doctor keen – Nutmeg Junction

January 4, 2020January 4, 2020 jtimothyquirk

Episode 2.42: The Endeerings, Doc Keen and More!

In the final show of the second season we introduce The Endeerings on an Alaskan cruise in a new series we will continue throughout the year.

We also bring along the next installment of Doctor Keen and the Phenomenal Fifty in The Wizard of Gallows Hill Part 3.

LISTEN HERE

December 15, 2019 jtimothyquirk

Episode 2.40 Doctor Keen and the Phenomenal 50, Fanny and Fred and Space Sentries

We present three stories from three of our favorite series on our trolley-ride of imagination

We begin a serialized story Doctor Keen and the Phenomenal 50: The Wizard of Gallows Hill

This is followed by Fanny and Fred: Wilberforce

Finally we present a stand-alone Space Sentries story: What’s in a Name.

Music by Kurt Boucher, Robert C. Fullerton, J. Timothy Quirk and John Philip Sousa.

LISTEN HERE:

Notes on Doctor Keen:

Doctor Keen and the Phenomenal 50 is an 8 part serialized story that begins with this episode. This is part 1. We had originally attempted this story in 2018 but our way of doing the story (a concept we called the”Budget” version and the joke was that there was no music or sound effects and references were in relation to how the show was on a “budget” was funny as a concept but the subject deserved our traditional method of story telling. Further, it was written by Shelby Peck, Lana Peck’s father, as a serialized story so we took that as our cue to make it a serial here.

The music is John Philip Sousa, the request of Lana. I had written a mysterious melody but the character is more triumphant and one is hard pressed to find a more triumphant musical element than a Sousa march. I did create the organ background while Doctor Keen says the “Oath of Righteousness”, a particularly fun word salad.

Fanny and Fred

We performed “Wilberforce Stands Alone” at the Torrington Historical Society. It was written specifically for an event at the Historical Society, inspired by the photo of a dog standing on a plant stand in Torrington. The original live performance featured Jason Kulas in the role of Flubs. Both versions were a lot of fun.

Space Sentries

This story was performed live in April for Falls Village, it was such a fun story we wanted to present the studio version.

September 12, 2018 jtimothyquirk

Episode 21: Doctor Keen and the Phenomenal Fifty in “The Wizard of Gallows Hill!

The story of this episode starts with Lana Peck, an original cast member and essential member of the Nutmeg Junction theater company.

Lana’s father Shelby Peck was a teacher and fiction writer with an interest in a particular pulp novel hero and he wrote fan fiction for a fanzine that discussed their favorite hero.

As we created Nutmeg Junction, Lana noted that the genre of audio theater we were creating fit her father’s stories very well so we set about putting them into our own world, in our own way. We changed names and added comic elements that her father would have approved of. We created “Golden Age Budget Conscious Adventures of…” as an interesting way to tell a story but in reality our show is at its best when there are more sound effects and music so as we continue to tell Doctor Keen stories, we’ll continually add more elements every time. This week had no music for the main story. When we return, we are thinking of bringing kazoos into the equation. By the time we do the character five times or so we may have the full orchestra style program.

41269104_296905977760339_6180612708090511360_n — Lana Peck in the foreground with Josh Newey preparing his lines in the back

This episode brought back nearly every member of the original cast (we were missing Conrad and Caroline Sienkiewicz) but we look forward to another opportunity to bring the whole original cast together soon!

41360646_1860553504062996_2133879416399331328_n — This is the top of the author’s head; apparently we needed to show this.

Jandi Hanna portrays Michelle Smalls and Rich Cyr portrays Long John. We also had Kurt Boucher as “Knuckles” though he is the one taking the photos and not any of the at-microphone shots.