Ambersons Adapted for Radio Drama
A while back, I ran across the web site Lit Between the Ears, which now apparently publishes an annual anthology of radio plays. The site reports that the second volume as due later this year:
On October 1, 2009, “Lit Between the Ears, Volume Two: Mayonnaise in My Cake and Other Delights” will be released. As with “Volume One: Chekhov, O. Henry, Spear and Tarkington On the Air”, Volume Two will be an antholgy [sic] of our writing.However, unlike our first book, Mayonnaise in My Cake and Other Delights will be mostly original works. One of the few adaptations will be the work-in-progress “Splendor in Midland” inspired by Booth Tarkington’s “The Magnificent Ambersons”.
A treatment of Splendor in Midland was included in Volume One. With regard to the final script in Volume 2, William Spear goes on to note:
Members of the Inspiration Committee cleared paths not previously seen. One helped break the three-year mental logjam over how to move Georgie Amberson Minafer from Tarkington’s post-Civil War novel, “The Magnificent Ambersons”, to the contemporary settings of “The Splendor in Midland”.
I’m a big fan of radio drama, and it’s a great idea to use the medium to resurrect some interest in Tarkington.