Atlanta Radio Theatre's 25th Anniversary

[Brad from Georgia]

We celebrated the ARTC 25th anniversary at the Academy Theater in Avondale Estates (outside of Atlanta). Our two-hour show included music and radio plays ranging from forty minutes ("Blues for Johnny Raven," by my late writing partner Thomas E. Fuller) to five ("Bumper's Crossroads," by Daniel Taylor).

Since we've done a lot of (authorized!) H.P. Lovecraft adaptations and didn't have any actual H.P. Lovecraft ready to go, I did a ten-minute version of "An Arkham Home Companion," a piece I began years ago by simply improvising: We were in a radio studio on Saturday evening, using one of their recording facilities to lay down tracks for Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror." Tom Fuller, I, and several other cast members had done our parts and were waiting out in the reception area for the session to end. Over the feed in the reception room came "A Prairie Home Companion." As it ended, I asked Tom, "What if Garrison Keillor had been born in Arkham, Massachusetts [the site of most of Lovecraft's horror tales] instead of Lake Wobegon?" And I started out, "Well, it has been a quiet week in Arkham, Massachusetts. Tuesday night the Whateley boy, Wilbur, turned into a monster from outer space....."

Everyone laughed, and Tom said, "You've got to write that down." I've done it a dozen times or more now, and as you can see, I no longer even need a script.....

[shimp scrampi]

That sounds hysterical, Brad. You'll have to give us the chat room version at some point! Reminds me of when Jello Biafra named one of his albums "A Prairie Home Invasion".