72 - The Long Road: Red Butte Run

After over six months of being off the air the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company is bringing its podcast back on a monthly schedule. Why monthly? Because we're still not done with the archiving, but we couldn't bear to be away any longer. How long will the monthly updating last? We'll have to see.

Thanks so much to everyone who has hung in there. For now we're going to shoot for the second Thursday of every month by 8pm and in between I'll try to report any news that may be of note.

Remember, ARTC is supported by people like you through the sale of our studio productions. Order by mail through www.artc.org or make it easy on yourself and us by downloading from audible.com or iTunes.

A quick note about iTunes: For some reason you can't search for us by our name, you have to search by title or author. So make www.artc.org your first stop to make your selection, then scoot on over to iTunes for the download. You'll also find audio samples and trailers there, so it's well worth your visit.

Cthulhu Tuesday - The Wrong Medium

Every now and again, I do a web search for "Lovecraft news", just to see what comes up. Among the finds this time were these DVD reviews:

H. P. Lovecraft's From Beyond
Regina Leader-Post

Sporting cheap and often laughable special effects, this film presumably expected to horrify people with its alien-like creature bursting through a skull and other "scary" special effects. But even by 1986 standards, the effects are fake-looking, as are the blood and guts that are scattered liberally through the film, and it's considerably less scary than it is funny.

...Entirely forgettable, From Beyond has little to offer other than laughs at its campiness, and a reminder of how low-budget filmmaking by those with higher aspirations looked, back in the day.



H.P. Lovecraft's the Tomb
REEL ADVICE

I resolve to never again knowingly write about anything that Ulli Lommel does.

Lommel's The Tomb defies explanation. He's locked a bunch of people in that all-too-familiar warehouse set of his and let them run around in a vaguely Saw kind of atmosphere as they try to accomplish the ludicrous task of figuring out why they're there in the first place and the much more rational task of trying to get out alive.

---

I'd like to recommend that you forego these gems and try an audio-drama adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's works. The special effects in your own mind are much better than anything Hollywood can build.

Modesty forbids me from pointing out that one popular source makes its latest live production, The Colour Out of Space, available for free download.

And if that one satisfies, there's a five-part adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth featuring author (and gifted actor) Harlan Ellison, also for free.

For now...

Cthulhu Tuesday - The Nameless Dread

The woman who originally mashed-up The Family Circus and H. P. Lovecraft has taken the images down, reportedly to avoid fame for the wrong reasons. One or two of them can still be found, though, and I have no such reservations. Beer & Meat had this one.

Podcast 71 - To Dine With the Devil - Repeat

Hey, folks, another rerun this week, but fear not...plans are afoot to bring you new material in a more timely fashion. Plus, possible new podcast-only material! Stay tuned!

To Dine with the Devil

by Ivan Turgenev
Adapted for Audio by Joyce Leigh
Performed Live at Sci Fi Summer 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia

The old Russian proverb states:
"Those who dine with the devil may end up on the menu."

If you like H.P. Lovecraft, you'll love this....Not for the squeamish.

Credits:

Voice Talent (in alphabetical order): David Benedict, Phil Carter, Doug Kaye, Clair Kiernan, Daniel Kiernan, Joyce Leigh, Trudy Leonard
Original Music by Alton Leonard and Brad Weage
Directed by Doug Kaye
Sound Engineering by David Carter and William Alan Ritch assisted by Ray Spitz
Sound Effects by Henry Howard
Live Foley by Lili and Sonya and assisted by Anthony Fuller

Direct download: ARTC71-DineDevil-R.mp3

Podcast 70 - An Atlanta Christmas: "Civil War Triptych" - Episode 7

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.

Direct download: ARTC70-Xmas07.mp3

69 - An Atlanta Christmas - Episode 4 - Repeat

Hey, folks, sorry for the multiple repeats this year, but this holiday season is busy busy busy!! Live shows, paying work, shopping, parties...it all adds up. But fear not, new material is coming!

Our annual gift to our listeners continues with more excerpts from An Atlanta Christmas. This week we bring you three short pieces and another lovely song. We hope you enjoy it.

The Santa Claus Blues, by Thomas E. Fuller
Rory Rammer, Space Marshal: A Visit From St. Rex, by Ron N. Butler
The Tree Comes to Atlanta, by Thomas E. Fuller
O Holy Night, performed by the ARTC Chorus

Direct download: ARTC69Xmas04-R.mp3

68 - An Atlanta Christmas Episode 6

This week's episode is from an extremely recent show. Like this past weekend. Yes, from December 8, 2007 at 4pm to be exact, we present "Cut-Out Christmas" by Thomas E. Fuller, adapted for audio by Daniel Taylor and featuring the voices of Veronica Byrd and Burt Tanner. Foley effects created by Sonya with Caran Wilbanks. Music by Brad Weage.

Direct download: ARTC68-Xmas06.mp3

67 - An Atlanta Christmas part 1 - Repeat

Christmas is memories. For the next 4 podcasts, ARTC will be bringing you some of our favorite memories from our holiday programming, drawing heavily from Thomas E. Fuller's An Atlanta Christmas, but with a few other surprises along the way.

This week we bring you The Ultimate Christmas Pageant and O Tannenbaum by Thomas E. Fuller, and Some Assembly Required, by Daniel Taylor.

Direct download: ARTC67-Xmas01-R.mp3

Podcast 66 - Blazing the Trail of Tears part 2

Back in 2004 ARTC performed an outdoor show at Stone Mountain Park for their Frontier Days festival. We've brought you some of that material here in the podcast before and today we revisit it with Mike Langford's Blazing the Trail of Tears in two parts. The timing of this story for this podcast is not lost on us. It is not a proud part of Georgia or American history, but it is an important one. We hope you enjoy the presentation.

Direct download: ARTC66-Tears02.mp3

Podcast 65 - Blazing the Trail of Tears part 1

Back in 2004 ARTC performed an outdoor show at Stone Mountain Park for their Frontier Days festival. We've brought you some of that material here in the podcast before and today we revisit it with Mike Langford's Blazing the Trail of Tears in two parts. The timing of this story for this podcast is not lost on us. It is not a proud part of Georgia or American history, but it is an important one. We hope you enjoy the presentation.

Direct download: ARTC65-Tears01.mp3

64 - Blues for Johnny Raven

This week ARTC takes a well-deserved break from new podcast material, bringing you instead a re-run of one of our absolute favorite pieces, Blues for Johnny Raven by Thomas E. Fuller.

Size: 17M Duration: 37:04
Direct download: ARTC64-Blues-R.mp3

Podcast 63 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth part 5

This week we conclude our five part presentation of H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, adapted for audio by Thomas E. Fuller and Gregory Nicholl. It features the voice of legendary writer Harlan Ellison, as well as anime voice actor Michael Brady.

This was performed live at Dragon*Con 2004 and was part of our celebration of our 20th anniversary!

We hope you've enjoyed the last several weeks of podcasting. I've been including a wide selection of our adaptations. Beginning next week we will return to our original material and in December we will present once again selections from Thomas E. Fuller's An Atlanta Christmas...along with a few other seasonal favorites from our own in-house writers.

Our next live performances will be on Saturday, December 22 at 8:00pm and Sunday, December 23 at 2:30pm at the Stage Door Players in Dunwoody. Mark your calendars for our annual presentation of Thomas E. Fuller's An Atlanta Christmas.

Size: 5.7M Duration: 12:11

Link - Download

Podcast 62 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth part 4

This week we continue our five part presentation of H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, adapted for audio by Thomas E. Fuller and Gregory Nicholl. It features the voice of legendary writer Harlan Ellison, as well as anime voice actor Michael Brady.

This was performed live at Dragon*Con 2004 and was part of our celebration of our 20th anniversary!

Our next live performances will be on Saturday, December 22 at 8:00pm and Sunday, December 23 at 2:30pm at the Stage Door Players in Dunwoody. Mark your calendars for our annual presentation of Thomas E. Fuller's An Atlanta Christmas.

Duration: 17:47 Size: 8.3M

Link - Download

Podcast 61 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth part 3

This week we continue our five part presentation of H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, adapted for audio by Thomas E. Fuller and Gregory Nicholl. It features the voice of legendary writer Harlan Ellison, as well as anime voice actor Michael Brady.

This was performed live at Dragon*Con 2004 and was part of our celebration of our 20th anniversary!

This Saturday, October 27, ARTC will present The Rats in the Walls by H. P. Lovecraft at the Stage Door Players in Dunwoody. Come be a part of the recording of the source material for these podcasts!

Size: 8.7M Duration: 18:37

Link - Download

Podcast 60 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth part 2

This week we continue our five part presentation of H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, adapted for audio by Thomas E. Fuller and Gregory Nicholl. It features the voice of legendary writer Harlan Ellison, as well as anime voice actor Michael Brady.

This was performed live at Dragon*Con 2004 and was part of our celebration of our 20th anniversary!

Size: 8M Duration: 17:13

Link - Download

Podcast 59 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth part 1

This week we are pleased to begin a five part presentation of H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, adapted for audio by Thomas E. Fuller and Gregory Nicholl. It features the voice of legendary writer Harlan Ellison, as well as anime voice actor Michael Brady.

This was performed live at Dragon*Con 2004.

There is Adventure in Sound!

Link - Download

Size: 8M Duration: 16:54

58 - Solution Unsatisfactory part 3

This week we are pleased to continue our podcast of the Dragon*Con 2001 production of Robert A. Heinlein's Solution Unsatisfactory. Guest starring in this production are Peter David and Lisa Getto.

Size: 8.4M Duration: 17:51

Link - Download

57 - Solution Unsatisfactory part 2

This week we are pleased to continue our podcast of the Dragon*Con 2001 production of Robert A. Heinlein's Solution Unsatisfactory. Guest starring in this production are Peter David and Lisa Getto.

Size: 8.4M Duration: 17:53

Link - Download

56 - Solution Unsatisfactory part 1

Back in 2001 we performed an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's Solution Unsatisfactory. As you might expect, we were very proud and excited to present a work by such a well-regarded author. And since it was written in 1941 we were already aware that Mr. Heinlein had seemingly seen the future of world events by predicting the use of atomic weapons, although in a different form.

Little did we realize how memorable this performance would become. Performed live on August 31, we planned studio time for September 12, 2001. Needless to say we moved this production up in the queue.

Guest starring in this production are Peter David and Lisa Getto.

Duration: 18:57 Size: 8.8M

Link - Download

Another photo from "Guards! Guards!"

John Rhys-Davies
Originally uploaded by dtaylor404

John Rhys-Davies and Daniel Taylor. Background: David Benedict, Jonathan Strickland, Brad Strickland. Yes, there were plenty of people in this play with larger roles than me, but I'm running this blog. So sue me. Photo by Ken Grimes.