Tag: christmas

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30 Years of ARTC: An Atlanta Christmas 2008

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 the Academy Theatre for An Atlanta Christmas 2008. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

What else can we say about Christmas? We just finished up our 2014 edition of An Atlanta Christmas, its 15th consecutive year of production, and it’s always a fun time. It’s kind of interesting how we crave newness and novelty all year long, but around the holidays we get all nostalgic and don’t mind listening to the same songs (or audio dramas!) that we’ve heard a dozen times before.

Audience for 'An Atlanta Christmas' 2008
Case in point.

But it’s such a fun time! The reds! The greens! The getting to see people you haven’t seen in forever! The trying to cram in as much activity as possible while also shopping for people you suddenly realize you don’t know well enough and trying to live your normal life as well!

Jeff Montgomery, Laurice White, and Kelley S. Ceccato.
There’s a lot to do, is what we’re saying.

Plus, it’s different every year, while also staying the same. We shuffle the scripts around, we get new kids when the old ones get too big (everything gets exchanged just after Christmas, even actors).

Jonathan Strickland, Rachel Pendergrass, and Trudy Leonard.
Especially actors.

So we’ve put the wraps on Christmas for another year, but we’ll be back next year. And there’s still more Christmas pictures to post (we’re only up to 2008, after all). So, who knows? Maybe you’ll see Christmas in July.

Kris Kringle, Jayne Lockhart, Laurice White, and the Children's Ensemble.
But hopefully not wearing these outfits, unless you’re in the Southern hemisphere.

The 2008 production will live on in our hearts. We welcomed new performers. We made new memories. We refreshed ourselves. We did it again in 2009 all the way through 2014. And we’ll do it again in 2015.

The cast of
The cast of “An Atlanta Christmas 2008”
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30 Years of ARTC: An Atlanta Christmas 2007

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 Stage Door Players for An Atlanta Christmas 2007. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

An Atlanta Christmas is in its 15th year of production. The show is unique in that it tends to be easy to perform, but difficult to produce. It’s easy because the plays are like the yearly carols – tried and true, memorable, and familiar. It’s difficult to produce because the first step is deciding what to perform each year out of over three hours of available material and the second step is finding children to play the younger roles.

The cast of 'The Santa Claus Blues'
Pictured: children

We’ve had tons of amazingly talented young people in our performances over the years, but they all have one significant and unavoidable flaw: they eventually grow up and are no longer suitable for the roles.

Trudy Leonard and Daniel Taylor in An Atlanta Christmas
Pictured: grown-ups

The show also sneaks up on you. We have a notice posted in our rehearsal area: dates on calendar may be closer than they appear.

Clair W. Kiernan, Jeff Montgomery, and Dawn Marie
The cast of ‘Civil War Triptych’ with Producer David Benedict moving as fast as Christmas in the background.

But for all the trials and tribulations, we wouldn’t dream of missing this show. It’s magical. It’s heartwarming. It’s a chance to get away from it all and come back home for the holidays as you remember them.

David Benedict and J. E. Hurlburt flag down an audience.
Pictured: heartwarming

It’s a time for the whole ARTC family to come together each year, and that includes you! Be sure to see the 2014 edition of An Atlanta Christmas on December 13 and 14 at the Academy Theatre in Stockbridge!

The cast of 'An Atlanta Christmas' 2007
The cast of ‘An Atlanta Christmas’ 2007
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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…
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30 Years of ARTC – An Atlanta Christmas 2003

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!

Welcome to the first installment of photos from our performances of An Atlanta Christmas. 2014’s performance will mark the 15th consecutive year of this heartwarming show about Christmas in the south. Originally conceived by Thomas E. Fuller as a series of vignettes that focused specifically on Atlanta and the history of the holidays, the ARTC writers have expanded it to include many of our serials, including Rory Rammer, Space Marshal, Unresolved Mysteries: Solved While U Wait, and Bumpers Crossroads. We’ve got Thomas’s original vision on CD for you (or through our digital distributors) and the expanded edition will be coming out of ARTC Studio in due time.

More photos of these performances will be coming in this series as we go along. You can watch the kids grow up, just as we did!

The ARTC chorus warms up before the show.
The ARTC chorus warms up before the show.
Brad Weage plays a medly of holiday favorites.
Brad Weage plays a medly of holiday favorites.

Music is a huge part of the Christmas holiday tradition, and we work hard to integrate it into our performance each year. Alton Leonard composed the theme song for the set, Old Atlanta Christmas, and provides carols whenever he can. Brad Weage also brought the classics along with him every year. Combine that with our talented vocalists and it creates that warm holiday atmosphere that’s a trademark of this performance.

Our younger performers take the microphones.
Our younger performers take the microphones.

The original version of An Atlanta Christmas was framed by a family gathered around in the living room reminiscing about holidays long past. Finding talented children to play those roles, as well as the roles of the children in the individual stories, isn’t necessarily difficult. The hard part is keeping them from growing up and out of the roles! Each year the producers have to look at the kids from the previous years and determine if it’s time to replace them with the next crop of budding audio dramatists!

Everyone dresses in their holiday finery each year.
Everyone dresses in their holiday finery each year.
More folks dressed up for the holidays.
More folks dressed up for the holidays.

Dressing up for the holidays is always a festive part of the performance. We’ve tried several different things to make the visual part of our medium more interesting for our live performances, but for Christmas it’s never really that difficult. Everyone breaks out the reds and greens and we throw a great big holiday audio party on the stage!

The Foley team enters into the holiday spirit!
The Foley team enters into the holiday spirit!

Plush animals, Santa Claus hats, coonskin caps, and jingle bells traditionally adorn the Foley table. Our usual fare of horror and science fiction often has a mix of recorded and practical Foley sound effects. After all, how do you cast a space ship from the skies of Earth to the orbit of the moon with a table full of sound effects? Sure we could do it, but it adds to the immersive depth of our performance to mix in a recorded effect from time to time. But at Christmas there aren’t as many Martians, there are fewer Elder Gods, and that thing clattering on the roof isn’t a faceless monster, and so we’re able to put the focus on what traditionally sets audio drama apart from other art forms.

Clair Kiernan presents the traditional Christmas poinsettia.
Clair Kiernan presents the traditional Christmas poinsettia.

And what holiday would be complete without the poinsettia. Not sure why the poinsettia is significant? Come see this year’s performance of An Atlanta Christmas and we’ll be glad to tell you all about it. More details coming soon!

In the meantime, be sure to check out the rest of the photos from our Stone Mountain appearance of An Atlanta Christmas on Flickr. We’ll have another set of holiday photos in a few weeks!

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Blue Hanukchristmas Carol

Size: 6.93M, Duration: 15:08

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Welcome again to the ARTC Podcast! This month we bring you a piece we thought we had brought you a while back, but after going through the archives we discovered we’d overlooked it! This piece is so good that we couldn’t just let that slide, so here it is: Blue Hanukchristmas Carol by Sketch MacQuinor.

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Christmas Rose

Size: 7M Duration: 14:54

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Well, here we are.  The end of another year of podcasting for ARTC.  Ok, fine, we didn’t exactly podcast for the whole year, but the point is that we took some needed time off and came back with a better situation than we had before.  We’re looking forward to podcasting at least monthly and more often when we can.

This week we bring you Christmas Rose by Kelley S. Ceccato, performed live at the Academy Theatre in Avondale Estates, GA, on December 6 and 7, 2008.

This story is one of my personal favorites of Kelley’s.  She’s written lots of stuff for us and continues to improve in her craft and we are very lucky to have her.  We hope you enjoy it.

As we move into the New Year we at ARTC hope that all of you enjoy all of the magic that your imaginations can provide.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone and we’ll see you next year!

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An Atlanta Christmas part 7

Size: 6.7M Duration: 14:20

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Welcome everyone to the last Christmas podcast of the year.  We conclude the season with another very recent show, Sunday, December 23 to be exact.  And we are proud to bring you a segment of An Atlanta Christmas that has never been presented before.  “Civil War Triptych”, written by Thomas E. Fuller, follows the Christmas stories of three characters, each with an entirely different situation and take on the season.

Again, technical reasons prevented me from including the performer’s names in the audio, but they are Clair W. Kiernan, Veronica Byrd, and Jeff Montgomery.  Assisting with the song at the end are Dawn Marie and Sarah Taylor.  Special thanks to our performance coach, Doug Kaye.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our annual presentation of An Atlanta Christmas.  We look forward to doing it again next year.

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An Atlanta Christmas, Episode 5

Size: 11.4 MB Time: 25:00

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One last look at Christmas for the year…

Opening Music: An Old Atlanta Christmas, Alton Leonard.

USO Christmas, Thomas E. Fuller and performed by William Brown & Lou Brock.

Are You Lonely Tonight, written by Thomas E Fuller and Daniel Taylor, performed by Daniel & Clair Kiernan.

The Experts, by Ron N Butler featured the voices of Kelly Swilley, Lou Brock, and Daniel & Clair Kiernan. (Useless trivia: The Kiernans played characters with the same first names as those in Are You Lonely Tonight. But now they’re actually Mr. & Mrs. Zabrinski.) My apologies to Hal Wiedeman who went uncredited in the podcast: He played the towtruck driver.