Recreating a Historical Broadcast

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Fifth-graders at Chatterton School recently recreated history with their annual radio show rebroadcast of the H.G. Wells novel “The War of the Worlds.” Under the direction of the school’s music teacher Dr. Richard Nasto, students learned about the story, the Oct. 30, 1938, broadcast delivered by Orson Welles over the CBS radio network and the news debacle that followed.

Students took an edited script of the original Mercury Theatre broadcast and have been recording it in step with the original broadcast. They also have been adding musical performances as interludes and creating sound effects where appropriate through the [Patrick] Foley technique of using inanimate objects and other resources at their disposal.