Fans of each other's work, prolific author and publisher David Lee Summers and multi-award-winning actor and multimedia producer/director Eric Schumacher met over burgers at a local eatery in Tucson, Arizona with one question on their minds. How do we use our mutual skills and resources to do something really helpful for authors and fellow creators?
After significant brainstorming ,a storyline began to develop. Summers, no stranger to the production of traditional audiobooks had published a beloved science fiction/fantasy magazine (Tales of the Talisman) for over 10 years in written form. Schumacher, having upwards of 30 awards under his belt for various film and visual media streaming series as an actor, producer, director, or all three had always been a fan of audio media dramas and was trained in voice acting by some of the best in the business. With the dramatic rise of interest in spoken word audio media, it seemed only natural to create an anthology series such as the Museum of the Omniverse. Thus began the story development and vetting phase for the first volume. Together the two reached out to their networks of authors, technical production and postproduction crew, actors etc. and led a team of excellent and seasoned artists to create the first volume in what is intended to be at least a 10 volume series of audio dramas featuring stories from a diverse scope of authors in the science fiction and fantasy fields. Each anthology will focus on a different sub-genre, the first being stories about dragons, and will be wrapped around an overarching storyline related to the Museum of the Omniverse itself.
Once the stories were vetted and production had begun, the team faced significant challenges as the global Covid-19 pandemic caused them to rethink their production strategy. As experienced producers, they were used to adapting to changing circumstances and switched from using local talent at Seelie Studios headquarters in Tucson, Arizona to broadening the cast and bringing aboard a diverse talent base from across the United States, Europe, and Canada all working from home studios under the direction of Schumacher and co-director Tyrel Good.
Not stopping there, they recruited Nashville, Tennessee based musician and composer Jeff Moon to create an original soundtrack which would become a separate musical album release for the series as well. They also brought on board beloved science fiction and fantasy artist Laura Givens to create stunning and unique cover art for each story in the series which will also be available as separate merchandise releases. After many months of developing production and postproduction strategies, the team has finally released volume 1, Museum of the Omniverse: Dragon Exhibit.
Volume 2: Museum of the Omniverse: Spacefarer's Exhibit is already in production.