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The Kennedy Center Presents
 SITI Company’s
 Theatrical Adaptation of
 [The words: "War of the Worlds", and a drawing of a oldtimey microphone.]
Presented on the Millennium Stage February 8, 2000

View the Archived Performance
Background | The Cast | About SITI Company

War of the Worlds

On the foggy fall evening of October 30, 1938, America went to war with Mars!! Adapted for radio by Howard Koch and starring Orson Welles, War of the Worlds was presented as a Halloween thriller, or as Welles' put it: "The Mercury Theater's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying 'boo'!!" But, for those who tuned in late, "normal" programming appeared to be interrupted with the startling news that there were "explosions occurring on Planet Mars!" Reports followed stating that a "huge, flaming object" had fallen to earth on a farm near Grover's Mill, New Jersey. More landings were soon reported and an anxious radio audience came to the frightening conclusion the Earth was the target of a full scale invasion by aliens!!

War of the Worlds is the program which terrified a nation. Thousands fled their homes in panic. In New York City, swarms of curious and frightened citizens crowded the streets to catch a glimpse of a "real space battle." In the town of Grover's Mill, the local water tower was pumped full of buckshot as frightened believers fired at what they thought was a "giant Martian war machine." The true power of broadcast made itself known on this Halloween even in 1938, and no one has forgotten the chilling fear and awesome force of this, radio's single most famous broadcast.

Now, 63 years after the original broadcast, this radio classic comes to life as performed by the SITI Company. This special staged version of the H.G. Wells/Howard Koch/Orson Welles/Mercury Theater on the Air War of the Worlds is part of the SITI Company's investigation into the life and work of the genius Orson Welles, for their upcoming production, also entitled War of the Worlds, about this extraordinary American artist written by Namoi Iizuka.