Photo courtesy of High Street Arts Center Farley Cadena does her part in the High Street Broadcast.

Photo courtesy of High Street Arts Center Devlin Connors and Scott Gilbert are among the eight actors who comprise the High Street Broadcast. The troupe's monthly radio tribute show is staged free to the public.

It's peachy keen to relax in your swanky theater seat in this here joint, but you'd best pay attention as the live band plays its jazzy film noir music and the ritzy actors step up to their mics. You don't want to miss a single clever line of this cozy detective serial.

Last month's episode was "The Secret of the Grande Dame" and, as always, private eye Joe Dugan is on the case.

Sure, he's a sleuth who — just like every other 1940s melancholy detective — still carries a torch for the dame who's done him wrong.

But he's also a P.I. who, unlike Humphrey Bogart's inimitable Sam Spade, has a flamboyant show-tune-singing assistant, Stanley. And, in this production of the monthly High Street Broadcast, Dugan says, straight-faced, to his musically gifted sidekick, "Play it again, Stan."

The audience at the High Street Arts Center in Moorpark lets out a hearty laugh at this subtle homage to Bogie. In fact, the audience laughs a lot, and not just during the half-hour serial portion of the broadcast.

"Last month, I was almost in tears because my face hurt from smiling all the time," said attendee Jennifer Skutley.

Skutley, 21, and her mom, Suzi Skutley, 58, come from Santa Paula each month for the show. As tech crew members at a theater in Santa Paula, they are among the many stage aficionados who show their support for local theater by going to the High Street Arts Center in Moorpark.

They also do it, they say, because The High Street Broadcast is a great show.

Aging well

Performed the fourth Sunday of every month, the one-hour program is a fresh, surprisingly modern take on what used to be an entertainment staple for families in the early years of mass media: the 1940s radio show, with a format that includes sketch comedy, jingle-filled commercials and, yep, the exploits of a certain hardboiled detective.

As the brainchild of writers, actors and co-directors Devlin Connors and Will Shupe, The High Street Broadcast blends the singing, acting and comedic talents of a cast of regulars, including Connors and Shupe, Anna Graves, Farley Cadena, Liz Stockton, Scott Gilbert, Aaron Strange and "onstage stage manager" Heather Gagnon.

They're joined by the house band, consisting of musical director Mark Mendelson on piano, Lucas Miller on drums, Sam Khosravi on bass and "Party" Paul Pate on woodwinds.

After every performance, the entire group gets together to exchange ideas, write and rewrite, so that the audience can experience a different show each month, just like the days of yore, when radio was king and television was but a glimmer in the eye of its inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth.

Labor of love

The actors play multiple characters, sing original songs and standards arranged by Mendelson, and have a Foley artist, Gagnon, who creates sound effects right on the stage that includes but aren't limited to an old-fashioned telephone ring, door closing and gale-force winds courtesy of a custom-made wind machine.

While this adds to the radio stylings of the show, it's the professionalism and enthusiasm of the actors and musicians that make the broadcast both elegant and humorous.

"It's something we all do on the side," said Connors. "Any extra time I have, I'm either writing or rehearsing or putting it together."

Connors, whose rich, radio-announcer voice belies his youthful 28 years, credits his uncle Don Neely, a member of the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, with giving him the appreciation for the music and cinema of eras gone by.

"I've been thinking about doing this for a long time," said Connors. "It's theater of the mind — theater of the imagination. The listening audience completes the picture; they're almost a (another) character."

A gift to the community

When Connors presented the idea for the broadcast to High Street Arts Center general manager L.J. Stevens, she was more than receptive.

Stevens thought it would be a great opportunity to give the community a free show that would inspire them to visit the theater more often for its other productions and because she knew the broadcast would appeal to everyone.

"The structure is old-time radio and a tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood, but it transcends that audience," said Connors. "I was really surprised, but a good half of our audience is in their 20s. It's phenomenal family entertainment."

Even though it's a twist on the nonvisual concept of radio, the broadcast is still a highly viewable affair, with its actors dressed in semiformal attire, standing in front of microphones that are fastened to music stands with a script on each one.

Every so often, the audience catches the actors' wry glances at each other when a particularly pithy line is uttered.

"Sometimes it feels as if we're in an old movie," said Connors. "We love how much people enjoy the end product. It's a ball and it really shows."