Celebrated author H. G. Wells, who published The War of the Worlds in 1897, and Orson Welles, who adapted the sci-fi tale for radio 39 years later, met for the first and only time on October 28, 1940. They happened to be in San Antonio, Texas, at the same time for separate lectures and agreed to chat with Charles C. Shaw on KTSA-AM radio.
But what these two giants may have discussed in private that autumn day is the subject of Amy Crider’s upcoming play, Wells and Welles, which will have its world premiere in Chicago this summer. It will be staged by the Lucid Theater Company at City Lit Theater on 1020 W. Bryn Mawr in Chicago from July 18 to August 11. Tickets, priced at $25, may be purchased at eventbrite.com/e/wells-and-welles-tickets-887960091537
In Wells and Welles, Crider speculates on what common values might have been shared between the aging British novelist, historian and futurist; and America’s “Boy Genius,” nearly 50 years his junior. In the play, the two men share ideas about the potential of the arts and journalism to change the world, and the power of storytelling.
Playing the 74-year-old H.G. Wells, more than 40 years after the success of novels like The Time Machine and The Invisible Man, will be Chicago theater veteran Pete Blatchford. He has appeared on stages in Chicago, New York, Buxton, England and Scotland. Some of his recent credits are The False Years, The Gift of Prophecy and A Restoration Comedy. Gerrit Wilford, whose recent credits include Cat’s Cradle, The Middle Passage and The Secret Council, will play the 25-year-old Orson Welles just days after wrapping up principal photography on Citizen Kane.
Crider, who been producing shows in Chicago since 2017, has been honored for her fiction and dramas. Her plays have won the Tennessee Williams One Act Play Contest, Word Wave, and the Heartland New Plays Contest. Crider’s first novel, Disorder, won the University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize.
Wells and Welles will be directed by Amber Mandley, who recently earned critical acclaim for her direction of Shakespeare’s R & J, which was performed with an all-female cast at PrideArts.
The Wells and Welles production team will also include scenic designer Kevin Rolfs, a Jeff Award winner for Invictus Theatre’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; lighting and sound designer Alvaro Ledesma, and stage manager Elijah McTiernan.
Abridged versions of the historic KTSA radio appearance by H.G. Wells and Orson Welles can be easily found on YouTube. The complete 24-minute radio appearance is streamed by Indiana University online at orsonwelles.indiana.edu/items/show/2025
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