A simple way to introduce young people to the world of radio theater with easy-to-do sound effects. These two short, humorous plays deal with the dangers of tobacco use. In “Red Bartlett” young Billy Yeager, cowhand on a cattle ranch, finds his heroic image of the “Marlboro Man” needs some serious rethinking. This play was written to help students understand that what they see in advertisements is often quite different from what happens in real life. “A Dark and Stormy Night” tells the story of Tim and Wendy who, lost and with a flat tire one dark and stormy night, come to the home of the evil genius, Dr. Reichman. Tim and Wendy, soon find themselves in the doctor’s laboratory where they discover a genetically altered giant tobacco plant containing twenty times more nicotine than regular tobacco. A humorous “cliff-hanger” ending allows students to come up with their own solutions for how Tim and Wendy escape the doctor’s intention to test the new tobacco on them.
