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Dragon Con 2019 New Releases

The Dunwich Horror LIVE graphic, depicting a house disguising a tentacled underground horror. Artwork by C. M. Dotson
2012 Live Performance
Rory Rammer, Volume 02 graphic depicting Rory Rammer, holding a ray gun, with a rocket ship in the background
Rory Rammer, Volume 02
Rory Rammer, Volume 03 graphic depicting Rory Rammer, holding a ray gun, with a rocket ship in the background
Rory Rammer, Volume 03

We’ll have three exciting new releases for attendees at Dragon Con this year, and for those of you who are reading this website right now! First, our 2012 live production of “The Dunwich Horror” by H. P. Lovecraft, adapted by Thomas E. Fuller, featuring music by The Ghosts Project with Alton Leonard. Next, not just the long-awaited Volume 2, but also Volume 3 of our fan-favorite series Rory Rammer, Space Marshal, created and written by Ron N. Butler!

We’ve got a couple of other titles in the works that should be ready in time for the convention, but we hate to make promises we can’t keep, so watch this space for news of those when they’re ready!

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2018 HEAR Now Festival

We’re pleased and proud to announce that we have been selected to perform at the HEAR Now Festival’s Audio Tonight presentation! Atlanta Radio Theatre Company will travel to Kansas City, MO, to perform an episode of our fan-favorite series Rory Rammer, Space Marshal: The Colour of the Shadow of the Outsider Over the Mountain of Madness Out of Space. 

 

 

 

 

ConNooga 2018

ARTC makes its debut performance at ConNooga! We’ll be bringing you some Lovecraft with The Colour Out of Space and some Lovecraftian science fiction with Rory Rammer, Space Marshal: The Colour of the Shadow Over the Mountains of Madness Out of Space!

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31 Years of ARTC: LibertyCon 2009

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 LibertyCon where we presented Our Fair City by Robert A. Heinlein, Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper, and Rory Rammer, Space Marshal: Enemies Within! by Ron N. Butler. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

We’re prepping for our next performance at LibertyCon right now, and the setup there is a LOT different than what is depicted in these pictures. Come on over to Chattanooga, check out a great convention, and be a part of one of our best audiences of the year!

The famous Rory Rammer
The famous Rory Rammer “Yay!” sign!

David Benedict
David Benedict comes in peace. We hope.

Clair W. Kiernan and Ron N. Butler at the microphones.
Clair W. Kiernan and Ron N. Butler at the microphones.

Brad Weage playing two keyboards.
Brad Weage plays two keyboards and still turns his own pages!

Rachel Bowman runs recorded SFX.
Rachel Bowman on recorded SFX.

Clair W. Kiernan and Brian Phillips on the mics. Alton Leonard and Ron N. Butler wait their turn.
Clair W. Kiernan and Brian Phillips on the mics. Alton Leonard and Ron N. Butler wait their turn.

The Tech Crew - Bob Zimmerman, Bill Ritch, and Rachel Bowman.
The Tech Crew – Bob Zimmerman, Bill Ritch, and Rachel Bowman.

The Foley Team - Lili and Fiona K. Leonard.
The Foley Team – Lili and Fiona K. Leonard.

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31 Years of ARTC: Blues for Johnny Raven 2009

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 the Academy Theatre in Avondale Estates, which featured our 2009 performance of Blues for Johnny Raven by Thomas E. Fuller. Check out all the pictures on our Flickr album.

This was our 25th Anniversary performance, and so we really went all out, as they say.

Bill Kronick and Alton Leonard
Bill Kronick and Alton Leonard going “all out”.

Y’know, we talk about how surprising it is that we’ve lasted so long. But the truth is that good storytelling is and has always been valued, so it really shouldn’t be that surprising.

Mary Buchanan and Megan Tindale backstage.
Ok, maybe it’s a little surprising.

This performance featured some of our favorites, some blasts from the past, and was a ton of fun. We got to see our founder William Brown take the stage again to recite The Mountain Whippoorwill by Stephen Vincent Benet…

William Brown on stage.
You don’t often see someone playing the “air violin”.

…as well as one of our favorite Rory Rammer episodes: The Asteroid of Love.

Fiona Leonard, Megan Tindale, and Ariel Kasten sing with Ethan Hurlburt observing.
Featuring the beautiful Android Sisters!

We were also treated to Brad Strickland’s An Arkham Home Companion.

Brad Strickland
Brad Strickland, just telling a regular old story about a tentacled monster trying to steal an eldritch book.

We were also joined by our frequent musical guest Juliana Finch!

Juliana Finch
Juliana rocks harder than you.

And, lest we forget, the main attraction, Blues for Johnny Raven!

 

Fiona Leonard and Daniel Kiernan
Raven (Daniel Kiernan) listens to the case brought to him by Gloria Kinsolving (Fiona Leonard).

Brad Strickland and Daniel Kiernan
Raven (Daniel Kiernan) consults with his friend and informant, Benny the Gospel (Brad Strickland)

Mary Buchanan
Mary Buchanan takes a break from playing the sax.

Ariel Kasten and Megan Tindale
We have no idea what’s going on in this picture.

Blues for Johnny Raven is in the final stages of post-production now and will be available soon, first by download and later on CD!

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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!

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30 Years of ARTC: Sci Fi Summer 2004

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!

The convention scene has always been kind to ARTC. We get our biggest audiences, attract our most fervent fans, and have our biggest sales. We also have our best guest stars, and in 2004 we had the honor of performing alongside Lisa Getto at Sci Fi Summer.

Bill Ritch and Lisa Getto do a quick sound check.
Bill Ritch and Lisa Getto do a quick sound check.

Lisa was a great guest star. We actually don’t really know what she’s been up to lately, but if anybody has any info we’d love to catch up with her. She brought a talent to the show that really enhanced everyone’s performances and was a pleasure to work with!

Clair W. Kiernan preparing to sing bad karaoke in
Clair W. Kiernan preparing to sing bad karaoke in Rory Rammer, Space Marshal: Luna Shall Be Dry!

For our show selections, we went back to an old concept of Thomas E. Fuller’s, which was the idea of having a fictional radio network that broadcast old-time radio shows that were all in a similar vein. Occasionally one show would have a vague reference to another just to imply they were all in the same universe, but they didn’t really overlap. The concept was called the WOLF Broadcasting Network and we hope to get a bunch of these series into the studio very soon!

Phil Carter, Clair W. Kiernan, Megan Tindale, and Sketch MacQuinor in an episode of
Phil Carter, Clair W. Kiernan, Megan Tindale, and Sketch MacQuinor in an episode of Terra Tarkington: Interstellar Nurse’s Corps.

Among these shows were Terra Tarkington: Interstellar Nurses Corps by Wendy Webb, adapted from a story by Sharon Webb. This series tells the story of the intrepid Terra Tarkington and her adventures in the outer orbits with her beloved Dr. Brian-Scott.

Foley setup for Sci Fi Summer
Foley setup for Sci Fi Summer

We also included an episode of The Crimson Hawk. One of the great things about these kinds of shows is that they tend to be heavy on Foley. Some of our more elaborate productions make extensive use of recorded sound effects in order to keep the atmosphere more real, but in these shows we’re hearkening back to the days of old-time radio and so a little extra Foley is completely appropriate.

Cast members hold a makeshift sign that reads
The infamous “Yay!” of Rory Rammer.

Two episodes of Rory Rammer, Space Marshal were included. You can always tell when we’re doing Rory because of the infamous “Yay!” You can also tell when we forgot the sign and had to make a new one on the spot. Hey, give us a break. If you could see how much stuff we have to bring to a show, you’d be surprised we don’t forget more stuff.

Join us again next week for more 30th anniversary fun!

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30 Years of ARTC – Solution Unsatisfactory, Dragon Con 2001

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 brought you the story of Guards! Guards! at Dragon Con 2001. But we’ve been doing two shows at that convention for several years now and the second part of that double bill in 2001 was Robert Heinlein’s Solution Unsatisfactory.

Harlan Ellison introduces Atlanta Radio Theatre Company at Dragon Con 2001
Harlan Ellison introduces Atlanta Radio Theatre Company at Dragon Con 2001

First, we got things started off with a bang by being introduced by the legendary Harlan Ellison. Mr. Ellison has performed with us in the past and we were honored to be graced with his presence once again, even though he did not act with us in this production.

Henry Howard is presented with the ARTC Lifetime Achievement Award
Henry Howard is presented with the ARTC Lifetime Achievement Award

Shortly afterwards we took a moment to present Henry Howard, owner and operator of Audio Craft Studio, with the ARTC Lifetime Achievement Award. Henry’s studio has served us well for years, and he was instrumental in our acquisition of ARTC Studio. He has also produced and edited a huge amount of our work and we make use of his expertise whenever possible.

Thomas E. Fuller performs the iconic opening lines from Rory Rammer, Space Marshal
Thomas E. Fuller performs the iconic opening lines from Rory Rammer, Space Marshal

And we led off the performance with Rory Rammer, Space Marshal! The name of the exact episode has been misplaced, so if you were there, let us know what we did at this show and we’ll edit this to reflect it. But no matter which episode it was, it was a rip-roaring good time!

Daniel Kiernan and David Benedict share a laugh during the performance.
A rip-roaring good time

See? A rip-roaring good time!

Peter David and Alton Leonard in Solution Unsatisfactory
Peter David and Alton Leonard in Solution Unsatisfactory

After the Rory Rammer episode, we got to the main event. In addition to all the other star power we commanded in 2001, we were also joined by Peter David!

A scene in a radioactive room features the actors wearing masks to muffle their voices, just as their characters would be muffled.
A scene in a radioactive room

One scene in Solution Unsatisfactory features the characters in a room filled with radioactivity. They were wearing full lead armor in the script. We simulated that with standard filtering face masks.

Be sure to check out the rest of the album for even more great pictures!