Back in the 1980s when we got our first answering machine, I decided we needed to do more than the standard “… after the beep …” greeting. So one December day while waiting for the gas tank on my car to fill, I wrote our first dramatized message. After rehearsing the script, the four of us stood around the answering machine to record the 30-second play onto the cassette tape. Over the next decade we wrote and recorded a total of 28 answering machine messages. So without further ado, I present the Schwanz Family Players in 30-second Slices of Life.



