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Scott Noah (right) in a scene of “Deathtrap" with Ray Wills and Kim Dugger.

Valley Center native helps bring back serial radio
By Taylor Messick
Last Updated: August 24, 2017

Scott Noah has joined with some local friends to bring serial radio broadcasts back to Kansas.

Noah, a Valley Center native who has lived in Bel Aire since 2012, is part of a new group called Kansas Radio Theatre. The group was started by Wichita native Ray Wills, a theater veteran who worked as an actor for 25 years. He was in four Broadway shows, as well as several episodes of "Law and Order" and soap operas.

After moving back to Wichita to teach at Newman and Butler, Wills said his friend, Mayor Jeff Longwell, came to him asking about potential local entertainment ideas. Wills met with writer and Wichitan, Don Winsor, and the two developed the idea to revive the old serial radio shows. Wills said that when it came time to start putting together a team, Noah was an easy choice.

"I reached out to the most talented people in Wichita I knew," said Wills. "One of them was Scott Noah. Scott is an incredibly talented actor. He is incredibly versatile with his voice and characters. He also does all of the live sound effects; he'll use coconut shells for horse hooves and he also does shoes, doorbells, buzzers, thunder and all kinds of crazy stuff. It's really a lot of fun. I knew immediately that if there was one guy who was going to be a regular on the show, it was going to be Scott. He's a very special talent."

Noah graduated from Valley Center High School in 1987 and has been doing local theater for 30 years. He has worked at Crown Uptown, Empire House, The Forum, Rockview and the Wichita Children's Theatre, just to name a few. Noah also started Mosley Street Melodrama in 1997 before taking a step back in 2011 to care for his father who had Parkinson's.

At Valley Center High School, Noah studied forensics with Lois Pierson. He credits her and Dean Dellinger, former VCHS music director, for helping him discover his passion. Noah got involved with The Valley Players during summers before taking an internship at the theater department at Wichita State through Pierson's connections.

"It just came very natural to me," said Noah. "I would get these scripts in forensics and I could just hear the voices play out in my head when I read them. I just loved the freedom of that form of expression and the creativity I was able to tap into."

Noah is passionate about the new project.

"When it comes to the arts, a lot of people have a misconception about our community," said Noah. "They think of us as a cow town with no arts programs or talent — and that couldn't be further from the truth.  I stayed here because I came of age with some of the most talented people I know. I hope this project shows people how much talent there is here, because it's all created locally."

The group is already finding a die-hard audience. Senior centers have begun organizing listening parties. Noah said many of them love to reminisce about the original serial radio broadcasts and are ecstatic to see the art form being brought back. The theater group also invited a local club for blind youth to come witness the show live and they even helped with sound effects. Noah heard stories of kids listening to the first show together while texting their friends and having discussions.

"We're seeing a great deal of excitement from all kinds of people so far," said Noah. "I'm really excited and proud of the project and I hope we can keep gaining momentum and expanding our audience."

The serials will each contain four episodes. The first serial is a Western and the next one will be a 1940s spy story. The shows are family-friendly and each one has a Kansas twist. Shows are accompanied by live music and a history lesson from The Wichita Eagle's Becky Tanner. The broadcasts are every Saturday with one encore on Sunday. The show can be heard on 92.3 FM in the Wichita area. To keep up with the schedule and learn more about the show, follow Kansas Radio Theatre on Facebook.





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