By Shaun Banther
Auditions have begun this week for Eastern New Mexico University Student Radio’s upcoming radio drama Saying Hello to Goodbye.
The radio play, directed by Jim Lee, adjunct professor of Communication, focuses on teen suicide awareness and prevention.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers, so Lee hopes that the radio drama will assist in suicide prevention.
“Not only can people hear a good story,” Lee said, “but they can contribute to saving some lives.”
The radio drama was rewritten from a stage play for a suicide awareness and prevention program. The stage play is credited with helping to save lives.
“We’re doing something good for teenagers who have challenges we need to help them with,” Lee said. “That ought to motivate somebody.”
The radio drama will be part of a live broadcast, recorded on streaming video, and will be made available online for the public.
All staff, students, and instructors are encouraged to participate in the radio drama. There will be opportunities for voice acting, production, and an assistant director position.
“You want to learn about radio drama, do some,” Lee said. “My personal slogan for education in general is that ‘learning is doing.’ This especially applies to anything that’s a craft.”
Lee said he encourages others to participate in the radio drama, giving them a chance for “a learning experience and some nice recognition.”
Lee has directed two previous radio dramas at ENMU: Tick-Tick and Will Someone Please Tell Me What’s Going On Here?.
He previously wrote three nationally syndicated radio dramas—Water From the Rock, The Comeback of Wallace Cooper, and The Homecoming—for C.P. MacGregor Studios in Hollywood.
Radio plays are a dramatized, completely acoustic performance broadcast on radio. Because there are no visuals, radio dramas depend on dialog, music, and sound effects to enable listeners to visualize the characters and plot.
Radio dramas were wildly popular in the 1920s-1940s. However, the medium largely lost its audience with the birth of television in the 1950s.
Auditions for Saying Hello to Goodbye are 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. today in the Communication Department Conference Room.