“I, Gardener” by Allen Lang

I, Gardener, a classic sci-fi story by Allen Lang, featured in pilot episode of LAVA Talks, a series for radio recorded in front of a live studio audience.

The LAVA Center, and Dog Hollow Pres, in collaboration with Valley Eye Radio, are thrilled to announce the pilot episode of a new series produced with radio audiences in mind.

I, Gardener will be recorded June 17 at The LAVA Center in downtown Greenfield. Doors will open at 6:15 pm for those interested in being in the studio audience; doors will close at 6:45 for studio audience to be oriented to the procedures of audio-recording the live reading. There will be absolutely no late seating for this event as it would be disruptive to the recording process.

The event features actors Chip Roughton and Nathan Michael Turowsky, both familiar to LAVA audiences from LAVA’s On The Boards festivals of new play readings.

Allen Lang wrote science fiction, mystery, and speculative fiction from the early 1950s through the 1970s as Allen Kim Lang and Allen K. Lang; in the 2000s, he resumed writing stories as Allen Lang. Long out of print, much of his earliest work, including I, Gardener, is now in the public domain and has been republished and re-edited by Project Gutenberg.

I, Gardener first appeared in Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, December 1959.

Jan Maher, producer of this pilot episode notes, “I Gardener is remarkably contemporary in spite of being published 67 years ago. The themes of the ethics of AI, of the responsibilities creators do or don’t have for how their creations are used, and the question of just exactly what does distinguish humans from machines are all in the news today posed with more urgency than ever before.” She adds: “Full disclosure: I have a very personal relationship to this project. Allen Lang is my stepfather of many decades, and this recording fits into a longer anthology of his work that I’ve been plugging away at for several years. In addition to the listeners to Valley Eye Radio and WMCB-LP, Allen will enjoy hearing this program as a 98th birthday present in July.”

There is no charge; donations are gratefully accepted and appreciated.

For more information: contact [email protected]