Phillip Merritt - RVA Magazine Profile

Phillip Merritt has “No F@%s Left to Give” when it comes to art.

Phillip Merritt is an architectural landscaper by day, and a multi-dimensional artist by night. Merritt is widely known for his award-winning podcast Lost in Williamsburg and his tongue-in-cheek music videos on Vimeo — all of which he writes, plays and slays all by himself under the name 1000 Years From Now. His latest work, a music video titled “No F#@%s Left to Give,” is quite the ode to finding one’s artistic voice, and the freedom to express it no matter what age you are.

While it was always a dream for Merritt to play music, it never came as naturally to him as the visual side of art. “I don’t really play an instrument, although I do have a guitar that I strum along with. When I put together videos, I can strum a few bars and stitch them together,” he said. “I don’t really have much time to practice, especially if I’m writing, so that takes up most of my free time. I use Logic Pro and GarageBand to put together keyboards and other sounds.”

The inclination to create has always existed within Merritt. He got his start as a visual artist, and he’s always had an affinity for sound. The same cannot be said for writing,  even if it’s the majority of what he does artistically in his projects.

“I always hated writing in school when I was younger,” Merritt said. “But now I don’t have to please anyone with it. I can do it however I want; it’s a bit more freeing.”

Merritt was born in Iowa, then lived in Texas through his formative years before graduating from the University of North Texas. Armed with an undergraduate degree in Drawing and Painting and a graduate degree in Landscape Architecture, he moved to Williamsburg in 1993 at 25 years old to be closer to his partner of (now) 30 years. 

“I always thought Williamsburg was a really fascinating place,” Merritt recalled. “It’s interesting; as a kid, my mom, aunt, and grandmother all loved visiting there. It was so beautiful. There are all of these incredible arrangements of spaces behind all the buildings and paths — it’s a very inspiring place to wander through. The whole thing is kind of ‘work of art meets a museum.’”

Merritt works to shed light on the city’s different layers on his Lost in Williamsburg podcast. Most people think of the town only as a tourist attraction, and it’s easy to forget just how old Williamsburg is. “They did a fantastic job rebuilding these buildings,” Merritt said. “It’s a world-class display of architecture, and I don’t think many people realize that. It’s also a huge step in historic preservation.” 

The beautiful scenery is undoubtedly an inspiration behind the podcast. It’s clear that Merritt is a landscape architect; that career choice, however, was also the driving factor in his search for an artistic outlet. It eventually led him to envelope his creative hankerings into a large, 20-episode script. 

“You hear a lot about people following their dreams, and I decided, ‘Why not give it a shot?’ I want to encourage people to try new things. I wasn’t necessarily a writer or a musician, but I just tried it and put it out there. I didn’t really edit myself, so a lot of the stuff I first put out was kind of rough, and not as high-quality. But people shouldn’t care about making ‘bad’ art — it’s more about the attempt to make art. Just getting it out there… do it long enough, you’ll start to improve.”

Merritt received interest from actors sparked by fliers he put up, but with many roles to fill, he ultimately reached out to friends who didn’t come from acting backgrounds.

“It was awesome to see someone [working] with no experience in acting, who would never get up in front of a real audience,” he said. “Some people gave really terrific performances as complete amateurs. When there’s no camera or audience, it really allows people to feel a bit more free in regards to acting. Not being scared to say yes to something. Together, you can make something really fun and interesting.” 

The dramatic podcast is everything you wouldn’t expect it to be, but in the best way possible. At first, you think you’re about to hear a scary story, but what it turns into transcends any one genre. It’s like The Twilight Zone meets Dawson’s Creek — but slightly gay, ghostly, and full of murder.

The details that set Merritt’s work apart from that of other artists are his refreshingly brazen words, expressed through the dialogue he writes throughout all of his projects. LGBTQ subtleties are common, but he doesn’t fixate on these moments — he lets them lay naturally into the characters’ interactions, as they do in real life. These matter-of-fact relationship moments help normalize LGBTQ relationships in mainstream media, just as they continue to integrate into the fabric of our society. 

The storyline flips between colonial times and the present-day happenings of Williamsburg, intertwining musical breaks that Merritt splices throughout the narrative strategically. His music becomes pieces of the story arch on its own.

The plot begins by following Thomas Jefferson and Professor Jobriath on a witch hunt, along with a William and Mary student, Aaron, who inadvertently falls victim to the antagonist. Enter Hebexa: a character who haunts them across dimensions, casting curses on other characters that, when they aren’t malicious, are quite entertaining. One example is the love spell she casts in one episode, falling on Thomas Jefferson and a plantation owner’s son. The millennium-teetering storyline is stitched together sonically, much like the foundation of a musical theatre play. Merritt also weaves in a podcast within the podcast, “Cacophony,” a radio show which kicks off Episode Two. Aaron’s character is interviewed on the fictional show about the latest up-and-coming news regarding his band. 

You don’t need to be from Williamsburg to appreciate this podcast. The city is fairly well-known outside the area, and a fun aspect of the show for Merritt was working with locals and their Tidewater accents.

“I got a kick out of sending that out, and having people all over the world hear what makes our area distinct,” he said. However, the themes within Lost in Williamsburg are what make it universally accessible.

To learn more about Merritt’s work, check out Lost In Williamsburg on Apple Podcasts and Soundcloud and hear an episode for yourself. His work in music videos and animation can also be found on Vimeo, at his 1000 Years From Now channel.

Go Native for Wildlife!

Next Door Neighbors - May 2014 - by Susan Guthrie

With the help of native plants, Phillip Merritt uses science to create art. “Garden design is creative but also has a scientific element; I like how science and art fit together in nature.”

His mother’s side of the family was in the floral business and as a child he loved to play in his grandparent’s greenhouse. He was naturally artistic and received an undergraduate degree in fine arts. While attending UVA for his Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture, his favorite class was plant identification. The beauty of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains combined with his admiration for one of his professors, plant identification grew into more than a hobby. “I became interested in plants by seeing them in their native environment and learning how to identify them.”

Driving the scenic roads of the Blue Ridge Parkway, he found himself wanting to know what all of the plants were. “At first it all looks the same, you can’t tell one plant from another, but with a little experience it’s satisfying to see a blur of color and know exactly what it is. It’s surprising how much you can learn with a little practice.” His friends would mistake him for a crazy person wandering along the side of the road, but he was just identifying plants. “Wet ditches along country roads are some of the best places to spot unusual plants.” 

As a landscape architect and president of the John Clayton Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society, Phillip has been transforming Williamsburg landscapes into art for 21 years. He has led many field trips in Williamsburg for the native plants society. “It’s like a puzzle; you go out with a group of people with field guides and see what you can identify.” The society offers two field trips a month, with approximately 20 people per group.

Since his presidential duties at the native plant society keep him from leading many field trips, he is looking forward to the native plant sale at Jamestown Beach Park on April 26. “The plant sale is a great place to pick up plants that members of the society have grown in their own yards and to get native plants that you won’t find in nurseries or garden centers.” He also recommends looking at Colonial Williamsburg for an excellent example that native gardens do not have to look wild and can enhance the beauty of your residential landscape. “They were designed to reflect the 18th century; most of the plants are natives that the colonists would have had available.”

If you love wildlife, use native plants in your landscape design. Native plants make up the base of the food web that supports wildlife and establishes the health of the ecosystem. Shelter and nesting sites provided by native plants are important to sustain native wildlife. The use of native plants in your yard and garden can be beautiful, good for the environment and will require less maintenance.

Phillip used mostly native plantings for his former house in Walnut Hills. The previous owners tried for a lawn, which did not do well in the shade, so he replaced the grass with between 10 and 12 species of ferns and a water garden. He now has three acres in Lanexa and is very excited to start with a fresh pallet. Native plants, especially those that support the most insects, will make up the majority of his new landscape. Phillip looks forward to the different habitat types on his new property where he’ll experiment with unusual native trees like farkleberry, horse sugar and umbrella magnolia.

Mention insects in the garden and people reach for the pesticides. Wait, insects provide one of the main food sources for birds. “I want residents to understand and appreciate how important insects are to the larger ecosystem and how important native plants are to insects.” Native plants are more resilient to occasional insect damage and recover easily. 

“Most insects do minimal damage to native plants, so it’s important to understand that not all insects are bad.” The best thing you can do to support wildlife is to contribute to the food web by using native plants to increase native insect populations.

“If you want songbirds; goldenrod, aster - black-eyed susans are a great place to start,” Phillip says. Everyone knows and requests roses and azaleas; however, they require chemicals and other artificial methods to thrive outside their natural limits. Phlox, roses, crabapples, euonymus, photinia and many other non-native ornamental plants are more commonly afflicted with disease and pests. The good insects cannot eat these and other non-native ornamental plants, which makes them more susceptible to infestations of destructive insects like gypsy moths and Japanese beetles.

Phillip recommends choosing plants that do not require many chemicals and putting them in the right place. For a distinctive low maintenance landscape, learn to appreciate native plants that are not as problematic.

He warns that invasive plants including English ivy, vinca, wisteria, privet, Japanese honeysuckle and bamboo can be very damaging to the ecosystem. “These have very little wildlife benefit and drive out the plants that do contribute to the food web.” Using alternatives like native honeysuckle will make the landscape attractive to wildlife and support a healthy ecosystem. Phillip says he understands that everyone wants fast results; however, he cautions that you should be suspicious of plants described as “fast growing,” especially Leyland cypress. “Leyland cypress can grow too big too fast for residential landscapes, and they can often blow over once they mature.” He encourages planting milkweed, which is the sole source of food for monarch butterfly larvae. The loss of milkweed in the past several years has resulted in drastic reductions in the monarch butterfly population.

Are there existing wildlife areas adjacent to your property? “Don’t think of nature as something ‘out there,’” Phillip says. Planting native species next to existing natural areas can increase the size of wildlife corridors. “Often, trees and other more natural parts of the yard get pushed towards the back property line. If you look at it from above, you see how these unintentional natural areas join together to create networks running through neighborhoods, so put your new plantings next to these already existing natural areas.”  

Wildlife corridors not only provide food and shelter, they also reduce edge effects on native vegetation and provide a more natural range for larger species. “In the continental U.S. we’ve lost 95% of the wild areas, so homeowners should consider ways in which their yard can be added to what’s left.”

A frequent but often unexpected obstacle to using native plants in your yard can be your Home Owners Association (HOA) guidelines. Although the intent of HOA landscape standards is to promote beautiful lush yards, their standards often make achieving that goal difficult.

According to Phillip, height requirements for plant installation can result in plants that are too large for the available space. “Most homes need dwarf versions of shrubs but they tend to be too small when they come from the nursery to meet HOA requirements.” Therefore, he recommends reviewing your HOA guidelines prior to designing your landscape.

Want more information on using native plants to attract wildlife to your yard? Phillip promotes the use of native plants by continually updating his very informative blog (www.HowItGrows.com) and native plant photographs. The blog includes a link to an interactive map of plants and places to see in tidewater, as well as a diary of which plants are in bloom in Williamsburg for every week of the year. In addition, he contributed to approximately 100 photographs to the “Wildflowers and Grasses of Virginia’s Coastal Plain” identification guide by Helen Hamilton, which he recommends for wildflower identification.

There are many sources for do-it-yourself landscaping advice, but Phillip Merritt says not to worry about a lot of garden lore and complicated planning. “Dig a hole, put a plant in it and keep it watered. If something dies don’t give up or worry about it; just try something else.”

He says the best thing is to experiment with different native plants in different areas and attend a native plant society field trip to see the possibilities right outside your door. “Start small, you’ll have lower maintenance and see more results.” Once you have success, you will feel inspired to expand and have fun with the diversity of nature.

Go Native in the Garden

Daily Press - June 11th, 2009 - By Kathy Van Mullekom

When Phillip Merritt was in the landscape architecture program at the University of Virginia, he became familiar with the works of great designers like the late Frederick Law Olmsted and Jens Jensen.

Instead of bringing in non-native trees and shrubs, the two men were known for their use of native plants to maintain the unique features of a site.

Those lessons, as well as hikes to identify native plants along the Blue Ridge Mountains, stayed with Phillip, now a landscape architect in Williamsburg.

"It was sort of eye-opening to begin to learn the names of all the individual plants that were previously one big green blur," he says. "It's also very satisfying to be able to drive down the highway, catch a glimpse of yellow, and know what it is."

THE SECRET TO USING NATIVE PLANTS IS ...

finding them. While local garden centers and big box stores may have some native species, it's hard to locate a seller if you want to try something a little more unusual.

Keep an eye out for native plant sales through the Virginia Living Museum and the Virginia Native Plant Society. And don't be afraid to try mail-order nurseries; I've tried lots of obscure online nurseries that I'd never heard of before and they almost always send high-quality plants.

Heronswood ( www.heronswood.com), Woodlanders ( www.woodlanders.net) and Plant Delights (www.plantdelights.com) are all good sources, though they are not exclusively native.

FOR SOME GARDENERS, NATIVE PLANTS MAY NOT ...

be showy enough, though there are plenty of species with big blooms. I recently saw a leatherwood bush in bloom for the first time; most people looking at it would be unimpressed with the small yellow flowers but I thought it was pretty cool. Another problem can be defining what a native plant is. Should you only plant something to coastal Virginia or is something native to Georgia OK? Are cultivars or hybrids acceptable? Some people get into fairly intense debates about these kinds of questions and the average gardener may be put off by that.

In my opinion, it's your yard, do what makes you happy. You don't have to plant only 100 percent locally grown native plants to have a beneficial impact on wildlife - although the more natives you use the greater your impact will be and the more songbirds and butterflies you will see.

Doug Tallamy makes a strong argument for using native plants in his book "Bringing Nature Home." He points to songbirds that need the insects that feed on native plants to raise their newly hatched chicks. The seeds and berries that we usually associate with bird food come later in the year, after the chicks are older, so more native plants mean more songbirds.

In my yard I have many exotic shrubs and perennials that I couldn't do without, and some that just happened to come with my house. I think they look just fine mixed with all the natives I have - only the most hard-core plant enthusiasts would be able tell which is which.

I also like to use lots of non-native annuals throughout my yard to provide extra jolts of color - I just avoid plants that I know have a possibility of becoming invasive.

MY FAVORITE NATIVE PLANTS INCLUDE ...

Little Henry sweetspire, or Itea virginica. This is a compact cultivar, three to four feet tall, that often grows on the banks of local streams but it's also suitable for drier locations. It tolerates shade and has long, droopy white flower clusters in spring; plant it in more sun and you get more flowers and a richer red fall color. The plant spreads, forming dense colonies, making it a good choice for filling in an area and stabilizing soil.

Foamflower, or Tiarella. This low perennial has lots of wispy white blooms in spring and when it spreads into a patch it can be really spectacular looking. Plant the perennial in a shady or semi-shady site and provide adequate moisture, especially the first year. Foamflowers in garden centers are often hybridized so purists may want to check the label for exact species information.

Fothergilla. It's a great little shrub for its fluffy white flowers in the spring and its intense, almost neon red, yellow or orange color in fall. The dwarf variety, Fothergilla gardenii, is probably best for residential gardens, growing three to four feet tall. The honey-scented flowers can be very fragrant, but try to buy it while it's in bloom, just to be sure. This plant likes a bit of shade, but can take full sun, and it mixes well with other acid-loving plants like azaleas.

NICE NATIVES TO TRY

Trees: Serviceberry, river birch, sweet bay magnolia, eastern red cedar, maple, fringe tree, bald cypress and American holly.

Shrubs: Oakleaf hydrangea, beautyberry, winterberry, Southern bayberry, inkberry, holly, viburnum, swamp azalea, mountain laurel and Virginia sweetspire.

Spring perennials: Christmas fern, wild bleeding heart, wild columbine, Virginia bluebells, Mayapple, wild geranium, marsh marigold, wild blue phlox, Jamestown lily, golden ragwort, Jacob's ladder and beardtongue.

Summer perennials: Butterfly weed (host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars), ironweed, Great Blue lobelia, spiderwort, wild bergamot, snakeroot, goatsbeard, Trumpet honeysuckle, coneflower, lanceleaf coreopsis, Joe-pye weed, brown-eyed Sudan, cardinal flower, blue vervain, green-headed coneflower, rose mallow, seashore mallow and summer phlox. American wisteria is native and less invasive than Chinese wisteria.

Fall perennials: Maryland golden aster, sweet goldenrod and boltonia.

For more native plant recommendations, visit the Virginia Native Plant Society at www.vnps.org.

Lost in Williamsburg Headed to Kansas City

Virginia Gazette Online - May 19th, 2016 - By Phillip Merritt

Williamsburg, Virginia residents beware. All the secrets and unexplained mysteries of your humble little town will be exposed to the world on June 10th in Kansas City, Missouri. That's the day the locally produced podcast Lost in Williamsburg will be presented at the 2016 HEAR Now Audio Fiction and Arts Festival. The four day festival features a day-long listening event showcasing a jury-selected sampling of audio programs from around the nation, and Lost in Williamsburg creator Phillip Merritt will be on hand to introduce an episode of his podcast.

So what is a podcast? That's a question show creator Phillip Merritt was asked a lot when he began his project. "Podcasts are like radio shows for the internet age," he says. "But instead of being broadcast over the airwaves, they're downloaded from the web." And like radio shows, podcasts can be about anything: news, comedy, talk, or in the case of Lost in Williamsburg, a serial drama.

Mr. Merritt has always been a fan of the classic radio dramas of the 40's and 50's like Suspense or Inner Sanctum, which you can now find archived online. And when he heard the first episode of a Welcome to Nightvale, an immensely popular new audio drama, he decided to try his hand at a story focusing on his own hometown. "With hundreds of years of colonial history and numerous famous residents, Williamsburg is bursting with dramatic potential," he says.

The question Mr. Merritt's show explores is this: Is the charming little town of Williamsburg really as quaint and quiet as it seems or could there something sinister lurking amongst the town's historic homes, B&B's, and campus courtyards? To find out, The show's story weaves back and forth between the 18th century and present day. Characters include the young student Thomas Jefferson, a tavern owner (and sorceress) Hexabeth Blackhard, and members of Cats with Benefits, a William & Mary rock band whose lead singer mysteriously disappears.

Finding actors for portray the dozens of characters required for the production was tricky at first. Mr. Merritt posted flyers around town and cajoled anyone he could think of into finding their inner thespian. Friends, co-workers; no one was spared. "One of the things I enjoy most about the show is working with locals to get that authentic tidewater feeling," he says. " I haven't been able to convince everyone though. There are a couple of people I know with the most amazing Gloucester accents. I'm still hoping to get them to take on roles someday."

While many of the actors had little or no theatrical experience, neither did Mr. Merritt. "Figuring out how to write a script and music and to get the voices and sound effects to work together required a bit of trial and error. "The early shows are bit clunky, but I think the show improves a lot as the episodes progress." Others seem to agree as the show has picked up acting, music and production nominations from both the Audio Verse Awards and Parsec Awards, including a win for Best Actress in an Ensemble Role for Colleen Kennedy's performance as Hexabeth Blackhard.

If you're interested in exploring the twilight world of Williamsburg, you can download or stream the program for free on iTunes and SoundCloud. With a bit of strong language and the occasional murder, it's probably not for the kids, but if you're not intimidated by poltergiests, possessions, or passive-aggressive parents, give it a listen. You don't have to be a native Williamsburger to enjoy the program, but if you are, you might be very suprised to find out what your neighbors have been up to.

www.hearnowfestival.org
https://soundcloud.com/lostinwilliamsburg
https://www.facebook.com/lostinwilliamsburg

Local podcast taps supernatural side of Williamsburg

Virginia Gazette - August 23rd, 2016 - By Heather Bridges

With a laptop, a microphone and a propped-up script between them, Phillip Merritt looked across the table at Philip Burcher.

"Are you ready to go?" Merritt asked.

So began the recording session.

As Burcher recited his lines for an episode of the "Lost in Williamsburg" podcast, Merritt listened intently, interjecting occasionally.

"So I would kind of speed that up a little bit," Merritt said at one point.

"Just a little bit more intense," he suggested later. "Almost shouting, not quite."

For someone so assured in direction, it's hard to believe Merritt had no idea how to make a podcast just four years ago.

Nearly 17 episodes of "Lost in Williamsburg" later, you could say Merritt has figured it out. He writes the script and composes the music. He records, edits and creates the artwork.

A landscape architect by day, Merritt produces the podcast in his own time, devoting an estimated 40 hours to each episode.

It's his creative labor of love.

"It's just so much fun to work on," Merritt said. "It's like a puzzle."

"Some people do sudoku, trying to figure out where all the numbers go," he said, "but this is like where do the notes go? Where do the sound effects go?"

The "Lost in Williamsburg" podcast, produced by local Phillip Merritt, is a supernatural drama that Merritt describes as a "multigenerational soap opera." Set in Williamsburg, it goes back and forth between Thomas Jefferson's time and the present. Listen to the podcast on soundcloud or iTunes.

 (By Heather Bridges)

Podcast inspiration

A podcast is not radio, and not quite streaming.

It's a digital media file downloaded from the Internet. Often, podcasts are produced as a series, and listeners can subscribe.

Survey data from Edison Research reveals that, as of 2016, 21 percent of Americans age 12 and older said they had listened to a podcast in the past month. That's nearly double the number of listeners from 2013: 12 percent.

And 36 percent of Americans 12 and older have ever listened to a podcast, according to the Edison survey data.

During work days spent sitting at his computer and drafting, Merritt started listening to online archives of classic radio programs, such as "Suspense" and "CBS Radio Mystery Theater."

That sparked the idea of starting his own podcast, but he didn't act on the idea until listening to an episode of "Welcome to Night Vale," a popular podcast about a fictional town.

"It was basically one guy talking into a microphone," Merritt said. "That's when I realized I could give podcasting a try."

From scriptwriting to editing, he's learned by doing, and that's all part of the fun. For Merritt, who has a background in fine arts, podcasting is just another creative outlet.

"At work, it's a creative job, but it's sort of practical creativity," Merritt said. With podcasting, "you get to do crazy, wild stuff."

Supernatural Williamsburg

Merritt describes "Lost in Williamsburg" as a "multigenerational soap opera."

Essentially, the serial drama follows Cats with Benefits, a present-day rock band that includes students at the College of William and Mary whose lead singer strangely disappears.

Episodes teeter between present and the past, flashing back to Thomas Jefferson's time at William and Mary. Other characters include Hexabeth Blackhard, an 18th-century tavern owner and sorceress, and Margaret Souter, an amateur sleuth.

"It's not exactly horror," Merritt said. "It's kind of like campy suspense."

And it shows a different side of Williamsburg.

"Basically, it's just sort of pretending what if there was something strange and supernatural going on in the town," Merritt said. "The town has a lot of history, so there's lots of potential for stories going back hundreds of years."

Colleen Kennedy, a longtime friend of Merritt's and associate professor of English at William and Mary, reads the part of Hexabeth Blackhard. She's lived in Williamsburg for several years.

"You can imagine yourself in the tavern back in the day, because you've been in the (Colonial Williamsburg) tavern," Kennedy said.

Merritt said he's intrigued by the "tension between reality and fiction" in the Historic Area and nearby areas. In "Lost in Williamsburg," Merritt likes to push that tension to the extreme.

"What is left out of the standard history we are presented with? What are the motives of the community leaders and business people who run the town? What if there is something sinister going on?" he said. "It's fun to speculate about that."

Local flavor

Burcher admits he'd never heard of podcasts before Merritt invited him to read the character of John Dunhill in "Lost in Williamsburg," nor did he have acting experience.

That's not far from the norm for the nearly 70 others Merritt has involved in the podcast — friends, coworkers, William and Mary faculty and students.

"I really like to get that local flavor, and convey some of that to people outside the area," he said, particularly with local accents.

Burcher, who has a Tidewater accent, grew up in Hampton, worked in Newport News and has lived in Williamsburg for years.

"I think that your regional accent is as much a part of you as any other ingredient," Burcher said. "Anybody can speak with a radio voice, but not many people can speak correctly with a Tidewater accent."

Linda Hertzler, co-owner of Hertzler and George and Merritt's employer, had a bit more acting experience than others involved, with a bachelor's degree in theater arts. She said playing Lady Macbeth has always been a bucket-list item.

"My character in the radio drama is the closest I'm going to get to that," she said of her role in "Lost in Williamsburg" as serial killer Valerie Dunhill.

Much of the recording takes place one-on-one in actor's homes. Reading lines alone was different than any performing Hertzler had done, and she voiced surprise at the finished and edited product, as did Kennedy.

"It's so behind the scenes, but what (Merritt) does is phenomenal," Kennedy said.

Kennedy's performance garnered a 2015 Audio Verse Award for Best Actress in an Ensemble Role, and the podcast has either won or been a finalist for select Audio Verse and Parsec awards.

The podcast's following isn't large – Merritt estimated 100 to 150 listens per episode.

The joy lies in the learning, the creation, the challenge, and seeing others discover that same joy.

"It's rewarding for me to find someone who's like, 'Oh, I couldn't possibly do anything like that,' and you challenge them, and they come through, and they enjoy it," Merritt said.

William & Mary Found in Lost in Williamsburg

William & Mary News - July 8th, 2016 - By Cortney Langley

A minute into the first episode, “Lost in Williamsburg” podcast listeners learn how high the stakes are. “The lives of everyone in Williamsburg depend on what Thomas [Jefferson] and I are about to do,” Professor Jobriath says. The fictional William & Mary professor is played by a real one – History Chair Fred Corney.

Meanwhile, the young W&M student, Thomas Jefferson, is played by a young W&M student, Mark Hutchens. They are two of the 31 performers in the serial audio drama, or “supernatural soap opera,” who are either William & May students, faculty or staff. Eleven more are family members of W&M people.

All the more surprising is learning the creator of what is likely the only independent podcast in Williamsburg never attended W&M and doesn’t work at the university. Creator Phillip Merritt’s closest tie is his partner and English and Linguistics Professor Jack Martin.

But he needed voices, lots of voices, Merritt said, for the free podcast that launched in 2013 and is now 15 episodes into exploring whether the “charming little town of Williamsburg really is as quaint and quiet as it seems, or is there something sinister lurking amongst the town’s historic homes, B&Bs and campus courtyards?”

To find out, the show’s story weaves between the 18thcentury and present day, with characters including the young Thomas Jefferson, tavern owner and sorceress Hexabeth Blackhard and members of Cats with Benefits, a W&M rock band whose lead singer mysteriously disappears. William & Mary references abound, as do sly nods to everyday life and institutions in Williamsburg.

Recruiting Thomas Jefferson

Most of the students who participate, including Hutchens, learned about the podcast through fliers put up on campus that attracted the attention of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, or Sciffy.

“I heard about it first at a meeting of Sciffy,” said Hutchens ’17, a computer science and linguistics major. “So I went with a couple of my nerd friends to record parts. There’s a surprisingly large Science Fiction and Fantasy Club cast. There’s at least five, but a lot of them are bit parts.”

He landed the role as Jefferson, he believes, because he sent a test recording reading the Declaration of Independence. “I gave a couple of different takes with different confidence levels and that sort of thing,” he said, “then [Merritt] sent me the script for Thomas Jefferson and I was like, ‘Oh, great!’ Suddenly I had a major role.”

Merritt ended up recording different roles in different places, but made use of the soundproof Computational and Experimental Linguistics Lab in the basement of Tucker Hall for many of the student recordings.

That’s where he captured the voice of biology major Erin Roberts ’16 for a singing role. Roberts had performed for years with the Botetourt Chamber Singers and Sinfonicron Light Opera Company. She was in Williamsburg doing biological research over a summer when Jamie Bartlett, music chair and associate director of choirs, put out a call for singers to help with the podcast.
“I got in touch with [Merritt] and he told me a little bit about his podcast and I was like, ‘Oh, this sounds cool,” she said. “He gave me the sheet music for it, so I spent about a week learning it, making sure I had it down.”

Roberts performed“Sweet Isabelle” as barmaid Cecelia Blackhard, singing at a grand ball in the Governor’s Palace. The song was a finalist in the 2015 Audio Verse Awards, which celebrate the best in free audio drama from around the world. Nominations come from listeners.

“I was happy with how it turned out,” she said. “The sound equipment was good, I was happy with my performance. And it was an interesting song; [Merritt] composed it himself. I loved being a part of it.”

‘More or less anonymous’

Louise Menges had never done anything like the acting she did on the podcast as Margaret Souter, a shut-in owner of a local B&B who is obsessed with Williamsburg’s eerie history and mysterious goings-on. Menges retired from William & Mary in 2010 as a senior lab specialist responsible for the physical chemistry and instrumental analysis labs.

“I don’t think I could have done it, except it’s more or less anonymous,” she said. “It’s on the radio, so nobody sees me. I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun, but if I had to do it on stage or in front of people, I don’t think I could have done it.”

Merritt said working with people like Menges is his favorite part of the podcast, which can take up to 40 hours per episode to write and produce.

“People are stretching beyond their boundaries and trying creative things,” he said. “It’s fun to get people to try these things and to see them loosen up as we’re recording.”

Mike Turner, director of programs and special projects in the W&M registrar’s office, is a self-described “current events nut” who only had to envision the day’s news to tap into the anger he needed for his villainous role.
Turner was probably more comfortable behind the mic than many other actors; he used to do work in radio and on-camera and so he understood why he had to record the same line over and over with different inflections.

“The individual I was directing wasn’t there to respond,” he said. “So they do this a lot with animated movies, where they do multiple takes and then can choose which to use with the other recording.

“‘Aladdin’ is a good example. When they made ‘Aladdin,’ Robin Williams would tend to go off-book. This would be a problem in some projects, but his ad libs were so much better than the writing, they would have to go in and either redo the other character or use one of the multiple responses. That’s part of the reason his role is so funny and memorable. He’d add something and they’d just go, ‘We can’t leave that out.’”

The murder of George Wythe

Paul Hellyer, reference librarian with the W&M Law School’s Wolf Law Library, had some bit parts in “Lost in Williamsburg,” but was really inspired by it to launch his own podcast about the death of George Wythe.

“I already knew about the story,” he said. “George Wythe was our first law professor – the first one here at William & Mary, and the first one in the country. He was poisoned by his nephew in 1806, after he left Williamsburg and moved to Richmond. It was a fascinating story, so I thought it would make a good topic for a podcast.”

Most of the characters in the semi-historical drama“Murder of George Wythe” are portrayed by W&M law professors and students.

“My podcast is a lot simpler than Phillip’s,” he said. “He goes back and forth in time, there’s a lot of fantasy in it and a lot of characters. In ‘Murder of George Wythe,’ it’s strictly linear and the plot is more straightforward. It was a lot of fun. I had so much fun, I didn’t really notice the time.”

Best Actress goes to…

English Associate Professor Colleen Kennedy was involved with “Lost in Williamsburg” early as one of the show’s stars, Hexabeth Blackhard. Late last year she won Audio Verse’s Best Actress award for her performance.
“It was really shocking when we got that award,” Kennedy said. “I share that award with Phillip because you do scenes over and over again until he gets it just right. My performance is as much his as it is mine.”

The show has picked up other acting, music and production nominations from Audio Verse and the Parsec Awards and was an official selection at 2016 HEAR Now: Audio Fiction and Arts Festival.

“I remember Phillip coming over to our place and him recording Colleen, and I was thinking, ‘What is going on here?’” said Chancellor Professor of Economics Will Hausman, Kennedy’s husband who later would take on the role of hapless Williamsburg resident Dale Souter. To save time, Merritt will often record the two in a quiet walk-in closet at their home.

“I didn’t anticipate it would be getting some of the nominations for these awards,” he said. “I just did it as a lark.”

Kennedy laughs when she recalls being downstairs while Hausman was upstairs screaming in the closet while recording a scene in which Dale makes a terrible discovery.

“I’m just hearing him screaming, over and over and over again,” she said, laughing. “If anybody had walked into the house…”

Though she plays the main villain, Kennedy said she sympathizes with the sorceress Hexabeth.

“I like her vindictiveness,” she said. “I guess that’s not a very nice thing to say, but I think Phillip did a good job of showing where it comes from. And I like the fact that she doesn’t take any crap from anybody. It was a very fun thing to play.”

Hausman said he thinks he has a “terrible voice” but took on the role to help out Merritt, who is a long-time friend of the family. (For his part, Merritt says Hausman has one of his favorite voices because it’s distinctive). He identifies with Dale as he takes issue with bureaucracy but judges him as too meek in relationships.

“Anybody who would ask somebody on a date to dinner and think that spaghetti with clam sauce is the best he can make is a little strange,” Hausman said.

And even though the couple are both main figures in the podcast, they are both just as eager to see how the drama wraps up as any other listener.

“It has been so much fun,” Kennedy said. “I want him to do the finale. I want that to go into the article: there has to be a finale.”

“I can’t wait to see where it’s going to go,” Hausman said. “It’s like ‘Game of Thrones,’ you just never know what’s going to happen.”