The Bradbury Chronicles
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 28, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Ray Bradbury’s Pandemonium Theatre Company Having
published 600 short stories and nearly 50 novels, Ray
Bradbury is still working hard at age 81.
By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Speaking with Ray Bradbury is like speaking with someone from
another world.
His planet ““ a world where writers never run out of
stories if they write what they love ““ is supremely poetic,
sometimes cast in a light so golden that readers wish they could
just see life like he does, and sometimes rests so close to the
brink of disaster that they hope they never have to.
The 81-year-old writer has published nearly 50 novels, hundreds
of short stories, books of plays and poetry, and other projects
including the screenplay for “Moby Dick.” His most
famous works, “Fahrenheit 451,” “The Martian
Chronicles,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes”
and “Dandelion Wine,” are taught in high schools around
the country.
“Falling Upward!,” Bradbury’s comedic play
based on his experiences during his seven-month stay in Ireland, is
opening today at Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre in
Burbank.
The play was first performed at the Coronet Theatre in Los
Angeles 35 years ago, and was then revived 13 years ago at the
Melrose Theatre in Hollywood. The story is set in Heeber
Finn’s pub in Kilcock, a place Bradbury frequented 45 years
ago while writing the screenplay for “Moby Dick” at
director John Huston’s house in Dublin.
“My friends wrote to me, saying, “˜Are you going to
write about Ireland?'” Bradbury said in a phone
interview. “And I said, “˜No I don’t have time.
I’m busy with Herman Melville and the whale and John Huston.
I don’t have time to observe Ireland.’ Well I was
wrong. I was walking through Dublin every night. I got to know all
the beggars, all the actors on the stage there and all the people
in the hotel and the people in the bars at Heeber Finn’s pub.
I was sponging in all of Ireland and I didn’t realize that I
was.”
When Bradbury returned to the United States, the characters he
met and the places he saw ended up in a poem, an essay, a story and
three one-act plays.
 Ray Bradbury’s Pandemonium Theatre Company "Falling
Upward!" by Ray Bradbury will open at Garry
Marshall’s Falcon Theatre in Burbank tonight. “When I got
home, a year later, a voice spoke in my head and said, “˜Ray,
there.’ And I said, “˜Who’s that?’ And he
said, “˜It’s Mick your cab driver. Do you remember all
those nights driving back and forth from Kilcock to Dublin, from
John Huston’s house, and all the long conversations we had,
and the times at Heeber Finn’s pub.’ I said,
“˜Yes, I remember that.’ And the voice said,
“˜Would you mind putting it down?’ So I got out of bed
the next day, and I wrote my first poem about Ireland,”
Bradbury said.
This kind of prolific creative outburst is characteristic of
Bradbury’s entire career. It seems that even after writing
for most of his life, he is never short of stories to tell. He says
he has published 600 short stories, and has 300 more that he
hasn’t had time to publish.
“They just come to me when I wake in the morning, and then
I get up and I write them,” he said.
He believes that writer’s block is a sign that a writer
hasn’t found the right subject.
“I write about things I love. People with writer’s
block, that’s caused by writing things they shouldn’t
be writing. The subconscious says, “˜I’ve got news for
you. I’m turning off the waterworks,'” he
said.
While he is probably best known for his novels, especially the
cautionary tale “Fahrenheit 451,” about censorship so
restrictive that all books are burned, he has contributed a great
deal of writing to the theater as well.
He says he has written 30 plays, two operas, three musicals and
a cantata. He got his start in a school Christmas pageant in
Tucson, Arizona, when a teacher forced him to try out and he got
the lead role.
“Once I heard the applause, that was it,” he said.
“I was in forever, and I began to act on radio, and then, as
I grew older, I wrote more and more dramas for radio shows. My
interest in theater has been constant from that time when I was
12.”
That year was a productive one for Bradbury. Not only was 12 the
age at which he got his start in theater, but it’s also when
he began writing short stories, novels and poems.
His work is often labeled as science fiction, although
it’s a categorization he doesn’t agree with.
“I don’t write science fiction,” he said.
“A lot of people think I do. I’ve only done one novel,
“˜Fahrenheit 451,’ which is science fiction, because it
deals with reality and real things. Everything else I’ve done
is fantastic. My “˜Martian Chronicles’ is not science
fiction; it’s a fantasy. It’s a mythological world. It
doesn’t exist. The Martians don’t exist. That planet
does not exist. All my work is imaginary.”
With “Falling Upward!” finding a new home in
Burbank, a new novel, “From the Dust Returned,” just
published last month, and “One More For the Road,” a
new collection of stories coming out at Christmas, Bradbury
doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
His enthusiasm for the play, much like his enthusiasm for
everything else in life, is evident.
“Every year I’ve worked on it, and now it’s in
perfect form,” Bradbury said. “It’s the best play
I’ve ever done. I’m delighted with the cast and with
the director. It’s the happiest experience I’ve ever
had.”
THEATER: “Falling Upward!” is a
production of Ray Bradbury’s Pandemonium Theatre Company, and
will run at
Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre at 4252 Riverside Drive,
Burbank, until Dec. 30. General admission is $20 and student
tickets are $5. Call (818) 955-8101 for tickets and more
information.
