A One-Act Challenge

Yesterday, I came upon this Call for Submissions:

Seeking Radio-Drama adaptations of Cosmic/Eldritch Horror for Halloween 2026 anthology

https://www.nycplaywrights.org/2026/06/seeking-radio-drama-adaptations-of.html

Cosmic (or Eldritch) horror is a subgenre of speculative fiction pioneered by H.P. Lovecraft. It revolves around the terrifying realization that humanity is completely insignificant in a vast, uncaring universe. The fear stems not from monsters jumping out of the dark, but from the mind-bending incomprehensibility of reality itself. [Wikipedia]

The selected plays will be recorded as an old-time radio show in the style of shows like Suspenseand The Inner Sanctum, and should be 30-45 pages. Trouble is, I don’t have a 30-45 Lovecraftian radio drama laying around.

So I have to write one.

Trouble is, the deadline is June 30, so I don’t have a lot of time.

Oh, and the other requirement is it has to be an adaptation of a public domain story. Now, HP Lovercraft has a million horror short stories full of atmosphere and dread just begging to be adapted to radio (many already have, and were performed on some of those shows I mention above. It doesn’t have to be Lovecraft, there are lots of stories by early pre-1930 authors out there, but it has to be one that will work as a radio drama (i.e. without visuals).

So I have to pick one to adapt. Right now I’m leaning toward either The Music of Erich Zann or The Colour Out of Space by HP Lovecraft, The Willows by Algernon Blackwood, The Repairer of Reputations or The Mask by Robert W. Chambers, or The Horla by Guy de Maupassant. But I’ve never read any of them, I’m going on their descriptions and reputation.

I love adaptations. I adapted the children’s book The King With Six Friends into a one-act play, and I started adapting The Monkey’s Paw but haven’t gotten very far on that one.

So I better start reading…

Barry