My interview with ARTC
Since 1984, the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company has been performing, recording, and broadcasting dramatic audio -- fully dramatized, fully sound-scaped audio drama.
I was able to have an interview with David Benedict, the vice prsident of this company
What are the 3 best things about working on audio dramas?
-- Getting to hear the progression from raw voice tracks to a finished product. Sometimes you listen to those first voice tracks and think "oh, no, this is going to be awful" but then you get the SFX and music in there and it becomes so much more than you expected.
-- Getting to hear actors really stretch their way into roles in ways that might not have been expected.
-- Because it's such a niche, the people who are also doing audio dramas are really friendly and passionate in ways that are different from other hobbies or professions.
What is your favorite thing about being a podcaster according to you?
Being one of the earlier podcasters (see below), I'm really enjoying watching the community growing. Of course lots of them are surpassing us, so that's kind of frustrating, but it's also inspiring and makes us want to step up our game.
How did you stumble into the world of podcasting?
ARTC has been actively producing audio drama since 1984 (I personally got involved around 1996 or thereabouts).
We got some actual radio airtime in the early days, but that became more difficult and so we migrated over to live performances, primarily at Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror conventions and we also started doing work in the studio, which we would sell at the performances and later by mail order online.
What we discovered was that in the early 2000s, when we started to make a more serious push at expanding our audience, a lot of folks weren't familiar with the words "audio drama" or "radio theatre" and so we would have to describe it to them.
We would usually fall back on something we knew they had already heard or at least heard OF like "War of the Worlds".
Or we would play them a sample of our work. And then we could see the lightbulb turn on.
They knew what it was, they just didn't know that they knew. It seemed logical that if we wanted to have more people understand what we did, which would lead to more listeners and presumably more sales, we needed to be able to have free samples easily available.
By this time we had approximately 10-15 years of live performances that we had archived for our own purposes, but which were generally deemed not good enough quality for sale. The majority of these performances were not in ideal sonic conditions - hotel ballrooms, coffeeshops, on one memorable occasion a hair salon, among others - so we'd just been sitting on them, glad to have them for the memories, but not sure what else to do with them.
They were the perfect free samples.
So in 2006 we launched the not-so-cleverly-named ARTC's Podcast. Considering that the first podcast launched in 2003 and the format didn't get that name until 2004, we came in relatively early.
ARTC's Podcast ran weekly to start, but that was too ambitious, so we scaled it back to the current monthly schedule. In 2016, after 10 years of publication, ARTC's Podcast became the Centauri Express Audio Magazine and is no longer running live performances, but instead runs the now-more-typical serialized studio-produced content.
What was the first podcast you listened to?
I honestly don't remember. In the early days I was too focused on producing ARTC's Podcast to listen to a lot of others. Even today it's hard to make time for it, which is a shame because there's so much good work being produced.
I feel bad not listening to more of what my peers are up to.
What is your writing process?
ARTC has been extremely lucky over its 30+ year history to have had a number of writers creating scripts and series for us. Each of their writing processes is different. I, myself, have ideas for two podcasts that I would like to launch, but those are in early development.
One will be a daily fiction podcast called "Mercury: A Broadcast of Hope" and that one might launch within the next few months. The other will have a more traditional schedule, but I won't be able to turn my full attention to it until Mercury launches.
What was the inspiration for starting ARTC?
In 1984 William Brown and Patrick Stansbury got together and decided they'd like to revitalize the art form of radio drama. They enlisted our longtime head writer Thomas Fuller and did most of the production work in William's bedroom. The rest is history. William is still active in the group and sits on our Board of Directors and consistently expresses his surprise and gratitude that ARTC has continued and thrived this long.
What do you like about audio drama as a medium?
Our late head writer Thomas Fuller said it best: I write audio drama because I find it to be the most plastic and economical mass media available... with radio drama, we make the audience, the listener, into a collaborator and transform their imaginations into our sets and actors.
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How does getting the script made into an actual audio drama work?
ARTC uses an ensemble-style structure. We still perform live 6-8 times per year and therefore have weekly rehearsals. Writers will bring new scripts in periodically and we have an extensive workshopping process where, after the reading, the cast, crew, and directors will give the writer feedback about what changes or improvements might be made.
Some scripts go through only one or two revisions, but others have gone through as many as 4 or 5. Once the script is in good shape then we determine the appropriate venue for it - should it go to a convention? Should we save it for a public show? Or should it go to the studio? And if it goes to the studio, should it be produced for sale or given away via the podcast or some other means?
Once venue is selected then we start the casting process. Because we have a fairly large ensemble (folks come and go, but most will come back if we tell them we have a need for their voice) we don't often have auditions. If we are doing a play that requires a voice or a skill that we don't have available, however, then we will post public audition notices for local actors.
After casting we do some rehearsals and then we go to record. We're very lucky to have ARTC Studio, a recording booth that can fit up to 4 actors comfortably and more if they're friendly with each other, so we like to record scenes as-live with everyone present whenever schedules allow. Following voice tracks then the editor will mix in SFX and music and that's it. Sometimes we do Foley (we always do live Foley for our live performances, but for the studio it depends on what sound we need...we might pull it from our SFX library or we might record it if we need to).
How do you go about getting others involved? Particularly if they’re far away?
ARTC is an extremely open and informal company. Getting involved is as easy as showing up. So actors will often bring their friends to rehearsal and we also make sure our live audiences know that they can come join if they want.
Unfortunately, working with people who are far away is one of our weaknesses.
We've had several opportunities to work with remote authors, but our workshopping style is just too difficult to implement with someone who isn't present for the reading.
We've also had some of our voice talent move away and we get roles that would be perfect for them...but can't seem to get the same kind of performance when they're not here.
And we have definitely tried. We even had one actress from overseas who wanted to work with us, but we just couldn't figure out how to do it. I suggested having her call in for the live performance, but the delay created by the long distance call would have made it challenging. I even suggested putting her character on the moon, which would explain the delay and make it part of the show, but my techs nixed the idea.
Could you tell us a bit about the process to turn a script into a finished audio drama. Which part do you enjoy the most?
Well, I'm an actor, so the part I enjoy the most is getting in the booth and playing a part, but I honestly have fun with the whole process.
From the script stage through casting, voice recording, editing, and the rest, I derive enjoyment from each of those things for different reasons.
Acting is just fun, voice recording gives me the opportunity to work with other talented actors, and the editing gives me a sense of satisfaction as I see these raw voices transformed into a complete work, plus the satisfaction of hitting milestones (voice tracks are done...SFX are done...music is done...each stage of completion is satisfying). Except footsteps. Everybody hates footsteps.
