"Dan Bianchi turns a radio performance into a THEATER SPECTACLE...it will both move and spook you..." OffOff Online
"The stark stage and near darkness heighten the audience's focus on the voices...to manufacture a truly eerie atmosphere the production needs nothing more than its fabulous sound track and GARY ANDERSON'S haunting music..." OffOff Online
"John Nolan has the
perfect radio voice..."
OffOff Online
"A SOUND EXTRAVAGANZA!" VARIETY
"Where does Radiotheatre find these performers with amazing radio voices? The characters are engaging, the script is expository in all the right places and the pacing is brisk..." NYTIMES.com
"Radiotheatre is a new hybrid aural and visual experience to whet your imagination!" VARIETY
"COMPELLING....a tribute to how GRIPPING this piece of modern mythology remains!" ABOUT TOWN
"A PRIME EXAMPLE OF 'LESS IS MORE' "
NYTMES.com
"BOY, HAVE WE GOT A RECOMMENDATION FOR YOU!
I thought to myself, how the hell are these folks going to pull this off....I actually closed my eyes and let the actors, music and script do all the work...they did indeed accomplish their goal of giving a new generation an appreciation for entertainment from past eras." RETROVISION
"Makes for an interesting evening of retro theater going and good fun!" NYTIMES.com
"Collin Biddle's strong and powerful narration kept me in suspensel!" NYTIMES.com
LISTEN TO KING KONG INTERVIEW
"FIVE STARS! PIGMAN is
a frightening hit!..The Renaissance man behind the whole production is Dan Bianchi who wrote and directed the play, as well as, scored music and designed the soundtrack which sounds like a Hollywood movie...highly unusual for theatre" NYTHEATRE.comick here to add your text.
"The PIGMAN OF DELANCEY STREET is the most unique show in all NYC! It's an experience you won't get at any other show. Dan Bianchi's direction is right on and always moving. His script is exquisite! His musical score is unlike anything I've ever heard in any show I've seen, big or small. It's more like a movie sound track. A really great night in the theater!"
BROADWAY BOX
"DAN BIANCHI IS THE ROGER CORMAN OF INDEPENDENT THEATRE! He makes no bones about it. His productions are low budget, but, highly imaginative, combining a cinematic approach with basic stripped down storytelling and a high tech soundtrack. SOUND is very important to Bianchi..."As any stage tech can tell you, SOUND is usually the last priority especially in low budget theatre. And yet, today's generation have been born with headphones, listening to sound and music 24/7. No wonder most of theatre is boring to them. But, live music and rented songs are expensive alternatives...so, we've found a way to offer a full blown orchestral sound track closer to movies than traditional theatre. .."
NO, we are NOT an old time radio show recreation! I'd like to stress that, because so many come expecting a quaint, humorous revival of a bygone era. Sorry, we're 21st Century, here. But, radio is a medium in which sound is king, so, of course, we are inspired by the voices, music and fx that went into the hundreds of weekly stories during radio's Golden Age that held audiences captive, listening in their darkened living rooms. This approach calls upon the audience to provide the pictorials with their own imaginations. Sure, we'll add some unique visual aids, but, it's not all laid out for you as in a $100mil movie or any tv show. You have to participate in conjuring up the visuals. In that way, each audience member leaves with a different experience... Of course, not everyone can provide their own imagination to the brew. "One adult was actually disappointed that we didn't produce a real King Kong on stage! Oh well..." NY EYE
"If you close your eyes, you'd swear that there were more than five actors playing all the parts. Donna Heffernan screams the bricks out of the wall!" NYTIMES.com
"Jamie Jackson delivers
a great performance!"
NY TIMES.com
Here's what some of the critics have said about Dan Bianchi's other productions...
"His productions are clearly thought out and good natured in their approach, making them both timely and absorbing at a juncture in our history when political trends make it easy to simply fall into apathetic retreat..." THE LONDON TIMES
"Great fun! Crack-brained humor! Unending drive!" NY TIMES
"A munificence of soul!" FIGARO
"Audiences will find his work surprisingly in tune with today's disenchanted feeling for government and the people who run it. The humor is broad, the satire obvious and the targets are always in sight and easily reached." NY TIMES
"Mr.Bianchi is, perhaps, the only American director who truly seems to have a grasp of how Brecht's 'Alienation Effect' works. Yet, he knows the difference between dialectic and polemic demagoguery. He understands the audience he has chosen and allows them to reach their own conclusions without haranguing them. That is central to a theater that seeks to stimulate its audience through intellectual channels." VILLAGER
"An intellectual tour-de-force..." VILLAGE VOICE
"Dan Bianchi can both write and direct in the complex, often ironic, epic theater style. His productions are executed with literary intelligence, theatrical sophistication and entertaining flourish. His characters yearn to place their faith in religion, justice, and man's potential humanity to man."
THEATER REVIEW MAGAZINE
"His work shows the guts and brains of a company that ought to last!" NEWSDAY
"As Renaissance man behind the entire operation, Artistic Director Dan Bianchi is also the Director, Author, Lyricist and Set Designer. For his company to have attempted and pulled off a work of this scope, this complexity and length is alone worth commendation...but, on many levels his work can stand against more commercial and better-funded productions, especially, technically." NY STAGE
"I have watched his work grow over the years with considerable delight at Bianchi's sensitivity and talent for using the Epic Style of production. His works are ambitious, literate, intelligent and entertaining. Bianchi has joined Beckett at the periphery of existence to contemplate the future of mankind. I am sure that he has the makings of a major artist." HISTORY OF AMERICAN THEATER, Editor, S. Hart, Phd.
Dan Bianchi claims that he produces works 'for the people,' not in the traditional Socialist sense, appealing to just a select few of an elitist intelligentsia in the downtown NYC scene who revel in all things European. No, he's out to exploit Americana, the pulp world of literature and all its genres that last forever and have become part of the fabric of our lives and, yet, are usually ignored by traditional theatremakers, or, are horribly translated to the live stage. ...Bianchi takes a serious approach..."Although we have a lot of fun here, if I were to parody these genres in a snide manner, I'd be joining those who continue to snub and look down their noses at this kind of work. But, most of our inspiration comes from the era of American writing when there were no less than 20 daily NYC newspapers and a few hundred weekly fiction magazines and paperbacks filling the racks down at the corner stand. People took pleasure in reading back then and there were plenty of writers, long forgotten, who made their living from creating what we now know as Horror, Science Fiction, Westerns, Romance, Fantasy and Crime genres, all of which became raw material for both low budget and blockbuster motion pictures and cult TV shows later on. " AMERICAN THEATERWORKER MAGAZINE
NOMINATED 2005
NY INNOVATIVE THEATRE
AWARD/Best Sound FX
"Bianchi freshly creates these plays resulting in a new and live-action genre..."
UNITED STAGES
"Charles Wilson seems born to play the role"
OffOffOnline
WRITER/DIRECTOR
DAN BIANCHIhas spent over 30 years in theater and film as an Independent Theatre artist which includes writing, directing, producing, set and lighting design, music and sound design, graphics, PR and whatever else is necessary to keep the ball rolling. Among his accomplishments, he's been founder/Artistic Director of four international theater companies, written and directed over 50 plays and musicals, worked as screenwriter in Hollywood, directed 7 motion pictures with members of the Royal Shakespeare Co., won three-times Best Director Off Broadway, twice The Beckett Prize, the ASCAP Musical Theater Award, Billy Rose Theater Award, the National Writers Guild Screenwriting Award, a MacDowell Fellowship, and a National Humanities Grant. He recently directed a DV feature THE EVIL KILLERS. He founded and ran VIDEOTHEATRE, NYC's only year round DV-dedicated indie theater. He is also a visual artist whose works have been shown in galleries and museums around the world, including Museum of Modern Art, NYC,
MOMA Australia, Brazil, Germany, Museum of Non -Conformism, Russia, etc.
With a lighting design inspired by FILM NOIR and an intricate sound track and musical score that reminds one more of an action movie than of a traditional play, Bianchi never lets us forget that what he's offering is unique to the stage. But, unlike a lot of theatre these days, this isn't a play looking to become a film script. This kind of theatre is pure theatre and it can't be reproduced in any other medium. In fact, it's probably best to leave it in the intimate space where it began and forget about moving it to a larger theater where it may lose its intimacy and unique charm.... The audience is not just an observer, but, a participant...not unlike sitting around a campfire listening to ghost stories. Bianchi produces more stage works each year in NYC than any other group. He's not the darling of the critics, certainly, but, his shows are always sold out and his audiences are composed of all ages. HOLLYWOOD OBSERVER
RECENT PRODUCTIONS
NOMINATED 2006 NY INNOVATIVE THEATRE
AWARD
Best Solo
Actor!
"PICK OF THE WEEK! GO SEE IT!...THE HAUNTING OF 85 EAST 4th STREET is an innovative piece crafted out of great love for the city and its history...LIKE ORSON WELLES AND COMPANY, Radiothteatre has polished up an unusual and effective story telling technique...the cast assume all their roles in a spookingly convincing manner...the stories themselves are terrifying and Radiotheatre's technique of providing voices and sound effects forces the audience to recreate the horror's visual aspects as mental theatre...much more horrific than any B Movie moment are true stories Bianchi has unearthed... Bianchi finds New York's haunted most chillingly by the effects of poverty and injustice..." OFFOFFONLINE
"INVOKES ORSON WELLES AND THE MERCURY THEATRE COMPANY!" NYTHEATRE.COM
"THE HAUNTING OF 85 EAST 4th STREET" is a polished production that takes its pulp roots seriously and proves that Halloween doesn't just happen once a year...using a heavy battery of sound effects and creepy music, it is by turns hokey and unnerving and never less than totally effective...and with such juicy material to play with the entire company sinks their teeth in and presents the building's spooky highlights with relish...the show's biggest asset is authenticy...performing the play in the room where most of the building's bloodcurdling events happened adds a disturbing sense of unease to the production ...as directed by Dan Bianchi those moments carry chilling crediblity..." NYTHEATRE.COM
"DON'T MISS THE HAUNTING! This is the scariest show I have ever seen...All of the actors were great in their roles but the real genius behind the whole production is DAN BIANCHI who wrote, directed and also designed the great music and sound effects...I don't know when I had a more enjoyable night in the theater!" BROADWAY BOX
"YOU WANT SPOOK STORIES? Forget CGI ghoulishness...just let a few people unfold a scary tale in a dark room. Among the current spate of edited-on-amphetamines programs, there's something soothingly satisfying about entertainlment stripped to its essentials. Writer/ Director DAN BIANCHI assembles enough genre elements to harken back to the halcyon days of radio drama..." BACKSTAGE
ENTIRE RUN SOLD OUT!
"THE WAR OF THE WORLDS 2005"
"FIVE STARS! I love Horror, the supernatural, pulp fiction and radio dramas...DAN BIANCHI delivers it all with an exquisite script and, above all, a fabulous score and sound effects design. And yet, it's a simple little show. I was enthralled by the sheer simplicity without all of the visual elements seen in traditional theater....Bianchi produced the first ever live stage production of KING KONG. I don't know if even Disney can pull that off. But, Radiotheatre did. Whether or not you like that kind of fare, Radiotheatre offers shows you won't find anywhere else in NYC. And, judging by audience reception I've seen, they always seem most satisfied when they leave. I know I was!" NYTIMES.COM
"To Bianchi's credit, it's the cold hard truth that sucks us in...one can't help but notice the cracked tiles at the bottom of the stairs and those other buildings lining East 4th St. each with their own silent mysteries..." VILLAGER
"From crazy prostitutes holding severed hands to mirrors with eyes, the building has quite a past and Radiotheatre's show offers a history lesson unmatched by anything taught in school" ABOUT TOWN
"KING KONG 2005"
"THIS SEASONED PRODUCTION COMPANY HASDONE QUALITY OF WORK CONSISTENTLY ENOUGH TO BE CONSIDERED ONE OF NY'S BEST IN THE OFF OFF, INDIE AND BLACK BOX THEATER CATEGORY...they keep you engrossed with a kickass storyline, a lighting crew that specializes in mood control and of course a flawless sound effects professionalism that has become their signature statement at all of their shows..." RETROVISION
"Karyn Plonsky skillfully
chews the scenery as an
exotic Vaudeville star...
Dan Almekinder vividly
brings to life the serio
comic final moments of
a junior Lucky Luciano
soldier...Clyde Baldo and Frank Zilinyi tear into their multiple roles with gusto and conviction..."
NYTHEATRE.COM
THE ISLAND OF DR.MOREAU is "CHILLING and THOUGHT PROVOKING... superbly crafted, fast paced and perfectly scored...Bianchi's sound design conjures up sets and action to rival the most expensive Broadway mega-musical or a blockbuster enhanced with computer-generated imagery. THIS IS A MUST SEE SHOW...or rather a must hear and must imagine for yourself show!" OFFOFFONLINE
"I HAD A GREAT TIME AT THIS SHOW!... BIANCHI'S adaptation has a brilliant arc that rises to a powerful climax and leaves us with a lot to think about...You feel the audience's energy change as the action rises and falls...One of the most integral aspects of this production is the fantastic and utterly evocative sound design...STORYTELLING IS AN ART THAT IS SLIPPING AWAY BUT BIANCHI AND HIS COMPANY ARE WORKING HARD TO KEEP IT ALIVE AND THRIVING. I THINK HE DESERVES OUR SUPPORT!" NYTHEATRE.COM
"I was truly impressed with the vocal characterizations ...Cash Tilton's timing is impeccable...his Moreau is perfectly smug and egotistical... Elizabeth Burke is rock solid with all of her characters..."
NYTHEATRE.COM
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"A GOOD YARN WITH PLENTY OF MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS..." NY TIMES
"HOW WELL COULD KONG MAKE THE TRANSITION TO THEATER? THE ANSWER IS STUNNINGLY WELL! "
SCI FI CHANNEL
"SO HOW DO YOU GET A BEAST OF KONG'S GIGANTIC PROPORTIONS TO FIT INSIDE THE INTIMATE RED ROOM? YOU USE SOUND! MUSIC, NOISE, SCREAMS OF TERROR, TROPICAL BIRD CALLS, NATIVE CHANTING, GORILLA CALLS...THAT'S HOW RADIOTHEATRE'S DAN BIANCHI DOES IT!"
UNITED STAGES
"THE STAR OF THE EVENING IS DAN BIANCHI'S SOUND DESIGN...DENSE, MULTI-LAYERED AND EVOCATIVE...75 MINUTES OF SCARY MUSIC, JUNGLE SOUNDS, TOM TOMS AND ROARING DINOSAURS..."
NY THEATRE.COM
"RADIOTHEATRE HAS DONE IT AGAIN! IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO HAVE A GOOD TIME, RUN ON DOWN TO THE RED ROOM AND BRING YOUR IMAGINATION. RADIOTHEATRE IS A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE AND ALWAYS EXCELLENT!"
BROADWAY BOX
"DAN BIANCHI'S SOUND DESIGN, A KEY COMPONENT FOR RADIO THEATER, IS MARVELOUS!"
VILLAGE VOICE
"RADIOTHEATRE'S KONG IS THE ONLY TAKE I'VE SEEN ON THE GIANT APE THAT COMES CLOSE TO REPLICATING THE MAGIC OF THE ORIGINAL MOVIE"
CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATRE
"A TON OF FAST PACED FUN...AN OFFBEAT TREAT FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THE BEST LIVE ENTERTAINMENT IS PARTICIPATORY! BIANCHI HAS ARTFULLY ADAPTED A WELL KNOWN CINEMATIC STORY INTO AN ENGAGING HYBRID OF LIVE PERFORMANCE AND BRILLIANTLY CRAFTED SOUNDSCAPES.." VILLAGER
"SO HOW DO YOU GET A BEAST OF KONG'S GIGANTIC PROPORTIONS TO FIT INSIDE THE INTIMATE RED ROOM? YOU USE SOUND! MUSIC, NOISE, SCREAMS OF TERROR, TROPICAL BIRD CALLS, NATIVE CHANTING, GORILLA CALLS...THAT'S HOW RADIOTHEATRE'S DAN BIANCHI
DOES IT!" UNITED STAGES
"So, how do you take a movie about a giant gorilla and stage it in a tiny black box theater? For writer and director Dan Bianchi, the answer is simple: you use a combination of sound and imagination. The mission of Bianchi’s RadioTheatre is to marry the audio drama style of an old-time radio broadcast with the shared intimacy of modern-day experimental theater. He fills the small stage with a sound engineer and six talented actors standing before microphones. It's up to you to fill in the visuals!" DOWNTOWN EXPRESS
FIVE STARS! RADIOTHEATRE DOES IT AGAIN!,
RADIOTHEATRE'S KING KONG IS PERFORMANCE ART AT ITS GREATEST! If you come looking to see a traditional play, stay home. When the lights go down and DAN BIANCHI'S magnificent score starts playing and PATRICK O'CONNOR's deep voice welcomes you to the story he's about to unfold, you know you're in for something quite different than anything else playing around New York tonight. The multi-talented cast creates a whole world of cinematic action and excitement one doesn't ordinarily find in traditional theater at any level. The hundreds of sound effects are astounding and sound engineer, WES SHIPPEE, is a virtual wizard at work crouched behind a table full of equipment center stage.
BUT THE TRULY AMAZING DISCOVERY IS THE ORCHESTRAL SCORE. I'VE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING LIKE IT BEFORE IN LIVE THEATER. This isn't that fake synthesizer sound track stuff. Using advanced software technology, Bianchi has created the kind of carefully composed and edited score one hears only in Hollywood motion pictures. Even though Radiotheatre's simple presentation is, in Bianchi's words, "poor man's theater," the sumptuous scoring, alone, is far and away a 21st Century technological feat that should not only garner awards, but, open up a whole new field in music composition for the live stage. Is the audience aware of this technological achievement? On the contrary, they're too wrapped up in the excitement of it all! NYTIMES.COM
"IN IT'S MINIMALIST AND CHARMINGLY RETRO WAY IT STRIKES CLOSER TO THE HEART OF THE MYTH THAN PETER JACKSON'S OVERLONG, OVERBAKED MOVIE AND ON A BUDGET THAT WOULDN'T HAVE COVERED JACKSON'S CATERING BILL!" BACKSTAGE
COMING SOON....
RADIOTHEATRE PRESENTS KING KONG
PODCAST...
STAY TUNED!
THIS JUST IN: RADIOTHEATRE NOMINATED FOR TWO
2007 NY INNOVATIVE THEATRE AWARDS!
THE HAUNTING OF 85 E.4th STREET - BEST PERFORMANCE ART...
