cosmic horror – Atlanta Radio Theatre Company

Posted on May 12, 2016November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

The Rats in the Walls-LIVE part 4 of 4

[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4362323/height/360/width/480/theme/standard-mini/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”360″ width=”480″]Well, here we are. We made it. All the way through 4 parts of Lovecraftian horror and now we’re…not quite ready for the Centauri Express to launch.

We were so looking forward to this being the last episode of the venerable, but generically named, ARTC’s Podcast. But we just can’t. We can’t put forth something that’s less than our best effort. We just can’t do that to our listeners. So we’re pushing back to August. We hope.

So we’ll be carrying on in our usual fashion for just a couple more months. In the meantime, won’t you consider supporting us on Patreon? We just posted a bunch of really cool milestone goals to help you know what your support will mean to us, and we’re working on a short video to show how we’re operating, too. All kinds of good stuff going on, so remember that you can set your own budget and hopefully you can see your way clear to helping us out a bit. We’d really appreciate it!

Bob Zimmerman, Kat Nowack, and Bill Ritch are waiting for YOU.

Posted on April 14, 2016November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

The Rats in the Walls-LIVE part 3 of 4

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We’re back and ready for another episode of ARTC’s Podcast! This month, The Rats in the Walls-LIVE part 3 of 4, performed live at the Academy Theatre in October 2012.

What else can we say about Lovecraft and The Rats in the Walls? Not much, really. I mean, it’s creepy, it’s awesome, it’s classic horror.

So in this month’s show notes, we’re going to talk instead about what’s coming up for the podcast. As we mention in the podcast itself, we’re about to wind down on the show as you’ve known it for the last 10 years. We’re shooting for a June launch, but we’re perfectionists, so it might be July or August before we get this really ready, but when it gets moving it’s going to be as hard to stop as a freight train. Which is fitting since it will be the Centauri Express Audio Magazine!

What is the Centauri Express? It’s whatever you want it to be! For one thing we’ll be taking a step back from our anthology format and focusing on a serialized audio drama, beginning with the full 13-episode version of Dash Cardigan!

But that’s not all! We’ll also be featuring interviews with ARTC personnel, behind-the-scenes looks at our productions, outtakes, and user-submitted content that might take the form of reviews or previews of other audio dramas, convention reports, flash fiction, and whatever else looks interesting to us and to you, our loyal listeners.

Enjoying the live performances? Fret not! The majority of the back catalog will remain online and free for the foreseeable future and future live performances will be made available as free perks for our Patreon subscribers at ALL levels.

Hal Wiedeman and David Benedict — Hal Wiedeman has “feelings” about that news. David Benedict looks on, while scouting an escape route.

There’s still one more part of The Rats in the Walls to go and then…well, you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out what happens next. But whatever shows up next you can be sure that….There is Adventure in Sound!

Kat Nowack and Bill Ritch are waiting with you.

Posted on March 11, 2016November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

The Rats in the Walls-LIVE part 2 of 4

We’re really sorry we missed our normal publication time this month! Car trouble impeded our progress. But we’re back on track now!

EDIT: We forgot the link to the actual audio! It’s here now! Those of you looking for it can find it now!
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Tony Fuller at the Foley table — Tony Fuller practices breaking some kneecaps in case this ever happens again.

This month we continue with The Rats in the Walls from our 2012 performance. With music by The Ghosts Project, it was a really creepy experience.

Robert Drake on stage lights — Robert Drake is really creeped out.

The creepiness was enhanced by the lighting wizardry of Robert Drake. We don’t always have the luxury of special lighting at our live shows. At most of our convention appearances we usually just have the ballroom lights of the room we’re performing in, so being able to do a show at the Academy Theatre is a real treat.

Probably should have saved the fisheye lens for *The Shadow Over Innsmouth*

And don’t forget, you can get this performance at a much higher audio quality from Bandcamp!

Posted on February 11, 2016November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

The Rats in the Walls – LIVE part 1 of 4

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So last month we brought you The Music of Erich Zann. This month we decided to keep the cosmic horror going. And why not? It’s our 10th year of podcasting and our H. P. Lovecraft fans have been very good to us, so we’d like to be very good to them!

This month we bring you The Rats in the Walls-LIVE by H. P. Lovecraft, adapted for audio by Brad Strickland, with music by The Ghosts Project, accompanied by Alton Leonard.

This performance was part of our 2012 celebration, Lovecraft’s Nightmares. And it’s available for sale! Up to now, performances on the podcast were exclusive to the podcast, but you can download this performance from Bandcamp. Or, if you’re a purist, you can get the original recording that featured Harlan Ellison!

For the uninitiated, Lovecraft’s Nightmares was our monthlong celebration of the master of cosmic horror. For four weekends in October, ARTC performed a different Lovecraft adaptation from our catalog. The first weekend, we led off with The Rats in the Walls, featuring Dave Schroeder in the role of Delapore.

And, as if a month of Lovecraft weren’t enough, we invited our good friends Paul Mercer and Davis Petterson, The Ghosts Project, to play along. You can hear them on several of our other performances as well, such as The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Call of C’thulhu, and At the Mountains of Madness, and their music also serves as the intro for our podcast!

Keep a lookout for more collaborations between ARTC and The Ghosts Project!

Posted on January 14, 2016November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

The Music of Erich Zann

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Can you believe the first ARTC podcast was back in 2006? We can’t, and we published it!

At the end of 2015, we featured three interviews with ARTC writers and performers. We’ll be having more of that in 2016, but for now let’s get back to the audio drama with The Music of Erich Zann by H. P. Lovecraft, adapated for audio by Jonathan Horton and David Benedict, featuring music by The Ghosts Project, Paul Mercer and Davis Petterson with Alton Leonard.

This was part of our Lovecraft’s Nightmares show back in 2012 at the Academy Theatre.

Davis Petterson, Alton Leonard, and Paul Mercer — Davis is a dark and shadowy presence.

Lovecraft’s Nightmares was a monthlong celebration of the master of cosmic horror. His writing focuses on the strange, the macabre, and the insane. Speaking of insane, we performed a different Lovecraft adaptation each week in October of 2012, and many of the cast and crew went insane and everyone called the producer insane. But it was a ton of fun and we got a lot of great performances out of that month!

David Benedict — Pictured: The Producer. Insane.

You can hear more of the performances from Lovecraft’s Nightmares, and even more of our ongoing collaboration with The Ghosts Project, by purchasing them from our catalog. But for now, here’s a glimpse into madness. We hope you enjoy it.

Posted on June 11, 2015November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

31 Years of ARTC: Dragon Con 2010 part 2

Continuing our look back at ARTC’s 31 years (thusfar!) with photos from our live performances. You can get a look at our whole history of combining adventures in sound with the thrill of live performance in our Chronology!

In this installment we bring you our appearance at Dragon Con 2010 (Sunday night edition) where we presented Time and Time Again by H. Beam Piper, adapted by Ron N. Butler and At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft, adapted by Thomas E. Fuller, and featuring music by The Ghosts Project. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

It’s a short update this week, folks, as I am flying out to Kansas City, MO, later today to attend the HEAR Now Festival. But this was a momentous show because it marked the beginning of our long-standing relationship with The Ghosts Project, who have since gone on to play with us on several other productions, including The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Rats in the Walls!

Fiona K. Leonard — It’s completely mind-blowing

The Ghosts Project, Paul Mercer and Davis Petterson

Brian Troxell — “Don’t forget, you can own this recording of this historic performance.”

Posted on February 13, 2015November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

31 Years of ARTC: The Call of C’thulhu 2009

This week we bring you our appearance at the Academy Theatre in Avondale Estates, which featured our 2009 performance of The Call of C’thulhu by H. P. Lovecraft, adapted for audio by Ron N. Butler. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

We’ve performed a lot of different places over the years. Hotel ballrooms. High school auditoriums. Hair salons. But one of our favorites from an acoustic point of view was the Avondale Estates location for the Academy Theatre.

Typical stage setup for ARTC — The stage is set…

Not too big, not too small, well lit, walls made of hard concrete. Well, maybe that last part wasn’t so great, but you can’t have everything.

A portion of the cast of *Night Call* by Brian Phillips

At our 2009 performance, not only did we bring everyone the cosmic horror that is Lovecraft’s The Call of C’thulhu, we also brought Brian Phillips’s original audio drama Night Call and Kelley S. Ceccato’s The Worst Good Woman in the World!

Portion of the cast of — There’s really only one harmonica player here. But in audio, who can tell?

Tammie Hood and Clair W. Kiernan. Hats? What hats?

We’ve talked before about how we don’t often do costumes, but every so often we just can’t help ourselves.

Tennille Clayton and Sonya at the Foley table. — High tech Foley. Squishiness comes at a price.

J. E. Hurlburt at the microphone for — Auditions for Lovecraft pieces sometimes consist of just a bunch of screaming.

Be sure to check out our performance calendar to see when you can see us next!

Posted on January 8, 2015November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

31 Years of ARTC: Academy Theatre 2008

We spent a good part of last year documenting our last 30 years through photographs of our live performances. But wouldn’t you know it, we ran out of year before we ran out of pictures! So we’re going to continue on! 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 The Colour Out of Space in 2008. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

This performance was our first at the Academy Theatre’s Avondale Estates location. We walked in not really knowing what to expect, and to a certain degree not really knowing exactly where it was (if you ever visited the Avondale location, you probably know what I mean).

Stage setup at Academy Theatre — If we’d expected the setup to be done for us, we were sorely disappointed.

But the cast settled in nicely to their new home away from home.

The cast prior to the performance. — If I talk about them like they’re pets…well, there’s a reason for that.

During a show, communication is key. You might think that with all that talking going on on stage that getting anything else said would be difficult, and you’d be right. But we still need to communicate between backstage, onstage, and the techs in the back to ensure that timing is maintained and that when things go haywire the actors know what to do.

The cast onstage at the Academy Theatre. — One of those things we do is to hold our hands over our mics so they can be muted before we adjust them.

We also wear a lot of different hats. It’s tempting to think that we all have well-defined roles, but the truth is that everybody pitches in for a good show.

Foley for 'The Colour Out of Space'. — Here we see Clair Kiernan, normally a voice actor, at the Foley table. Clair, you sly devil.

Recorded sound effects for 'The Colour Out of Space'. — David Benedict running recorded sound effects. Complete with dramatic lighting!

We’re hard at work on the studio version of The Colour Out of Space right now, so look for that in the store soon! (If you’re reading this in 2020 and it’s still not there, send help).

Posted on January 4, 2007November 5, 2019 by David Benedict

The Colour Out of Space

Size: 18.2M Duration: 39:55

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Hope everyone is having a happy new year. To start out 2007 we’re going to get back to our roots by presenting The Colour Out of Space by H. P. Lovecraft, adapted by Ron N. Butler, and performed live at Dragon*Con 2006. This was our only show at Dragon*Con this year, so if you missed it then this is your chance! We’ve performed at every Dragon*Con since the first, and Lovecraft has always been one of our mainstays.

There Is Adventure In Sound

Tag: cosmic horror