When a young city boy’s fancy turns to thoughts of…farming? But the girl he just met is a farm escapee hiding in Chicago so when Jake finds Lenore, aka Twinkle, sparks are bound to fly.
Jake’s haphazard hap hazard quest to be a farmer begins the day he leaves the big bad city to grow blueberries in Michigan. Follow his journey to the land where nuts grow fruits. Kinda based on a true story, Blue Acres offers a humorous look at the making of a farmer.
Blue Acres started with a GoFundMe in the Fall of 2019, languished when Covid shut down the arts world and finally was recorded in November of 2021 just before Omicron.
Six actors recorded the 13 Episode Podcast at the Skokie Theatre near Chicago over a two-day period.
The non-Equity cast (see below) included (from left) Jake Tasch, sound engineer, Chicago singer-actor Anita Kallen as Anne, Mary Ann Bowman as the Narrator, Andrew Pond as Jake, Maddy Shilts as Twinkle, Neil Figuracion as Delbert, and Jerry Bloom as Mike. Far right is writer-producer Frank Corrado.
Blue Acres pays homage to the great 60s TV series, Green Acres. It was written to follow in the tradition of comedies like ABC’s recent Bless this Mess and Netflix’s long running Schitt’s Creek that pillar city people who try to move to the sticks. The difference here is that Blue Acres is, among other things, based on a real story (and the characters are not rich.)
Blue Acres tries to reflect not only the realities of leaving the big city for a rural landscape but also the pitfalls of trying to become a farmer in a time when this difficult life choice is becoming attractive to more young people.
Writer-Producer Frank Corrado has spent the last 14 years of a long and varied career in farming. He and his son, Joe, bought a little patch of blueberries in 2008 near South Haven, Michigan and have been at it ever since.
The performing arts have always been an important part of Frank’s endeavors. His musical show on energy and environmental issues, Live on the River played to thousands as it traveled the length of the Ohio River in the late ‘70s. In the 80’s he co-wrote a musical on government bureaucracy, Feds which played at a Washington dinner theatre. Frank’s 2012 musical, New to Tango, had a staged reading in Chicago.
While waiting during the pandemic to record Blue Acres, Frank started recording a podcast titled Here Comes Yesterday which is available on most podcast sites.
You can reach Frank via email at corrado@c4m.com
Hope you enjoy the show!