets Norman tell us the story of a life in radio – giving us a taste of what it was like to be producing great radio in the greatest era for the greatest in the world… and what magic is it all!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast175.mp3)
Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 175 (MP3)

We skip ahead from the Golden Age of Radio to recent memory – a series he ran sponsored by NPR called “More by Corwin.” This was all produced live with celebrity actors including, no joke, William Shatner!

Fun stuff. Enjoy this delightful tale, “The Curse of 589″ about the most classic conflict – science and magical creatures.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast174.mp3)

We have a report of the birthday bash held in Hollywood care of fellow audio artist Rich Fish:

On May 1, the program at the Writers Guild Theatre was extraordinary. Leonard Maltin hosted and Peggy Webber’s California Artists Radio Theatre performed excerpts from, or cut-down versions of, three of Norman’s plays: MARY AND THE FAIRY, SOLILOQUY TO BALANCE THE BUDGET, and OUR LADY OF THE FREEDOMS. Performers, and those who gave personal tributes, included Ian Abercrombie, Ed Asner, Shelley Berman, Samantha Eggar, John Harlan, Richard Herd, Hal Kanter, Paul Keith, Norman Lloyd, Shelley Long, Tony Palermo, Melinda Peterson, Phil Proctor, Carl Reiner, Ken Stange, Simon Templeman, Tom Willams, and Joanne Worley.

During their remarks, Phil & Melinda announced the National Audio Theatre Festivals’ creation of the Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre, which will be given every year on Norman’s birthday. This received great applause from the hundreds of people in the audience.

Note the snazzy award off to the right. Rich also sends this very interesting nugget of news:

NO JOKE – Scientists have succeeded in using a SINGLE MOLECULE as a computer.

This is not a gag, or an Internet rumor.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-05/single-molecule-computes-thousands-times-faster-your-pc

“Using quantum interference – the vibrations of the atoms themselves – the team was able to run the complete discrete Fourier transform extremely quickly by encoding the inputs into an optically tailored vibrational wave packet which is then run through an excited iodine molecule whose atomic elements are oscillating at known intervals and picked up by a receiver on the other side. The entire process takes just a few tens of femtoseconds (that’s a quadrillionth of a second).”

If I was a molecule, I’d be pretty excited too.

THE UNDECIDED MOLECULE, a brilliant 1945 fantasy by Norman Corwin, suddenly looks a lot more like Sci-Fi than fantasy. No one, I suspect, will be more astonished than Corwin.

On second thought, I could be mistaken about that…his Emersonian Receiver is really, really good.*

* “We lie in the lap of an immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

And to celebrate! The 1945 classic, The Undecided Molecule. Enjoy!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast173.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 173

In a bold coup for Radio Drama Revival, we look back to yesteryear and the golden age of radio drama to celebrate one of its luminaries – the magnificent Norman Corwin, also called the “poet laureate of radio,” who celebrates his 100th birthday this month.

Wow! That’s a lifespan that encompasses a lot of changes in America, and a lot of radio plays – and a pervasive and unstoppable optimism present in all of his work.

So, the whole month of May is Corwin-time – starting today, with the re-broadcast of that seminal radio play celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, “We Hold These Truths.”

In a time where cynicism and jadedness have never been stronger in America, it may be more important than ever to look at where we’ve come from and what we’re capable of.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast172.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 172