For Nutmeg Junction Season 2 Episode 11, (episode 211) we present the conclusion of the Professor A: Adjunct Professor to the Multiverse story “Dean of Death Part II”. Starring Lana Peck as Professor A, Kurt Boucher as Dr. Robere and Tiffy McKay as Ms. Gentry, the program also stars Jeff Savage in an extraordinary performance as Dean Hewland, also dubbed the Dean of Death!
Added to the program is “A Case of a Little Light Murder”, a Nathaniel and Netta Chance mystery.
Nutmeg Junction: New Old Time Radio Show 2019 In Season 2 Episode 10 (air date 3/30/2019) Professor A: Adjunct Professor to the Multi-verse receives an assignment to track down Dean Hewland, the “Dean of Death”. A beacon from the pod that Hewland had previously used has been activated on a deserted planet Earth in a time line very close to the PRIME time line. Is Hewland still alive and if not, who has activated the beacon?
Listen to the program HERE:
SHOW NOTES
There are no photos during the recording of this episode as we recorded the Space Sentries story first. The Dean of Death is a two part story and Kurt Boucher had to record his lines remotely and Tiffy McKay recorded her narration remotely so when we recorded this story, we focused on the recording aspect only.
Jeff Savage appears as a character in part two of the story.
Professor A and her students Dr. Robere and Ms Gentry travel to a planet in the multi-verse run by an outside authoritarian regime that is extracting the natural resources. In this chapter, Dr. Robere interrogates “Bear” under the direct supervision of the deadly Uni-One “Supervisor Friendly”, Professor attempts to enlist a Representative of the Vigent government to the cause of freedom and Ms. Gentry makes a startling discovery after saving the life of the Guard tasked with bringing her in!
I’m uploading this episode on a momentous occasion for last night we recorded the conclusion (Chapter 8) of this story and find that the entire work came together wonderfully and with each chapter, the stakes became greater and greater and the elements in the earlier parts of the story pay off at the end. This actual story arc will be entitled “UNIVERSE, MINE” and represents Chapters 4-8 in the Professor A saga.
This is the first time we have successfully serialized a character within our Nutmeg Junction world in a multi-part, multi episode (more than 2 episodes) way. The promise of the characters in this series keeps expanding and I’m excited for listeners to hear the story in its entirety. The work of the vocal talent is extraordinary.
PROFESSOR A: CHAPTER 7: RESIST
WRITTEN/CREATED/PRODUCED BY J. TIMOTHY QUIRK (C)2018
STARRING
LANA PECK AS THE PROFESSOR/OFFICER FUNSTON
KURT BOUCHER AS DR. ROBERE
TIFFY MCKAY AS MS. GENTRY
WITH
JOSH NEWEY AS SUPERVISOR FRIENDLY
DAVID ROBINSON AS BEARNARD “BEAR” SABLE
OLIVIA WADSWORTH AS THE GUARD SA-RAH
J. TIMOTHY QUIRK AS SECURITY DETAIL
PROFESSOR A THEME CREATED AND PERFORMED BY LANA PECK (C)2018 USED WITH PERMISSION
NUTMEG JUNCTION THEME CREATED AND PERFORMED BY ROBERT C. FULLERTON (C) 2018 USED WITH PERMISSION
ALL CHARACTERS AND STORIES ARE WORKS OF FICTION UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED. ANY RESEMBLANCE OF ANY PERSON OR SITUATION LIVING OR DECEASED IS COMPLETELY COINCIDENTAL.
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
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 