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.
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!
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.
The villains of this story are portrayed by Josh Newey and Robert C. Fullerton
CREDITS
EPISODE 21: DOCTOR KEEN AND THE PHENOMENAL FIFTY IN THE WIZARDS OF GALLOWS HILL
STORY BY SHELBY PECK
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY LANA PECK AND J. TIMOTHY QUIRK
CAST:
LANA PECK AS THE NARRATOR AND SAMANTHA THE CAT
J. TIMOTHY QUIRK AS DOCTOR KEEN
KURT BOUCHER AS KNUCKLES
RICH CYR AS LONG JOHN
JANDI HANNA AS MICHELLE SMALLS
JOSH NEWEY AS PRINCE ASMODEOUS/SAM LORD AND SILENT LESTER
ROBERT C. FULLERTON AS THE WIZARD/MR. SEWELL
DOCTOR KEEN WILL RETURN NEXT MONTH FOR THE CONCLUSION OF “THE WIZARD OF GALLOWS HILL!”
A delayed trolley allows a father and son to reconnect over the memories of Saturday morning cartoons.
Jeff Savage and David Macharelli as “Dad and Jake” in “Looking Forward to It”
Jeff Savage and David Macharelli helm this featured episode hearkening back to when Saturday mornings were meant for a bowl of cereal and cartoons on the television. The story is really a contemplation about “time”. Starting out the second half of our inaugural season of audio-theater, Nutmeg Junction presents an episode that takes the anthology series to a different level.
Director Jandi Hanna, Lana Peck and Kurt Boucher in “Looking Forward to It”
Directed by Jandi Hanna (her prior directorial work for the show was episode 18 “Battle of Elsenorift”) this talented cast all have moments in the spotlight.
MUSIC
Of particular interest for this show is the music. Robert C. Fullerton, the official troubadour of Nutmeg Junction show, creates a special theme for Packy-Dermy-Poo, our miniature Elephant mystery.
Kurt Boucher created an ode to tort law the way “schoolhouse’ style public service announcements might present the topic with contributions by Lana Peck and Nicole Boucher.
Lana Peck and Mik Walker’s 1998 “Jellybean Stomp” was the perfect theme for the SNARFLEPOOFS!
And apologies all around to anyone who has the “Snarfleday Song” still stuck in their heads. It was created and performed on guitar by J. Timothy Quirk and sung by the whole cast.
STORIES
Regarding the main story:
Jake and his father speak with an understanding of the other’s knowledgebase and not everything said is spoken with words. During rehearsal we discussed where the father was going and why and the performance by Jeff Savage and David Macharelli demonstrated deep insight into the characters. As the writer, I’m incredibly proud of this piece and thrilled it came to life the way it did.
Regarding Snarflepoofs 1 and 2
It seemed there was a time when cartoons were created specifically to sell a line of toys. I won’t go into specific names. But whenever there was a large troupe of characters in a cartoon, it was usually (it seemed) because they were selling figures of each character and the cartoon was completely secondary to that effort. The cartoons usually told some generic and forgettable “lesson” about “friendship” or “sharing” or “being nice”. I thought it would be funny if a cartoon was used to teach something a lot greater, like general philosophy. So that’s the idea of how Snaflepoofs was created. We make references to Rene Descartes (Day Cart says, “call me Cogito!” Plato (who wants to go into my cave and stare at the wall?” and Nietche (Sneetchey steals the show here-nice work by new addition to the team “Melissa Gabehart”)
The song for the holiday song just made me laugh. It’s three chords, generic and infectious. During editing I added in the jinglebells, then expanded the guitar-work to fit the narration so that at the end of each narrated segment, we came back to the refrain.
The largest segment of the show is Packy-Dermy-Poo, the homage to the “teen mystery solvers with an animal” genre. The story nearly wrote itself. I enjoyed immensely the idea of a character specifically named Redmond Herring (red herring). Packy Dermy Poo may be a one-off parody but I loved the laughter at the end and included it in the audio. It fits within the framework of the cartoon but it also demonstrates the fun we have creating Nutmeg Junction.
Mister Tort Law is wonderful, a creation from the mind of Kurt Boucher. I reached out to the musical cast members about what they wanted to create for the show, giving free reign. Kurt came up with the idea of teaching the concepts of torts in the PSA format. Fantastic. We may do an entire tort episode and base it in Winsted where the American Museum of Tort Law is located and we’ll use that song again.
We had a separate PSA that was non-musical and was a parody of the “ad for a TV disguised as a PSA but instead of saying a generic lesson, we taught Einstein’s law of relativity. It was a good idea but there was no time for it once the foley was added to the other segments during editing.
CREDITS
EPISODE 20: LOOKING FORWARD TO IT”
Written, created and produced by J. Timothy Quirk (c) 2018
recorded at WAPJ in Torrington, CT
Directed by Jandi Hanna
Starring Jeff Savage as Dad in the main story, Plato in Snarflepoofs, Redmond Herring in Packy Dermy Poo
David Macharelli as Jake in the main story, Day Cart in Snarflepoofs and Chuck in Packy Dermy Poo
Kurt Boucher as Mister Tortlaw, Renny in Snarflepoofs and Simon in Packy Dermy Poo
Nicole Boucher as Mister Tortlaw’s friend
Rich Cyr as Beau in Packy Dermy Poo
Mellisa Gabehart as the Passenger, as Sneetchey in Snarflepoofs
Jandi Hanna the narrator in Snarflepoofs and Professor Culpritt in Packy Dermy Poo
Lana Peck as Chum in Mister Tort Law, Princess Simone in Snarflepoofs and Val in Packy Dermy Poo
Olivia Wadsworth as Princess Wollstonecraft in Snarflepoofs and Kristine in Packy Dermy Poo
Private Eye Harriet Holmes (Olivia Wadsworth) travels to Willimantic, Connecticut in an attempt to discover the second part of the Lost Episode of Nutmeg Junction featuring the music of Tom “The Suit” Forst”
SHOW NOTES
This episode is “part two” of the three part Harriet Holmes and the Search for the Lost Episode saga.
The idea for the Lost Episode revolves around the trope that somehow there was a “missing episode” that didn’t air that has to be discovered.
In this case we had some segments that together wasn’t a full show but when put into this format creates a way of introducing a wonderful character-the Harriet Holmes private eye.
When Olivia Wadworth joined our troupe I had pitched to her the idea of a detective story called Harriet Holmes. (see episode 11 for more information). Harriet’s inaugural episode was a knock out with clever interaction between Jack Sheedy and Jandi Hanna. This episode is mainly a “two-hander” as it is really a two person episode with the musicians recorded separately. Tom the Suit Forst had recorded with us in May. I wanted to air his music before the new album came out.
Robert C Fullerton was a trooper and came in to record his song and his bridge (no pun intended) dialogue, bridging the Holmes portion to the “discovered lost episode” portion of the show.
There are many phrases Harriet Holmes says in the opening monologue that I particularly like. “SNIDELY HAD THE KIND OF A PERSONALITY THAT COULD MAKE ANY FRIDAY FEEL LIKE A MONTH OF TUESDAYS” springs to mind.
Our director, Conrad Sienkiewicz, works in Willimantic and so he was the perfect actor to be the fount of information about Thread City.
I like Willimantic and all of the venues we reference in the show. I’ve never been to the foot bridge but I have been to the Frog Bridge, the Mill Museum, etc. There are many music venues that could fit the bill for that portion of the story so I didn’t specify the location.
We’ll have one more Harriet Holmes Lost Episode (the conclusion) but that won’t be the last of the Harriet Holmes character, far from it. The Harriet Holmes character may be one of the best candidates for the subject of our upcoming Writers Room experience in September.
CREDITS
EPISODE 19: HARRIET HOLMES AND THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST EPISODE PART TWO
WRITTEN BY J. TIMOTHY QUIRK (C) 2018
CAST
OLIVIA WADSWORTH AS HARRIET HOLMES
CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ AS DUKE SNIDELY
ROBERT C. FULLERTON AS HIMSELF
TOM “THE SUIT” FORST AS HIMSELF
J. TIMOTHY QUIRK AS CONDUCTOR JT
DIRECTED BY CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ
MUSIC
ALL MUSIC PERFORMED FOR THE NUTMEG JUNCTION EPISODE AND USED WITH PERMISSION HOWEVER ALL OTHER RIGHTS ARE RESERVED TO THE MUSICAL CREATOR.
NUTMEG JUNCTION THEME MUSIC BY ROBERT C. FULLERTON (C) 2018
Professor A‘s adventures continue in Chapter Five: Borrower of the Night! Professor A and Ms. Gentry escape to the planet of an alien world in a mini-universe while Dr. Robere remains imprisoned in the “Welcome Center”,distracting the guard, “Officer Funston” for as long as he can.
SHOW NOTES
We continue the story of this multi-episodic Professor A adventure. Last week’s episode of Nutmeg Junction was Chapter Four and it ended on a cliff hanger. So does this episode!
The premise was established in Chapter Four-that the Uni-Ones came from a different universe and took over this world and began extracting its natural resources and then restricted all access to it from anyone else who tries to visit through the dimensional corridor.
In this episode we learn more from the native inhabitants of the world how the current state came to be.
Our principals (Lana Peck as Professor A, Kurt Boucher as Dr. Robere and Tiffy McKay as Ms. Gentry) return and they are joined by David Robinson, Conrad Sienkiewicz and Olivia Wadsworth.
Olivia was not present at the time of the original recording so Tiffy provided two voices, Ms. Gentry’s and B1067. We recorded Olivia after we had edited the show for radio release so there are actually two versions of this episode, the one with Tiffy playing B1067 and one with Olivia portraying the character. As the character will continue in the storyline, we’ve updated/edited the show with Olivia’s voice but Tiffy’s voice is preserved in case we do a “making-of” episode at some point!
David Robinson joins us for the first time and portrays “Bearnard (Bear) Sable/C9359).. Robinson is no stranger to stage and screen, and he was most recently in The Post (2017)
Conrad directs the episode and returns as a voice actor for the neighbor role which is nice because Conrad and I are neighbors in real life too! Conrad will lend his voice to a Harriet Holmes episode within the next few weeks.
The letters and numbers actually correspond to elements of the story
CREDITS
EPISODE 17: PROFESSOR A (CHAPTER FIVE: BORROWER OF THE NIGHT)
CREATED, WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY J. TIMOTHY QUIRK
DIRECTED BY CONRAD SIENKIWICZ
PROFESSOR A THEME MUSIC WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY LANA PECK (C)2018 AND USED WITH PERMISSION
NUTMEG JUNCTION THEME WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY ROBERT C. FULLERTON (C) 2018 AND USED WITH PERMISSION
STARRING:
LANA PECK AS THE PROFESSOR AND OFFICER FUNSTON
KURT BOUCHER AS DR. ROBERE
TIFFY MCKAY AS MS. GENTRY
DAVID ROBINSON AS BEARNARD (BEAR/C9357) SABLE
OLIVIA WADSWORTH AS B1067
CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ AS THE NEIGHBOR
REHEARSED AND RECORDED AT WAPJ TORRINGTON COMMUNITY RADIO
SHOW NOTES
Professor A: Chapter Four-The Welcome Wagon is part of a multi-episode story that ends on a cliffhanger and continues until the next episode (which also ends on a cliff hanger-slightly spoiler alert!)
The topic of “immigration” and detention was prevalent on the minds of the American conscience in July 2018 and I had proposed a story that was, in hindsight, incredibly dark however not as dark as the reality that some in the country faced for the story I proposed was still only about adults and not children who were detained, imprisoned and separated from their loved ones.
I received feedback from the actors that the concepts would work if kept within the prism of the Professor world. At their recommendation, I believe specifically Lana Peck’s (Lana portrays the Professor), I wrote a story that did not take place in America or even Earth but rather on a different world within the multi-verse.
It was the correct decision.
The response back when the script was presented was extremely favorable as it hit the right tone while still presenting difficult and complex themes in a powerful way. The continuation of the story (which is in Episode 17) delves deeper into these dark themes while still keeping the essence of a Professor A story in Nutmeg Junction.
This is a three-actor episode. Lana portrays both the Professor and Officer Funston and her vocal work as Officer Funston is not to be missed. With the echo (reverb) on the vocal track there is an eerie quality in the seemingly gracious words Funston is saying to the visitors. As always Kurt Boucher portrays Dr. Robere and Tiffy McKay portrays Ms. Gentry.
We recorded this episode on the same day as Space Sentries II and was directed by Conrad Sienkiewicz.
We recorded Lana’s Officer Funston voice separately from her Professor A performance and then edited it together.
The quote from Sir Isaac Newton is real.
I am extremely proud with how Episodes 16 and 17 came out and I can’t wait to explore this story further in August.
CREDITS
Episode 16: Professor A: Chapter Four-The Welcome Wagon
Written by J. Timothy Quirk (c)2018
Directed by Conrad Sienkiewicz
Professor A Theme written and performed by Lana Peck (c)2018
Starring:
Lana Peck as Professor A and Officer Funston
Kurt Boucher as Dr. Robere
Tiffy McKay as Ms. Gentry
Rehearsed and recorded at WAPJ studio in Torrington CT
Additional music and foley sourced by Youtube Royalty free music or otherwise located in the field by J. Timothy Quirk
In which the crew of the space ship “Salisbury” arrives at the Vermilion system to pick up First Op. Gillard who had been on shore leave. But how will the Space Sentry Central Command rocket powered transport vessel dock with the Salisbury’s docking station if there’s no engineer to guide the way? Can Ensign Puffle learn the assignment in time?
SHOW NOTES
In Episode 6 we introduced the idea of Space Sentries which is loosely based/parody of the old sci fi shows that had to substitute techno-babble jargon in the place of a budget for appropriate sci-fi ambiance. Additionally there is one golden age of radio program that certainly hawked a number of products and incorporated them into the stories.
With that in mind, this show is dedicated for the story tellers who learned to utilize the gift of storytelling through toys and imaginative play. The visual on the episode picture is loosely based on old action figure sets of the 80’s so it gives the impression of them without actually looking like any of them.
Once again Space Sentries stars Rich Cyr as Ensign Puffle, Kurt Boucher as Commander Alx and Phil Hall as Admiral Complication. Joining the episode is Dan Willey as First Op. Gillard.
And for a fun treat we also had three more actors join the cast as the voice of their respective “action figures”, Lana Peck voiced “Laurel (Locksmith) Yannie, Tiffy McKay voiced “Jenny Snips the hair stylist” and Sharon Waagner voiced the enigmatic Dr. Woolf saying the character’s most popular catchphrase.
This episode was tricky to edit as there were four separate audio tracks.
Dan and Sharon both rehearsed with the team on rehearsal night but unfortunately had other obligations for recording day so we recorded them separately (on a Wednesday night).
Then I recorded Lana and Tiffy separately as their action figures only had a few phrases. Well technically Lana’s toy only says one phrase and Tiffy’s figure says one phrase but at the hair salon play set there’s an additional sound that has Jenny Snips say “I’m going to need a bigger comb!”
In my formative years I enjoyed the Star Wars action figures and I can assure you, Hammerhead had greater adventures in my charge than he ever got in the movies.
But in this episode there’s a reference to the old MEGO toys because I refer to a vinyl play set like I used to have with the Star Trek bridge and my sister had with a Wizard of Oz play set.
On the day of recording Rich came off work later than expected so i had to record HIM separately.
So this is one episode where during recording, to help everyone know the pacing of their lines, I voiced every single character from the announcer (Conrad) to Puffle, Alx, Gillard, Complication as well as Yannie, Snips and Woolfe and yet no one will ever hear my versions of these characters as I edited myself out and put in the proper voice in.
In total the editing process had four separate vocal tracks then I added the music and sound effects.
For the main recording day, I had help as Rich Boucher manned the controls and ensured the levels of the performers were in the correct range. We look forward to his work in the future if he chooses to join us on future adventures!
Side note: in the future no one will really get the Laurel Yannie reference. Suffice it to say that for a minute in 2018 facebook blew up with people hearing either Laurel or Yannie in an audio file. Given what we were doing with audio files, I felt this is entirely appropriate to name the character Laurel Yannie.
So we will continue to tell Space Sentries stories and build the crew of the “Salisbury”. The ship is named for a town in the broadcast range of WHDD which plays our program Nutmeg Junction on the multiple stations of the robinhood radio network.
Everyone who was involved in this particular episode enjoyed working on it. We’ll be bringing Dan and Phil back on more adventures in different roles.
We have a big summer planned.
CREDITS
EPISODE 15: SPACE SENTRIES II (c)2018
created, written and produced by J. Timothy Quirk
Directed by Conrad Sienkiewicz
Sound Production by Ray Boucher
STARRING
RICH CYR AS ENSIGN PUFFLE:
KURT BOUCHER AS COMMANDER ALX:
PHIL HALL AS ADMIRAL COMPLICATION
CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ AS THE ANNOUNCER
DAN WILLEY AS FIRST OP GILLARD:
TIFFY MCKAY AS JENNY SNIPS
LANA PECK AS LOCKSMITH LAUREL:
SHARON WAAGNER AS DR. WOOLFE
Nutmeg Junction theme song by Robert C. Fullerton all rights reserved to the performer and used with permission.
Foley and additional music courtesy of Youtube royalty free music
The Battle of Elsenorift features an all female cast and female director in honor of our VIP guest, Marilyn Olsen who is a Board Member of The Lipstick Project (CT) that serves the purpose of supporting women artists especially in Theater.
Olivia Wadsworth and Jandi Hanna reprise their roles as Ava and Evelyn and conducted an interview with our guest in the same way that they conducted the interview with Nancy Sasso Janis in episode 11.
Jandi Hanna was an assistant director during a show I acted in (Twelve Angry Jurors in Goshen). Jandi stepped into the role of director and did a wonderful job working with our actors who had a wide range of theater experience.
Jandi also portrayed the Queen and Olivia portrayed the part of Barbaria. When Olivia put on her voice of a slightly stuffy nosed (pretend cold) Barbaria we all cracked up. It worked so perfectly and I wasn’t expecting it.
For some background I had the enormous pleasure of seeing a production of Master Class about the life of Maria Callas starring Marilyn Olsen and which featured Deborah Goodman in a wonderful role as a student. This episode was a marvelous opportunity to reunite these actors.
Here’s Marilyn making Jandi laugh!
I had just interviewed Marilyn for the Nutmeg CHATTER program where she discussed the Lipstick Project (CT) and asked her if she’d be interested in doing the Junction program. Fortunately she said YES!
Deborah Goodman was on board and immediately “got” the Python-esque feel to some of the repartee between her character and Marilyn’s “Valkyria”.
Poet Patricia Martin was also a newcomer to the Junction team but she has an extensive resume of vocal work especially as an author/poet and the creator of the Speak-easy poetry reading series. So I had her character as “The Scribe” but it was almost unfair as her character has to set up the entire backstory with, as a hallmark of our show, some ridiculous words and phrases to say but with Jandi’s direction and with Patricia’s professionalism it worked out well and Jandi and Patricia had a nice ad-lib moment which made it into the final cut of the show.
Shannon Sniffin joined us as The Page and made remarkable work of a character who might have just slipped into the background in lesser hands. Her deadpan style of answering “I shall not tarry, my liege” was a better delivery than my script deserved. I enjoyed her work in Landmark Community Theatre’s production of “The Game’s Afoot” and it was great to have her join us and there will be more opportunities for Shannon and for all of the wonderful actors who worked on the show.
It was an honor to be in the room as they worked on this show and I thought how wonderful it would be if others could be there to see the show performed live for it was a rare treat.
I will absolutely ask each actor to come back and certainly, if they work together that theatrical alchemy that was created will be magical once again.
CREDITS
EPISODE 14: THE BATTLE OF ELSENORIFT (c) 2018
written, created, produced by J. TIMOTHY QUIRK
NUTMEG JUNCTION THEME MUSIC BY ROBERT C. FULLERTON (C)2018
STARRING
MARILYN OLSEN as VALKYRIA and as herself
DEBORAH GOODMAN as SUSAN
JANDI HANNA as THE QUEEN/EVELYN
OLIVIA WADSWORTH as BARARIA/AVA
PATRICIA MARTIN as SAGOPAZ
SHANNON SNIFFIN as THE PAGE
DIRECTED BY JANDI HANNA
Additional foley and music by YOUTUBE royalty free music or otherwise found in the field by J. Timothy Quirk
All characters and situations are completely fictional. Any similarities between anyone living or dead is completely coincidental.
This was a fun episode as we return to the idea of serendipitous moments in history otherwise known as “Serendip-History”. Our guest was Nancy Sasso Janis, the theater reviewer. As an interesting side note, when Conrad Sienkiewicz, Robert C. Fullerton and I met at WAPJ and sat at the table discussing the ideas for Nutmeg Junction the radio show, Nancy arrived at the tail end of that discussion as she and I had scheduled a Nutmeg CHATTER radio interview and she was early. So she got to witness the birth of the Nutmeg Junction radio show when it happened.
And I knew from our interview that Nancy had acted before but most of her time was spent reviewing and with such a schedule it would be difficult for her to take on a full production of a show but our show was different, needing a rehearsal and a recording time and they’re usually during off times (as often our cast are parts of other local productions! So I asked if she was interested in participating and she was and I had the perfect role for her: Harriet Beecher Stowe!
In addition I had the idea of a public relations person trying to sell Louisa May Alcott on a sequel to Little Women. I reached out to my friend, comedienne KJ Johansen who was my co-host on a prior radio program to see if she was interested in being the PR person and she was!
Olivia Wadsworth and Jandi Hanna were slated to be part of the show as Ava and Evelyn and I knew Olivia could portray Louisa May Alcott and Jandi’s character in Serendip-History is the narrator. This left only Samuel Clemens. Fortunately we have a Southern gentleman of distinction in our cast; Robert C. Fullerton!
Conrad Sienkiewicz directed and it was great that he had some “book end” narration which held the story together.
This was an episode that we rehearsed and recorded on the same day which, when we only have one episode to record, works out fairly well.
The story of Louisa May Alcott and Virginia Wyles worked as I already had the punchline in my head before I wrote it.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe and Samuel Clemens story was based on a recollection of a tour I had either at the Twain Center or at the Stowe center. I couldn’t find any reference to it online, but I recall hearing of a time Clemens met Stowe on the grounds and discussed something and then later sent up his suit. It’s a particularly peculiar idea that I do not know if it’s true or if my memory is flawed but I thought it was a story worth fictionalizing. The dialogue however are often quotes attributed to both authors at different times and contexts.
Credits
Episode 12: Serendip-History Part Two
Written and created and produced by J. Timothy Quirk (c) 2018
Directed by Conrad Sienkiewicz
Starring
Olivia Wadsworth as Ava/Louisa May Alcott
Jandi Hanna as Evelyn/Alice Dare Crook
KJ Johansen as Virginia Wyles/Waitstaff
Nancy Sasso Janis as Harriet Beecher Stowe and herself
Robert C. Fullerton as Samuel Clemens
Conrad Sienkiewicz as Announcer
Nutmeg Junction Theme written and performed by Robert C. Fullerton and used with permission.
All other music and sounds from youtube royalty free music or otherwise found in the field by J. Timothy Quirk
As it was mentioned in Episode 5, we had worked on three chapters of the Professor A: Adjunct Professor to the Multi-verse saga and of course we had the intention to do more. But I found when I edited the show that it sounded best with the chapters at approximately 15 minutes in length (at least for the first two) so we had an extra chapter recorded but not shared with our audience yet.
Secondly, when Olivia Wadsworth came on board I had pitched to her the idea for HER character to be Harriet Holmes. It’s always been my intention for each actor to have a signature role. Some actors may have more than one but I’d like each actor to have episodes where their character is the star. Anyway at the time I envisioned a London tale of Harriet being an actual sibling to Sherlock but found that the tv show SHERLOCK had already put out a story where there was a sister character for Sherlock and it would have seemed too derivative if I tried that too, no matter how I played it.
But as it turned out I also wanted to do a tough as nails Detective character. I have many uses for that character and certainly hard boiled detectives are so ubiquitous in Old Time Radio I’ll have many detectives on the show voiced by many different actors.
Ok, and here’s the thing. I wrote the detective story, finding the lost episode of Nutmeg Junction with a detective without a name. I wasn’t sure what we would call her.
I wrote the opening soliloquy the night before recording and posted it on facebook. This helped Olivia work on and find the voice for the recording session. I finished the story the following day, which was the day of recording, with the final pass completed 15 minutes before i left for the radio station. It’s a tight script that flows very well and there’s very little (if anything at all) I’d change about it.
I cast Jack Sheedy in the role of Lenny Snitchwell. Jack is a writer, an author and editor of a newspaper (Catholic Transcript), and the idea of an “English Major” is a call back to another show that for many years carried the torch of Old Time Radio. Jandi reprises her role of Nonna Hanna.
While we were at the table read, we discussed the fact that the detective didn’t have a name. I believe it was either Jandi or Olivia who brought up the idea of Harriet Holmes. i can not take credit for that at all. But the name fit perfectly and I asked Olivia if she wanted the detective character to be called that. She did.
So that’s how we have Harriet Holmes as a “modern” private eye, not beholden to any Sherlock but understood on her own terms.
Jack did a remarkable job as “Lenny”. He knew the character instantly and gave the right flourish.
The Professor Episode was a lot of fun. This one felt had a lot of comedy thanks to all of the actors in the cast. Everyone has a good line or two including Josh and Jandi as the two humans: Freddie and Alice (which they performed in a cockney accent).
There is only one slight editing mistake I missed in this portion of the show but I will fix it in future editions of the show.
Listeners can expect MORE of Harriet Holmes (she will undoubtedly return in Search for the lost episode part two, and more of the Professor. I plan to have scripts written and recorded this month.
rehearsal[/caption]
Nutmeg Junction 