Friendship and collaboration drive Arcane Productions as they revive radio theater with the Frightmare Theatre podcast, just in time for Halloween chills.
“Frightmare Theater podcast and is a horror anthology audio drama series, highly produced, full sound effects, music and everything.” Says Nathan Shelton, who founded the series and wears many hats in terms of its production- writer, editor and producer to name a few.
Collaborator and writer Heath Hillhouse compares the series to TV shows such as the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits.
Arcane Productions’ goal with this project was to reinvent the radio drama genre by “findings ways to bring in modern takes and use modern effects and different ways to create sound.” Says Hillhouse.
“It was so perfect for what we were doing with arcane and what we wanted our company to be.” Says Shelton. “We kind of blended it with things that we also liked with Tales From the Crypt, like horror host programs.”
Shelton and Hillhouse are not the only ones working on the project. Many other collaborators from across the country work with them, spanning between Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and more.
“That's why the show is, I think was so successful, is that we have all these different voices lending what they do best. It's not always the same writer.” says Shelton.
“I learned that to be a good director, to be a good producer, it's about facilitating and it's about that collaboration. And I think that really is what has made Arkane just such a wonderful home for us all.” He adds.
Arcane began to be developed in 2018, but ended up taking until 2019 so that the crew could get together their desired number of episodes. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group was able to focus even more on this endeavor. The group was able to secure actors for the project who were out of work due to the pandemic, which helped propel their productions.
Once the pandemic became more controllable, the industry started coming back up and the crew had to begin to return to their regular work. “You know, life gets in the way. And so we don't put out as many episodes as we used to. We used to have an episode every month. And then it was like every few months. And now I'm lucky to get a couple episodes out a year.” says Shelton.
Despite working in vastly different parts of the country and having to coordinate with other responsibilities, Arcane Productions continues to develop as an entity. In addition to radio drama work, the group has worked on film productions, theatre work and live events. In the future, they plan to expand their work to short films.
For more information on Arcane Productions, visit Shelton’s website or the Frightmare Theatre site.
