Mike Smith
JRNM 151 student

An all new audio-drama about a reinvented Rumpelstiltskin features a cast of Lorain County Community College students and Professor Marc Bakst. Rey Torres, Jr. works here at LCCC as a digital media technician, and has written his own version of Rumpelstiltskin. The twist? Rumpelstiltskin is a woman! Torres has always been an imaginative person, ever since he was a young boy. Through the course of his life, Torres has told stories to several stories.

Torres’s storytelling has ranged from his own children at bedtime, to a whole crowd of children at a library, and as far as children while visiting in the Dominican Republic. As a child, Torres’s grandparents could see how he was acting out his own stories and reciting them out loud.

The main thing that pushed Torres to go forward with his own writing and creating his own original take on Rumpelstiltskin, is when the toughest teacher he knew of, told him that he should consider pursuing his own stories and telling them. The version of Rumpelstiltskin that Torres created took only three weeks to write, and was turned into an audio-drama. While the audio-drama is narrated by Torres, it incorporates voice actors, sound effects, and a musical score including a Gregorian chant by The Keller Brothers titled Kyrie Eleison to help bring it to life. Torres held recording sessions with each person in the voice cast while recording the lines of the audio-drama with recording sessions lasting for about an hour.

As for the story itself, Torres himself couldn¹t picture why Rumplestiltskin would be so distressed over having a child. However he had the thought about flipping the story on its head, and making Rumpelstiltskin a woman. When he did this, he could see the reasons why if Rumpelstiltskin was a woman, why she would be more desperate to have a child to call hers.

Araenae Drake, a music major, provided the vocal talents for the Miller’s daughter in Torres’s audio- drama.  “Rey said that he needed people for the play, so I was more than happy to help,” said Drake. Currently Drake is involved with a club called Stand Out. Stand Out is a club for music and dance, and that is where Drake learned about Torres’s work on Rumpelstiltskin.

When it came to giving a presentation to a group of children, and being there during the birth of his children he was able to do both. Torres utterly bemused his family and coworkers when he said he would be at both major events. He was able to do this by physically being at the hospital with his wife, while a projector played a pre recorded presentation that Torres had put

together for his demonstration. This method of using a pre recorded demonstration of himself speaking in front of children ended up working in his favor, because the children at the demonstration were enthralled with the projected presentation, and he still got to be there for the birth of his child.

Torres is focusing his writing and creative skills for this audio-drama right now, but who knows what the future holds. When that project is completely wrapped up, Torres wants to seek advice with the Blackstone Launchpad on campus. He wants to use the Launchpad¹s guidance to see what avenues he has available to him, to reach a larger audience. With a graphic novel written, and now an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin, who knows what the approaching days holds for him undetermined. He would be interested in possibly adapting his take on Rumpelstiltskin

Full Voice Cast:

The Miller – Marc Bakst – Professor of the Telecommunications Curriculum
Adeline, the Milller¹s Daughter- Araenae Dake – Music Major to become a music therapist
The King – Louis Schneider –  A TCOMN (Telecommunications) Major
Rumpelstiltskin – Rachel Suhy – An LCCC alumni, currently attending Cleveland
State University and is majoring in Broadcast
Gunther the Guard – J. Carlos Gonzalez
The Messenger – George Stewart
Neighbors – Jasmine Barczyk, Alex Ehlers and Steven D. Stein
Special Thanks to: Ann Keller, George, Peter, John Keller (The Keller Brothers) and Brenna Shippy