"SPIRIT OF THE AIRWAVES PLAYERS (SOAP)" Recreate Old Time Radio Entertainment

by Donna W. Jorgensen *

Do you remember when soap companies were prime sponsors for entertainment? Spirit of the Airwaves Players, SOAP, reminds us of wondrous days gone by when families would gather around the radio to listen to performances of beloved stories. Most of those performances were sponsored by soap companies. While most of us alive today do not have actual memories of this experience, the history is one worth preserving, and that is precisely what this group strives to do. Boyertown natives, Cara Cotellese and Roger Sobeck, Boyertown Area Senior High (BASH) class of 1981, are part of the current cast who bring to life the revered stories of old time radio drama. Don’t miss them at WWII Weekend this year.

Begun 21 years ago by Marge and Jim Wardrop who have retired from the group it was created to fill the breaks between sets for the musical group called Swing Fever (who still is in existence and plays on Saturday night at WWII weekend). All members of the group were from Berks County. WWII Weekend is the perfect venue for this theatrical presentation, and while the group does perform throughout the year at other venues, this is the special place where folks can relax and recapture the ambiance of years gone by when radio was the entertainment giant. Current members of the group include Jake and Ellen Azrael and their daughter Rose, the 3 remaining members of the original group and Fred Sheeler, Jim Gray, Kirsten Heim, Josh Chambers, Mark Abramowicz, and Kimberly Patterson.

I had a chance to chat with Cara Cotellese about this unique group who are preserving an art form most of us have never actually experienced firsthand. She told me, “Old Time radio is a special medium and one that deserves attention as it was a pastime for people during very hard times in our history. It was the only form of communication originally and also become the original form of “media” entertainment. People gathered around the radio to listen to breaking news but also to laugh and share quality time with family and friends. It was, in many ways, storytelling in its purist form and also became the beginnings of today’s modern media. Being exposed to old time radio is a way to look into the past. The shows highlight what it was like to live in the 40’s and 50’s, and the ads give you lots of insight into the economy and what was important in daily life. This is especially true during wartime. It is really a history lesson!”

Cotellese has strong Boyertown roots and credits her love of what she does today (and has been doing since college graduation (just a few years back!) to her love of both art and television nurtured by art teacher, Ms. Liza Flemming, at Boyertown Junior High East, and Mr. Charles Crummy at BASH. It began with getting interested in television while at Junior High East where she was part of the crew who did the morning announcements. It continued from there into high school where Cara says, “I ‘took’ TV every day. She was, she says, torn between pursuing art and tv as a college major when Flemming told her, “TV is Art – go do it!” “My time in high school in the TV studio left me with so many great experiences and great memories. Chuck Crummy was our teacher and allowed us to really do some amazing things! The gang of students that were part of the TV area were awesome and I remain in touch with many of them today. The experience was motivational for me and affirmed that this is the area that I was truly meant to go into.” After earning a BS and MS at Kutztown University, she has been teaching and sharing her passion for the craft, first in a 19 year stint at Bucks County Community College, and then at her alma mater for the past 15 years.

Some of their offerings include old time favorites, Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and Molly, Superman, The Shadow, Blondie, and others. Cotellese and the group discuss the scripts and often listen to the old broadcasts. They work on the voices and also do some research on the actors and the networks that aired the shows. They do their best to recreate as much as they can, as accurately as they can, but also add some of their own touches!

Many members of the groups have theatrical experience and others of us are excited to learn. Cara shares that, “We all find the old shows really interesting and spend a good deal of time talking about the stories and the jokes and how interesting it all is. We practice at my house once a month and add more rehearsals close to a performance. We have dinner together and then spend time talking about how things are going on a personal level but then move into discussion about scripts etc. and then do some rehearsal. We have really become a close group in the last few years and really enjoy spending time together!

She links the historical importance to the current purpose when she says, “Well, of course we would like them to be entertained. After all that was the whole purpose of radio back in the day. It would also be great if our performance generated an interest in old time radio for the audience. It is an amazingly creative form of theater and we hope that there continues to be an audience for it. Some of our best work, in my opinion, is our rendition of Superman. We have a great script with a great villain! We also do a script called Chicago Germany which is written as if Germany won the war. It is very moving and very eye opening and really lets the audience see what it may have been like if Hitler succeeded. And we have several very funny scripts such as Blondie and George and Gracie. There really is something for everyone.”

Don’t miss your chance to share the nostalgia and history recreated by Spirit of the Airwaves Players when they work their magic. They have worked hard to prepare a program that is reminiscent of those “good old days” of radio. SOAP, Spirit of the Airwaves Players, will be at WWII Weekend at the Reading airport this weekend, all 3 days. You can find WRDG radio station on the Homefront right next to the Movie Theater.   (For additional information about this event, click here.

As far as upcoming performances, they have one that is tentative at Sanatoga Ridge Community in the Fall.   

[* If you missed Donna Jorgensen's previous article for The Expression "A Tale As Old As Time: Josh Glasner, Boyertown Class of 2007 Alum"- you can read it by clicking this link.

Donna Jorgensen was an English teacher at Boyertown Area Senior High (BASH) from 1975-2000. With her then newly earned Doctor of Education in Reading/Language Arts, she left to pursue a dream of preparing future teachers of English at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. During those years at BASH, in addition to teaching English classes including favorites, Honors 10thgrade Oral Communications, Advanced Grammar, American Lit. and Mythology, and World Literature and Research Paper, she directed many junior and senior class plays, assisted with musicals, oversaw the production of children’s theatre and competition theatre with New Theatre Ensemble, advised the Mock Trial team, was the advisor for the wrestling cheerleaders, and was class advisor to the Classes of ’81 and ’84. After a fourteen-year career at Rowan that included two years as Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the College of Education, retirement beckoned. For two years she happily taught American English Grammar at Rowan, and, failing retirement, returned to teaching at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, PA in 2016. There she teaches dissertation design and writing courses in the doctoral program and has primary responsibility for chairing dissertation committees. After 50+ years as an educator, she cherishes the memories of all the individual moments, all the students, all the colleagues, all the families that are a part of the fabric of her 25 years at BASH. They have never been forgotten and are the solid foundation on which everything else in her professional life were built.]

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