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Original L.A. Theatre Works audio play ‘Can You Hear Me’
merges scientific, personal to relay history of radio
LOS ANGELES (July 23, 2024) — L.A. Theatre Works audio theater recordings are broadcast weekly on public radio stations across the U.S., so LATW appropriately celebrates its 50th anniversary with an original audio play about Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi and the discovery of radio. Written by Anna Lyse Erikson and directed by Rosalind Ayres, Can You Hear Me is now available for digital download at latw.org. The recording will be published as an audiobook and become widely available in libraries and at retail outlets beginning August 20.
Lucy DeVito stars as Marconi’s daughter, Degna, with André Sogliuzzo as the man whose boyhood experiments led to the first transatlantic wireless message in 1902, to the saving of 700 lives during the sinking of the Titanic, and to radio as we know it today. Inspired by Degna’s book “My Father, Marconi”, Can You Hear Me merges the scientific and the personal into one compelling story. Also in the cast are Martin Jarvis, Kurt Kanazawa, Moira Quirk, Darren Richardson and Mark Jude Sullivan.
“I had heard a story about how Marconi thought his research would yield an ability to channel sound waves from the past,” explains Erikson. “He believed he’d eventually be able to actually listen to moments in history, and that intrigued me enough to start reading more about him. I found Degna’s portrayal of her father, largely taken from things he actually said, to be fascinating. Marconi considered what he did to be a matter of exploration—not invention. His mission was not merely to invent, but to discover. He was all about asking the most difficult questions he could ask, and of exploring the mysteries of the universe. What could be more important than that?”
Can You Hear Me is available as part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series of science-themed plays, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
L.A. Theatre Works, the world’s foremost producer of audio theater, stands apart in its approach to making great theater widely accessible and affordable, bringing recordings of plays into homes and classrooms of millions of theater lovers, teachers and students each year. The company’s catalog of nearly 600 recorded plays is the largest archive of its kind in the world. LATW’s syndicated audio theater series broadcasts weekly on public radio stations across the U.S. (locally, in Southern California, on KPFK 90.7 FM); can be downloaded as a podcast via Apple Podcasts, NPR One, or wherever you get your podcasts; and can be streamed on demand at latw.org. AudioFile magazine calls L.A. Theatre Works productions “the gold standard for fine audio theater recordings.”
To download a digital copy of Can You Hear Me for $4.99, go to latw.org.
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