The Ken Bradbury Foundation is on a special quest to form a video archive of the late playwright and author’s productions online.
Foundation member Maryjane Bradbury says that they are in the process of trying to find full-blown musicals that Ken wrote and produced while he worked as a teacher at Triopia High School: “These are actual VHS tapes, DVDS, or film of shows that Ken created. This started out as a quest for those shows that he wrote specifically for the students at Triopia High School. We have so far secured about 16 shows. We are still on the search for about 13 more shows, although those are full-blown musicals that Ken wrote. As we have been on this quest, we’ve learned that there are a lot more shows out there that Ken has written that other people are providing. So, now we are going to make those available for people to view, as well.”
Bradbury says that the need to archive the video footage of the shows has come from people in the community at large who have starred in the shows or had a family member who was in the shows and is wanting to see the shows again.
Bradbury says if you think you have any shows on tapes, film, or DVDs, that the Foundation would only seek to replicate them in a digital format and then return them. Bradbury says that Ken’s nephews, who own the rights to the works, are seeking to make the footage available to the public: “Doug and David own the rights to all of the shows that Ken wrote. Doug is a computer whiz, and he is taking these recordings and digitizing them. He is linking them onto YouTube through the Ken Bradbury Foundation Facebook Page so they are free for anyone to watch.”
Bradbury says that while the original interest was in the Triopia musicals, the group is also seeking copies of any of Ken’s productions including but not limited to “The Follies” fundraiser productions he wrote for the Passavant Area Hospital Auxiliary and the shows he wrote for the traveling theater troupe he led to local area elementary schools. The traveling troupe plays often dealt with topical subjects like bullying.
Currently, the Bradbury Foundation is looking for videos from the following shows if they exist. Some date back to the 1970s:
“Who is Henrietta Hoover and Why is she Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?”
“Vaudeville’s My Home”
“Burgoo”
“Speak of the Devil”
“1958!”
“Captain Jack Bailey’s All-Star Country Western Circus”
“The Lark and The Locust”
“Pasquale”
“Roar”
“Shangalang”
“Roll on Ohio”
“The Time of My Life”
Anyone with a recording they would be willing to loan to the foundation long enough for a digital copy to be made can contact the foundation at 217-243-3857 or call MaryJane Bradbury at 217-473-4735 by email at KenBradburyFoundation@yahoo.com or via the Ken Bradbury Foundation Facebook page.