April 12, 2024 • 21 mins
In this thought-provoking episode of Affton Unplugged, host Travis Bracht takes an insider's tour of the preparations for Affton High School's highly-anticipated spring musical, Into the Woods. This behind-the-scenes look peels back the curtain, revealing the passion, hard work, and commitment Affton's young thespians put into bringing their characters to life.
Sylas Hampton and Mary Cooper, cast members and high school students themselves, willingly share their experiences. They delve into their dual lives – managing their academic responsibilities while devoting countless hours to rehearsals. Sylas divulges his recent success at the FCCLA competition, while Mary expresses her deep-rooted love for the arts.
Furthermore, they take us through the twisted and thrilling storyline of Into The Woods. The viewers get to understand the complexity of their characters, the Baker and his wife, and how these vibrant roles intertwine with the other Grimm's Brothers tales within the musical.
Sylas and Mary further discuss their journey of managing the challenging music score while synchronizing dialogues with specific actions. Amidst these challenges, their devotion to theatre and their roles is burning brighter than ever - illuminating their words with the fervor that can only come from a love of theatre.
Moving beyond the stage's glare, the duo delve into their plans after high school. From dreams to fears, they discuss their hopes of theatre, becoming more than just a hobby. Amidst the pressure, they are immensely grateful for their school's supportive team that has continually propelled their theatrical productions to higher levels.
In this captivating episode of Affton Unplugged, join us as we explore the unseen magic behind a high school musical. From memories formed to lessons learned, this episode brings to light the art, dedication, and allure of the theatre.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(00:20):
Welcome to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District that highlights
the people and stories that make the district great.
I'm your host, Superintendent Travis Brock, and in the Afton School District,
education is the most important thing we do.
Music.
(00:46):
All right welcome to this episode of the afton unplugged podcast and today we're
going to highlight the afton high school spring musical into the woods and i've
got two cast members that have joined me they're going to tell me a little bit
about themselves what their role is is with the production,
and anything else they think we might be interested to hear about in regards to the spring musical.
(01:07):
So guys, thanks for joining me. Thank you for having us.
All right. Happy to do it. And let's just start out with some general introductions.
So tell us your name, what grade you're in, what role you have with this production,
and then what else are you involved with at Afton High School that people might see you in?
Yeah, of course. I'll start. So I'm Silas Hampton.
I'm a junior at Afton High School, And my role is the baker,
(01:31):
which surface level doesn't sound super important, but I promise it's a bit
more important than it seems.
The only other thing I'm really involved with is I'm involved in FCCLA.
I just recently went to nationals with that. So that was fun.
Great. How about you? Hi, I'm Mary Cooper.
I'm a junior and I play the baker's wife. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
(01:55):
Like Silas said, it doesn't sound super involved, but I'm very excited.
I'm very happy with the work I've been able to do.
Outside of theater, I'm very involved in the arts.
I love to draw and paint. And yeah, I'm very excited for the show.
All right. Well, before we get into this, tell me about the FCC.
Is it FCCLA competition? Yeah. How did you do? Oh, my God. So,
(02:18):
yeah, I got third place, but...
0.5 away from a perfect score so the two people who beat me out to go to like
you know internationals or something yeah no oh yeah i got it mixed up so i
was i was competing at missouri level.
Nationals is what i was you know shooting for but
i got third place still got gold though
(02:38):
got a gold medal and everything and honestly it was
just an amazing experience i loved it it was super fun one of
my favorite things yeah well congratulations on that thank you i
appreciate it thanks for sharing all right let's get
into into the woods can you give our
listeners just some general information or
general setup what's this about okay yeah so
(02:59):
i guess i'll just start with a little bit of a synopsis so there's a lot of
like fairy tales that people know and are super well known what into the woods
does is it takes those the original tellings of those fairy tales like the the
Grimm's Brothers telling of the fairy tales.
And it sort of throws them all at each other in this sort of big clash.
(03:21):
And it's every character is sort of playing sort of a characterization of that character.
So, you know, you're playing Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Riding Hood
is just that much more of an annoyance. You know what I mean?
Every character is amped up in some form or fashion.
Yes, it's very intertwined. And me and Silas, We happen to be mixed up just
(03:45):
all in the middle of the red cape and slipper and cow madness of all these fairy tales.
During the second act, though, it gets a lot more real and a lot less in this fairy tale world.
I mean, it still is, of course, but... It's dark and it's sad and hard,
I think, is a good way to describe it.
(04:06):
Yes, but it's very touching. And when I watched the Broadway version,
I felt a lot of emotions during the second act.
But all the way through, I'd say it's a beautifully written, beautifully composed.
And Stephen Sondheim really came to work.
But yeah, there's a lot of moving parts in this musical.
And no matter what, we have had to stay on our toes every performance.
(04:31):
Yeah, very true. All right. And one of the reasons we're featuring this is because
Showtime's coming up, right?
When is this production happening? Yes, April 19th and 20th.
Yeah, it's going to be at 7.30 at the Judith Rethwich Auditorium.
We've been doing a lot of work advertising-wise just before this.
Me and Mary were handing out pamphlets at a track meet.
(04:52):
We were really on our A-game. I've also been running the official Afton Theater account.
I've been posting a lot of stuff on there and gaining a little bit of a following,
slowly but surely, from the ground up. And that's been gaining some momentum.
So we're hoping that we get a big crowd. Yeah. And then other than those primetime
productions, do you do any other productions?
(05:15):
Do you do any other, I guess you could say, shows that may be during the day or for other audiences?
Well, we do have the fall play, of course, but something I guess you could say
is smaller is we do do ThesCon early, early on into the year.
And that involves a lot of performances in front of a lot of strangers,
judges, and all the thespians from Missouri will gather.
(05:37):
And we have to perform at least something either for scholarships or just an
IE. It can be very competitive because everyone is trying to move on to that sort of next level.
Me and Mary were both lucky enough to be able to, you know, perform in some
capacity. I performed with senior Liz Boyd.
We did a duet independent event, which is like, you know, we perform in front
(06:00):
of a panel of judges our little bit and then they decide what our grading is.
And if we're good enough, we have the chance to go to the next level,
which I think is nationals. Me and Liz actually did get a sort of national status
with our performance. So that was really great.
And we were super, super excited for that because it hadn't happened to either of us yet.
(06:21):
So that was just a blessing. Yeah. Awesome.
Let's talk a little bit more about your roles in the production.
Anything else you think people should know? You gave them just a brief little
synopsis of the role, but what else would you tell them about your role? Sure.
Yes, our roles are definitely, you know, they're not the classic fairy tale,
(06:42):
like you're not, it's not like Cinderella or Little Red, like you immediately
know the plot, you immediately know our roles.
We're kind of just like would be background characters, but now we're kind of put into the spotlight.
We get thrown into the mix because we both want a child and a witch tells us
(07:02):
that if we steal these items from different fairy tale characters,
a cape as red as blood, a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn,
and a slipper as pure as gold will have a child.
And so we sort of go around causing a bit of havoc in a lot of other characters'
(07:22):
stories trying to get our wish.
Great. What's been your favorite part preparing for your role?
That's a toughie i i really like
the humor that comes with baker's wife she's like
she's there's something very down to
(07:43):
earth about her she is a very flawed character
and but she just has like this
humor that's like oh my god like what am i doing here you
know that i think a lot of of people can find relatable and
I really hope to represent that well
it's it's challenging but I enjoy enjoy
it a lot I think my favorite part for when
(08:06):
it came came to preparing for this character in particular was seeing how someone
else performed it like on Broadway or something like that and being able to
look at that and say this is what I'm going to do with that I'm going to change
that because I think it would be just that much funnier if I pause right there,
because that's the moment where you're really like, I'm in it.
(08:27):
I'm in this character and I'm in control.
You realize, I'm not playing a script like,
I'm saying what I want to say. It's whether or not I'm saying what's on the
script and, you know, doing what I should be, you know, but obviously you want
to do what's mostly on the script. Yeah, yeah, right.
And then what was challenging? What's been the most challenging part prepping for this? Oh, God.
(08:52):
Music is a battle for Into the Woods. I was going to say.
Music is, because Sondheim, God, the legend that he is, he makes musicals very difficult.
Difficult and so the entire opening song
of this show is 10 minutes long it's 10 minutes long
with dialogue interjections and all of that and even
if we're like in the middle of speaking our parts if we hear the
(09:15):
music going we just have to go snap right onto the
next song we'll have to start singing or like skip onto the next part because
we can't stop that whole 10 minutes it's just non-stop bump a bump a bump a
bump and it's like you know that can be daunting at times but But we've been
pulling through for the most part. Part.
(09:36):
Most part we have been pulling through. But yeah, I don't know if it's the same
for you. No, I absolutely agree.
There's parts that's like where it's not like dialogue going into song,
but like there's music backing up this dialogue and you have to carefully place each line.
There's this one specific scene where we
(09:58):
are like talking with the witch and
we're like hey what's going on you know why
isn't this working and there's and you we have to like like mix it up like perfectly
with oh yeah we have to time talking with milking of the cow that's how that's
how specific this show gets at times yeah something that probably the average
(10:21):
person doesn't think about, right?
Yeah, no. And even you didn't think about that. No, I didn't think,
okay, I'm going to have to count how many times he squeezes the cow.
Now talk like you know i didn't think that was something i was gonna have to
face going into this show as the baker as the baker right yeah all right what
this is kind of more of a general question what do you like about just being
(10:45):
involved with theater what do you like about this,
i can start a few okay so one thing
i've always loved about theater is i think it is one of the the like,
it prepares you for life almost more than anything I've ever experienced just
in that a lot of the times you are having to deal with people who sometimes
(11:07):
you're not super like, you know, acquainted with sometimes people you don't
really find yourself comfortable with.
And you just decide I have to throw everything out of the window because I want
what I'm working on to be the best it can be.
You're taking, you're taking everything and putting it behind you and saying, let me show my art.
(11:27):
Let me take everything that is me and put it aside to perform.
And I think there's something so beautiful about that. And so all encompassing
in just like, you know, like you'll have to do that and work.
You'll have co-workers you don't like, but you know what?
Theater has prepared me for that because, you know, I will be around people
who I'm not super familiar with and I'll just be able to say,
(11:49):
OK, you're in this scene with me. Act.
We're acting together we're best friends yeah i
agree and i mean for
me like the obvious answer would be theater helps me
with like public speaking yeah um and it
does it like multiple times i've had to like for school
projects stand up in front of a crowd and like you know
(12:09):
say my bit and i'm thankful to have had
that experience to be able to do that more easily
and also there's just like
something thing you know as much as i may complain
when i and as much as how like how
tired i am like just being on my feet all evening
i love to come back and it literally puts a smile on my face just to be here
(12:34):
i don't know i don't think there's something there's a word you can put to it
but it's so fun to just be on that stage theater also prepares you to wear clogs
and any form of of high or uncomfortable shoes.
We are both like, they can't see it, but we're in cloths. The same look.
Yeah, we're matching clogs. Basically. And you kind of mentioned the skills
(12:58):
that transfer, you know, immediately when you're in other classes or things
that you envision helping you.
Outside after after high school what are your
plans after high school so do you know that or what are
you thinking right now as far as plans after i gosh it's so
you know sometimes it's so hard to choose between
like you know what's my dream and what's what
(13:20):
am i gonna do you know what i mean because like that's that's the
thing with theater is it's dreaming like you're you're constantly dreaming
how what role can i do how can i be bigger stuff like this
and so you come to the thought
could i make it as an actor out of here like
you know could i take my acting my skills my
speech and take it to the
(13:41):
next level and really perform it in front of like people
as a whole and you think can i do that and at the point where i am i'm starting
to think that it is is something I can do because I think that this is something
that calls to me and that speaks to me because it really does just yell at you.
(14:04):
Hey, you got to be in theater because this is what you want to do. You know what I mean?
Yeah. And I hope, I genuinely hope you do because you have been such an amazing
actor all these years. It's really.
Stop it. Oh, you. My wife, ladies and gentlemen.
For me, I'd like to, gosh, Here's the thing. I really like theater.
(14:27):
I think it might be because it is still kind of a hobby.
And I don't want to lose that kind of fun, lightheartedness that it has.
But also, I do want to do it in the years to come.
And if that means just more dedication, then I'm certainly willing to do that.
Outside of theater though i i do
(14:47):
want to go to like a four-year university and i'm hoping
to study history or something along those lines i'm particularly interested
in like fashion history yeah she was gonna say one thing you gotta know about
mary she comes to school dressed to impress okay barbie's got nothing on her
i'm telling you that much well friday is that's mary's that's marriage day.
(15:09):
Yeah, AP U.S. History takes a lot out of us in the morning just coming in there and being disheveled.
Yeah. Alright, well that's great. We're going to wrap up with what is your favorite memory or story?
It could be involved with this
production, it could be involved with other things. If you had to tell us.
(15:30):
Well, what's that favorite memory? Well, I already know mine off the top of
my head, because this is always some kind of thing.
No, it's fine. So my favorite memory, we did a show very recently.
I don't know if you saw it was Clue. Yeah. I played Mr.
Green, a very funny, stupid character that I that I tweaked a little bit to
be a bit more like, you know, wimpy stuff like that. And we have this scene
(15:54):
where after all of the chaos has kind of fallen, Mr.
Green reveals himself to be this like secret agent type character rather than
this like wimpy little guy.
And, you know, what happens is Wadsworth, the butler, basically tries to shoot me with a slingshot.
We had to change it to a slingshot. And I sort of roll around and like dodge it.
(16:17):
Well, we were doing a production for the seventh graders and Wadsworth didn't
have a slingshot in his hand.
So he improvised. He grabbed a wrench and I was like, oh, this is what we're doing.
And then when it came time for me to like dodge, like, you know,
the slingshot rather than, you know, shooting a slingshot, he swung a wrench
(16:38):
at me and I was like, oh, so I'm about to get hit.
So I actually had to duck and roll and like roll around.
And when I got up and pointed my slingshot back at him, all of the like seventh
graders roared because they didn't expect it.
And it looked so real. And I had never. It was real.
And I had never felt more pride and like just improv than when I was about to
(17:03):
get hit with a literal wrench.
Maybe he did that on purpose. Yeah, no, I was going to say, maybe trying to
steal my part midway through the show. Right. Exactly.
How about you? For me, mine's a lot less dramatic.
No, please. But I remember we were doing Adam's Family last spring,
(17:24):
and it was before one of the rehearsals, like the week of the show.
And me and my friends, including Silas, were getting a little nibbly. We wanted some treats.
We walked over from the high school to Popeye's to get some snacks before rehearsal started.
(17:44):
A lot of us still in makeup. I was fresh out of my bald cab at that point.
Yes, yeah. And I think there's something so sweet about that moment.
It was just like a lot of us just walking down McKenzie, you know,
getting some Popeyes. Of course, we did kind of get in trouble, but...
(18:13):
Never has cherry cook tasted better yeah than at
papa's it was just so sweet and i just
loved that moment and it just made the whole day it
just made my whole day so yeah made
my whole day thanks for sharing that
i do i usually make it to all the productions so i
watched i was at clue and it just so happened that
(18:34):
i noticed two other high schools were doing that same
production yeah although i didn't go see it just
looking at their you know set compared
to ours i thought it was i thought it was
so amazing and uh i didn't want to be cocky but oh my god our set like the colors
yeah there was a room for every single character like there was red purple yeah
(18:58):
and i just oh my god like shout out to now graduated uh caitlin bussey she really put the like crew Oh,
and Kevin, Kevin, he, he got an award at like, uh, recently,
but he's so great. He really does pull all of our sets together.
Like we would not have sets without Kevin for sure.
(19:20):
Yeah. But yeah, I had, had to mention that because like I said.
Maybe you don't appreciate how good it is until you see some other pictures
of how they, you know, did theirs.
And it really just stood out. I don't know if you know this,
but when we went to ThessCon, we were like listening to, you know,
the awards that they were giving out.
(19:40):
Miss R has an award named after her at the Thessian conference.
And I was like, and Liz was like, Miss R, what's going on?
And then she was like, that's my award. They named it after me.
And like, you know, that just goes to show what our theater is in the grand
scheme of this story. Definitely. So true.
(20:02):
Yep, definitely. You hit the nail on the head there.
Well, as we wrap this episode up, anything else you want to mention?
I know we've covered a lot. Anything else before we kind of sign off?
Come see our show. Yeah, come see our show.
If not for, you know, your investment in the story, you'll get, you'll laugh.
I can promise you. You there's God, I want to shout out the step of the stepsisters.
(20:25):
I don't want to spoil too much.
But then tumbling, falling over just literally takes me out of the scene every
time. And I know it will for the audience, too.
So you just you got to come see it, if anything, for the funnies. You know what I mean?
All right. Well, I will be there Friday night. So we're excited to see you.
I'll enjoy seeing you then. And again, thanks for joining me for this episode.
(20:47):
Thank you for having us. No, we loved it. It was a fun little chit-chat.
Music.
Thanks for listening to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District
(21:08):
that highlights the people and stories that make the district great.
In the Afton School District, education is the most important thing we do. We'll see you out there.
Music.
Music.
(00:20):
Welcome to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District that highlights
the people and stories that make the district great.
I'm your host, Superintendent Travis Brock, and in the Afton School District,
education is the most important thing we do.
Music.
(00:46):
All right welcome to this episode of the afton unplugged podcast and today we're
going to highlight the afton high school spring musical into the woods and i've
got two cast members that have joined me they're going to tell me a little bit
about themselves what their role is is with the production,
and anything else they think we might be interested to hear about in regards to the spring musical.
(01:07):
So guys, thanks for joining me. Thank you for having us.
All right. Happy to do it. And let's just start out with some general introductions.
So tell us your name, what grade you're in, what role you have with this production,
and then what else are you involved with at Afton High School that people might see you in?
Yeah, of course. I'll start. So I'm Silas Hampton.
I'm a junior at Afton High School, And my role is the baker,
(01:31):
which surface level doesn't sound super important, but I promise it's a bit
more important than it seems.
The only other thing I'm really involved with is I'm involved in FCCLA.
I just recently went to nationals with that. So that was fun.
Great. How about you? Hi, I'm Mary Cooper.
I'm a junior and I play the baker's wife. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
(01:55):
Like Silas said, it doesn't sound super involved, but I'm very excited.
I'm very happy with the work I've been able to do.
Outside of theater, I'm very involved in the arts.
I love to draw and paint. And yeah, I'm very excited for the show.
All right. Well, before we get into this, tell me about the FCC.
Is it FCCLA competition? Yeah. How did you do? Oh, my God. So,
(02:18):
yeah, I got third place, but...
0.5 away from a perfect score so the two people who beat me out to go to like
you know internationals or something yeah no oh yeah i got it mixed up so i
was i was competing at missouri level.
Nationals is what i was you know shooting for but
i got third place still got gold though
(02:38):
got a gold medal and everything and honestly it was
just an amazing experience i loved it it was super fun one of
my favorite things yeah well congratulations on that thank you i
appreciate it thanks for sharing all right let's get
into into the woods can you give our
listeners just some general information or
general setup what's this about okay yeah so
(02:59):
i guess i'll just start with a little bit of a synopsis so there's a lot of
like fairy tales that people know and are super well known what into the woods
does is it takes those the original tellings of those fairy tales like the the
Grimm's Brothers telling of the fairy tales.
And it sort of throws them all at each other in this sort of big clash.
(03:21):
And it's every character is sort of playing sort of a characterization of that character.
So, you know, you're playing Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Riding Hood
is just that much more of an annoyance. You know what I mean?
Every character is amped up in some form or fashion.
Yes, it's very intertwined. And me and Silas, We happen to be mixed up just
(03:45):
all in the middle of the red cape and slipper and cow madness of all these fairy tales.
During the second act, though, it gets a lot more real and a lot less in this fairy tale world.
I mean, it still is, of course, but... It's dark and it's sad and hard,
I think, is a good way to describe it.
(04:06):
Yes, but it's very touching. And when I watched the Broadway version,
I felt a lot of emotions during the second act.
But all the way through, I'd say it's a beautifully written, beautifully composed.
And Stephen Sondheim really came to work.
But yeah, there's a lot of moving parts in this musical.
And no matter what, we have had to stay on our toes every performance.
(04:31):
Yeah, very true. All right. And one of the reasons we're featuring this is because
Showtime's coming up, right?
When is this production happening? Yes, April 19th and 20th.
Yeah, it's going to be at 7.30 at the Judith Rethwich Auditorium.
We've been doing a lot of work advertising-wise just before this.
Me and Mary were handing out pamphlets at a track meet.
(04:52):
We were really on our A-game. I've also been running the official Afton Theater account.
I've been posting a lot of stuff on there and gaining a little bit of a following,
slowly but surely, from the ground up. And that's been gaining some momentum.
So we're hoping that we get a big crowd. Yeah. And then other than those primetime
productions, do you do any other productions?
(05:15):
Do you do any other, I guess you could say, shows that may be during the day or for other audiences?
Well, we do have the fall play, of course, but something I guess you could say
is smaller is we do do ThesCon early, early on into the year.
And that involves a lot of performances in front of a lot of strangers,
judges, and all the thespians from Missouri will gather.
(05:37):
And we have to perform at least something either for scholarships or just an
IE. It can be very competitive because everyone is trying to move on to that sort of next level.
Me and Mary were both lucky enough to be able to, you know, perform in some
capacity. I performed with senior Liz Boyd.
We did a duet independent event, which is like, you know, we perform in front
(06:00):
of a panel of judges our little bit and then they decide what our grading is.
And if we're good enough, we have the chance to go to the next level,
which I think is nationals. Me and Liz actually did get a sort of national status
with our performance. So that was really great.
And we were super, super excited for that because it hadn't happened to either of us yet.
(06:21):
So that was just a blessing. Yeah. Awesome.
Let's talk a little bit more about your roles in the production.
Anything else you think people should know? You gave them just a brief little
synopsis of the role, but what else would you tell them about your role? Sure.
Yes, our roles are definitely, you know, they're not the classic fairy tale,
(06:42):
like you're not, it's not like Cinderella or Little Red, like you immediately
know the plot, you immediately know our roles.
We're kind of just like would be background characters, but now we're kind of put into the spotlight.
We get thrown into the mix because we both want a child and a witch tells us
(07:02):
that if we steal these items from different fairy tale characters,
a cape as red as blood, a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn,
and a slipper as pure as gold will have a child.
And so we sort of go around causing a bit of havoc in a lot of other characters'
(07:22):
stories trying to get our wish.
Great. What's been your favorite part preparing for your role?
That's a toughie i i really like
the humor that comes with baker's wife she's like
she's there's something very down to
(07:43):
earth about her she is a very flawed character
and but she just has like this
humor that's like oh my god like what am i doing here you
know that i think a lot of of people can find relatable and
I really hope to represent that well
it's it's challenging but I enjoy enjoy
it a lot I think my favorite part for when
(08:06):
it came came to preparing for this character in particular was seeing how someone
else performed it like on Broadway or something like that and being able to
look at that and say this is what I'm going to do with that I'm going to change
that because I think it would be just that much funnier if I pause right there,
because that's the moment where you're really like, I'm in it.
(08:27):
I'm in this character and I'm in control.
You realize, I'm not playing a script like,
I'm saying what I want to say. It's whether or not I'm saying what's on the
script and, you know, doing what I should be, you know, but obviously you want
to do what's mostly on the script. Yeah, yeah, right.
And then what was challenging? What's been the most challenging part prepping for this? Oh, God.
(08:52):
Music is a battle for Into the Woods. I was going to say.
Music is, because Sondheim, God, the legend that he is, he makes musicals very difficult.
Difficult and so the entire opening song
of this show is 10 minutes long it's 10 minutes long
with dialogue interjections and all of that and even
if we're like in the middle of speaking our parts if we hear the
(09:15):
music going we just have to go snap right onto the
next song we'll have to start singing or like skip onto the next part because
we can't stop that whole 10 minutes it's just non-stop bump a bump a bump a
bump and it's like you know that can be daunting at times but But we've been
pulling through for the most part. Part.
(09:36):
Most part we have been pulling through. But yeah, I don't know if it's the same
for you. No, I absolutely agree.
There's parts that's like where it's not like dialogue going into song,
but like there's music backing up this dialogue and you have to carefully place each line.
There's this one specific scene where we
(09:58):
are like talking with the witch and
we're like hey what's going on you know why
isn't this working and there's and you we have to like like mix it up like perfectly
with oh yeah we have to time talking with milking of the cow that's how that's
how specific this show gets at times yeah something that probably the average
(10:21):
person doesn't think about, right?
Yeah, no. And even you didn't think about that. No, I didn't think,
okay, I'm going to have to count how many times he squeezes the cow.
Now talk like you know i didn't think that was something i was gonna have to
face going into this show as the baker as the baker right yeah all right what
this is kind of more of a general question what do you like about just being
(10:45):
involved with theater what do you like about this,
i can start a few okay so one thing
i've always loved about theater is i think it is one of the the like,
it prepares you for life almost more than anything I've ever experienced just
in that a lot of the times you are having to deal with people who sometimes
(11:07):
you're not super like, you know, acquainted with sometimes people you don't
really find yourself comfortable with.
And you just decide I have to throw everything out of the window because I want
what I'm working on to be the best it can be.
You're taking, you're taking everything and putting it behind you and saying, let me show my art.
(11:27):
Let me take everything that is me and put it aside to perform.
And I think there's something so beautiful about that. And so all encompassing
in just like, you know, like you'll have to do that and work.
You'll have co-workers you don't like, but you know what?
Theater has prepared me for that because, you know, I will be around people
who I'm not super familiar with and I'll just be able to say,
(11:49):
OK, you're in this scene with me. Act.
We're acting together we're best friends yeah i
agree and i mean for
me like the obvious answer would be theater helps me
with like public speaking yeah um and it
does it like multiple times i've had to like for school
projects stand up in front of a crowd and like you know
(12:09):
say my bit and i'm thankful to have had
that experience to be able to do that more easily
and also there's just like
something thing you know as much as i may complain
when i and as much as how like how
tired i am like just being on my feet all evening
i love to come back and it literally puts a smile on my face just to be here
(12:34):
i don't know i don't think there's something there's a word you can put to it
but it's so fun to just be on that stage theater also prepares you to wear clogs
and any form of of high or uncomfortable shoes.
We are both like, they can't see it, but we're in cloths. The same look.
Yeah, we're matching clogs. Basically. And you kind of mentioned the skills
(12:58):
that transfer, you know, immediately when you're in other classes or things
that you envision helping you.
Outside after after high school what are your
plans after high school so do you know that or what are
you thinking right now as far as plans after i gosh it's so
you know sometimes it's so hard to choose between
like you know what's my dream and what's what
(13:20):
am i gonna do you know what i mean because like that's that's the
thing with theater is it's dreaming like you're you're constantly dreaming
how what role can i do how can i be bigger stuff like this
and so you come to the thought
could i make it as an actor out of here like
you know could i take my acting my skills my
speech and take it to the
(13:41):
next level and really perform it in front of like people
as a whole and you think can i do that and at the point where i am i'm starting
to think that it is is something I can do because I think that this is something
that calls to me and that speaks to me because it really does just yell at you.
(14:04):
Hey, you got to be in theater because this is what you want to do. You know what I mean?
Yeah. And I hope, I genuinely hope you do because you have been such an amazing
actor all these years. It's really.
Stop it. Oh, you. My wife, ladies and gentlemen.
For me, I'd like to, gosh, Here's the thing. I really like theater.
(14:27):
I think it might be because it is still kind of a hobby.
And I don't want to lose that kind of fun, lightheartedness that it has.
But also, I do want to do it in the years to come.
And if that means just more dedication, then I'm certainly willing to do that.
Outside of theater though i i do
(14:47):
want to go to like a four-year university and i'm hoping
to study history or something along those lines i'm particularly interested
in like fashion history yeah she was gonna say one thing you gotta know about
mary she comes to school dressed to impress okay barbie's got nothing on her
i'm telling you that much well friday is that's mary's that's marriage day.
(15:09):
Yeah, AP U.S. History takes a lot out of us in the morning just coming in there and being disheveled.
Yeah. Alright, well that's great. We're going to wrap up with what is your favorite memory or story?
It could be involved with this
production, it could be involved with other things. If you had to tell us.
(15:30):
Well, what's that favorite memory? Well, I already know mine off the top of
my head, because this is always some kind of thing.
No, it's fine. So my favorite memory, we did a show very recently.
I don't know if you saw it was Clue. Yeah. I played Mr.
Green, a very funny, stupid character that I that I tweaked a little bit to
be a bit more like, you know, wimpy stuff like that. And we have this scene
(15:54):
where after all of the chaos has kind of fallen, Mr.
Green reveals himself to be this like secret agent type character rather than
this like wimpy little guy.
And, you know, what happens is Wadsworth, the butler, basically tries to shoot me with a slingshot.
We had to change it to a slingshot. And I sort of roll around and like dodge it.
(16:17):
Well, we were doing a production for the seventh graders and Wadsworth didn't
have a slingshot in his hand.
So he improvised. He grabbed a wrench and I was like, oh, this is what we're doing.
And then when it came time for me to like dodge, like, you know,
the slingshot rather than, you know, shooting a slingshot, he swung a wrench
(16:38):
at me and I was like, oh, so I'm about to get hit.
So I actually had to duck and roll and like roll around.
And when I got up and pointed my slingshot back at him, all of the like seventh
graders roared because they didn't expect it.
And it looked so real. And I had never. It was real.
And I had never felt more pride and like just improv than when I was about to
(17:03):
get hit with a literal wrench.
Maybe he did that on purpose. Yeah, no, I was going to say, maybe trying to
steal my part midway through the show. Right. Exactly.
How about you? For me, mine's a lot less dramatic.
No, please. But I remember we were doing Adam's Family last spring,
(17:24):
and it was before one of the rehearsals, like the week of the show.
And me and my friends, including Silas, were getting a little nibbly. We wanted some treats.
We walked over from the high school to Popeye's to get some snacks before rehearsal started.
(17:44):
A lot of us still in makeup. I was fresh out of my bald cab at that point.
Yes, yeah. And I think there's something so sweet about that moment.
It was just like a lot of us just walking down McKenzie, you know,
getting some Popeyes. Of course, we did kind of get in trouble, but...
(18:13):
Never has cherry cook tasted better yeah than at
papa's it was just so sweet and i just
loved that moment and it just made the whole day it
just made my whole day so yeah made
my whole day thanks for sharing that
i do i usually make it to all the productions so i
watched i was at clue and it just so happened that
(18:34):
i noticed two other high schools were doing that same
production yeah although i didn't go see it just
looking at their you know set compared
to ours i thought it was i thought it was
so amazing and uh i didn't want to be cocky but oh my god our set like the colors
yeah there was a room for every single character like there was red purple yeah
(18:58):
and i just oh my god like shout out to now graduated uh caitlin bussey she really put the like crew Oh,
and Kevin, Kevin, he, he got an award at like, uh, recently,
but he's so great. He really does pull all of our sets together.
Like we would not have sets without Kevin for sure.
(19:20):
Yeah. But yeah, I had, had to mention that because like I said.
Maybe you don't appreciate how good it is until you see some other pictures
of how they, you know, did theirs.
And it really just stood out. I don't know if you know this,
but when we went to ThessCon, we were like listening to, you know,
the awards that they were giving out.
(19:40):
Miss R has an award named after her at the Thessian conference.
And I was like, and Liz was like, Miss R, what's going on?
And then she was like, that's my award. They named it after me.
And like, you know, that just goes to show what our theater is in the grand
scheme of this story. Definitely. So true.
(20:02):
Yep, definitely. You hit the nail on the head there.
Well, as we wrap this episode up, anything else you want to mention?
I know we've covered a lot. Anything else before we kind of sign off?
Come see our show. Yeah, come see our show.
If not for, you know, your investment in the story, you'll get, you'll laugh.
I can promise you. You there's God, I want to shout out the step of the stepsisters.
(20:25):
I don't want to spoil too much.
But then tumbling, falling over just literally takes me out of the scene every
time. And I know it will for the audience, too.
So you just you got to come see it, if anything, for the funnies. You know what I mean?
All right. Well, I will be there Friday night. So we're excited to see you.
I'll enjoy seeing you then. And again, thanks for joining me for this episode.
(20:47):
Thank you for having us. No, we loved it. It was a fun little chit-chat.
Music.
Thanks for listening to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District
(21:08):
that highlights the people and stories that make the district great.
In the Afton School District, education is the most important thing we do. We'll see you out there.
Music.
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