The scene is Studio@620 in St. Petersburg. Late morning sun beams punctuate the cool performance space. The mood is bright.

After the piano playing trails off, a handsome and tanned gentleman with a deep baritone voice approaches one of several microphones set up on stands in front of a row of actors in black T-shirts.

"Radio Theatre Project presents The Continuing Adventures of Noel Berlin, Cabaret Detective."

We got to spend a short time with Noel Berlin, night club piano player and private detective, along with  the rest of his posse at a rehearsal of Radio Theatre Project’s upcoming shows on April 15 and May 19.

“Last month he got whacked on the head and ended up in a Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire movie,” said Paul Wilborn, the playwright and the voice of Noel Berlin. “And this time he walks onto the stage, and they are doing a gay version of Hamlet.”

Noel Berlin’s serial adventure is one of three pieces performed by the group at their monthly shows, two of which artistic director Mimi Rice proudly points out, “are written by women.”

Actors voice multiple roles in this satirical dramedy noir.

"We try to make it topical and St. Petersburg-centric," Wilborn said.

It's brought to life by the Foley artist - that's the special effects person - Matt Cowley, who also wrote the play with Wilborn.

"The sound effects for this kind of thing are body of the actors,” Cowley said. “If you hear them walking, I'm the one that's walking. If they are getting hit I'm the one that's making them get hit."

Creating sounds effects requires some thinking outside the box. And Cowley had a little wooden one on his table, with a door the perfect size for a garden gnome!

“You kind of just have to think a little but abstractly about what the sound is apart from what it looks like," Cowley said. "Suddenly Hamlet is fighting the two bad guys with fake swords on stage, and I'm fighting them with spatulas, so that's the sound of the swords - a couple of spatulas!"

Of course lots of sound effects could be computer generated but…

"We've discovered that the live sound effects, the manual stuff is something that people really enjoy watching because it's just fun to things go off," said Cowley.

Radio Theatre Project shows are aired on WMNF 88.5FM and online.