Mud Season
Shenanigans

Randy Garner, Janine Reeves, Tom Harty, and Charlie McMeekin sing a commercial for the fictitious radio station WMUD. The Gang of Four emceed the 13th annual Mud Season Talent Show April 20 and 21. (Herald / Bob Eddy)

There was a new radio station broadcasting in town for two days last weekend—with hilarious results.

The fictional radio station was the creation of Emcee Randy Garner and the production crew of the 13th annual Mud Season Variety Show, which annually attracts hundreds of people and raises thousands of dollars for the upkeep and programming at Chandler Music Hall.

Last Friday and Saturday was the 13th annual running of the Mud Season show. Friday night’s audience was a little smaller than usual, but Saturday evening featured a full house.

The audiences cheered the 20 stage acts featuring citizens of all ages presenting all kinds of talents. They also became the "studio audience" of radio station WMUD, anchored by Garner and three co-conspirators: Tom Harty, Charlie McMeekin and Janine Reeves.

(It turned out, after the gag was planned, that there actually IS a radio station WMUD, which is in Middlebury, but the organizers got permission to borrow the name for the weekend.)

Every radio station should have a group of hosts as amiable and funny as these four. Besides introducing the stage acts and telling jokes, the radio "announcers" produced such stunts as a "mystery sound contest." Their only "competition" was a couple of old codgers who appeared near the end of the show at the other side of the stage—and who turned out to be high school students Josh Turk and Muriel Garner (Randy’s daughter) who had some delightful routines of their own.

At the Mud Season shows, everybody sees what’s on stage but "What happens behind the curtains is as important as what happens before the lights," said Betsy Cantlin, the volunteer producer of each of the 13 shows.

She especially cited the half-dozen high school kids who are the backbone of the Music Hall’s technical capabilities, under the leadership of technical director Seth Stoddard and stage manager Mimi Burstein, both of whom have solid professional credentials.

These young techies, Burstein says, look forward to Mud Season all year long, even building their social calendars around it. It's also the best learning event of the year for them, she said. Professional acts demand perfection; Mud Season acts allow for a bit more creativity.

For the audience, this means a slick-looking performance rather than small-town stuff. For the performers, of course, all this technical support heightens the experience, knowing that they receive the same technical support as professional performers.

As for Cantlin herself, "It would never happen without her," acknowledged Chandler’s executive director, Becky McMeekin.