Nutmeg Junction performed full shows live for the very first time on 4/27/2019 at the Center on Main in Falls Village, CT. This is the audio of part two of the evening where the audio theater team performed 3 episodes
In part two our guest conductor for this episode was Mariel who acted in a prior Nutmeg Junction episode as “the doll” in our “Brady Bunch” homage of the Space-y Squad.
Our first story celebrates our “detective” characters all meeting and interacting for the very first time.
There’s Inspector Trompe-Loeil (Jandi Hanna), Harriet Holmes (Olivia Wadsworth), Nathaniel (Kurt Boucher) and Netta (Lana Peck) Chance, Daring Darling Darly (Deborah Goodman) and characters from other stories including Red Herring (Jeff Savage) and mention of Packa Dermy Poo, and Lenny Snitchwell (Jack Sheedy).
Rich Cyr portrays the librarian and also portrays…himself in a conversation with the Conductor, Conrad Sienkiewicz. Phil Hall portrays the Adman.
The second story we ran was a Doc Keen short which was heavy into audience participation.
I decided for the audio of this show to put in the recording of the live “Thank Your Lucky Stars” story with Olivia Wadsworth as the world’s greatest audio theater magician on Jack Sheedy’s talk show-thank your lucky stars. It features wonderful piano by Robert C. Fullerton and Deborah Goodman as “the volunteer.
All stories were written by J. Timothy Quirk
Next post will be Part 3, the conclusion of the Live show!
In prior episodes of our “new” old time radio audio-theater program Nutmeg Junction, we presented the concept of “Space Sentries” which pays homage to the classic sci-fi programs of the golden age of radio. We take the concept into the future in this mockumentary where we imagine Space Sentries as a program that has been updated decades later and the amazing concept they come up with..is that the crew is older.
Rejoin Puffle and Commander (now Admiral) Alx, and Admiral Complication (now Hologram Admiral Complication) and the new crew as they discuss the adventures of the Starship Salisbury! Let’s hope the new team can keep control of the ship!
Season 2: Episode 9.
Listen HERE!
Show notes:
The original concept of Space Sentries was to pay homage to the sci-fi golden age radio programs of old-especially one program in particular that seemed to use sci-fi jargon instead of great sound effects to indicate it was a space program. Having done multiple episodes with characters Ensign Puffle and Commander Alx with Admiral Complication, we expanded the “universe” to include First Op Gillard, Lieutenant Laurel Yannie (which by now is a dated reference which makes it funnier for us), Beautician Jenny Snips, Doctor Wolfe (whose catch phrase is “Oops”), Ace Grimsely and of course the seemingly mythological enemies;the Galaxons.
The conceit of this “update” is to bring the show forward into the future, and by our standards, bringing it up to 1987. We introduce new characters like Captain Hudson, Lieutenant Fields, Murph, Lieutenant Machinery and a producer and a writer for the program.
This was one of our largest groups recording a show so we took shifts to make sure we could do it right. Kurt Boucher (Commander-now Admiral Alx) was under the weather so he recorded his lines at home and we dubbed him in.
Everyone had the script for the mockumentary portion. When we arrived for the rehearsal/recording, I provided the short “The Vector Theorem” which we recorded immediately thereafter.
We may create MORE Space Sentries stories in the future depending on the availability and interest of the cast but if you have any comments on it, feel free to share!
Credits
Written/created and produced by J. Timothy Quirk (c)2019
Space Sentries Theme Song (1 and 2) written and created and performed by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2019
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
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).
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.
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)
Nutmeg Junction 