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Tesla and Twain:
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A Top 20 NY Agency
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Our Event
The HEAR Now Festival in tandem with SueMedia Radio Waves Studios , Glue Advertising, The Tesla Science Center, and Simmer Group's Patent Pending Speakeasy presented "An Intimate Evening with Tesla and Twain" featuring the original audio play "Tesla and Twain: Annihilators of Distance" by Butch D'Ambrosio, on Wednesday, October 16, 2019, as part of the 147th AES Conference in the penthouse of The Radio Waves Building (49 West 27th Street, NYC).
Performances began with a presentation by the Tesla Science Center's educator Jeffrey Velez, who showcased a few unique Tesla inventions while guests enjoyed "Light Me Up" refreshments from Patent Pending followed immediately by the one hour performance. Audience members also had the opportunity to visit the Tesla Speakeasy, Patent Pending, located in the basement of the Radio Waves Building after each show.
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The time is October 1900 and Mark Twain has just returned from Europe and has moved into the Earlington Hotel (formerly the Gerlach Hotel, where Tesla once lived in the late 1890s and is now the Radio Waves Building) while his family is looking for a new home.
On this night Twain is spending an evening with his friend Nikola Tesla at the as they discuss the latest inventions which will lead to, and, revolutionize communications.
This performance, featuring P.J. Ochlan as Tesla, Robert Alvey as Twain, with Radio World Edior Paul McLane as the hotel manager, and was produced and directed by Sue Zizza, explores the unique relationship between these two great thinkers.
According to the science blog It’s "Okay to be Smart," Tesla had a bout of cholera in the 1870s before his emigration to the U.S. His condition was serious enough that his doctors thought he might not survive. Since there was relatively little else he could do during that period of time, he read all the books he could from the local library. Among those books were several volumes of Twain’s earlier works, which Tesla described as “so captivating as to make me utterly forget my hopeless state.” He went on to say that those books may have been the reason for his recovery.
It would be 25 years before the men met, but meet they did in NYC — and when Tesla told Twain about his illness and the role Twain’s writing played in his recovery, Twain was moved to tears.
The Irish Times reports that the writer and the inventor became friends in the 1890s. Tesla was living in New York, and even though Twain and his family lived in Europe at the time, Twain was a frequent traveler to New York.
The HEAR Now Festival in tandem with SueMedia Radio Waves Studios , Glue Advertising, The Tesla Science Center, and Simmer Group's Patent Pending Speakeasy presented "An Intimate Evening with Tesla and Twain" featuring the original audio play "Tesla and Twain: Annihilators of Distance" by Butch D'Ambrosio, on Wednesday, October 16, 2019, as part of the 147th AES Conference in the penthouse of The Radio Waves Building (49 West 27th Street, NYC).
Performances began with a presentation by the Tesla Science Center's educator Jeffrey Velez, who showcased a few unique Tesla inventions while guests enjoyed "Light Me Up" refreshments from Patent Pending followed immediately by the one hour performance. Audience members also had the opportunity to visit the Tesla Speakeasy, Patent Pending, located in the basement of the Radio Waves Building after each show.
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The time is October 1900 and Mark Twain has just returned from Europe and has moved into the Earlington Hotel (formerly the Gerlach Hotel, where Tesla once lived in the late 1890s and is now the Radio Waves Building) while his family is looking for a new home.
On this night Twain is spending an evening with his friend Nikola Tesla at the as they discuss the latest inventions which will lead to, and, revolutionize communications.
This performance, featuring P.J. Ochlan as Tesla, Robert Alvey as Twain, with Radio World Edior Paul McLane as the hotel manager, and was produced and directed by Sue Zizza, explores the unique relationship between these two great thinkers.
According to the science blog It’s "Okay to be Smart," Tesla had a bout of cholera in the 1870s before his emigration to the U.S. His condition was serious enough that his doctors thought he might not survive. Since there was relatively little else he could do during that period of time, he read all the books he could from the local library. Among those books were several volumes of Twain’s earlier works, which Tesla described as “so captivating as to make me utterly forget my hopeless state.” He went on to say that those books may have been the reason for his recovery.
It would be 25 years before the men met, but meet they did in NYC — and when Tesla told Twain about his illness and the role Twain’s writing played in his recovery, Twain was moved to tears.
The Irish Times reports that the writer and the inventor became friends in the 1890s. Tesla was living in New York, and even though Twain and his family lived in Europe at the time, Twain was a frequent traveler to New York.
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Mark Twain in the lab of Nikola Tesla, spring of 1894. Twain is holding Tesla’s experimental vacuum lamp, which is powered by a loop of wire which is receiving electromagnetic energy from a Tesla coil (not visible). Tesla’s face is visible in the
background. 
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The video above is is a 360 movie. Expand it to full screen and you can move your mouse around the screen to see different aspects of the performance and the space.
360 Movie by Christopher Romero and Good Time Shaman Productions
360 Movie by Christopher Romero and Good Time Shaman Productions
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PJ on portraying Nikola Tesla
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Rob on portraying Mark Twain
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PJ Ochlan is Nikola Tesla
P.J. Ochlan has been a working actor for more than 30 years, enjoying a diverse career which has included Broadway, the NY Shakespeare Festival under Joseph Papp, critically acclaimed feature films, and television series regular roles. Along the way he’s worked with countless icons including Jodie Foster, Clint Eastwood, Robin Williams, Al Pacino, and Garry Marshall. Behind the microphone, P.J. has lent his talents to virtually every voiceover genre. He is most notably a multiple Audie Award-winning, multiple Earphones Award-winning narrator of more than 350 audiobooks. P.J.'s voice work is enhanced by his mastery of accents, distinctive characters and versatility, as well as his proficiency with numerous languages. As an instructor, P.J. is the founder of www.DrDialect.com and works as a dialect and performance coach for film, television, stage and VO; he is also the co-founder of the Deyan Institute for Voice Artistry in Los Angeles and teaches from coast to coast at conferences and universities.
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Robert Alvey has been performing Mark Twain for the last few years since retiring from the EPA (www.gcnews.com/articles/rob-alvey-how-i-became-mark-twain/) and has made a new career for himself celebrating Twain and his works.
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Rob Alvey is Mark Twain
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Paul McLane of Radio World as the Hotel Concierge
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Paul McLane is the editor of Radio World Magazine and has performed with numerous Washington-area theater companies including Rorschach Theatre Co., Washington Shakespeare Co., American Century, Madcap Players, Classika Theatre, and the Port City Players where he was Orson Welles in War of the Worlds-The Shadow.
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From the Performance...
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David K. Bialik earned his BS Degree from American University where he also managed the student radio station. A love of broadcasting and audio technology shaped the direction of his career. He has been a professional engineer in U.S. major market radio since 1983. While working at NPR affiliate WAMU-FM and at the National Technology Department in Washington DC, he published numerous articles about broadcasting and contributed extensive material to the NAB Engineering Handbook. Joining United Broadcastings’ WKDM In 1991, he achieved his goal of becoming chief engineer of a NY radio station. In 1992 he joined Bloomberg WBBR as C.E. Since forming an independent systems engineering consultancy in 1995, David Bialik has advised various industries world-wide including broadcasters on integrating technology applications such as studio construction, computer networking, Voice-Over IP telephony and Internet Streaming. In 2011 he joined CBS Radio as Senior Stream Engineer and eventually Director of Streaming Operations. Currently he is employed as Director of Stream Operations for Entercom. supporting their radio stations throughout the U.S.
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David Bialik,
AES Broadcast/Streaming Chair
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Sue Zizza of SueMedia directs and produces "An Intimate Evening with Tesla and Twain"
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Sue Zizza is the owner of SueMedia Productions and Radio Waves Studios, a full service audio production company. She is an audio producer, director, writer, and sound designer. For more than 20 years she has produced award winning audio drama for public radio, audiobooks, live theater and more.
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Butch D'Ambrosio is a former regular contributor to MAD magazine (and submitter since he was twelve), Butch hopes EC comics fans every where enjoy the soon-to-be-released audio adaptations of The Vault of Horror, of which he wrote half. He has written, at least, one sonnet for every Vincent Van Gogh self portrait and is currently planning the release of that project in all its forms. Always seeking a ski house to borrow, preferably in Italy, perhaps one day he'll finish a couple of novels.
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Butch D'Ambrosio, playwright "Tesla and Twain: Annihilators of Distance"
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Jeffrey Velez with Tesla invention
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Jeffrey Velez has been actively involved as a volunteer at the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe since the non-profit's inception. In fact, Jeff participated in TSCW's very first Volunteer Day in 2013 and is dedicated to helping transform Nikola Tesla's last remaining lab into a museum and global science center. Jeff wears many hats as a TSCW Volunteer and assists with everything from grounds clean-up to custodial work. But his real talent and skill shine in his role as IT consultant and exhibitor. Jeff uses his tech skills and Tesla knowledge to support TSCW operations and provide educational demonstrations and talks at numerous events and expos.
Nikola Tesla has been Jeff's hero for much of his life and Wardenclyffe is a very special place to him. As Jeff says, "Having the chance to work and volunteer for TSCW is a dream come true. I’m very excited for the future of Wardenclyffe and cannot wait for the day when the site is fully open and I can give tours inside Tesla's lab building!" |
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David Shinn - Technical Director
David is an award-winning sound designer/engineer and foley (SFX) artist for stage and studio productions at SueMedia Productions and Radio Waves Studios. He also specializes in Studio Design and Audio Recording, Multi-track Mixing, and Editing for all media and installs and designs studios for a variety of recording environments. |
David Shinn - Technical Director
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Alan Hawkins - Associate Producer
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