Category: 30th Anniversary

Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Sci Fi Summer 2006

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology for a look at our 30 (and counting!) years of live performance!

This week we bring you our appearance at Sci Fi Summer 2006. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

Sci Fi Summer 2006 saw an action-packed performance featuring The Brotherhood of Damn Sassy Mutants, Mildly Exciting Tales of Astonishment, Rory Rammer, Space Marshal, our genre-bending sampler Time for Station Identification, and all of that wrapped up in a unique package we called Three Bad Writers!

Sci Fi Summer cast
Not pictured: Three bad writers

We also tried a little experiment at this show. In the below picture, find the red dot that indicates the red microphone on the right, just to the right of Bob Zimmerman’s head. That’s David Benedict sitting and performing the recorded SFX as well as playing his part in the show.

Sci Fi Summer cast and crew
Pictured: Experimentation

Please note that we haven’t done this much. It worked, it was just inconvenient.

Sorry for the short update this week, folks. We’ll be back next time!

Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Libertycon 2006

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology for a look at our 30 (and counting!) years of live performance!

This week we bring you our appearance at Libertycon 2006. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

Ah, Libertycon. What can we say that hasn’t already been said? Some of our most appreciative audiences attend Libertycon, but it isn’t the madhouse that Dragon Con is (not that we don’t love Dragon Con, too…it’s just that one madhouse per year is sufficient!)

Jonathan Strickland, Trudy Leonard, and Ariel Kasten at Libertycon
Jonathan Strickland approves of Libertycon

In 2006 we brought William Alan Ritch’s powerhouse, The Doom of the Mummy to Libertycon for its debut performance.

Doom of the Mummy cast
Doom of the Mummy cast

It seems like all of our monster-related performances are difficult to produce. The Passion of Frankenstein has about a billion recorded sound effects (in addition to the Foley), The Brides of Dracula requires our best singers to be the brides, and The Doom of the Mummy is no exception, as it requires a cello – not part of our usual musical accompaniment.

Daniel Taylor at the Foley table
It can be somewhat startling

But, as always, we rose to the occasion with Sheila Ameri on cello, Brad Weage on the keyboards, and a stellar cast (many of whom were, unfortunately, unable to reprise their roles for the 2008 Dragon Con performance – luckily we can assemble several stellar casts when necessary).

Cast of Doom of the Mummy
More cast

But enough about the cast. Here are our amazing musicians!

Brad Weage on keyboards
Brad Weage on keyboards (plural!)
Sheila Ameri on cello
Sheila Ameri on cello
Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Barnes and Noble 2005

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology for a look at our 30 (and counting!) years of live performance!

This week we bring you our appearance at Barnes and Noble Perimeter for Talk Like a Pirate Day in 2005. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

A short update this week, but we just couldn’t resist posting these pictures. In 2005 we continued our relationship with Barnes and Noble Perimeter with a reading of the classic book Bunnicula.

Daniel W. Kiernan as the vampire bunny, Bunnicula.
Menacing.
The cast of Bunnicula.
No produce was safe.
Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Halloween 2005

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology! It’s not as detailed, but it really shows the growth of ARTC over the years.

This week we bring you our appearance at Barnes and Noble Perimeter for Talk Like a Pirate Day in 2005. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

It’s October! Our favorite month of the year! A time of witches, ghosts, goblins, and things that go bump in the night. We’re especially fond of things that go bump in the night. It’s that magical time when people really let their imaginations run away with them, and we love that!

ARTC takes the stage!
Imagine there’s a set here.

We get some of our best non-convention audiences around Halloween. Specializing in horror and science fiction, as we do, it’s no wonder that people are looking for something a little extra. Something that goes beyond the usual slasher serial killers the movies so often give us.

ARTC at Stone Mountain Park
We don’t do serial killers. We do killer serials!

At our 2005 performance we got a chance to show off some of our less elaborate, but still really spooky, Halloween material. We brought out Armada Rising about the Spanish Armada risen from the depths, an episode of Dr. Geoffry Stanhope about the Loch Ness Monster, and a bunch of other treats for our audience that year!

ARTC tech and musicians make for an amazing show!
The horror of the tech crew. The horror.

And this year we’re getting the chance to bring some of that unproduced material into ARTC Studio! So you’ll get a chance to hear it yourself very soon!

Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Pirate Day 2005

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology! It’s not as detailed, but it really shows the growth of ARTC over the years.

This week we bring you our appearance at Barnes and Noble Perimeter for Talk Like a Pirate Day in 2005. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

Daniel and Clair Kiernan
Daniel and Clair Kiernan talking like pirates.

After our extremely popular appearance in 2004 for Talk Like A Pirate Day, we decided to head back to the high seas again the next year with another installment of Brad Strickland’s Pirate Hunter series!

ARTC performs at Barnes and Noble Perimeter for Talk Like a Pirate Day
Piratey shenanigans

These shows really give us an opportunity to connect with our younger audiences. If you were at one of these shows (now 9 years ago, gulp!) and are still with us, let us know!

ARTC in a rare costumed appearance
Pirate costumes of varying quality

It also gives our costumers an opportunity to show off their skills and lets us point out the non-costumers in the group.

Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Dragon Con 2005 part 2

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology! It’s not as detailed, but it really shows the growth of ARTC over the years. You can see all of the photos in their full size on our Flickr album!

Continuing our Dragon Con theme, we now present The Weapons Shop by A. E. van Vogt. This was a great year for ARTC as we got to perform alongside Battlestar Galactica star Richard Hatch and we also announced a new imprint that will hopefully see its first title released next year, The Sound of Liberty!

Richard Hatch with Brad Strickland
Richard Hatch with Brad Strickland

In 2005 ARTC created the Sound of Liberty project, a unique initiative to identify and adapt works of classic science fiction that put a focus on freedom and liberty. In the intervening time we’ve been busy finding suitable titles and negotiating with the authors. We hope to have the first title on this exciting new category for sale by next year, but the first title to be performed was The Weapons Shop by A. E. van Vogt.

Lydia van Vogt
Lydia van Vogt

We were pleased to have been granted the rights for this performance by his widow, Lydia van Vogt.

Chuck Hammill and Brad Linaweaver introduce
Chuck Hammill and Brad Linaweaver introduce The Weapon Shops

We’re really looking forward to diving into some of these amazing stories!

Cast photo from
Cast photo from The Weapon Shops

A great performance with a stellar cast! This one’s headed for ARTC Studio very soon!

Gerald W. Page accepts the Thomas E. Fuller Lifetime Achievement Award
Gerald W. Page accepts the Thomas E. Fuller Lifetime Achievement Award

We also got to honor one of our longtime writers, Gerald W. Page. You can hear his work in our catalog on The Assassins and The Happy Man! Thanks for all the great stories, Gerry!

Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Dragon Con 2005 part 1

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology! It’s not as detailed, but it really shows the growth of ARTC over the years. You can see all of the photos in their full size on our Flickr album!

We’re still on a Dragon Con high (or still getting over con crud, your choice), so this week we bring you the 2005 edition! Hey, they’re our biggest audiences of the year, I think we can be forgiven for spending some extra time on these great fans!

If there’s one thing we know for sure at ARTC it’s that we’re nothing without our writers, and we’ve been very lucky to have worked with some of the best. Writing audio drama isn’t done much anymore, and finding someone who can write it well is uncommon. We have an extensive workshopping process to make sure that our scripts are their very best before we present them to our listening audience.

At this Dragon Con, we featured several of our newer writers, who have since gone on to write some really incredible stuff!

Jonathan Strickland
Jonathan Strickland

Jonathan Strickland has written a lot, but for this performance we featured an episode from his Mildly Exciting Tales of Astonishment (META) series.

Sketch MacQuinor
Sketch MacQuinor

Sketch MacQuinor seems to write all the time, although sometimes he only writes it in his head. For this performance we showcased the Brotherhood of Damn Sassy Mutants (work out that initialism on your own, kids), but he’s also created The Game is Afoot!, Blue Hannukchristmas Carol, and lots of other stuff too numerous to mention here.

We also performed Rory Rammer, Space Marshal and The Adventure of Brave Ragnar, but somehow managed not to get a picture of Ron N. Butler or Kelley S. Ceccato this year.

Brad Strickland
Brad Strickland disapproves of this egregious oversight.

And after the writing is done, it’s time for the rest of the team to swing into action!

The cast warms up for the performance.
First, warmups.

Vocal warmups are vital to a good performance. Here you can see the ‘huddle’ style.

Brad Weage and Joel Abbott go over the musical score before the show.
Music is important, too.

Music and tech work closely together to ensure everything is plugged in and functional.

Foley artists creating live sound effects.
Foley gets into the mix.

It’s not a radio show without Foley!

David Benedict and Jack Mayfield perform.
And then it’s showtime!

We still aren’t sure what Jack Mayfield is looking at in this picture.

We’ll be back next week with part 2 of Dragon Con 2005!

Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Dragon Con 2004 part 2

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology! It’s not as detailed, but it really shows the growth of ARTC over the years. You can see all of the photos in their full size on our Flickr album!

Last week we talked about having Harlan Ellison perform The Shadow Over Innsmouth with us, and that was definitely exciting, but it was only the beginning of the festivities. We also had on the schedule The Menace From Earth by Robert A. Heinlein with a special guest!

Jewel Staite appears in 'The Menace From Earth'
Jewel Staite! …with Tamara Morton.

For those of you who don’t know (and we’d be interested to know how many of our fans don’t know this), Jewel Staite is probably best known as Kaylee from the short-lived series Firefly. We were thrilled to have her be a part of this show.

Jewel Staite, Jack Mayfield, and Sarah Taylor.
Jewel Staite, Jack Mayfield, and Sarah Taylor.

Jewel was a delight to work with. Many of our guest stars are given the opportunity to be in an episode of Rory Rammer or some similarly comedic or light-hearted piece. The Menace From Earth isn’t super-serious, but it does require an emotional range that we don’t often subject our guests to, and Jewel turned in a spectacular performance on very little rehearsal.

Cast photo from 'The Menace From Earth'
Cast photo from The Menace From Earth

We’d love to have the opportunity to work with her again! So, Jewel, if you’re reading this and wondering when you can get back in for some audio drama fun, just give us a call! 🙂

But that’s not all!

Alton Leonard and Brad Weage accept the Thomas E. Fuller Lifetime Achievement Award
Alton Leonard and Brad Weage accept the Thomas E. Fuller Lifetime Achievement Award

We were also priveleged to be able to honor our longtime musicians Alton Leonard and Brad Weage with the Thomas E. Fuller Lifetime Achievement Award.

Music done right augments an audio drama in ways that are difficult to describe. It creates a mood, but doesn’t distract. Both of these two musicians have mastered the art and demonstrated tremendous flexibility. Whether we need an atmospheric bed under a tense scene or just a bit of jaunty music to transition from one scene to the next, Alton and Brad can provide. Even after his untimely passing, Brad’s music lives on through recordings, and we are the richer for it. And Alton is still chugging away, most recently providing amazing scores for our Direct to Digital releases The Mark of the Beast and Dr. Geoffry Stanhope, Investigator of Occult Phenomena: The Dweller in the Depths.

All in all, a landmark year for ARTC!

Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: Dragon Con 2004 part 1

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology! It’s not as detailed, but it really shows the growth of ARTC over the years. You can see all of the photos in their full size on our Flickr album!

So last week we dipped into 2005, but now we’re back to 2004. This week is Dragon Con, so we thought we’d save these pictures from Dragon Con 2004 for now.

It was a banner year for ARTC for two reasons. The first was that we performed The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft, which is always a crowd favorite, and we got to do it with Harlan Ellison, who is also a crowd favorite and puts on an amazing performance. The second…well, the second reason we’ll talk about next week in that update.

Phil Carter with Harlan Ellison
Phil Carter with Harlan Ellison

We’ve performed with Harlan a few times in the past. He was masterful as the Ringmaster in The Man Who Traveled in Elephants and also portrayed the crazed and troubled Delapore in The Rats in the Walls. His performance style is always energetic and really gets the most out of these characters.

Full stage shot of the cast for
The Cast of The Shadow Over Innsmouth

In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Harlan portrayed the town drunk, Zadok Allen, who warns our protagonist of the mysterious and deadly citizens of Innsmouth and their horrifying history.

Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison as Zadok Allen

And he did so with his usual style and energy!

Michael Brady
Michael Brady

We were also pleased to have Michael Brady share the stage with us again that year!

Foley sound effects
Foley sound effects

And let’s not forget the all-important sound effects! Some of the most mundane things go into creating an atmosphere of horror. Here we see the preparation of the thunderball, used to create impromptu storms and earthquakes.

We’ve got to run off now to get ready for this year’s convention. Hope to see you there, and we’ll be back next week with part 2 of Dragon Con 2004!

Posted on by

30 Years of ARTC: An Atlanta Christmas 2005

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology! It’s not as detailed, but it really shows the growth of ARTC over the years. You can see all of the photos in their full size on our Flickr album!

We’re back with another round of pictures from An Atlanta Christmas!

The holidays are a serious time. A time for reflection. A time for self-assessment.

Colin Butler looks serious at the microphone.
Colin Butler. Serious.

It’s a time for somber contemplation of…aw, who are we kidding? The holidays are a ton of fun! In this installment, we feature some of the goofier moments in An Atlanta Christmas.

Daniel W. Kiernan in a Santa hat with ears.
Daniel W. Kiernan. Reflective.

The play being a series of short subjects has the advantage of being able to swing through a wide range of emotions. There are very serious pieces, such as O Tannenbaum and Civil War Triptych, but the overall feel tends to convey the lightheartedness of the season. It’s a time of hope.

Tamara Morton.
Tamara Morton. Hopeful.

A time of giving.

Clair W. Kiernan rolls her eyes as Daniel W. Kiernan wears a blinking red nose.
Clair W. Kiernan wanting someone to give her a break.

A time  of anticipation.

Sketch MacQuinor.
Sketch MacQuinor anticipates…something.

Sorry for the blurriness on that last picture. We just couldn’t resist that expression.

It’s also a time for family and gatherings.

The ARTC Chorus gathers around the microphones.
A gathering. Or a police lineup. Your choice.

And through it all we somehow manage to have a good time. Every year for the last 15 years! Be sure to come see us this December! We’d love to have you be a part of our family. Details coming soon.

Clair W. Kiernan at a microphone that's too tall for her.
Just out of reach…