about
Williamsburg Old Time Radio Hour
The Williamsburg Old Time Radio Hour is an original theatrical production written by Mike and Rebecca Suerdieck.
The performance is set in the 1930s and presented in the style of an old time radio show. Costumed actors and live sound effects tell the stories of life during the Colonial Restoration of Williamsburg.
Stories of local personalities and businesses were adapted into comedy skits and novelty advertisements. Mike specializes in writing the jokes and making the sound effects; while Rebecca writes the music and provides the historic content. Together they fabricate the storylines.
Many of the anecdotes are based on the oral history interviews of lifetime Williamsburg Resident Julia Oxrieder. Julia was born in 1925 and attended the first graduating class of Matthew Whaley School. She shared many stories with Rebecca and much of this show is based on Julia's childhood reminiscences.
For additional historic context, archival research was gathered. Rebecca Suerdieck is a research historian and the Curator of archivewilliamsburg.org : an online repository for local history records not found anywhere else. The main purpose of Archive Williamsburg is to share unique collections of Williamsburg history, most notably the 1893-1925 Virginia Gazette Index. This incredible resource was created by Julia Oxreider in the 1990s and digitized by Rebecca in 2020. It contains over one thousand pages of retyped newspaper articles, now completely searchable online for free.
Rebecca wanted the memories and preservation efforts of her friend Julia not to be forgotten, so she and her husband created this show.
The Williamsburg Old Time Radio Show was originally written for Colonial Williamsburg in 2011, and performed regularly in the Hennage Auditorium for many years.