On October 30th, 1938 the Columbia Broadcasting System broadcast Mercury Theater on the Air’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel, The War of the Worlds as adapted by Howard E. Koch. Directed by future film maker, Orson Welles, the broadcast would go on to become the most infamous radio broadcast in history as terrified listeners were convinced that the program they were listening to was an actual news broadcast.

80 years later in the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago, Locked Into Vacancy Entertainment in association with the Chicago Public Library’s One Book, One Chicago Program, presented a faithful performance of Howard Koch’s adaptation in front of a LIVE Audience.