Tag Archives: kurt boucher

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.

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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.

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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!

 

 

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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!”

Episode 20: “Looking Forward To It”

A delayed trolley allows a father and son to reconnect over the memories of Saturday morning cartoons.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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”)

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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.

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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.

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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

J. Timothy Quirk as the conductor

Packy Dermy Poo as himself

MUSIC:

Mister TortLaw written and performed by Kurt Boucher with singing by Lana Peck and Nicole Boucher. © 2018 Used with permission.

Snarflepoofs theme/Jellybean stomp was written and performed by Lana Peck and Mik Walker ©1998 used with permission

Snarfleday written by J. Timothy Quirk and performed by all cast members of Episode 20 ©2018 and used with permission

Nutmeg Junction End Credits (c)2018 Robert C. Fullerton and used with permission

We hope you enjoyed the episode and may all of your journeys bring you back to a happy home.

Episode 17: Professor A: Chapter Five: Borrower of the Night

PROFESSOR A TEAM

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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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)

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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.

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The letters and numbers actually correspond to elements of the story

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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

 

Episode 16: Professor A-Chapter Four: The Welcome Wagon

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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!)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

 

Press: Nutmeg Junction Interview on Nerd Talk (Citizens Television) 6/6/2018

On June 6, 2018 Lana Peck, Rich Cyr and J. Timothy Quirk were invited to be a part of the Nerd Talk program on Citizens Television in New Haven, CT to discuss Nutmeg Junction.

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Kurt Boucher, co-host of the Nerd Talk program, is also an original cast member of Nutmeg Junction. Often paired with Lana Peck (see:  Nathaniel and Netta Chance mysteries and especially The Professor episodes) and with Rich Cyr (see Space Sentries episodes), Boucher is well versed in Nutmeg Junction lore. With Nerd Talk Co-host Michael Illian and the puppet “George”, Boucher and the Nutmeg Junction members discussed the concept and favorite moments of the show.

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Around the 11:30 mark viewers are given a treat: a behind the scenes video of a rehearsal and recording of The Professor episode which featured Lana, Kurt and Tiffy McKay with Jandi Hanna, Josh Newey,  Olivia Wadsworth and Rich Cyr with director Conrad Sienkiewicz and J Timothy Quirk.

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It was an honor to be on the program. The dedicated team that puts Nerd Talk together for Citizens Television in New Haven is admirable and noteworthy and we hope to have another opportunity to visit in the future!

Episode 15: Space Sentries II

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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.

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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!”

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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.

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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.

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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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Episode 11: THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST EPISODE (PART ONE)

EPISODE 11 LOST EPISODE

SHOW NOTES:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

CREDITS

Episode title: Episode 11: The Search for the Lost Episode (Part One) © 2018 J. TIMOTHY QUIRK

The Program Was Created/Written/Produced/Edited by J. Timothy Quirk

Guest Performer: Jack Sheedy

Music: Robert C Fullerton

SONGS:

NUTMEG JUNCTION THEME

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY ROBERT C. FULLERTON © 2018

  1. JT

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY ROBERT C. FULLERTON © 2018

PROFESSOR A THEME

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY LANA PECK (c) 2018

 

Additional music and foley courtesy of Youtube royalty free music or otherwise obtained in the environment by J. Timothy Quirk

Starring:

THE HARRIET HOLMES STORY:

OLIVIA WADSWORTH AS HARRIET HOLMES

JANDI HANNA AS NONNA HANNA

JACK SHEEDY AS LENNY SNITCHWELL

 

THE PROFESSOR: CHAPTER THREE STORY

LANA PECK AS PROFESSOR A

KURT BOUCHER AS DR. ROBERE

TIFFY MCKAY AS MS. GENTRY

JANDI HANNA AS ALICE

JOSH NEWEY AS FREDDIE

 

DIRECTED BY CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ

Rehearsed at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington

Recorded at WAPJ Torrington Community Radio

Episode 8: Tex Bijou Cinema’s Singing Cowboy

Show Notes

“Tex Bijou: Cinema’s Singing Cowboy ™” was one of the original character creations that the came straight from the idea of doing a new “golden age of radio” style program in the first place. Westerns have a long and storied history in entertainment in all forms (novels, comic books, radio, tv and film) and the “singing cowboy” idea was a special form of that sort of hero. The two singing cowboys I always enjoyed were Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.  Oh, the “tm” portion pf Tex Bijou: Cinema’s Singing Cowboy ™ is part of the joke of the character and show, we’re not trying to be precious here!

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The rehearsal for Tex Bijou. On stairs: Kurt Boucher (Sheriff) Josh Newey (Jesse) Olivia Wadsworth (Jess) Jandi Hanna (Deputy Jones) Rich Cyr (who rehearsed on the subsequent episode) Below: Robert C Fullerton (Tex Bijou), Joel Benson (Bobby Gutcheck) and Conrad Sienkiewicz (Pecos Sam and Narrator)

 

Robert C. Fullerton, a founding cast member of Nutmeg Junction, is not only a voice actor but is our primary musician on the show. He created the Nutmeg Junction theme, the Mr. JT theme and numerous other songs already on the show. So I thought it would be fun for his primary character to portray “Tex Bijou: Cinema’s Singing Cowboy (TM)” and the wanted Tex to be a surprising creation as the story unfolded.  I wrote the Mise En Scene lyrics and he put those lyrics to music and improvised the theme to Tex Bijou. I added my whistling to that number!

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Robert C Fullerton as Tex Bijou: Cinema’s Singing Cowboy ™

 

As Sheriff and Deputy, the team of Kurt Boucher and Jandi Hanna was a joyous discovery and their characters eventual contempt of the Hollywood status of the main character grows funnier with every listen.

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Kurt Boucher as Sheriff
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Jandi Hanna as Deputy Jones

Jess and Jesse are the PAs portrayed by Olivia Wadsworth and Josh Newey.  They have to carry the show’s premise and I enjoy how they succeeded in that task. Both Josh and Olivia brought nuances to the roles that improved the words on the page. For instance every time the Deputy wishes to chastise the PAs, Josh Newey’s Jesse always redirects back to the Sheriff. As memory serves that was not an intentional aspect of the script but Josh brought it to life and it works very well.

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Josh Newey as Jesse with Jandi Hanna as Deputy Jones

This episode was Olivia’s first real foray into our world of audio theater (she did play a minor role in the Professor episode with two lines but this was the first script that really showcased her talent). Her portrayal of Jess as an efficient PA who provides the list of options for the star of the show is a lot of fun!

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And what can I say about Joel Benson! Joel had a few lines (just like Olivia had a few lines her first time out with us) but he sold every one of them! What makes this character work is how completely opposite his voice is to Tex Bijou’s (and Joel plays his stunt double.  With Joel’s sense of humor, we’re lucky we have him in a subsequent episode (The Grey Whisper Returns) and we’ll have him come back for more! Joel has a radio show on WAPJ called “Unhinged” which airs Thursdays noon to 2pm.

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Joel Benson

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CREDITS

Episode title: Tex Bijou: Cinema’s Singing Cowboy (TM) © 2018 J. TIMOTHY QUIRK

Episode 8 in recording and release

The Program Was Created/Written/Produced/Edited by J. Timothy Quirk

Musical Guest: Robert C. Fullerton as Tex Bijou

Starring:

ROBERT C.. FULLERTON AS TEX BIJOU

KURT BOUCHER AS SHERIFF/KENT FLASHMAN

JANDI HANNA AS DEPUTY JONES

OLIVIA WADSWORTH AS JESS

JOSH NEWEY AS JESSE/BAXTER

CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ: AS  ANNOUNCER

 

 

DIRECTED BY CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ

Rehearsed at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington

Recorded at WAPJ Torrington Community Radio

MUSIC:

The Nutmeg Junction Theme by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2018

Mr. JT (instrumental) by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2018

TEX BIJOU THEME BY Robert C. Fullerton  (c) 2018

MISE EN SCENE by Robert C. Fullerton and J. Timothy Quirk (c) 2018

Additional music and foley courtesy of Youtube royalty free music or otherwise obtained in the environment by J. Timothy Quirk

Episode 7: Daring Darling Darly

EPISODE 7 DARLY

SHOW NOTES:

The entire idea of Daring Darling Darly was to do a show that featured the “plucky” pre-teen adventurer who gets into tricky situations when trying to solve mysteries or deal with secrets far beyond the years of experience.  Some characters in this genre have dogs as their animal companion so we chose to have a cat in this ours.

We also wanted the character to have a catchphrase and “Bob’s Your Uncle” was a particularly innocuous one that seems very dated which is entirely appropriate for the time period we’re going for (even though its unspecified).

Every cast member has or will have a signature character. We are fortunate to have Caroline Sienkiewicz as a valued team member/Junctioneer and she was perfect for this role.

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Kurt Boucher as Marshall Jim Whithers and Caroline Sienkiewicz as Daring Darling Darly

These two episodes (Darly and the previous one with Space Sentries) showcased Conrad Sienkiewicz as  the narrator/announcer who is hawking some kind of product associated with the show which was often an iconic feature of the golden age of radio programs.

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Conrad Sienkiewicz-Director and announcer/narrator

Also some programs had “secret squad” messages so we created one ourselves!  Here’s the code

code final

 

This episode was rehearsed and recorded at the same time as Space Sentries and featured the same cast (except for Phil Hall who was the guest on Space Sentries)

We knew that Angel and the Hustler (a wonderful musical duo Robert C. Fullerton and Angela Luna) were going to record for this episode so we recorded our “passengers’ talking about the group and then recorded Angel and the Hustler later and they performed two songs brilliantly!

Our VIP guest was KJ Johansen of KBJB internet radio. She will be appearing in an upcoming episode of Nutmeg Junction as a vocal actor. We look forward to adding more voices from the KBJB family to the Junction audio experience!

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CREDITS

Episode title: Daring Darling Darly © 2018 J. TIMOTHY QUIRK

Episode 7 in recording and release

The Program Was Created/Written/Produced/Edited by J. Timothy Quirk

Musical Guest: Angel and the Hustler

Guest Passenger: KJ Johansen

Starring:

CAROLINE SIENKIEWICZ AS JULIA PORTER AND DARLY

CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ: AS MR. PORTER AND ANNOUNCER

RICH CYR AS ROBERT FLETCHER

KURT BOUCHER AS MARSHALL JIM WHITHERS

JANDI HANNA AS MEADOW AND LEAD CONDUCTOR MARGOT

WITH

J. TIMOTHY QUIRK AS “JT”

 

 

DIRECTED BY CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ

Rehearsed at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington

Recorded at WAPJ Torrington Community Radio

MUSIC:

The Nutmeg Junction Theme by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2018

Mr. JT (instrumental) by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2018

Sweet Justicia by Angel and the Hustler (c) 2018

Better Man by Angel and the Hustler (c) 2018

Additional music and foley courtesy of Youtube royalty free music or otherwise obtained in the environment by J. Timothy Quirk

Episode 6: Space Sentries

EPISODE 6 SPACE SENTRIES WITH CREDITS

This episode was inspired by the classic low budget sci-fi audio programs that attempted to prove their story took place in the future or space by using quasi-futuristic tech sounding terminology.

After the first three episodes that we recorded (which were actually Ep 2-4) a tactical decision was made internally to try to get ahold of our structure and cast a few cast members with each show, so that even though there were 8 regular cast members, a total of four may show up in one episode.

Now immediately after that we recorded Blaze Jackson (the first episode we released but had half the cast).  Then we recorded Daring Darling Darly (which we haven’t released yet) and this one, Space Sentries with essentially the other half)
Space Sentries is essentially a “two-hander”, a two person show, with an additional role added in for complication.  So this one featured Rich Cyr as Puffle and Kurt Boucher as Commander Alyx. I was asked why I called the character Alyx and the reason was that I did not know when I wrote it whether a male or a female actor would portray the role (both roles were gender neutral for casting).

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This point found its way into a news article for the Lakeville Journal! We were pleased to have Shaw Izikson visit our rehearsal and  learn about our show.

 

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Rich Cyr (left) and Kurt Boucher (right) read the Space Sentries script while Shaw Izikson (middle) reporter for the Lakeville Journal makes notes about the rehearsal and the show.

 

 

Our guest vocal actor and VIP guest was actor, author, podcaster, Phil Hall.  We discuss his podcast (which can be found HERE) and his books (his 8th coming out about the Patterson-Gimlin tape)

 

CREDITS

Episode title: Space Sentries © 2018 J. TIMOTHY QUIRK

Episode 6 in recording and release

The Program Was Created/Written/Produced/Edited by J. Timothy Quirk

Guest Actor: Phil Hall

Starring:

RICH CYR AS ENSIGN PUFFLE

KURT BOUCHER AS KENT FLASHMAN/COMMANDER ALYX

PHIL HALL AS ADMIRAL COMPLICATION

WITH

CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ AS NARRATOR AND MR. PORTER

CAROLINE SIENKIEWICZ AS JULIA PORTER

J. TIMOTHY QUIRK AS “JT”

 

DIRECTED BY CONRAD SIENKIEWICZ

Rehearsed at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington

Recorded at WAPJ Torrington Community Radio

MUSIC:

The Nutmeg Junction Theme by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2018

Mr. JT (instrumental) by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2018

 

Additional music and foley courtesy of Youtube royalty free music or otherwise obtained in the environment by J. Timothy Quirk