Holiday Special! The Nutclucker
December 2022’s SnapSessions! podcast presents a reprise of our holiday treasure–“Tchickclucksky’s The Nutclucker & Other Chicken Holiday Treats”, a 1995 production of Rothman’s HenHouse in association with Large Child Productions.
The Nutclucker was the inspiration of Harry “Henny Bockman” Rothman (aka “Poultriotti”), a longtime player and director of Mendocino’s Hit & Run Theater. Harry was an excellent chicken imitator and starred in many of Hit & Run’s skits over time, most especially of all of them involving poultry. He also had a fabulous baritone to back it up. In 1995 he approached me (Doug Nunn) to help him produce a chicken-cluckin’ version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and to combine that with chicken-cluckin’ versions of various Christmas carols.
Thus was spawned “The Nutclucker”, which we produced with singers Marilou “Bockbird Broiler”, Jim “Hard Broiler” Brewer, Sandy “Cluckfeld” Glickfeld, Ana “Henna” Lucas, Harry “Poutriotti” Rothman, and Doug “Cluck” Nunn. We worked with engineer, Jim Rote-Tisserie.
Be on the lookout for SnapSessions! two-part History of Hit & Run Theater, due out in late January. Part I will look at Hit & Run Theater’s skit writing era from the earliest days in the mid 1970s(before they were called Hit & Run) through their many shows in the 1980s. In addition to featuring many interviews with original Hit & Runners like Ellen Callas, Pamela Stoneham, Harry Rothman, Kathy O’Grady, Steve Weingarten, Richard Fienbop and Tracy Burns, Part I will include many highlights from shows like Oh Velveeta, Fiat Yux, and The Arnold Vicious Punk Opera. Part II will come out in late February and will include interviews with many of the same folks as well as more recent members of the Hit & Run team like Ken Krauss, Jill Lemos, Christine Samas, Janet Atherton, Mindy Ballentine, and Nicole Paravicini. Improv skit and song highlights from the last decade will also be featured.
SnapSessions! includes original music by Marshall Brown, production by Marshall Brown and Ken Krauss, voiceovers by Ken Krauss and Doug Nunn, and articles and interviews by Doug Nunn. Our SnapSessions! artist and logo maker is caricaturist, Daniel Stieglitz.
The Nutclucker includes the following “Tchickclucksky’s The Nutclucker & Other Chicken Holiday Treats” in the following order.
Side A—The Nutclucker
The Omeletture 1:36
Hatch 2:42
Dance of the Cornish Hen Fairy 2:02
Russian Dance—Kiev! 1:09
Casserole of the Roosters 2:33
Moltz of the Feathers 3:04
The Egg Scrambled Banner 1:16
Side B—Chicken Holiday Treats
Cluck the Hens :36
Here We Come a-Fertilizin’ :37
Gloria in Egg-Shells-Us :35
Joy to the Farm :34
We Wish You a Merry Clucksmas :29
Away in an Incubator :41
Draydel :26
Not-So-Silent Night:49
Oh Cluck All Ye Fowlful 1:21
Poultry Bells :38
Good Kings Hens is Lost :39
Wings and Thighs Forever 3:25
Pecks :25
(Please note “The Egg Scrambled Banner”, “Wings and Thighs Forever”, and “Pecks” are patriotic songs and have nothing to do with the holidays)
The Nutclucker sent a “saluting crow” to Nick McDougal of ProtoSound in New Hampshire for engineering our cassette tapes, and was supported by Lee Edmundson and Angela Knight. The cover illustration was done by Howard Clark and design was supplied by Liz Petersen Graphics. It was dedicated to the memory of Bruce “Rooster” Rothman.
SnapSessions! hopes you enjoy our resurrection of “The Nutclucker and Other Holiday Chicken Treats”. As German actor/improviser Bernd Witte told me many years ago:
“I use it as an egg timer. I put it on and when I can no longer stand it, my soft-boiled eggs are done.”
Nuf said. Happy Holidays!
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