Contributed A SCI-FI SPIN – Cloak & Dagger On the Air will present a trio of 1950s science fiction audio dramas at Top of WV CVB in Weirton Saturday. Pictured, from left, are Ralph Parissi, Anacelia Parissi, Clare McDonald, and Robert J. Gaudio, members of The Wayward Saints acting troupe, rehearsing for a recent Cloak & Dagger production.

WEIRTON – Cloak & Dagger One the Air returns this Saturday to present its annual science-fiction show, “For the World is Hollow.”

The production will be held at 4 p.m. at the offices of the Top of West Virginia Convention and Visitors Bureau, 243 Three Springs Drive, Suite 17, Weirton.

Performed as a live audio drama, complete with music and sound effects, Cloak & Dagger On the Air: For the World is Hollow will reimagine three Golden Age of Radio scripts from the 1950s anthology series, “X Minus One.”

The production will also feature the latest installment of “Emily Penelope’s Fabulous Flights of Fancy,” an original serialized story created and written by Cloak & Dagger On the Air co-executive producer and head writer Pete Fernbaugh and starring child actor Abby Perry.

“Our annual science-fiction show is popular with both our cast and our audience,” Fernbaugh said. “Many of X Minus One’s episodes were based on stories written by pioneering writers of the genre, who spent the late 1940s and 1950s redefining the public’s expectations for what constituted great science fiction, namely philosophical explorations of the human condition that were grounded in actual science. Science fiction of the 1950s inspired Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, and Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, both of whom realized that science fiction could explore then-current events in a way that didn’t feel politically or socially aberrant or confrontational.”

Cloak & Dagger On the Air: For the World is Hollow will present the following three radio adaptations by Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts and reimagined for modern audiences by Fernbaugh:

“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, in which the parents of Peter and Wendy become increasingly alarmed when the children’s technologically advanced nursery begins to replace their family bond with a predatory, lethal reality.

“Universe” by Robert Heinlein, in which the isolated inhabitants of a massive, multi-generational starship have devolved into a superstitious, agrarian society who views their vessel as the entire world and the stars as mere religious myths. This story heavily influenced the 1968 Star Trek episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.”

“Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov, in which the inhabitants of a planet with six suns — who have never known darkness — face total societal collapse and collective madness as a rare eclipse brings the terrifying arrival of the first night in two millennia.

Continuing with the episode’s theme, the latest installment of “Emily Penelope’s Fabulous Flights of Fancy” will explore Emily’s fate as she realizes that her imaginative adventures weren’t simply an escape but were being triggered by dark forces of the government intent on using her special gifts and intellect to accomplish their authoritarian goals.

“When I first created Emily Penelope about three years ago, I was playing with the idea that this young girl from a broken home was using her imagination to escape from a reality she didn’t want to face,” Fernbaugh said. “But what if her imagination, which often involved conspiracies and top-secret missions, was closer to reality than even she could imagine? What if her imagination was actually being controlled by powers she didn’t even know existed? This particular installment will lean harder into that idea.”

Performed by Cloak & Dagger On the Air’s acting troupe, The Wayward Saints, For the World is Hollow will feature Chris Carter, Bethany Fernbaugh, Pete Fernbaugh, David Gaudio, Robert J. Gaudio, Noah Hilton, Karissa Martin, Malachi McClendon, Nathaniel McClendon, Abby Perry, Nora Perry, Terri Perry, and Frank Wilson. The score for the episode will be performed live by composer and musician Lakin Weaver, and sound effects will be created by the Holy Foley Molies.

Admission to the production is free, although donations to help with production costs are welcome.

Doors open at 3:30 p.m. with a set of Americana music performed by R.J. Gaudio, Troubadour. Light refreshments will also be available, as well as merchandise based on the show, including CDs of past productions, the original novelette “The Congo Conspiracy,” and stickers featuring the Cloak & Dagger logos.

For those who can’t make it in-person, Cloak & Dagger On the Air presents For the World is Hollow will be livestreamed via The Ohio Valley Cloak & Dagger Company Facebook page.

Cloak & Dagger On the Air is a monthly theatrical series from The Ohio Valley Cloak & Dagger Company that celebrates audio drama from all eras, particularly the fabled Golden Age of Radio.

For more information and for updates on the troupe’s live and recorded productions, please visit The Ohio Valley Cloak & Dagger Company’s Facebook page.