'Welcome to Night Vale' podcast brings live show to Roxian Theatre

Something strange will be happening at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks on Saturday night.

“Welcome to Night Vale,” a popular scripted podcast, will bring its latest live show, “The Attic,” to town. The podcast is written as a series of radio station broadcasts from the fictional town of Night Vale, where paranormal happenings are normal occurrences.

“It’s a small desert town where every consipiracy theory is true and everyone just has to get on with their lives despite that,” said Joseph Fink, co-writer and co-creator of “Welcome to Night Vale.”

The show started in 2012 in New York City and exploded in popularity in the summer of 2013, thanks to word of mouth, especially on the social networking site Tumblr.

Since then, the podcast has produced episodes twice a month and boasts more than 200 episodes in its archives. In addition, it has toured with several live shows and published three in-universe novels, co-written by Fink and his “Night Vale” co-creator and co-writer, Jeffrey Cranor.

Despite more than a decade’s worth of content for fans to enjoy, Fink said they write the live shows with newcomers in mind.

“We want people who have never even heard of a podcast to be able to sit down and understand the story and have a great time,” he said. “I think we’ve been pretty successful.”

The show has elements of horror and absurdist comedy, and Saturday’s live show is open to all ages.

“If you’ve never heard of us but you just enjoy theater or comedy or just storytelling, you can come without having to catch up on the podcast,” Fink said. “You can just enjoy the story.”

He said that with the podcast growing out of the downtown theater scene in New York City, they enjoy the performance elements of live shows.

“Welcome to Night Vale” is told through the voice of narrator and main character, Cecil Gershwin Palmer (played by Cecil Baldwin). He reports all of the strange and funny happenings of the community and tells stories from his own life in Night Vale.

In this live show, “The Attic,” Cecil finds a mysterious slide projector that features a slideshow of creepy images created by Jessica Hayworth. Joining Baldwin in the performance are Symphony Sanders, Cranor and live music by Disparition.

“The show is performed radio theater-style, with actors onstage with microphones,” Fink said.

Every episode of “Night Vale” features a song or instrumental piece that serves as the weather segment. In this live show, there will a live musical “weather” performance by Erin McKeown.

This is the first of their live touring shows to involve projections.

“We always try to bring a new thing in every tour, and this is the first one that’s incorporating visuals,” Fink said. “We always try to challenge ourselves to find something new to do.”

Fink expects this will be the last tour that “Welcome to Night Vale” does for a while.

“Welcome to Night Vale” can be found on all major podcast platforms. The live show is at 8 p.m. Saturday night, with doors opening at 7.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit welcometonightvale.com or roxiantheatre.com.