(Lehigh Valley, PA) Selkie Theatre is proud to announce that FLASHPOINT, a provocative, genre-busting new audio drama written by Kerric Harvey, directed by the late George B. Miller, and produced by Selkie Theatre, will preview on WDIY 88.1 (NPR) on Lehigh Valley Arts Salon on Monday, July 12, 2021, at 6pm.
In FLASHPOINT, a trio of radio news professionals find themselves at unexpected odds with each other and themselves about the best way to report the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Personal relationships unravel and the viability of democracy itself comes into question as people who should be allies wind up fighting about how to tell "the truth" of this incomprehensibly violent event...and the role of journalism in this American meltdown.
Selkie Theatre produced FLASHPOINT in collaboration with students from the George Washington University School of Media & Public Affairs (SMTP), where Dr. Harvey is an associate professor.
Selkie's George Miller directed a cast of New York City and Pennsylvania actors via Zoom, often from a hospital room, transforming the restrictions and lockdown imposed by COVID-19 into a storytelling opportunity that blended the best of traditional radio drama with contemporary digital technology.
The cast features Kate Scuffle and Peter Sanchez (PA), and Daniel Neusom (NYC).
The GWU production & design team beamed in from Washington DC, to join Miller via virtual rehearsals, production meetings and audio recording sessions. Again mixing old time radio techniques with new technology, Technical Director Oliva Osbourne led the sound design team in building original sound effects, like true Foley artists.
The evocative original music was composed by Jess Makler.
Osbourne, Makler and Vishal Nyayapathi have also created a remarkable, original "soundscape" for the climax of the play that translates the journalistic "facts" of the January 6th breach, and its violence, into the "truth" of how it felt to experience it.
The production is dedicated to director George B. Miller. Miller was hospitalized for much of the Zoom rehearsal process, passing away just after the final recording, on April 13, 2021.
The July 12 FLASHPOINT broadcast will be followed by a post-play conversation about the double-edged roles journalism and the media in shaping our understanding of events like January 6.
Joining Kerric Harvey for this conversation is special guest Arun Chaudhary, an American political operative who worked on both Barack Obama's and Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns. President Obama invited him to become the first official videographer of the White House; his book, First Cameraman: Documenting the Obama Presidency in Real Time, was published in 2012. Currently residing in Berlin, Germany, Arun has started a small creative company called Committee, focused on countering the narratives of the far-right globally. He is working on elections in the Netherlands, Italy, and Kosovo.
FLASHPOINT previews on WDIY 88.1 (NPR) on Lehigh Valley Arts Salon on Monday, July 12, 2021, at 6pm.
The WDIY/Lehigh Valley Arts Salon broadcast of FLASHPOINT will also be available after July 12 on the WDIY app, and under Public Affairs at www.wdiy.org.
For more information, contact Kate Scuffle/Selke Theatre at 484-241-9591 or