After The Haunting by Casey Wolfe
Original release date October 24 – November 24, 2017
Earbud Theater’s first serialized production! After The Haunting tells the tale of Tony Itch, a young man with a guilty secret returning to his hometown. What Tony doesn’t know is that the town has a secret for him. Former high-school best friend Analucia “Bumper” Mendez informs him that a house, long rumored to be haunted, very publicly VANISHED in front of half the town. As the terrorized citizens deal with the fallout, Tony enlists Bumper to help him investigate the site of the paranormal experience only to learn that After The Haunting – the real terror begins.
Download all five parts assembled in SUPERCUT form HERE. OR,
Download Episode 1 HERE
Download Episode 2 HERE
Download Episode 3 HERE
Download Episode 4 HERE
Download Episode 5 HERE
CREDITS
Written and Directed by Casey Wolfe
Produced by Casey Wolfe and Craig Good
Coproduced by Nicholas Thurkettle and Jared Rivet
STARRING
Jared Rivet as Tony Itch
Sara Amini as Analucia “Bumper” Mendez
Nicholas Thurkettle as Professor Watkins
Sean Keller as Sheriff Atkins
Rico Anderson as The Bus Driver, Mr. Itch and Mr. Gallows
Melissa Graver as Mrs. Itch and Mrs. Gallows
Tracy Clifton as Deborah Gallows
and
Rhyan Hill as Rhyan
SOUND EFFECTS, EDITING, AND MIXING by Craig Good
Additional sounds provided by Freesound.org
MUSIC Original Score by Adam Barber
SPOT ART by Jordan Crane
Cast and Crew
The guys behind the guys. Or maybe that’s what you’d call them in any other medium, but in Audio Drama, maybe these are the guys in front of the guys. I’m talking about our Editor/Mixer/Sound Wizard Craig Good and our composer Adam Barber. All week we’ve rolled out our performers who do an amazing job of bringing the characters to life. But these guys bring the world to life. Playing off of each other (and this is the first time they’ve worked together) Craig and Adam have concocted a soundscape that will take you someplace you’ve never been. It’s what it’s all about, really – mood, emotion, and in this case – terror.
You know Craig Good and his work – he’s been doing sound for us since “The Creaky Stairs,” and he even wrote one of our more popular episodes, “911.” Craig formerly worked at Pixar before turning his sites to not only sound-design, but a myriad of other film and audio related talents. You can see what genius looks like HERE. Find him also on Facebook and Twitter.
Adam Barber is brand new to Earbud. In fact, it’s the first time we’ve had original music done for us – and it is fucking SWEET. So we were doubly excited when he agreed to step in and do the original score for “After The Haunting.” Adam composes scores for television and film. You can catch his work in “Last Shift” which is currently streaming as well as the upcoming feature film “Extremity.” Check out his credits and sample his tunes HERE. Adam is also on Facebook and Instagram.
Ladies and gentlemen, your co-stars. Sara Amini and Jared Rivet!
It’s an Audio Drama Sunday two-fer. These two talented actors shouldered their respective performances like total champs. It’s not often you can say there was a lot of screaming and crying like it was a good thing – but there was a lot of screaming and crying and it was a good thing. You’ll see by part five that both of them had their own kinda crazy ordeals to go through, I imagine it’s the kind of thing you read and say to yourself, “I don’t even understand what this IS much less how I’m going to perform it.” But you know what? They not only executed their respective roles – they brought totally unexpected nuance to them, brought them to life, you might say – (and maybe even … death…).
Sara Amini is brand new to the Earbud lair and came recommended to us from longtime producing collaborator Aaron Drown. We asked Aaron for a set of specifics that were written for the role. He brought up a woman he’d been working with and sent us THIS. Needless to say, that clip not only hit one mark, it hit seventy. We asked, she said yes, the rest will be Earbud history. Sara’s recently been doing an acting stint on Veep, has completed a first season of the comedy “Misery Loves Company” and you can watch that RIGHT NOW. Sara is also a finalist in the NBC Short Film Festival and the NYTVF Independent Pilot Competition. Find her on Twitter.
And Jared Rivet? If you’re a listener to the show, you certainly know his name. He wrote and directed “The Creaky Stairs,” took us for a ride “On The Line,” asked the question “Are You Sleeping?” and then sent you on a path to terror in “Trails.” For straight up horror, he’s the man. And this has been the year of Jared – his first feature film JACKALS had its premiere at the famous Mann’s Chinese Theater and is now available to stream on iTunes, Amazon, Vudu and more. It’s also available on Blu-Ray and if you live in the Los Angeles area, Jared will be doing a signing at the super-cool bookstore, Dark Delicacies. If you’re feeling slightly more daring, you can check out Dead Right Horror Trivia Night which is held once a month in Burbank, Jared is the host and quizmaster (the questions will melt your brain).
You can also catch his performance in the very funny “The Haunting of Lester House.” Find Jared on Twitter and Facebook.
Rico Anderson was the co-star of our super popular episode “Renaissance Man,” (Which we liked so much we submitted it for a Parsec Award), it was only a matter of time before we had him back in the Earbud lair and he graciously agreed to voice not one, not two, but THREE roles for “After The Haunting!” A triple threat. There is one scene in the story where Rico’s character ominously confronts Tracy Clifton’s character – it’s heavy and we were lucky enough to capture a shot of that during the recording.
You can feel the gravity coming off that photo! (You can also see the team mascot in the center of the table. A model of the Dodge Challenger from the movie Vanishing Point that we’re fairly certain belonged to Rian Johnson. (How’s that for random trivia?)
Rico has a dedicated fanbase for performances in the Star Trek: Renegades and most recently on the comedy The Orville. Very happy he decided to beam down and hang with us for a more decidedly earthbound (but no less cosmic!) adventure with “After The Haunting!” Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Or check out his boss website!
It takes a whole team of talented individuals to pull off something like “After The Haunting.” Today we pause from the acting contingent to note something that might get overlooked in a medium that focuses on audio – the visuals and the artist creating them. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Jordan Crane! Jordan will be doing five original pieces of art, one for each episode of the show. He’s already delivered this stunner:
Spot art for podcasts are crucial. We live in an era of judging books by the cover (for better or worse), so we’re thrilled to have Jordan creating dynamic visuals that not only represent the heart of the show, but bring it to life for dedicated listeners and listeners-to-be!
Jordan was nominated for a 2017 Eisner Award for his deliciously profound graphic novel Uptight (#5). It’s an amazing read – it’s one of those works of art that make the most of the medium. A story that has to be told the way its told. This one is indelible and at times very disturbing maybe even more-so for the fact that it’s painfully honest. You might think you’re plunging into the lives of a married couple, or following an ill-fated team of astronauts, but really you’re going to dive deep into unexplored parts of your soul. Can not recommend this enough. We’re truly grateful for his participation in this project and can’t wait to see what else he has in store for us. Check out more of Jordan’s work HERE and follow him on TWITTER and Instagram.
[Read this in a heavyweight boxing match-style introduction] He’s a Titan of the Earbud lair! The hardest working man in the arts and the creator of several Earbud podplays – Nicholas Thurkettle! Though he’s a big-time writer/director (see below), Nick exercised his triple-threat acting skill in “After the Haunting.” The dude is great at intuiting what every role needs and this was no exception. A little serious, a little crazy, his performance of this scholarly role was a great stew of nuance and a strong foundation for the whole story. And in spite of this being straight up horror, he manages to inject a little humor into his scenes without breaking tone. There were just words on the page, but the life of the character? That’s all Nick.
Nick has written and directed FOUR SHORT FILMS, one of which is currently starting its festival tour (coming your way?). He wrote the Crunchyroll Original anime Children of Ether, co-produced the hybrid dark romantic comedy/horror film A Ghost Waits (now in post-production), and is the author of a short story collection Stages of Sleep. If you want to witness his acting chops you can check out, Cloudy With a Chance of Sunshine as well as the supernatural thriller Revelator.
Sean Keller takes the stage! I have to be honest, I feel guilty sometimes about my own internal typecasting when it comes to Sean. He’s my default go-to guy for the gravely-voiced, slightly southern-accented tough guy. Sean’s been around since the days of “Ethan Burrows” so it’s only right that we have him back in After The Haunting playing a – let’s say – disillusioned tough guy. We’ll leave it at that. You might also remember Sean as the co-lead in “Bea Little” where he plays a husband who brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘head games.’
When he’s not behind the mic at Earbud, Sean is writing for the TV and feature world and acting on screen. Oh and on stage, he does that too. Oh, and he’s a singer/songwriter. Really, he kinda does it all. Most recently he performed in SLASHED! THE MUSICAL which is prepping for another official run in Los Angeles at a time and place to be determined. We will keep you posted on that in the meantime keep an eye out in 2018 for THE CAPTURE the sci-fi feature he co-wrote and produced. Find Sean on Facebook and Twitter.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Tracy Clifton! She’s back! Tracy is one of the sweetest, nicest people we know and she’s always game to come play in the Earbud lair. She’s been in several of our episodes from “The Creaky Stairs” to this summer’s release “Trails.” One thing that gets us about her performance in the latter title is that the intensity/rage/insanity does NOT match with the visual. In person Tracy is kind of petite, but on that piece of audio she is a nine-foot tall ax-wielding maniac. That’s quite a performance. “In After The Haunting” Tracy plays a member of the ill-fated Gallows family. There’s a real backstory to the character – and it’s staggeringly horrific.
Recently Tracy did her own dive into a haunting with the comedic short that she wrote, produced, and starred in! Check out The Haunting Of Lester House. It’s awesome. You can also follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
We convinced Melissa Graver to take some time away from feature films (You see “Why Him?” with James Franco? Yeah, she’s in that.) to come and hang with us for a bit. Again. You’ll remember Melissa from an Earbud that came out two years ago called “Bea Little.” There she plays the title character of the scheming wife who makes quite a life-decision after visiting Earbud’s omnipresent Dr. Lebeaux. In “After The Haunting” she plays someone much more diplomatic, but no less fated (hint: be careful who you marry…).
For the next few days we’ll present unto you our cast and we’ll start with Rhyan Hill. This is Rhyan’s second appearance on Earbud Theater, his first being the star of “There’s Something Going On With Sam” written by Aaron Woolfolk (still waiting for a sequel Aaron…). Rhyan’s performance in TSGOWS was so indelible, his role in After The Haunting was written specifically for him. Rhyan is a super talented kid – something you can check out HERE (dude can dance! however, there will be no dancing in our podplay because that’s just not good audio drama). You can find him on Instagram and Twitter. “After The Haunting” will be released September 26th – subscribe on iTunes or get it directly here on the Earbud website.
Art by the amazing Jordan Crane*We had some help from fans this year and we’d be remiss if we didn’t thank them upfront. Special thanks to those who contributed to our fundraiser to help get this thing off the ground. You are legends. Brian Hayes, Aaron Woolfolk, David Gilbreth, Emi Mochizuki, Edward Champion, Geoff Chang, Adam Lamb, Jim Cooper, and Patrick Curtis.