A brief overview of the history of the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company.
Founding (1984-1992) ARTC was founded in 1984 by radio personality William L. Brown and actor/director Patrick Stansbury. They procured underwriting from a local bank to sponsor a weekly, one-hour program on
WGST-AM. The first shows were produced in Brown's home studio. Atlanta playwright
Thomas E. Fuller was enlisted as principal writer, and numerous actors from the local theatrical community were cast in the productions. Soon Henry Howard, owner of Audio Craft, made his facility available to ARTC and came on board as a producer. ARTC produced a full 13-week schedule for WGST in summer of 1984. That fall ARTC moved to
WABE-FM, the local Public Radio station, and ran a full season of thirteen shows. Then the next year they produced the
SouthernAire Workshop for Peach State Public Radio (now
Georgia Public Broadcasting. Most of the shows were performed "live" or "live-on-tape" in-studio. In the summer of 1987 ARTC began performing live at
science fiction conventions. Their first live performance was at the first
DragonCon. The play was
H. P. Lovecraft's "
The Call of Cthulhu" as adapted by
Gerald W. Page. Also in 1987 ARTC introduced the
Centauri Express Audio Magazine—the first audio magazine. It ran for five issues and contained plays, reviews of other audio products, and news of interest to the SF audience.
Centauri Express was funded with a grant from the 1986
World Science Fiction Convention,
ConFederation, held in Atlanta.
Explosion (1992-2002) Under Fuller's leadership, ARTC established a troupe of professional and semi-professional actors, writers, directors, and technicians, to create live and in-studio productions of audio drama. In 1993 and 1994, they began performing monthly at a coffee house in the Little Five Points district in Atlanta. This theater experience allowed for the development of new writers, gave the actors more radio experience, and allowed for experimentation with new formats and styles. These coffee house shows created many new stand-alone plays as well as radio series in the style of the programs from the
golden age of radio. After the coffee house closed, the live performance troupe continued to find venues for live audio theatre. They performed at a few live music venues, the
Decatur Arts Festival,
Callanwolde, and several libraries and bookstores. They also expanded the number of science fiction conventions at which they performed. Even during this period ARTC continued to create in-studio audio drama on cassette tape and eventually CDs. Their 1996 production of
H. G. Wells'
The Island of Doctor Moreau won a silver
Mark Time award for excellence in science fiction audio drama. It was the first of several awards from the Mark-Time award committee to the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. In 1995, ARTC's first web page was posted. For several years during this period ARTC performed live every Halloween night on Peach State Public Radio – performing and broadcasting from one of the Georgia Public Television studios. Starting in 1996 with permission from Mrs. Virginia Heinlein to adapt her husband's
The Menace from Earth into an audio play, the company has continued to negotiate with contemporary writers for permission to create adaptations of their work. Among the writers whose work has been adapted by ARTC are:
Robert A. Heinlein,
James P. Hogan,
Brad Linaweaver,
Gerald W. Page,
John Ringo,
Brad Strickland, and
Margaret Weis and
Tracy Hickman.
Post-Fuller (2002-present) In November 2002 Fuller died from a heart attack. The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company had lost its leader, its head writer, and its voice. ARTC attracted new writers, new actors, and new leaders. It continued to expand the number of places where it performed and new productions. ARTC continued to perform at many science fiction conventions. Additionally it began searching for a permanent stage home for regular performances. From 2002 through 2003 it mounted several productions at
Stone Mountain Park. Then in 2006 it began a full theatrical season at Stage Door Players in
Dunwoody, Georgia. In 2009 it moved its theatrical home to the Academy Theatre in Avondale Estates, Georgia. In August 2006, ARTC began to
podcast programming gathered from previous live performances. The podcasts include new material, old fan favorites, and rare performances. ==Studio Recordings==