An A-list team of award-winning actors has joined forces to create a new six-episode podcast of Richard Dresser’s provocative novel, “It Happened Here.” Inspired by Sinclair Lewis’ dystopian novel, “It Can’t Happen Here,” Dresser offers a glimpse of what could happen after the 2024 election if fascism creeps into the USA. Told through the voices of a fragmenting American family, we experience a country that still has Netflix and two-day free delivery and the only thing lost is freedom.
The first two episodes debuted Wednesday, October 2, and are available on WNYC’s “On the Media” podcast feed or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will appear through October 30th.
To listen to the podcasts, click here.
A trailer is also available here.
Key members of the creative team for this project—director Joe Cacacci, author Richard (Rick) Dresser, and producer John Whalan—are well known to Berkshires audiences as principal participants in the now-suspended Berkshire Playwrights Lab which presented workshop productions of new plays for 10 years here.
According to producer John Whalan, “The idea of producing an adaptation of Rick’s 2019 novel as a cautionary tale was hatched here in the Berkshire when Rick was here in this past May to attend the CATA gala. Believing that the narrative of ‘It Happened Here’ resonated with the current political climate and the challenges facing our democratic system, Joe, Rick and I were sure that a dramatization with a cast of exquisitely talented actors would have the potential to spark important conversations and inspire civic engagement ahead of the November election. We teamed with incredible partners in New York and a nonprofit fiscal sponsor to assemble the extraordinary cast and crew. We completed the entire production in only three months – less time than you’d expect to take just to plan it.”
The story centers around the Weeks family as they brace for the election. Paul and Ruth’s family work to defeat the so-called Great Leader. Paul’s brother Garret and his family are on the other side. Family get-togethers are tense. When the Great Leader, with a giant boost from the Supreme Court, shockingly wins the “most important election ever,” the family is thrown into chaos.
The cast includes: Molly Babos (“Orpheus Descending,” Theatre for New Audience), Molly Carden (“Emotional Creature,” Signature Theater), Edie Falco (“Sopranos,” “Nurse Jackie”), Tony Winner Santino Fontana (“Frozen,” “Tootsie”), Luke Kirby (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), Tom Pacinka, (current star of the hit Broadway play “Stereophonic”), Tony Shalhoub (“Monk,” “Galaxy Quest,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), and John Turturro (“The Big Lebowski,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Barton Fink”).
The audio fiction has been directed by long-time theater and television creator Joe Cacaci (“The Education of Max Bickford,” “The Hoop Life,” CBS, Showtime) and produced by Jess Hackel (“What Now with Trevor Noah”). Original Music is composed by Jared Paul (“The New Yorker Radio Hour,” “Divided Dial,” “Notes from America”). Richard Dresser has adapted his own novel for this podcast. He is an award-winning playwright (off-Broadway’s “Below the Belt” and “Rounding Third”) and television (HBO’s “Vietnam War Stories,“ “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd”). Executive producers include Evangeline Morphos, John Whalan, and Elliott Forrest.
Tax-deductible contributions to support the production of these podcasts can be made online at artsrock.org/donations.php
Or by checks sent to:
ArtsRock
C/O It Happened Here
PO Box 875
Nyack, NY 10960
