Black Box Radio Stars open “Stage Door” at Vallejo's Mira Theatre

VALLEJO — The Black Box Radio Stars will put on a unique adaptation of “Stage Door,” a 1937 film that starred Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. “Stage Door” tells a story of drama and rivalry that breaks out at a cramped, low-rent boarding house for aspiring actresses when a snobby, slumming heiress moves in and puts on airs while the others struggle to get by.

“Stage Door” will open on Saturday at the Mira Theatre and run on Saturdays and Sundays through April 12.

Tina Arriola founded Black Box Radio Stars in 2014. The idea for the live radio play format came to her when she had only three weeks to prepare a production.

She said that a light bulb went off in her head, and inspired by classic radio plays, she Googled “radio play, Maltese Falcon.” “You don’t have to memorize, you just read,” Arriola said.

Radio plays were popular before televisions became common in every home. “Most of the time they scaled down a movie that was playing for those who could not go to the movie theater, and they would be able to hear it on the radio with some of their favorite stars,” Arriola said. “That was a way of bringing Hollywood into your living room for the family.

But there’s a lot more to a Black Box Radio show than watching actors read from a script. These are performances with sets, costumes, dramatization, live sound effects and audience interaction. 

Michelle Whitney was an audience member before she joined the Black Box team. She said that the sets and the costumes, and watching the crew do the sound effects and music takes you to a different place where you are completely immersed in the story. “It's like going to a concert without your cell phone. You have no choice but to listen,” Whitney said.

Arriola said the Black Box Radio shows include audience participation on many levels. “For example, when we did “Pulp Fiction,” we had those in the front row equipped with squirt guns,” she said. “It's a lot of fun that we have repeat offenders coming to see us all the time, our number one fans because of that interaction. We're a dinner theater on top of it.”

“Stage Door” will offer cabaret seating with lamb stew served on boarding house-style china. “So when they're talking about lamb stew in the boarding house, you're actually eating it.” Whitney said.

The Black Box Radio Stars cast includes two people who run the sound effects, which are a mixture of downloaded music and manually generated live sounds from items like a telephone and a prop door. Bill Stockman also creates a playlist of music themed to each show that he plays during the intermission. “Some of the sounds can be challenging, but that’s just a lot of enjoyment,” Stockman said.

Max Boldman is in charge of the manual sound effects, which are created by things like clapping two coconut shells together to emulate the sound of galloping horses, as the troupe did in their “Princess Bride” production.

The two sound technicians are now taking on bigger roles and doing some of the minor speaking parts, which Arriola said adds a little bit more spice to the recipe.

The Black Box Radio Stars celebrated their 10^th anniversary in 2024 with a production called “The Falcon Dialed the Wrong Number,” which Arriola described as a commemorative amalgam of 10 of he troupe’s most popular plays. “We inaugurated with “The Maltese Falcon,” and then we did “Sorry, Wrong Number,” so I combined the two titles together,” she said.

The Black Box Radio Stars shows are usually sold out, so the troupe added a second weekend to this performance. Tickets will be $20 for general admission and $35 for the cabaret seating with dinner. You can pay with cash, check or Venmo. The troupe plans to produce “Arsenic and Old Lace” in the fall.