October 10, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 9 Ridgewood Captain Nemo, crew grant autograph requests by John Koster Ridgewood children whose own parents are not old enough to remember preTV adventure and mystery radio programs crowded forward to ask Captain Nemo (actor Michael Jarmus) for his autograph. The kids also wanted the autographs of the entire crew of the radio Nautilus, including those of Lawrence Mintz as the learned Professor Arronax, Carlyle Owens as the gusty Ned Land, and Alexander Dawson as the sound and lighting mixer. Dawson also directed the simulated 1930s-style radio broadcast of “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” by Raconteur Radio. The Metuchen-based group presents live-action versions of adventure classics all over the tri-state area. Some members of the audience, which included younger children and their parents, were not sure what to expect when Lawrence Mintz (Professor Arronax), Michael Jarmus (Captain Nemo), Alexander Dawson (Director), and Carlyle Owens (Ned Land) look like they just stepped off Jules Verne’s ‘Nautilus’ after an exciting performance in Ridgewood. Spectral lighting and spooky sound effects brought the production at the Ridgewood Library to life for youngsters and their parents. Charlie Glazer (in helmet), Jamie Glazer, and Nicholas Bamberg enjoyed the props at the Ridgewood Library broadcast. they filed into the auditorium at the Ridgewood Library. “It’s really dark. Is this going to be scary?” one five-year-old asked. The show turned out to be just scary enough. Illuminated by a red light that cast lurid giant shadows on the back wall, the three actors offered a condensed, but textually responsible version of the mysterious sea monster that attacks the ship of an accursed nation -- a nation that is never identified in the book or the play. Jules Verne originally wanted Captain Nemo to be a Pole who hated Tsarist Russia, but his publisher Pierre-Auguste (continued on page 10)