Exoplanetary

Alice Wolverton and Mother Invention visit a strange planet in search of an old friend.

CAST

Firiel Elliott as Alice Wolverton Stephanie Leet as Mother Invention Sam A. Mowry as Jonas Rob Bekuhrs as Peter Rene Bordelon as Annette Curtis Andersen as Frankie Rhiannon Dowling as Lavender with Dr. Michelle Booze and Sarah Golding

Written by C. Christopher Hart Sound Effects by Danger Marshall Original Music provided by Jacob Jansen This play, the characters, situations, and associated intellectual property © 2019 C. Christopher Hart, all rights reserved

Stacy tells the tale of how Calvert Wolverton brought her to Echo Bay in the 1850s, shortly after Oregon became a state. Bewildering sights and sounds beguile her, including a three mystical strangers, two twins and their trading post, and one snoring time traveler. Calvert believes that some great disaster is ahead of them; can he and Stacy stop it together, or will it ultimately tear them apart... and time and space, as well?

CAST Alicia Hueni as Stacy Curtis C. Christopher Hart as Calvert Wolverton Mick LaFlamme as Maxim Marinov Katina Andoniadis as Fraulein Gretta Beltz and Bill Terry as the Kidding Brothers

Sound Editing and Effects by Danger Marshall Original Music provided by Jacob Jansen Musical Direction by Melissa Schenter This play, the characters, situations, and associated intellectual property © 2014-2017 C. Christopher Hart, all rights reserved.

My friend, Sam Mowry, died on July 20. If you’ll indulge me for a few minutes, I’d like to talk to you a bit about Sam, who he was, how he came into my life, and how he changed it.

Of course, everyone you know changes your life. When you open your heart and connect with someone, you change; sometimes in little ways, sometimes in enormous ways. I feel this about the people involved in EXOPLANETARY. But Sam Mowry had a way of involving himself in people’s lives, and really showing you that he loved you. All of my memories of Sam are happy ones, and every story I have about him involves his indefatigable kindness. To me and everyone else.

It was just as we were finishing up the first season of EXO that I met Sam. I was summoned! There’s really no other way to say it. A few actors and radio theater people were asked to come to the place I am now: Sam’s studio. You’ve seen it in many of our pictures on social media, with those theatrical red curtains and Sam’s old radios. Sometimes you walk into a room and you feel right at home, and that was the case here. We read through a few scenes of an adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau and I made some aggressive snarling noises as a Beast Man. Afterwards, Sam and I got to talking about radio theater, old movies, and it was that sort of bonding you do with someone who becomes one of your best friends. Maybe you don’t know it when you start talking, but you know it when the conversation was over.

I was summoned again not long afterward on a sunny afternoon for a visit under Sam’s famous Casbah, a sort of covered patio where many a salon for theater people and other friends had been held. It was there that Sam encouraged me to start recording EXO in his studio.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. The studio provided my show with something it hadn’t truly had before: a home. Sam and his wife, Cindy McGean, took me and my actors in so warmly, and it’s the greatest gift I can ever imagine.

It was one I was eager to return. For the remainder of our time together, I helped him with every production of his company, the Willamette Radio Workshop. I even got to perform with him a few times.

Sam was a friend, but he was also a mentor. I have always been a reluctant leader; I just don’t see myself in that role. As I grew up, I also had some examples of leadership that didn’t exactly leave me eager to be in charge. Unfortunately, to do what I’ve needed to do to make EXO happen, I needed to find that part of me and get it in gear, to varying degrees of success. What Sam taught me was how to be a positive presence in people’s lives, how to deal with obstacles, how to foster a sense of fun and community, and, really, how to be the best version of myself.

We shared deeply about our hopes and dreams for creating shows and spaces for performing. It wasn’t unusual for him to bring up some empty restaurant space or office building or some other edifice and muse that it would be the perfect place to start a theater. As one of Portland’s foremost and most beloved theater people, Sam was constantly looking for new ways to put on a show, even as poor heath made it more and more difficult.

Sam loved everything to do with radio. Something we both had in common was sleepless nights when we were young, searching the AM bands for what they now call “OTR.” Old Time Radio. Fibber McGee and Molly. Vic and Sade. The Jack Benny Program. And, of course, Orson Welles. Because of Sam’s voice, he drew a lot of comparisons to the Great Man. When Willamette Radio Workshop performed the War of the Worlds, he took Orson’s parts. Who else could? But Sam also did an impressive Sydney Greenstreet, which was wickedly funny. Sam really loved the magical feeling of a device pulling voices out of the air, picking them up from faraway cities. He was, at heart, a romantic.

Having Sam in my life meant that I was constantly coming up with characters that I wanted him to play. You’ve heard him as Long John Silver and a space cowboy named Jonas. I had so many more things I wanted him to play, but we didn’t have the time.

Sam is also in the plays I was finalizing at the time he passed. Knowing that these are probably his last performances in radio theater... well, that has been a big responsibility. Those of you who are Patreon supporters have already heard one of them, and the other is coming shortly. If you aren’t a supporter, you’ll hear these on the main feed in the coming months.

Sam Mowry was one of the best friends I’ll ever have. He taught me so much, gave me so much. We would meet people, total strangers, and he would introduce me as Christopher Hart, the creator of the science-fiction audio drama podcast EXOPLANETARY. As if they might have already heard of me, and that were the greatest thing in the world. There’s another gift: teaching my tired, cynical heart to think that, yes-- maybe it was the greatest th...

Alice and Mother Invention learn more about the mysterious planet of Violon and its inhabitants, even as their lives are threatened.

CAST

Firiel Elliott as Alice Wolverton Stephanie Leet as Mother Invention Sam A. Mowry as Jonas Rob Bekuhrs as Peter Rene Bordelon as Annette Curtis Andersen as Frankie Rhiannon Dowling as Lavender

Written by C. Christopher Hart Sound Effects by Danger Marshall Original Music provided by Jacob Jansen

This play, the characters, situations, and associated intellectual property © 2019-2020 C. Christopher Hart, all rights reserved

Calvert Wolverton goes too far. In the process, he solves one of the world's great mysteries.

CAST

C. Christopher Hart as Calvert Wolverton Skye Stafford as Amelia Stephanie Leet as House Written by C. Christopher Hart Sound Effects by Danger Marshall Original Music provided by Jacob Jansen

This play, the characters, situations, and associated intellectual property © 2019-2020 C. Christopher Hart, all rights reserved