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January 17, 2025 12 mins
We spoke with Tyler Gay and Devont’e Campbell about a BRAND NEW theatre company Ty & Tay Theater Company which is ran by the teenagers.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Accessed. My
guest today is Tyler Gay and Avante Campbell. They started
the Tie and Tay Theater Company. Good morning, guys, Good morning.
So how old are you guys? I'm seventeen okay, and
I'm sixteen. And where are you from?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm from Wallingford, Connecticut.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I'm from West Haven, Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
You guys became friends somehow.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
So over the summer, there's a there's where we're doing
the show at Cabaret on Maine. They offer a bunch
of awesome programs and we took one of them. It
was a summer intensive and we did Adam's Family the
musical and I'm Uxiy and he was Fester.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
How great.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
And from there we became friends. And that theater group
that we made from Billy and Neil, who are the
people who run Cabareat on Maine, we have stayed friends
for years and years. So one day we were we
were just hanging out and then that's how this came
to be.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
So you were hanging out and somebody got the bulb
over their head and said, let's start our own theater company.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Well, I actually saw the show that we're doing. I
saw it on Broadway and I saw it on closing
night and the writers of the show came on stage
and they told the story of how they thought of
writing the show and how the show resembles what was
actually going on in the creative process of writing it
as well. And the entire theme is like friendship and

(01:26):
it's accomplishing your dreams and going after it. And the
second I saw that connection on stage, I just thought
of Tyler.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
You did look at that. We would call that divine appointment.
That divinely you were connected and it came together. So
we're talking about the Tye in Tay Theater Company and
you were having the show called Gutenberg the Musical. You
decided to do that show, which you talked about. So
tell me about the theater company. It's on Cabaret and

(01:54):
Main Theater at five ninety seven Main Street, an easteven.
When did it all start, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
It's started probably around a year and a half ago.
At this point, we were playing video games and we
were on the phone and he just brought up the
fact that he'd seen it and how it was a
great show and how he wanted to do it with me,
and I was like, absolutely, let's do it. And then
from there we realized it wasn't as easy a process
as we thought it would be. We thought we were
just going to do the show, but we actually had
to do all these legal things, talk to a bunch

(02:22):
of attorneys and things like that to form an LLC.
And then once we did that, we were able to
request the rights from who we're buying from. It's called
Conquered Theatricals. And once we bought the rights, we were
underway with the show.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
So were your parents instrumental in helping you navigate all
of this and put it together.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
My dad was a financial advisor, so he was able
to get us in contact with the people to form
the LLC. And your mom helped us out a lot too.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Yes, my mom made the hoodies that we were wearing
and our socks that we would be selling at our show,
and she also made all of our hats, which are
how we differentiate our character in the show, because we
used sixty three different hats we have and that's a
lot of different singing voices, a lot of different characters, and.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
So that's a lot. Yeah, she helped us out a
lot with.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
That, and you both have theater backgrounds. Yes, yes, So
what have you done in the past.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Well, I didn't start off with theater. I started off
with dance, but I always loved everything in like the
form of entertainment. I started off when I was two
years old, and then I was dancing from two to thirteen,
and in between that, I started theater. In sixth grade.
I did my first show at my middle school and
it was Shrek the Musical HM And from then I

(03:40):
went to Cabaret on Maine and that's where I met
Tyler and all these amazing other people, and I just
been doing theater ever since. I think it's I'm going
on my twentieth show.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
And wow, four.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Years ago, Holy cow, I am really impressed. That's a
lot in that amount of time. Tell me about you.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, well, I when was it. I think it might
have been twenty eighteen. My mom just told me to
do the show that was happening at my school when
I was in third grade. It was called Captain Louis
and I did it. I was the left side of
a plane and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
So then from there I kept going and I kept going,
and eventually some talent Scouts found me and I started.

(04:22):
I got a manager and an agent, and I started
acting professionally and doing things like that in New York,
just doing whatever I can, and then we came together.
Now we have the theater company.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Wow, that is just amazing. You guys are so talented.
My goodness. So, Gutenberg the Musical, we began to talk
about it a little bit, tell me more about it.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Gutenberg the Musical is a show within a show. So
we're seeing Bud and Doug, which are the two writers
of the show, put on what they want to see
on stage on for Broadway producers to come and make
this happ happen.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
But we're also seeing what sort of.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
What they're thinking in the moment as well. So we're
seeing Gutenberg, but we're also seeing Bud and Doug's show
at the same time. And in the script it says,
while you're making Gutenberg the Musical, this is not your show.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
This is Bud and Doug's show.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
So it's also like a great acting exercise for us
as well, because not only are we in character while
we're playing our roles, but we're also in character while
developing the show thinking how would Bud do this?

Speaker 3 (05:32):
How would Doug do this? I'm not going to do
it like how Tyler would. I'm not going to do
it like how Davante would. I would do it like
how Bud did.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
So who's playing who? And how did you prepare for
your roles?

Speaker 3 (05:41):
I'm playing Bud Davenport ye, and I'm playing Doug Simon.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
And how did you guys prepare for those roles?

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Honestly, we kind of read the script. We formed the
characters ourselves, and we made our backgrounds and whatnot. And
it's especially fun to make all of the characters with
the hats, because some of them are so outlandish and
it's just really fun to have those different personalities.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
So do you have a large crowd of people in
the show? Are you guys doing all sixty three?

Speaker 3 (06:05):
It's just us too holy go.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
So do you have your lines on the side of
the stage. Sometimes you go back and peek.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
That's what I used to do.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
When it's a two man show, You're like, you don't
get to breathe, You're always on.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yeah, during rehearsal, there's definitely a couple flovers here and there,
but it's very difficult. The changing of the hats because
sometimes we'll have twelve hats on at the same time,
because in one of them, we're all just we're just
switching and then we're taking this one off and putting
that one on top, and then taking that one off
and putting it on top. Or sometimes like we play
a seven year old daughter in the show, so I'll

(06:39):
be going on my knees while I'm also holding another
hat in my hand to give the illusion that there's
someone standing here and that I'm this little little girl.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, there's this one scene in act too where
he's playing the villain monk and I am playing four
characters at the same time, which is my personal favorite scene.
But yeah, what you were saying about memorization, Usually it
comes pretty naturally naturally to me. I've never really had
to sit down and memorize lines. But with this show,
we literally it's just us too, so we have every

(07:08):
other line. So it's it's definitely been a challenge, I
think for the both of us to memorize all these lines.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
And so when you sing, are you singing in different
character voices as well?

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Wow, no, wonder why you wanted to do this. Yeah,
this is great. So you're gonna shine in so many
different areas of acting as a little seven year old
girl or as whatever other characters.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
There are many different it's a very broad variety of
characters and a lot of range, and it shows and
it's it's very fun.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
So do you have like a soundtrack that you sing too?
Will there be music like live music?

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (07:47):
We actually have a pianist, Phyllis Silver, who was who
currently is actually my high school director and our music
director there. And I found her and I asked her
to come do the show and she said.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yes, is Cabaret and Main Theater allowing you guys to
do it there? Or no, this is your theater.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Oh Cabrian, Maine is not our theater. No, that's just
where we met. So we thought it would be the
perfect place to put on our first show.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
There and they allowed you to.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, thankfully, Yeah they are.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
They've been nothing but the kindest and just opening sport.
Well you went.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
To their program over the summer and they think, wow,
what an amazing way to pay it forward.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, it's a real full circle moment seeing how we
met there, we started getting into theater there, and then
now we're putting on our own show.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
There, so it's and Cabrion, Maine is is unique because
they have this projection system where it's it's like all
around you. So, for instance, the show takes place in
the in fourteen fifties, sometimes we need an old timey
bar or a medieval street, so we can't really betray
that because we're just two guys with like three boxes

(08:53):
and sixty three hats. So they project that on the sides,
so everyone is able to get immersed in the show.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Only theater in Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, so you gave me the premise of it, but
is there like a point to the show? Like what
do you want people to take away when they leave?

Speaker 4 (09:11):
When I saw the show, what I really took away
from it was the theme of friendship and you can
do whatever you want. There's a moral within that we
say with throughout the show. It's we eat dreams. And
that's exactly what I thought. It's this was my dream
at one point and then I mentioned it and now
we're facing it and we're doing it together.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, and it's it's really cool because when we started this,
right we were just playing Fortnite and we were on FaceTime.
He brought it up. That was roughly a year and
a half ago, and now we're here in like a week,
it's actually coming to fruition, and that's that's really amazing. Yeah,
I think the overall overarching message of the whole thing
is just if you have a dream, go and accomplish it,

(09:54):
because you can't following your dreams and the people that
you choose to follow you can do it with the
right people.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, so look at that. The two of you were
brought together and here you are. Now, what do you
hope to achieve after this? Concerning this new theater company.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Well, we've looked into some shows, mostly with smaller cast
because you know, it's just me and him, and we
would try to get some of our friends to do
with us. But we're open to what a lot of
people have told us, like you should do this, or
you should do this. But we've also I do a
lot of I write a lot of music, and he's
he's really good with words and stuff like that. So
we were thinking maybe we'll create our own thing at
some point.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Your own show, Yeah, your own Tell me about the
orange sweatshirts, what the yellow means, et cetera. Why did
you choose the color orange?

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Why did we choose it?

Speaker 4 (10:38):
Just like orange was the original Playboo color for Yeah,
I think that's just what they did on and it
was really good.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
It works well with the yellow for our two different
yellows for our business logo.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well, one of my very close friends named Patrick Giammetti,
he drew the art here that you see for our
company logo and the and our posters and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Right and ty and Tay who knew I couldn't go
together better?

Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's very ideal.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
So how can people get tickets? It's tye Inta dot
ludus dot com, ty Intay dot loutis dot com. I'm
speaking with ty and Tay. That's Tyler Gay and DeVante Campbell.
They're the owners. They're the founders of the tye Inta
Theater Company. They're two teenagers, sixteen and seventeen. They're putting
on Gutenberg the Musical January twenty fourth through the twenty sixth.

(11:28):
You can see it at the Cabaret on Main Theater
and this is in East Haven at five ninety seven
Main Street. Tickets are only twenty dollars, can't beat it
and it's a two man show.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
Yes, come see our show. If you like theater, comes
to our show. If you've never seen a show before,
come see our show. If you want to put on
your own show, comes to our show. Just come see us.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Please get butts in the seats. That's what we care about,
you know what.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
This is just the beginning of something great, even greater
more to come. Thank you for being here, guys, Thank
you

Speaker 3 (11:59):
So much for having us
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