With COVID-19 severely limiting in-person theater productions across the country, Delta Drama is seizing the opportunity to explore a different genre: the radio play.

And what better way to begin than with perhaps the most famous of all radio plays, “The War of the Worlds?”

Delta College is putting on this unique presentation Friday through Sunday, Dec. 4 through 6.

Originally broadcast from New York’s Mercury Theatre in 1938, this infamous radio play had many terrified listeners convinced that an actual alien invasion of Earth was taking place. Adapted by Howard E. Koch, co-writer of Casablanca, and directed and narrated by Orson Welles, this original script detailing the frightening tale of an extraterrestrial takeover will now thrill and chill audiences through a new medium.

Delta Drama’s free full-scale production will be broadcast via the Internet as an homage to the radio plays of the past, while looking forward to the current trends in American theater.

The production is yet another example of how Delta College in Stockton is striving to provide students with a quality education even in the midst of this pandemic. Previously, the College has distributed thousands of Chromebooks and hot spots to help students learn remotely, and even went so far as to purchase skeletons that science students can borrow and work with at home. For this special dramatic event, the College has equipped drama students to livestream from home and has partnered with Broadway on Demand to allow students to perform for a (virtual) live audience.

This virtual production by Delta Drama students is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4 and 5 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 6 at 2 p.m.

Visit deltadrama.com for free tickets. Recommended for ages 10 and up.

The Delta Drama Program believes in the importance of providing to the college community a Drama curriculum that develops knowledge, skills and competencies necessary for transfer to the upper division level as well as fulfilling AA Degree general education requirements.

The Drama Program provides a rigorous, disciplined, and integrated curriculum designed to meet the vocational demands of the theatre profession. The college also offers scholarships to new students who qualify.

The Actor Training program is a two-year course of study in which students who have successfully auditioned can concentrate their efforts in rigorous acting classes three times a week in the first year and five times a week in the second year, while also studying stagecraft in separate technical classes.