It occurs to us that, unless you've been following ARTC very closely throughout our live performances, you may not know much about these scripts, all of which are at various stages in our production pipeline.
All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein, adapted by Victor Koman. There is a Bar in the City. You don't need to know the name, you don't even need to know the location. You'll find it if you have to. The owner is tending the bar and he'll listen to your problems if you buy a drink. But if you're the Right Person, he'll listen a little too much. And know a lot more about you than you've told him. And you'll make the horrible discovery that the world isn't nearly as crowded as you thought it was.
Blues for Johnny Raven by Thomas E. Fuller. The city could be anywhere, or nowhere. It exists as a collection of sounds, the cacaphonous symphony that creates the illusion of millions of people going about their lives. The only name the city has is The Loop. And only one man really understands it. He is a private detective with a gift; a gift for hearing the nuance, the timbre, the ambiance that separates a featured player from an also-heard. A man named Johnny Raven.
Can You Hear Me? by Thomas E. Fuller. Mandy, Candy and Lori make their living on the telephone, each in her own unique way. Lori is about clothes. Candy is about places. Mandy... Mandy is a very good listener. That is her specialty. She listens while the callers tell her what they want to do to her, what they want her to do to them. It's nothing personal, they're just voices on the phone. But another voice keeps breaking into her calls, a voice from...somewhere. A voice who calls her by name, not the name she gives her paying customers, but her real name. Who is he... where is he... how does he know her...and what does he want?
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, adapted by Henry Lee Forrest. An American family, living in England, takes possession of one of its lovely manor houses--only to discover that a previous inhabitant has not yet vacated the premises. An inhabitant who is frustrated into apoplexy by the matter-of-fact attitude with which the Otis family greet their resident ghost.
Country of the Blind, by H. G. Wells, adapted by Daniel Taylor. A mountaineer takes a fall into a valley that has been isolated from the rest of the world for seventeen generations; a "mysterious plague" had rendered them all sightless many generations ago. Nunez, our hero, recalls fables of this valley and its hidden gold -- and the old proverb, "In the Country of the Blind, the one-eyed man is King." But the valley's life is so comfortable, the people so well adjusted to their condition, that they no longer know what sight is. And Nunez cannot convince them that his mysterious "fifth sense" is not simply raving madness.
Guerilla Radio Theatre by Daniel Taylor. Popular talk-radio personality Gene Quartz loses control of his program when members of a radio theater company take over his studio and unleash the Magic of Radio on an unsuspecting audience.
Our Fair City by Robert A. Heinlein, adapted by Brad Strickland. It's a City. A Big City, brawling, dirty -- and corrupt. But, hey, whacha gonna do? You Can't Fight City Hall. At least that's what a reporter from the local fishwrapper thought until he came across a determined assistant mayor, an old man who ran a very special parking lot. . . And a whirlwind named Kitten.
Rory Rammer, Space Marshal by Ron N. Butler. "Come away with us now, to the far-off future days of 1985 A.D., after men have landed on the Moon, when Space Marshal Rory Rammer and his sidekick "Skip" Sagan guard the rule of law and the rights of the innocent-- 'From the Skies of Earth to the Orbit of the Moon!'"
Rory Rammer, Space Marshal: Queen of the Spaceways by Ron N. Butler. Rory, Skip and undercover operative Michiko Sakai investigate a series of puzzling spaceliner hijackings between Earth and the Moon.
Special Order is available now.
Two's a Crowd by Thomas E. Fuller, adapted by Daniel Taylor. Roommates and brothers George and Christian could not be less alike. George is an outdoor photographer; Christian is a drama critic. George likes the Blue Ridge; Christian likes Das Rhinegold. Beer vs wine. Flannel vs silk. With a premise like this, you might be expecting an Odd Couple knockoff. But there's a little secret about George and Christian that nobody else knows, an incredible secret that Connie, the woman they both love, is about to learn.
Throne of Shadows by Thomas E. Fuller, adapted by Daniel Taylor, will probably be the next CD release. Maximilian and Carlota, Emperor and Empress of Mexico, 1865-1867. Maximilian was captured by Mexican nationalists and executed: Carlota went mad. She lived in a fantasy world, in the glory of the Second Mexican Empire, for sixty-one years more, until 1928. All this is true, and can be verified in any history of Mexico. Throne of Shadows opens in the year 1922, in the Chateau de Bouchon in Belgium. Carlota's doctor and caregiver seek to hire an actress to help them humor their mistress, "flesh out" her fantasies. But Carlota's world is very real to her: Only the strongest of wills can avoid being drawn into the fantasy with her...if it is a fantasy.
Zap Thy Neighbor by James Hogan, adapted by Daniel Taylor. Freedom of speech means freedom to be rude. Any of us could name a few people the world would be better off without. But rude and troublesome people are part of the price we pay for just walking around. It's been said that an armed society is a polite society. What if every individual person held the trigger to a weapon that could discretely target and kill any other individual person? Would we live in terror of each other? Or would we just become -- more polite?