Space Sentries: We return to the classic Space Sentries with Ensign Puffle (Rich Cyr) and Commander Alx (Kurt Boucher) and the enigmatic Admiral Complication (Phil Hall). At long last we present the very first Classic Space Sentries story and explain just why Commander Alx is in his quarters during the series.
Then we enjoy Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabelle Lee” read by author Tiffy McKay.
Thank Your Lucky Stars: Spaghetti Night is next featuring host Jack Sheedy, co-host Robert C. Fullerton and with guest Celebrity Chef Sally (AJ Lin).
We conclude with an encore presentation of Lilith the Life Coach featuring Christiane Olson and Lana Peck.
note: The newest recordings were recorded “remotely” with individual actors recording their lines separately to ensure safety given the recent health crisis known as COVID 19.
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.
Nutmeg Junction introduces Fanny and Fred. Down in Locust Hollow, Fanny and Fred make their way in this modern world. Today’s story: The Big Box Store!
Then we continue the journey of the Salisbury crew with another installment of Space Sentries: The Additional Lineage in The Vector Theorem!
SHOW NOTES
Inspired by comedy duo programs like Lum and Abner, we wanted to introduce characters portrayed by Jeff Savage and Jandi Hanna into our lineup of Junction characters. The story was directly inspired by a trip I had to a store not unlike “Value Fun”. I walked home from the store and wrote out the story that day.
We also introduce the character of “Rich Cyr” which is wonderful because we also have Rich Cyr as a cast member of Nutmeg Junction. Having Rich jump in to the ad was a lot of fun and we have done more of this since. Rich has told me this is his favorite character to play!
CREDITS
Nutmeg Junction was written, created and produced by J. Timothy Quirk (c)2019.
The program was recorded at WAPJ Torrington Community Radio
Fanny and Fred and the Big Box Store
Jandi Hanna as Fanny
Jeff Savage as Fred
Olivia Wadsworth as Customer
Kurt Boucher as Store Manager
Lana Peck as Store Clerk
Dan Willey as the Announcer
Rich Cyr as himself
The theme music to Fanny and Fred was written created and performed by Kurt Boucher (c)2019 and used with permission.
Space Sentries: The Additional Lineage: Vector Theorem Part 3
Rich Cyr as Ensign Puffle
Kurt Boucher as Admiral Alx
Phil Hall Admiral Complication
Jeff Savage as Space Brigand 2
Lana Peck as Space Brigand 3
Olivia Wadsworth as Ace Grimsely
Jandi Hanna as Lieutenant Machinery
Dan Willey as the Announcer
The theme music to Space Sentries was written created and performed by Robert C. Fullerton and used with permission (c)2019
In the continuation of the Grey Whisper three part story “Anthracite in Blue, we have the second segment “Anthracite in TWO”. It features Jandi Hanna as The Grey Whisper and Rich Cyr as Rusty. Our heroes investigate the case of the theft of fiber art from the fourth most popular fiber art museum in the region.
The story pays homage to the Athol-Orange area as we joined the WVAO station and wanted to give some shout outs!
Also we add Space Sentries III, the studio version. We recorded a live version of this short segment in November but we wanted to add a studio version for posterity with better sound quality for the story.
Credits
Nutmeg Junction was created, written and produced by J. Timothy Quirk
Madeline: Jandi Hanna
Rusty: Rich Cyr
Dalton: Kurt Boucher
Dr. Unhippa: Robert C. Fullerton
Jean Craftwell: Olivia Wadsworth
Announcer: Nick Bourne
Girl: Mariel Quirk
In Space Sentries III:
Commander Alx: Kurt Boucher
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 