ShadowGram Update #335 -- Frid on DVD; Big Finish Casting News

SHADOWGRAM NEWS UPDATE # 335
November 22, 2014

Hello, Dark Shadows Fan,

ShadowGram (SG), The Official Newsletter & News Source for Dark Shadows (DS), announces the following key breaking news in this Official DS News Online Update "bulletin."

**** JONATHAN FRID’S READERS THEATRE SHOW PERFORMANCES ON DVD
**** SG PREMIERE ANNOUNCEMENT: 2 NEW DS AUDIO DRAMAS – CASTING NEWS

**** JONATHAN FRID: ONE-MAN READERS THEATRE PERFORMANCE DVDS

The DS Festival / Official DS Fan Club asks SG to please share about the “EXCLUSIVE LIMITED EDITION OFFICIAL JONATHAN FRID DVDs.”

The late Jonathan Frid thrilled millions as vampire Barnabas Collins. In his later years, he entertained with his live, wonderfully dramatic one-man Readers Theatre presentations. Mystery, suspense, commentary, and his own special brand of humor were expressed through literary selections from the Bible, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King, Groucho Marx, James Thurber, and other authors and sources – including Jonathan himself.

From the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, Jonathan performed before audiences in venues large and small across the U.S. and in eastern Canada. He used no costumes, props, or sound / special effects. Only his voice talents, body language, facial expressions, and the written words themselves created the myriad characters, settings, and moods.

Before and after DS, Jonathan enjoyed a long career on stage in roles ranging from Caliban and Richard III to a comic turn as Jonathan Brewster in the classic play “Arsenic and Old Lace” (on Broadway and national tour 1986-87). His various Readers Theater live programs showcased all his talents as an actor, storyteller, director, and observer of life itself.

To benefit Jonathan's special charity in his Canadian hometown – the Hamilton Community Foundation – a very limited number of DVDs are offered. Each features videos of Jonathan in performance. These are available only by mail-order from the Dark Shadows Festival / Dark Shadows Official Fan Club.

FOOLS AND FIENDS presents Jonathan in a live Readers Theater production recorded in September, 1992, at the Mid-Manhattan Library in New York City.

FRID – EVIL presents Jonathan on stage with his “Shakespearean Odyssey” program, celebrating his fascination of Shakespeare. It was performed and recorded live in 1990 in New York City.

JONATHAN FRID – AGAIN! “Presents all-new readings by Jonathan of an assortment of poetry, prose and musings to amuse and, we hope, delight.
“
Each DVD is $12.00.
Two or three DVDs are $10.00 each.
Check or Money Order only, payable to: Dark Shadows Festival. Sorry, credit card and PayPal can not be accepted.

Please send your order and payment to:

Dark Shadows Festival
P. O. Box 92
Maplewood, NJ 07040

**** SG PREMIERE ANNOUNCEMENT: 2 DS STARS IN 2 NEW SEPARATE AUDIO DRAMAS IN 2015

England-based Big Finish Productions’ (BFP) first DS audio drama debuted at the DS Festival in Brooklyn 8-2006. A range of these original “Stories on CD” have been released throughout the years and will continue in 2015.

These stories are based in the 1966-71 DS and performed by many of the actual DS cast members as their TV or as new characters. Each DS cast member – plus other actors from America and England – has been recorded live in professional studios in LA, NYC, Denver, Florida, and England. Sound effects and music enhance the atmospheres and characterizations.

SG here premiere-announces that each of 2 new releases in 2015 stars a DS actor participating for the first time.

--- One release will star MITCHELL RYAN (Burke Devlin) in his first DS audio drama, along with KATHRYN LEIGH SCOTT (Maggie).

-- One CD release will star SUSAN SULLIVAN (Ghost) in her first DS audio drama, along with DAVID SELBY (Quentin).

SG Online Updates and the upcoming SG #124 published newsletter will report more confirmed developments on these and future DS audio dramas from BFP.

Also, very soon SG will announce more details for BFP’s “Bloodlust,” a major new multi-CD release with a large cast and a riveting, complex story spanning 13 episodes.