The American Production of "Papa Joe & Co."
 Introduction & download link for English translation with optional sounds
 Picture gallery of the production at Portland State University
 go to "Papa Joe" home page
This site provides access to an English translation of the play (with sounds), and presents selected scenes from the English-language partial production of "Papa Joe & Co." produced in 1993 at Portland State University by students in my German "Hörspiel" (radio play) class. The English translation of the "Papa Joe" radio-drama script can be downloaded from here as an Adobe Acrobat (v. 3.0) .pdf file with on-screen electronic annotations and, optionally, linked sound files. (See below for a link to obtain the free Adobe Acrobat reader if you do not have it already.)
download English translation of "Papa Joe & Co." WITH sound files (.zip, 17.6 MB) - NOTE THE LARGE FILE SIZE!! See the samples below to help you decide whether to download the entire file.
English translation of "Papa Joe & Co." WITHOUT sound files (.pdf, 128K) - MUCH FASTER DOWNLOAD THAN THE FULL PACKAGE!! Depending on how you set your browser plug-ins, you can download the English translation or can view it page by page within the browser, as long as you are on line. SOUND LINKS will NOT work in either case; DO NOT MOUSE THE SOUND LINKS - your browser or the plug-in may get confused and "freeze." To hear sounds from the English production of "Papa Joe," click on the sound links below.
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Sounds & Scenes from the Portland State University Protoype English-Language Production (1993)
Sound segments:
  1. Instructions about how to set up earphones for binaural sound; welcome to "Papa Joe" performance. (.mov, 3MB)
  2. Boris van Feldern, wearing earphones, receives taped instructions about maintaining the integrity of his secret mission. (.mov, 3.6MB)
  3. In a cafe (see picture below for actual staging), Jean explains to Boris what it means to be a member of Papa Joe's cult. (.mov, 3.5MB)
  4. In the park near the temple, Jean reassures Boris as he prepares to be "baptized" into Papa Joe's cult. (.mov, 2MB)
  5. Papa Joe's priests perform the "baptism," which is really the surgical implantation in Boris' brain of a remote communication device that will relay to him Pape Joe's thoughts and advice. (.mov, 4.4MB)
  6. In the park, Jean greets Boris after his baptism and explains how he will hear Papa Joe's "angels" more and more clearly. (.mov, 2.2MB)
  7. Boris hears the "angels" and loses contact with his team. (.mov, 2.3MB)

Click on the pictures to view larger (3-4x) versions
characters in cafe scene  The Cafe scene. Jean (woman at right), a member of the Papa Joe cult, has befriended Boris van Feldern (man nearest dummy). She explains the religion to Boris and encourages him to request baptism into it.

The woman at left plays a waitress in the cafe; the other two figures play guests murmuring in the background. The binaural effect is strengthened by frequent subtle clues that establish the acoustic presence of the fictional space.
 closeup of dummy and main characters in cafe scene  The man plays Boris; but the dummy is also intended to occupy and convey Boris' perspective, so that the listener can share Boris' experiences. Thus the Boris actor should attempt to make his voice sound binaurally as though the dummy were speaking. We tried several locations for the actor - directly in front of the dummy (facing in the same direction), speaking downward from above the dummy, etc. We achieved our best effect with the location shown here.
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