Lucille Fletcher

Before Reading Video link at The Hitchhiker thinkcentral.com Radio Play by Lucille Fletcher Is seeing BELIEVING? Occasionally, something happens so quickly or unexpectedly, you can’t be sure what you’ve seen. Was that a rabbit racing through the field, or RL 3 Analyze how particular was it just wind in the grass? Did you see a man hiding in the alley, or lines of dialogue or incidents in a story propel the action, reveal did you see only a shadow? To be convinced that something is real, you aspects of a character, or provoke need proof, or solid evidence. In The Hitchhiker, a man is desperate for a decision. proof that what he’s seeing can be explained. DISCUSS Think of something you’ve seen that you can’t explain. Maybe it was oddly shaped footprints in an empty lot, or a bright shape flying through the sky. Share your experience with a small group, and together brainstorm possible explanations. Then tell what proof you’d need to determine which explanation is the right one. 90 090-091_NA_L08PE-u01s05-brHit.indd 90 12/25/10 3:50:53 AM Meet the Author text analysis: foreshadowing When a writer provides hints that suggest future events in a Lucille Fletcher story, the writer is foreshadowing. For example, if a character 1912–2000 says, “Whatever you do, don’t open that door,” you might Suspenseful Stories suspect that the door will eventually be opened to create a As a young adult, Lucille Fletcher wanted dramatic effect. Anticipating that event can add to the story’s to become a novelist. After she took her suspense, making you more excited to find out what happens first job as a script typist and began reading scripts by other writers, she decided she next. wanted to write plays as well. She was As you read The Hitchhiker, make a chart to note events or successful at both. Fletcher penned more dialogue that might foreshadow what happens later. You’ll than 20 radio plays, including the well- complete the chart at the end of the selection. known Sorry, Wrong Number and The Hitchhiker. In addition, she wrote several Foreshadowing Events That Were Foreshadowed novels. Her works were suspenseful, full of mystery, and often terrifying. background to the play Radio Plays reading strategy: reading a radio play Though the television was invented in the A radio play is a play written for radio broadcast, which means 1920s, most American households did not that it is primarily meant to be heard, not seen. Since listeners have television sets until the late 1950s. can’t see the actors, radio playwrights give information about the Before then, families gathered around the radio to listen to their favorite radio characters through plays. These plays took the form of dramas, • Dialogue, or the words spoken by the actors mysteries, or comedies. Actors at the radio station read their lines into the microphone • Stage directions, which include instructions to the actors with dramatic flair. Background music about how dialogue should be spoken and instructions to the helped set the mood. crew about sounds effects Hearing Is Believing As you read The Hitchhiker, notice what these elements suggest Sound effects were an important part of a about the personality and state of mind of the protagonist, radio play. They were often produced in the or main character. Also notice what these elements suggest radio studio. Sheet metal, shaken up and about the appearance and actions of the antagonist, or the force down, replicated rolling thunder. A wooden match, broken close to the microphone, working against the main character. sounded like a baseball bat striking a ball. Coconut halves clapped against wood vocabulary in context imitated the sound of horses’ hooves. The words in Column A help Lucille Fletcher tell about one man’s encounter with a mysterious hitchhiker. Match each word with the word or phrase in Column B that is closest in meaning. Column A Column B 1. lark a. guarantee Author Online 2. junction b. carefree adventure Go to thinkcentral.com. 3. sinister c. evil KEYWORD: HML8-91 4. assurance d. sameness 5. monotony e. place of joining Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook. 91 090-091_NA_L08PE-u01s05-brHit.indd 91 12/25/10 3:51:03 AM Lucille Fletcher CAST OF CHARACTERS Orson Welles Girl Ronald Adams Operator Adams’s Mother Long-Distance Operator Voice of Hitchhiker Albuquerque Operator Mechanic New York Operator Henry, a sleepy man Mrs. Whitney Woman’s Voice, Henry’s wife Welles. Good evening, this is Orson Welles . of that dear old phosphorescent1 foolishness that (music in) Personally I’ve never met anybody people who don’t like ghost stories don’t like, who didn’t like a good ghost story, but I know a then again I promise you we haven’t got it. What lot of people who think there are a lot of people we do have is a thriller. If it’s half as good as who don’t like a good ghost story. For the benefit we think it is you can call it a shocker, and we of these, at least, I go on record at the outset present it proudly and without apologies. After of this evening’s entertainment with the sober 20 all a story doesn’t have to appeal to the heart— assurance that although blood may be curdled it can also appeal to the spine. Sometimes you on this program none will be spilt. There’s no want your heart to be warmed—sometimes you 10 shooting, knifing, throttling, axing or poisoning want your spine to tingle. The tingling, it’s to be here. No clanking chains, no cobwebs, no bony hoped, will be quite audible as you listen tonight and/or hairy hands appearing from secret panels to The Hitchhiker—That’s the name of our story, or, better yet, bedroom curtains. If it’s any part The Hitchhiker— 1. phosphorescent (fJsQfE-rDsPEnt): glowing with a cold light. 92 unit 1: plot and conflict 092-101_NA_L08PE-u01s05-Hitch.indd 92 12/25/10 3:51:23 AM photo of 1940 ford v8 or close-up shot of car’s tires as they lead off into the distance 092-101_NA_L08PE-u01s05-Hitch.indd 93 12/25/10 3:51:31 AM (sound: automobile wheels humming over concrete Mother. I know. But you’ll be careful, won’t you. road) Promise me you’ll be extra careful. Don’t fall (music: something weird and shuddery) asleep—or drive fast—or pick up any strangers on the road . 30 Adams. I am in an auto camp on Route Sixty- six just west of Gallup, New Mexico. If I tell it Adams. Of course not! You’d think I was still perhaps it will help me. It will keep me from 70 seventeen to hear you talk— going mad. But I must tell this quickly. I am not Mother. And wire me as soon as you get to mad now. I feel perfectly well, except that I am Hollywood, won’t you, son? running a slight temperature. My name is Ronald Adams. Of course I will. Now don’t you worry. Adams. I am thirty-six years of age, unmarried, There isn’t anything going to happen. It’s just tall, dark, with a black mustache. I drive a 1940 eight days of perfectly simple driving on smooth, Ford V-8, license number 6V-7989. I was born decent, civilized roads, with a hotdog or a in Brooklyn. All this I know. I know that I am at hamburger stand every ten miles . (fade) 40 this moment perfectly sane. That it is not I, who (sound: auto hum) has gone mad—but something else—something utterly beyond my control. But I must speak (music in) quickly. At any moment the link with life may 80 Adams. I was in excellent spirits. The drive ahead break. This may be the last thing I ever tell on of me, even the loneliness, seemed like a lark. But earth . the last night I ever see the stars. I reckoned without him. (music in) (Music changes to something weird and empty.) Adams. Six days ago I left Brooklyn, to drive to California . Mother. Goodbye, son. Good luck to you, my 50 boy . Adams. Goodbye, mother. Here—give me a kiss, and then I’ll go . Mother. I’ll come out with you to the car. Adams. No. It’s raining. Stay here at the door. Hey—what is this? Tears? I thought you promised me you wouldn’t cry. Mother. I know dear. I’m sorry. But I—do hate to see you go. Adams. I’ll be back. I’ll only be on the coast three 60 months. Mother. Oh—it isn’t that. It’s just—the trip. Ronald—I wish you weren’t driving. Adams. Oh—mother. There you go again. People do it every day. 94 unit 1: plot and conflict 092-101_NA_L08PE-u01s05-Hitch.indd 94 12/25/10 3:51:36 AM Adams. Crossing Brooklyn Bridge that morning Mechanic. Certainly, sir. Check your oil, sir? in the rain, I saw a man leaning against the Adams. No, thanks. cables. He seemed to be waiting for a lift. There (sound: gas being put into car . bell tinkle, et were spots of fresh rain on his shoulders. He was cetera) carrying a cheap overnight bag in one hand. He was thin, nondescript, with a cap pulled down Mechanic. Nice night, isn’t it? 90 over his eyes. He stepped off the walk, and if I Adams.

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