Erie Canal Theatre – Switchboard Infinity
“Switchboard Infinity” is a sci-fi comedic radio drama created to air on WFMU’s “Dance With Me, Stanley” radio show in 2015. I co-founded Erie Canal Theatre to produce the show, which lasted two seasons and 18 episodes, produced between the end of 2015 and 2016.
The plot of “Switchboard” follows corporate workers Malcolm and Thalia as they unravel the motives of the totalitarian Wizbit Corporation, battling them throughout Earth, the Solar System, and bifurcated realities.
The show features a cross-section of Detroit-area improvisors, mostly culled from orbits around Hamtramck, Michigan’s Planet Ant Theatre. The show’s music was created by a range of performers with major contributions from the cast, Zelda and the Unibrows and electronic artist Psilodump.
A core group of producers (me, Mike McGettigan, Clark Eagling and Jeff Jimison) experimented with a unique method of collaborative writing for this show. After we came up with a loose series story outline, with Mike acting as head writer, we plotted out the contour of each episode in a collaborative writing session with our actors on the recording day. This allowed everyone, even actors appearing only in one scene, to try original characters or ideas while still fitting within the greater story arc. After writing, workshopping, lunch, and a one-to-three-takes, the resulting recordings went through two rounds of intensive dialogue editing and two rounds of sound design and music scoring. In total, about 100 hours of labor went in to each 20-minute episode.
Erie Canal Theatre was active for about 2 1/2 years before the economic realities of producing such complex shows without financial resources caught up to us. It’s a project we’d love to revive if the right opportunity came along.