THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270177
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
This Halloween night, turn off your television and be prepared to be frightened by the best special effects of all: the spoken word and your own imagination.
WFOS-FM 88.7, the radio station of Chesapeake Public Schools, will present a special Halloween night radio broadcast from 8:15 p.m. until midnight. Long-time WFOS announcer and on-the-air personality, Jayne Smith, will be host.
The evening will feature a slew of horror, mystery and terror radio plays, Smith said.
Half of Smith's Halloween spectacular will feature classic radio dramas from the 1930s and '40s, including Bram Stoker's ``Dracula'' by the famed Mercury Theatre of the Air with Orson Welles in the title role. Other plays will include ``The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' and ``Frankenstein'' from the 1940s NBC radio series ``Weird Circle.''
The other half will feature radio dramas penned and performed by Smith and other past and current WFOS staff members.
``We will have four original shorts, each drama being about 10 minutes long,'' Smith said. ``I think these plays are more creative because you can't see anything, you have to use your own imagination.''
Two of the short plays - ``Night Revisited'' and ``The Dark'' - were produced three years ago by former WFOS announcer Paul Bunn.
Those two dramas will be augmented by ``Stranger At the Door,'' starring Sharon Kaplan and Vince Brown, and the newest, ``The Frog Who Dreamed of Castles,'' a tale based on ``Hop Frog'' by Edgar Allan Poe.
The Poe story will feature violinist and teacher Francisco Fierros in the title role with supporting help from WFOS announcers Bob Deal, Cecile Davis and Brown.
Both terror tales were written by Smith, an Indian River High School alumni and Old Dominion University graduate.
Smith said the plays will feature lots of sound effects and other audio embellishments. They were all produced by volunteer actors at the WFOS studios after hours.
Smith said she is already working on scripts for horror radio plays for next year's WFOS Halloween show. But volunteer actors are needed. More information is available by calling Jayne Smith at 547-1036. by CNB