“The Beach House,” a new student-run radio play, is spicing up Beloit’s creative scene. Completely student-written, directed, acted, and produced, the play’s second act wrapped up production this semester.
Casey Barasch’26, writer and co-director of “The Beach House,”describes the story as “a satirical, dark comedy and family drama … If Wes Anderson directed ‘Succession.’” Barasch has been working on this project for two years. It was originally written as a novel and was later adapted into a stage play. After some difficulty finding a space and a schedule to perform the play in a Beloit theater, Barasch pivoted. He trimmed the script down so it was in a desirable format and length for an audio drama. Instead of previously written stage directions, all actions and settings were altered to be read by a narrator.
This project serves as Barasch’s creative writing capstone as well as a BITE production. Barasch pitched “The Beach House” to the club for collaboration:
“Meek, unassuming Eric Satterstan prides himself on being the least interesting member of his family. His wily, flamboyant twin brother Cannon, not so much. Once close, Eric and Cannon have suffered a rift in their relationship. However, when their infamous and absurdly wealthy father, Max Satterstan, is found dead in a tragic loose-chandelier accident, his will reveals that the twins have three additional, mysterious half-siblings. Eric and Cannon decide to put aside their differences and track down their siblings—and their inheritance. But as the Satterstan siblings, old and new, come closer to unmasking their father, their bonds are tested, and they are confronted with dark family secrets, a dead body or two… and a beach house.”
With the help of BITE actors, English and Media Studies advisors Tamara Ketabgin and Joe Bookman, and CELEB equipment, Barasch was ready to start production. Barasch is directing along with co-director Kendric Chen’26. Barasch had no previous experience in directing, while Chen had experience directing stage plays but not audio plays. This was a new experience for almost everyone involved.
The actors also had little to no experience in voice acting. The cast was more versed in stage acting and musical theater, ranging anywhere from eight years of physical acting history to just one or two productions as crew. While both stage and radio plays involve telling a story with characters, they are more different than one might think. Actor Josh Stasevsky’29, voicing Max Satterstan, described being in the recording booth as “freer” than on stage. “We can be silly, goofy, give each other looks when someone says a funny line and it not having an impact on the show. Stageplay can sometimes feel like separating social time with work, but recording the radio play felt like I was having fun with my friends.”
Actor Haden Zeleny‘26, voicing Sybil, liked not having to worry about how her body and movement was being perceived on stage. “As a disabled actor, it was very interesting because it was the very first time where I’d done a performance where there was no part of it where I had to be anxious about if I could perform something physically.” She said she felt able to connect with the character as written. “I could just fully be the character and not have to be like in my head and being like, ‘am I a disabled version of this character or is the physicality of my character?’ — pulling people out of the story.”
There were some challenges along the way. Actor Jinx Peterson’29, voicing Barryn Van Thorpe, and Brisa Mejia’28, voicing Teheophania, both had trouble adjusting their acting to audio only. Mejia said, “It made it a challenge then to get delivery or emotions right for the character without movement.” Actor Henry Lipp’28 voicing Lord Steffon, overcame this issue by changing posture and gestures to fit the scene, regardless of the fact that no one can see. Lipp said this physicality manifests itself in the voice.
Audio engineer and editor Jasmine Kingsbury’28 reported many technical difficulties in the studio. At one point, Beloit College’s license for the recording software the crew was using expired, and logged them out of the project. They had to wait until the license was renewed by the admin to continue recording. Peterson said the recording room was a bit too small to fit the whole cast comfortably. They said they had to fit “about 10 or more people to five microphones.”
However, Kingsbury said she was grateful for the challenges. “Over the course of this project, I was able to learn and improve the way I record and edit and ending up developing an efficient workflow.”
Barasch plans to continue working with BITE after Act Two debuts. “‘The Beach House’ has been my waking nightmare of two years,” he said, “and I am certainly not done yet.” He is rekindling the effort to bring “The Beach House” to the stage. Barasch intends to make alterations to the old stage play script, reserve the Wilson theatre and create a full-scale production.
He and BITE held auditions after the first week of classes and after the theater departments. The casting was completely open, leaving plenty of room for those wanting to try stage acting with the character they voiced and those completely new to “The Beach House.” Many current actors were interested in participating in the stage play, whether as actors for the same character, trying out a different role, or switching to crew entirely.
Those involved in “The Beach House” have described it as a gratifying experience both creatively and socially. Act Two debuted on March 21 on WBCR and will then be released to listen to in full. Once finished, “The Beach House” will be available to stream on YouTube, Spotify, and Soundcloud.
Featured image: Youtube
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