This zany sci-fi comedy celebrates the radio shows and comic strips of the mid-20th century with impressive comic book backdrops and live foley sound effects
From the popular comic books of the 1940s to the space race of the 1960s, the final frontier has continued to capture the imagination of humankind in our creative endeavors. This month, join the intrepid space heroes of the century with the Department of Theatre and Media Arts’ stage production “Escape From Planet Death!”
First conceptualized in the Writer’s Room, “Escape From Planet Death!” is the result of media arts professor Tom Russell and his students’ creative efforts. Before the stage, the story was created for a podcast whose episodes the students wrote, and which Russell edited as the Creative Consultant for the team of writers. Departing almost entirely from the plot of the podcast, Russell wrote the staged version, which audiences can now enjoy in BYU’s Pardoe Theatre starting October 29.
“Escape From Planet Death!” follows the adventures of the crew of the Friendship Delegation as they face off the perils of space travel and build relationships along the way. While the play draws on several sci-fi and comic book tropes, the production does not follow the exact footsteps of any one radio show or graphic novel.
“It’s not really a re-creation of radio shows and sci-fi’s from the 30s through the early 60s as much as a celebration of those things,” said Russell. “We exaggerate some of the cultural conventions associated with previous decades, so in that sense, the show is also satirical.”
Both Tom Russell and his wife, Courtney Russell, teach in BYU’s TMA department and are co-directors for the play. In the past, the Russells have worked as a team to produce films and commercials.
“In our discipline, I’m a producer and he’s a director, and we have developed a really comfortable rhythm there,” said Courtney Russell. “Our skill sets are the perfect blend to take a film project from script to screen.”
Directing a play together was a new adventure for the husband and wife duo in their careers. Coming from different but related sides of the industry, the couple was able to combine their skills to create a delightfully comic show.
“Navigating co-director responsibilities has been a great experience,” Courtney Russell said. “More than anything, I’ve learned so much. The crash course in how different these sister disciplines are, but how beautiful a collaboration can be when the right kind of project comes along, has been invaluable.”
While the show pokes fun at old traditions and mindsets, the melodramatic characters in the play experience real personal and emotional growth.
Justine Kitteringham, an acting major, said that she has enjoyed the arc her character Analyn goes through during the play.
“While Analyn was just a caricature of a 1950’s woman at first, we’ve really created a journey for [her] throughout the script,” Kitteringham said. “She evolves as the show goes on, which helps me to dive into her thought process and understand her more as a real person.”
Playing the role of Captain Harry Turner is Kyle Hollingshaus, who said he enjoys the fun, comedic nature of the play. He mentioned that much of the inspiration for how he plays his character onstage comes from the cartoons and comic books of the 1950s and 60s.
“It’s a lot of mimicry, watching different versions of something and then making my own [character],” Hollingshaus said. “For this one, it’s been interesting because my character is . . . a representation of what they thought the 1950s like Captain [should be], so he’s like a caricature from a comic.”
The Russells had no end of praise for the students in the production.
“Courtney and I have worked in film with quite a few actors over the years, and we regularly say that if BYU acting students could just play every age range in the world, we’d never need to look elsewhere for talent,” Tom Russell said. “We’re all so lucky to see them perform before everyone else finds out about them.”
Courtney Russell added, “They are a smart bunch and we are so lucky to get to spend so much time with them!”
The show will feature some incredible artistic work with a comic book-style backdrop, as well as a live foley artist to create sound effects that invoke the sensation of going inside a 1950s comic book or radio show. Audiences can look forward to both a highly entertaining and interactive theatre experience.
“Our hope is that [the show] invites the audience into our fictitious living room and asks them to partake of this deliciously crazy buffet of B movie-style sci-fi treats with us,” said Courtney Russell. “There is a lot going on — actors performing, yes, but more playing with each other and with us instead of solely for us.”
Tom Russell added that he hopes audiences will “have a good time and a good laugh” while also being reminded that “we sometimes need to be careful about conventions, assumptions and taking ourselves too seriously.”
Come enjoy an evening of laughter, adventure and more with the Friendship Delegation in “Escape From Planet Death!”
For ticket information, go to arts.byu.edu.