Carpenter Square Theatre continues in June with more Old-Time Radio shows in its series known as “CST LiveOnline!” At 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 24-25, the theater, in cooperation with RK-1 Studios, will present another episode of The Fibber McGee and Molly show from 1939 titled “McGee the Wrestler.” Director Rhonda Clark has reunited actors who have performed in the series previously, along one newcomer. Mike Waugh, Lilli Bassett, Terry Veal, Don Reece, Albert Bostick and Kelley Riha, will be joined by newcomer Robert Burch whom viewers may know from the “OETA Movie Club.”

Carpenter Square broadcasts their radio-with-video shows live from RK-1 Studios, located near Scissortail Park in downtown Oklahoma City. The shows can be viewed on the Carpenter Square Theatre YouTube channel. To find it easily, visit carpentersquare.com, and on the home page click on the link “CST LiveOnline! FIBBER McGEE AND MOLLY.” Viewing is free, but the theater certainly appreciates donations, as well as donations for RK-1 Studios who are providing their services for free.

Click Here to visit the CST YouTube Channel

The new episode originally aired in June 1939. “Fibber McGee and Molly” was a radio comedy series that ran from 1930-1959. It was one of the most popular and enduring radio series of its time and ran on NBC radio for most of those years. Later, the characters were featured in several films. The title characters were created by Jim and Marian Jordan, a real-life husband and wife team that had met in their hometown of Peoria, Illinois, and began working in radio in the 1920s. “Fibber McGee and Molly” followed the adventures of a working-class couple, a habitual storyteller and his sometimes terse, but always loving wife, Molly, who live in the mythical community of Wistful Vista. The show included several recurring characters – townspeople of Wistful Vista – and several are included in this June episode, such as Mr. Wilcox, Mrs. Uppington, and Mr. Old Timer. Having produced four Fibber shows previously, the theater is excited to return to the beloved radio series that was a model for the modern-day sitcom, and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989. Carpenter Square’s broadcasts include live sound effects that one would have heard on the radio with special care for Fibber’s infamous over-stuffed closet, along with the added bonus of period-style costumes for the cast.

Carpenter Square’s “CST LiveOnline!” first aired for seven months in 2020 while the theater itself was closed during the COVID-19 shutdown, but the theater recently returned to Old-Time Radio broadcasts this year in March. The theater is currently closed due to construction delays at its new venue, but still wants to offer entertainment to the community. As mentioned above, to tune into the latest radio broadcast, visit the theater’s website at carpentersquare.com. On the home page, click on the “CST LiveOnline! McGee the Wrestler” link. This takes viewers directly to Carpenter Square Theatre’s YouTube channel. Also, folks may visit YouTube, search for Carpenter Square Theatre, and subscribe to the theater’s channel, which is free. All past radio shows and other CST videos are posted there for the public’s enjoyment. If someone must miss the live-stream performances, an archive video is always posted on the theater’s YouTube channel shortly after the live event, so the public can tune in at their convenience.

Carpenter Square Theatre is supported in part by the Oklahoma Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Kirkpatrick Family Fund, Inasmuch Foundation, and Allied Arts.

For more information, email csttix@coxinet.net or call 405-232-6500.

Winner! 1996 Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Off Broadway Play

This long running Off Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism. In his first comedy for the stage, the popular actor and screenwriter plays fast and loose with fact, fame, and fortune as these two geniuses muse (and argue) about the century’s achievements and prospects, as well as other fanciful topics, with infectious dizziness. Bystanders, including Picasso’s agent, the bartender and his mistress, Picasso’s date, an elderly philosopher, and an idiotic inventor introduce additional flourishes of humor. The final surprise patron to join the merriment at the Lapin Agile is a charismatic dark-haired visitor in blue suede shoes time warped in from the 1950s.

(CST first produced “Picasso” in 2000 in Season 16. Audiences loved its quirky humor. There is a 2017 revised version that we will be presenting.)