Nutmeg Junction News Anchors Deborah Goodman and Dan Willey begin to host an election special report when breaking news of a different sort changes the coverage.

Then the mystery solvers with their elephant friend Packy-Dermy-Poo try to solve the mystery of the Capitol Ghost!

Episode 29 of Nutmeg Junction features an all star cast  Darcy Abbott, Kurt Boucher, Nick Bourne, Rich Cyr, Robert C. Fullerton, Deborah Goodman, Jandi Hanna, Lana Peck, Jeff Savage, Sharon Waagner, Olivia Wadsworth, Dan Willey with Packy Dermy Poo as himself.

SHOW NOTES

With an election coming up as the time of the writing of the episode there was consideration to write something loosely related to that event but the news in recent weeks has been utterly horrifying and depressing.   The idea of doing a show about good news came from Lana Peck. She shared a story of a woman who waves and smiles to commuters every morning.

Then after posting about the idea online, we heard from photographer Sheila Ivain who shared the story about a person sharing a grocery cart with a stranger. Stories of random acts of kindness were plentiful,

We were lucky to have Dan Willey and Deborah Goodman come in to anchor the news report. Deborah will be directing Dan in an upcoming one-act play for the Phoenix Stage Company  so we got them at the right time!

For inspiration I shared with them the Monty Python election coverage segment from a youtube to show the sense of “urgency” they needed to convey.

This was a show that had a lot of roles and was one of the largest cast for any single episode and even so we had some actors take on dual roles.

Jandi Hanna portrayed the economics analyst and ad libbed some mathematical components to her analysis which gave it a nice realistic feel. She also portrayed Ms. Gleamer, a CEO who was lobbying a state senator in the Packa-Dermy-Poo story.

Robert C. Fullerton took on the dual role of Robert Sinnick, the analyst who is always interrupted and Senator Stimpleton in the Packa-Dermy-Poo segment (which I’ll discuss later.

Nick Bourne took on two roles as well, as the reporter Mike Rafone and as the politician’s assistant Chad Wormly.

Jeff Savage ALSO does a dual role, as Phil R. Material in the news segment and then returns for a tour de force performance as Red Herring in the Packa-Dermy-Poo segment. I could write Red Herring all day long.

Sharon Waagner returns to Junction as the eye witness. Sharon voiced the doctor on Space Sentries where she has a one word catchphrase “Ooops” ! Here she has more to work with and it’s lots of fun-but dont worry, the doctor will return in Space Sentries when we return to that storyline!

Darcy Abbott is the host of “The Hot Spot with Darcy” on WAPJ Mondays 4-7pm. I had the pleasure of interviewing Darcy regarding the Still River Music Festival and as a colleague she has recommended so many musicians and performers for me to interview on the companion Nutmeg Chatter interview show.   We record Nutmeg Junction at WAPJ but the timing varies depending on the availability of the cast and the availability of the studio> We record many episodes Monday night after 7pm. I asked Darcy if she would be interested in voicing a character and I’m so happy she agreed!

Now Packa-Dermy-Poo (friends may call him packy-dermy-poo or PDP) Mystery Squad was a feature that came about during one of our most popular episodes (episode 20: Looking Forward To It) and we wanted to bring them back. It’s a parody of another cartoon mystery solving squad with an animal but the problem is that most of those stories (the classic ones we’d want to parody) are essentially the same story just at a different location.  But the idea of a Senator refusing to steal votes in a bag because they have other legal ways of stealing votes was appealing and so this story worked out well.

Jeff Savage was “Redmond Herring” in the first PDP story and we absolutely needed him to return to reprise the role.

Robert C. Fullerton was all-in on Senator Stimpleton and the team of Stimpleton with Nick Bourne’s Chad Wormly works really well.  Lana Peck wrote a great line about Hanging Chad (How’s it Hanging, Chad?” delivered with relish by Rich Cyr’s Beau.

All in all it’s a fun episode and I’m sure the news team and PDP will return!

CREDITS

Nutmeg Junction: Episode 29-the Good News Special Report

Was directed by J. Timothy Quirk and recorded at WAPJ Torrington Community Radio

It starred

DAN WILLEY AS NEWS ANCHOR AND SECURITY GUARD

DEBORAH GOODMAN AS NEWS ANCHOR

with

NICK BOURNE AS STREET REPORTER MIKE RAFONE AND CHAD WORMLY

ROBERT FULLERTON AS ROBERT SINNICK AND SENATOR STIMPLETON

SHARON WAAGONER AS THE WITNESS

: JANDI HANNA AS PENELOPE ROLLS AND MS. GLEAMER
OLIVIA WADSWORTH AS PROFESSOR CALDWELL:

DARCY ABBOTT AS JANET ABDERDEEN:

JEFF SAVAGE AS PHILIP R. MATERIAL AND REDMOND HERRING

 

THE PACKA-DERMY POO MYSTERY SQUAD WAS PERFORMED BY

KRISTINE: OLIVIA WADSWORTH

VAL: LANA PECK

BEAU: RICH CYR

SIMON: KURT BOUCHER

PACKA-DERMY-POO AS HIMSELF

Nutmeg Junction theme and Packa-Dermy-Poo theme was written and performed by Robert C. Fullerton ©2018 and used with permission

We hope you enjoyed the ride on Nutmeg Junction and may all your journeys bring you back to a happy home.