TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE The Podcast Episode 16: “No Signalâ€
Episode 16: No Signal
(a sequel to Cold Reading)
A trio of paranormal adventurers revisits the scene of a séance
gone horribly wrong a century before, and suffer a similar fate.
Written and Directed by Larry Fessenden.
Featuring Clay McLeod Chapman, Samuel Zimmerman,
Roxanne Benjamin, Larry Fessenden
Performed live May 1, 2015.
Poster by Trevor Denham
Writers Glenn McQuaid and April Snellings reminisce about TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE’s “Cold Readingâ€, performed live at the Stanley Film Festival on May 1st, 2015 and featuring Featuring Barbara Crampton, Martha Harmon Pardee, Leon Vitali, and Larry Fessenden
Glenn McQuaid
Looking back on the beginnings of Cold Reading, I remember mentioning to you that I wanted to collaborate on a Tale set during a seance and that I wanted to add a ventriloquist’s dummy, sort of MAGIC meets SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, but I worried that those two elements were too incongruous, but then you had all this great seance knowledge which included the use of ventriloquism in spiritualism!
April Snellings
It was serendipity! I’d been doing a lot of reading on spiritualism for another project, and I came across some great stuff about the origins of ventriloquism–it’s tied in with demonology, necromancy, and other lovely pastimes. The Greeks called it gastromancy, and thought it was the result of the dead shacking up in the bellies of the living. Of course seances and evil dummies are two horror tropes that we both love, so when you wanted to combine them, I was all in. I also liked that it would be a challenge–though we think of ventriloquism as an auditory trick, it’s really more of a visual thing, and a lot of the creep factor has little to do with sound…
Glenn McQuaid
Speaking of visual things, it was so much fun watching Larry switch back and forth between Edwards and Stanley, I think it’s one of the great performances! Can you believe we got the cast we did?
April Snellings
Ha, I was afraid we were going to break poor Larry. (We didn’t, did we?) I was both elated and terrified when Barbara Crampton signed on. Writing for a horror legend–talk about pressure! I’ll never forget the audience’s reaction during her monologue toward the end. I’ve never heard a packed theater be so utterly quiet and still–I didn’t even hear anyone breathing. And Leon and Martha, who played Ernest and Doris–they were so much fun! Hey, didn’t we maim a foley artist that night?
Glenn McQuaid
We did! I think Chris Skotchdopole lost a limb but it was all in the name of art. In all seriousness the foley team really do give it everything they have during our live shows, Tessa Price and Chris really took things very seriously up there and I think Chris sliced his hand while stabbing a cabbage! Getting back to Barbara’s monologue, it was such a wonderful shift of tone, we went from the naughty fun of Ernest and Doris into something much more serious, she was pitch perfect as she took us down that path, it changed everything, and introduced Larry’s third character, and you’re right, you could hear a pin drop.
April Snellings
I remember Barbara saying that she had to lie down for a bit after she did her first read-through of the script. My god, Glenn, this one took its toll! It’s like our own personal Fitzcarraldo, only we just caused people a bit of mild distress instead of making them carry a steamship up a mountain or whatever. Speaking of the tonal shift, that’s one of my favorite things about this one. Those shifts can be tough to pull off, but the cast really sold it (along with Graham Reznick’s music and Lee Nussbaum working that sound board like a mad genius). I felt it during the writing process, too–we were having so much fun bouncing the seance back and forth and being silly, and then the story took a turn for the dark and we began to have some very serious conversations about the story’s themes. That was a delight for me–that process of tossing things back and forth and discovering, together, what we were really getting at. That’s what I enjoy so much about collaboration. What is it that you enjoy about working with other creators?
Glenn McQuaid
I think, for most of us, writing is usually a solo endeavor, so opening up the process of discovery with a partner, stepping outside of our own creative instincts and putting trust in someone else can be a wonderful, sometimes vulnerable and valuable experience. I really enjoyed working with you on Cold Reading, when I go back and listen to it I hear both our voices in the mix. I read a review of it recently where we were called monsters for a certain scene and in fairness, I do remember the fun we had in pushing ourselves and pondering how we might off a certain character, I like to blame that whole bit on you.
April Snellings
I still get side-eye from my in-laws over that. Of course I tell them it was all your idea and I protested vigorously. Hey, I think we’ve arrived at the real benefit of having a co-writer: plausible deniability!
LISTEN TO COLD READING at
TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE The Podcast
Episode 15: Cold Reading
Written by Glenn McQuaid and April Snellings.
Directed by Glenn McQuaid.
Spirits and secrets spin out of control during a séance
at the turn of the century.
Featuring Barbara Crampton, Martha Harmon Pardee,
Leon Vitali, Larry Fessenden
Performed live May 1, 2015,
Poster by Trevor Denham
Episode 14: Cannibals
Written and directed by Joe Maggio.
An embittered auteur encounters the young filmmaker who has been
cannibalizing his work;a game of cat and mouse ensues.
Featuring Vincent D’Onofrio, James Le Gros.
Poster by Graham Humphreys.
Glenn McQuaid and Larry Fessenden had a few questions for Horror vet ERIC RED on the eve of the launch of his TALE FROM BEYOND THE PALE “Little Nasties†on the TALES Podcast.
PALE MEN: Prior to working on Little Nasties, What was your experience of audio drama?
ERIC RED: Zero.  However, my grandfather used to tell me about the suspense radio shows he listened to as a child, like Lights Out, and how they fired his imagination, so through him I saw what the medium could do.  That’s why I though it was such a brilliant idea for Larry and Glenn to bring back the format for our modern age in Tales From Beyond The Pale.
PM: I notice a fine ear for sound design and music in your film work, Body Parts has some really satisfying sound design and foley in the mix, did it feel like a natural step to let go of visuals and concentrate solely on audio?
ER: Thanks.  I’ve always been attentive of the storytelling use of sound in my films.  It’s part of any filmmaker’s toolbox.  Sound subliminally enhances the visuals of a movie in powerful ways that can be much more effective than music.  I often write sound effects in my screenplays and play certain scenes that way for that reason.PM: Writing the script for Little Nasties was an interesting challenge because stylistically it had to be dialogue down one side of the page and sounds effects down the other—that’s it!  Those were the elements available to work with to tell the story.
ER: In a movie, the director gives the audience the pictures and everybody basically sees the same film.  But a radio show relies exclusively on dialogue and sound effects to create pictures for the listener, who bring his or her own personal mental images to the audio play.  This way, the audience uses their imagination and actively interfaces with the tale, rather than just sitting back and letting the story wash over them like they do in a movie.  That was what was exciting about the project for me. A lot of credit goes to Glenn McQuaid who made a big contribution to the show actually creating and executing the sound design in the script. PM: As well as film, you’ve now got seven (I believe) novels under your belt and there’s the comic book work too, do you have a preferred medium you like to work in or do you enjoy the parameters of each format?
ER: I’m a storyteller.  The different story delivery systems like movies, books, comics and radio shows each have their own opportunities for a storyteller.  But the older I get, the more fun it is to let the audience use their imagination where it is not how you show it, it’s how you don’t show it.
PM: Jill Zarin is an absolute hoot in Little Nasties and was great fun to work with in the studio, how did you come to know and work with her?Â
ER: I Met Jill the same year we did the radio show, when she was cast in a small film I directed and we became friends.  She comes out of reality TV starring on TV’s Real Housewives of New York, so Jill knew how to improvise and think on her feet on camera; she was used to being spontaneous as a performer because of the requirements of reality TV, but unlike many of the people who star in those shows, Jill is a substantial person and a good human being.  She’s a natural actress with a strong, warm, funny, iconic New York personality and vocal delivery.  Because the voice was everything in the radio show, I immediately thought of her for the stage mother having just worked with her and knowing what she could do.  We all loved what Jill brought to the part, carrying the show with her energetic down-to-earth personality. Â
PM: And finally, we love that you use Jack Ketchum in your piece. Â How did you come to know him?
ER: Dallas (Jack Ketchum was his author pseudonym) was probably my oldest friend, dating back in the late 70s when we met in Greece.  We were both New Yorkers then, when he was just becoming a novelist and I was becoming a screenwriter and director.  Dallas was one of my favorite people, and I thought it would be fun for him to play the sinister beauty contest official; Dallas being Dallas, he tackled the transgressive role fearlessly and didn’t hold back.  He sadly passed a few years ago, and I was grateful we had the fun experience of this show as a capper to our relationship.One of my favorite things about Little Nasties was the unusual ensemble of people who were involved.  We had a TV New York Housewife playing alongside a legendary horror author in a radio show produced by two brilliant independent filmmakers that I got to write and direct.  A unique, diverse, talented group of people became ingredients in a special cocktail that, to my creative taste buds, is absolutely delicious.  Little Nasties was a fairly big, complicated little radio show production that included a large cast of children, so big props to Larry Fessenden for pulling it all together.  I’m still amazed at all we got done.