The one with Thomas Alvey

Welcome back to what I digress adventures in educational theater.

I'm Jennifer Dooley.

I'm the founder and director of Edmondson County drama, which is a K through 12 theater

program in the wilds of Kentucky.

With me today as always is Brent Norris, the most accomplished technical director in Edmondson

County, which makes him technically a director.

And also joining us today we have, I think this is your title, the fine arts coordinator

and director of theater and film at Somerset Community College.

Is that right?

That is exactly correct.

All right.

Most people have no idea what I do.

So I like it that way.

So one of the fine arts things in Somerset, Kentucky is Thomas Alvey.

Okay.

Brent and Thomas, you guys have met before, haven't you?

Yeah, in passing over the fifth, I don't know, how long was I in school?

I don't know.

I don't think he started working with us after you graduated.

That is true.

I do not remember Thomas as a student.

No, he's old.

Yeah, I am.

We're planning our 10 year at like reunion this year.

And I'm like, no, it's been 10 years.

Shut up.

Oh, my God.

Kayla.

Right.

Well, not Kayla Ray anymore, but she's she's heading up.

Always Kayla Ray.

It's fine.

Yeah.

Her name's not changing.

You should get her.

I love her.

She's like a therapist.

Isn't she?

Thanks.

I feel like everyone that I graduated with that isn't in jail is a therapist now.

Or realty.

Everyone's in realty, too.

So I googled this title because this morning I was like, what is this title?

Is it like Lord of Community College Theater?

And I thought that maybe wasn't a thing.

So I googled you and there was an article about when you first got the job and you

gave me in the program a shout out, which I really appreciate.

You called me enthusiastic, which is a nice word.

I think they actually edited it.

I think I said a lot more in-depth things and they're like enthusiastic is probably

the right word.

And positive.

OK, so before we start talking about the wonder that is Thomas Alvey, I always

try to give an update on what our program is currently doing.

So we finished Shakespeare Madness this week.

And it was really a great competition.

Some years we have kids.

I'm like, how did you get up here in the top eight?

But it was solid all the way across the board pretty much.

Of course, that's our bracketed Shakespeare competition where the students memorize a

Shakespearean monologue and compete against each other and we have outside judges come

in.

And then when we get to the final four, the kids have to memorize a Shakespearean

sonnet that's kind of in contrast our monologue so that the judges can see

their range.

And then we got to the final two on Thursday.

They presented their monologues and sonnets to all of Miss Highball's second period

English classes throughout the day, and those kids voted and it was very tight.

But I am happy to announce the first time publicly that the winner of this year's

Shakespeare Madness is Josie Denham.

She will get to compete in the spring at the state level.

And if she wins at state, then she and I get to go to New York City.

And if she wins in New York, then we get to go to England, which I always

want to go to England. Last year, we came in second place.

So I was pretty excited about that.

It was all online because of the flooding.

But we came in second last year with Kinsley Pandolfi.

So Josie did a Triculo monologue from the Tempest where he finds

Calvin. Yeah, the Fishman.

Somebody won at state one year with that.

Not one of our kids, but I saw a kid win at state one year, but it's been

several years ago. It was a good it was a good monologue.

And she did a really smart thing with the sonnet, whose number I can't

remember. But it was like, you're clearly too good for me.

And that's why you have to leave.

I understand why you're leaving.

I was it was a dream for me to be able to be with you.

You're out of my league. But she played it like, well, you know,

you're just you're just too amazing to make them feel sorry for her,

which I thought was really smart.

So I hope that plays well in regionals.

So also we started read throughs this week for the con by Tracy Wells,

which is going to be our first show.

It's a comedy that plays it like a comic-con, but like a Bowling Green

sort of style comic-con or Somerset.

It's not like comic-con and we do read throughs differently.

I don't think we did this when you were in school.

So instead of doing the read through after we cast the play, we do it before.

So we sit in the circle still.

I read the stage directions still.

But we start with the first kid on my left and they read the first

character's line.

And then when that whole part that character is over,

the next kid reads, it just goes around and around the circle.

So you're not like screen number three with two lines in act three.

You get to say something, you know, and then everybody gets a taste

of everything and they can try out dialects that they want to or voices.

And then if they screw up a word, it's one line and nobody freaks out.

We talk about cold reads and whatever.

But I've been doing that for a few years now.

I don't know who I stole that from, but that's that's been really useful

because you get more buy in as opposed to, well, you have me lines.

I'm a line designer.

I'm going to take a nap.

You know, so it's a good show.

We get to use a bunch of swords and there's lots of sound cues.

And there's all kinds of there's comic book fans.

There's a movie like panel about Chakrasaurus Rex.

And we have the Chakrasaurus Rex already.

And it is our art department made it for us, Mr.

Christian. It is phenomenal.

It's like a five foot tall cardboard cutout of Chakrasaurus Rex.

And there's video games and there's

LARPing and there's D&D and there's superheroes.

And so whatever flavor fandom you're in, the kids get to bring that to the show.

So I think it's awesome.

And we're going to make the whole

auditorium is going to be the set again because that works so well for me.

So I am mad that I missed that because that sounded amazing.

Listen, like I couldn't find I thought, well, somebody's done this.

I'll go steal.

And I could not find anywhere on the

internet where anybody had done Midsummer in a mall.

And it just, oh, my God, it was so good.

That works so well.

It really like how is no one how I

thought about this out here in Podunk and not somebody who's doing this all

the time with professional theater companies.

So, no, it was it was fabulous.

And the signage alone, like we kept

most of the signs, the kids took some of them home.

There's one at my house.

It was just it was just incredible, just incredible.

So I'm really I'm proud of that show.

See, I've seen one where like someone like

goes on like a Taco Bell induced like nap or something.

And that's the whole play.

It's like there's words and burrito.

Yes.

He eats a bad burrito and it causes him to dream in some extreme.

I have heard about this show.

What are you working on right now?

Yeah, I'm actually doing, oh, gosh, which let's do the theater part

because that's what we're talking about.

The week of Halloween, we are doing

Dracula, a comedy of terrors, which is a five person telling

of Dracula that is chaotic and super fun.

There's a lot of things about like

being sexy and like all of this stuff, but it's just so stupid.

We did our intimacy coordination blocking

on Tuesday and there's a there's a part where Dracula is supposed

to kiss Harker's forehead and we were like, that's OK.

But like, what if we made it weird?

And so he puts his thumb on Harker's

forehead and just starts making out with his thumb.

Oh, and so and like all of the kissing.

Is like blocked specifically so you can't actually see it because I do have two

girls playing the main characters, Harker and Lucy.

And so I was like, I don't know if Somerset's actually really ready

for two girls kissing on stage right now.

So we're not going to do that through the college.

This one. Yeah, this is through the college.

I've actually kind of stepped away

from the theater that I work with just so I can focus on doing all

of the things that I'm doing at the college.

I understand that. Yeah, it's.

But our acting class, our fundamentals of acting, I'm turning

into kind of like a devising class because they all have some kind of

experience in theater. OK, so we are writing a murder mystery

together, like a dinner murder mystery.

I gave them the first little bit to kind of give them who the characters are.

And actually on Tuesday, we're going to do like a crash course

in playwriting so that they can write their own scenes because I actually

have a class of like people that are younger than me.

So I feel like I'm actually teaching a class because you are a published

playwright like you. This is a thing you've taken classes and done before.

Yeah, my whole master's at the end of the semester, are they going to present that?

Yes, that is the goal.

As long as we have of a working script, it's either going to be like a staged

reading or wherever it is in the production.

It's that's the plan is for them to present what they've written

and what they've worked on as actors and playwrights,

because they were all interested in script writing as well as playwritings

or as well as acting. So that's like, let's make that do a thing.

Because I'm not interested in play.

Playwriting is not in my wheelhouse and I don't want to.

It's a nightmare. I love it.

But I'm just tired all the time because it's like, how do I write this?

How do I fix that? And then in the spring, we're doing our fourth annual

10 minute playfest, 10 minute and short play festival sometime in April.

I have to get those dates down on paper.

They are all murder mystery themed where you don't know who the killer is.

Oh, cool.

And my admin assistant is actually going to me and him are going to work together

to write the play that ties them all together.

Oh, like a screen story. Oh, how fun.

Yeah, it's so it's so stupid.

There's I love it so much because we've gotten some really good submissions.

The actually the playwright who wrote When We Get Good Again,

the show that I did in February, he submitted a 10 minute play.

Is that the one that was in the coffee shop?

Yeah, that was so smart.

I will do I want to do theater where people can smell me all the time.

I love Black Box Theater,

found spaces, theater like I just I really did enjoy that.

That was really smart.

That was cool. Yeah.

Well, that's great.

I'm so excited.

Like you have done more professional theater or just a theater in general as

your whole career, I think more so than any of the other people

we've had graduated, which is fine.

That's not the point of the operation.

Right. Like I don't expect students to or even your students, I would assume.

I mean, do most the kids that come out

summers that with the degrees, are they

you know, pursuing professional theater or are they doing?

Well, that's actually the fun thing is I don't have a degree out of my program.

I teach intro to theater and I teach acting and that's kind of it.

They have the opportunity to pursue

associate of fine arts if they go to like bluegrass because

SEC is part of the KCTS system.

Yeah.

So like they can take classes at any of the 16 colleges and actually get

a degree from any of the colleges, but graduate at SEC.

OK, OK.

Or they can do a transfer pathway and go into a different program

because SEC has the University Center of Southern Kentucky.

So we actually partner with six other four year universities.

And so like they can start at SEC and then move on transfer very easily

to programs. I have had a couple of people.

Oh, really?

That like went on, but they wanted to do like fashion design and stuff like that.

So so why did you get involved with Ebenson County drama, Thomas?

Oh, my gosh.

Well, back in Yield 2011, I had

I had a friend, Desiree Delage, who was like, hey, you should do

The Odyssey with me at Capital Arts Youth Theater.

And I was like, I've never done theater who that was.

I don't know. I look fondly on that show.

What a wild time.

And why did I have everything was made of something like, well,

Elvis, all the people in the show got to design their own costume.

Yes, I remember that.

And then I was like, OK, well,

I have to do this now for the rest of my life.

This is my whole personality.

And as soon as they were like, hey, there's a drama class.

And I was like, oh, absolutely.

I don't care about anything else.

And so, yeah, freshman year, I was like, yeah, I'm going to I'm going

to do drama. And then my mom was like, why?

And I was like, because do you want me to do drugs or not?

So here we are.

I'm just kidding.

Mostly.

Yeah, no, I just kind of like I remember, I want to say, like,

maybe the first or second day that I was in class with you,

you were like, has anyone had any experience?

And I was like, I've worked with Capital Arts Youth Theater.

And you were like, that's so nice.

And then you walked away.

Just getting out of the way of the land.

So what was the first show you did with us?

Oh, gosh, the first show.

Was it Be My Ghost?

Great show, I think about that.

Merriam and Lurch and Morgan.

That was the double, like we did two casts of that.

We did two casts of that and all the taxidermy and the spider flies and stuff.

That was an awesome show.

I think it was Morgan's first show too.

Yeah, so me and Morgan joined at the same time.

Yeah. And gosh, man, I do, I do absolutely love it.

It's like there's like the the double ghost lady thing.

Yeah, Billy, because I really wanted to be the monster.

Uh-huh.

But then, oh, my gosh, you actually got that.

It was Dante and yeah.

Oh, who's the other one?

It was the other monster.

I don't remember because some of them we had to go ahead and put the same

Kinville shows because of people not doing what they do.

Yeah, it was that show.

Yeah, that was a good show.

That was a really expensive set.

Why don't we put cobwebs on everything?

We must have bought a hundred pounds with a cobweb.

There were too many cobwebs, but it worked so well.

Yeah, that was probably the most expensive set we built at that time

because that was before we built the castle and stuff.

Yeah, good show.

I want you to picture that somewhere.

And of course, Desberry was in that show.

Yeah, she had a duck.

She had a duck she carried around with her.

We broke its head off accidentally to get repaired.

It's hard to repair taxidermy, just so you know.

I don't doubt that at all.

I mean, every time I see the wildcat somewhere, I'm like, oh, God,

is that going to break apart?

That might be the first time we stole the wildcat for a show.

It became like the thing every show was like, we have to steal the wildcat.

Not every show, but every season that wildcat's in the show.

Like he was in one of the stores in midsummer.

So yeah, we always get the wildcat in there.

It's a good time.

I'm so glad we're going to break it.

There's a whole big batch.

Yeah, whatever.

What is the memory that particularly sticks out for you

for your time at MSK Drama?

Oh, man, gosh.

I mean, because this is what I've made my personality.

I just always think about things that happened in high school.

I don't know.

Like I just there's always I have I have a story from drama for like every

occasion, so it's like, well, this one time I was the set designer

for a show that I was also in and I got yelled at by everyone else

in the cast because I kept changing the set because I couldn't figure out

how to make something work.

And they're like, why don't you just get this together?

And I was like, well, because I don't know what I need.

That was Weird Sisters.

Oh, yeah, that was a good show, too.

That was such a good show.

But man, that's I wanted to die.

It was because it was like moving around.

I was trying to figure out the party

scene while we were doing the party scene, the walls.

Yeah, we did so many spinning walls.

When Stephen threw Doug through the

spinning wall, like they were supposed to have that fight and Stephen over

did it and the wall went back and we lost the whole set in the middle

of the performance that would seem no.

No. So you did the second time.

Was Teresa Payne in it?

Yeah, he's a pain was that.

Yeah, that's why.

So the first time Doug went through a wall.

That's it's fine. He's fine. Everyone's fine.

You know, it's OK.

Pain is temporary.

Yes, forever.

I put Taya Payne in a side table because she could fit in it.

That's right. That's right.

From the table.

So that was it. Was that the same year that we did Shakespeare Bridge?

Yes, I think that was the same

because that was the year no one had clothes because no one went back to

Taya to change her clothes and she came out with a shrug on no shirt under it.

Hornback came out with no pants on at the beginning of Shakespeare Bridge

because he was so nervous.

So, yeah, that was the year no one had pants.

And Aaron Alexander was just screaming on the headset all the time.

Yeah.

Man, that was a good season.

I was a good season.

I don't remember what happened in the spring of that one.

What do you think is the most important thing you learned, like in

your career or like just being a person while you were with our program?

Oh, man, just like, I don't know, I guess,

just just go with it.

Like you can you can make it up as long as you don't like hurt anybody.

Yeah.

And even if you do sometimes accidentally, like

hit somebody with a chair, it's OK.

It can happen.

It can happen.

And everyone so far has survived.

Everyone so far has survived.

But yeah, no, I think that's like just go with it and be nice to people.

That's the big thing.

And I know in high school I was not the nice person.

No, I think that's I think that was the big takeaway is just like, you know,

be kind and do the things that fuel you.

Yeah. Well, saying just go with it,

that transitions very well into our discussion about improv.

So the last episode we were talking about, if you and I know at least three

people who I've spoken to in the last month or so who were like, listen,

I have to teach theater right now.

In one case, the guy got the class two days later.

No experience.

What do you do?

And so my suggestion was you start with improv because you don't have to

have a script. You don't have to have a plan.

You just have to have some games.

And I posted the show notes,

the list of improv games I've collected over the last 500 years.

And that's a good way to start.

If you don't know what's happening,

then what's happening because you can do all these group things together.

These kids have been trained for so long to pick the right answer,

do the right thing, walk in the line.

And then we're like, no, you can do whatever you want.

And they're like, I cannot do with this many choices.

You know that exactly.

What is your experience with improv?

Do you do you like improv?

How do you do it? Do you enjoy that?

Yeah, I actually was.

I joined an improv team two years ago.

Yeah, we it was a team of five, six of us.

And then one of them moved to Lexington and then we just stopped meeting.

So, but yeah, no, actually, I did improv for the auditions for Dracula.

Just to kind of like I wanted to see how everyone interacted with each other.

So it was like I gave them very basic, like, hey,

pretend that you're in a carriage and I want you to tell me,

warn me about Dracula without saying the word vampire or like very specific

Dracula related things. Oh, that's cool.

And that worked out really well because you got to see who wanted to be

the center of attention versus who actually listened to everybody.

OK, so that told me a lot about who I was going to be working with.

And I learned that trick at Lindsay, actually, for our for the directing

class my freshman year, they did improv as part of their audition

process just to kind of like check vibe right out the gate.

Like, was it the first thing you did the audition?

Yeah, it was like a I want to see how you interact with the people and then

you can do your monologue. That's terrifying.

I love it. Oh, it's horrible.

But it was great because like you really got to see like how how people

interact on stage and especially with people who like maybe haven't done

theater for a very long time, because that's what I deal with a lot is like,

oh, I graduated high school like 15 years ago and I'm coming back to school

and I haven't done theater since then.

So like I have no idea what to do.

And I'm like, OK, great.

Let's just get you on stage again and see what happens.

That's really smart. Thank you.

Because I love this, like Erica was on here like two episodes ago

and she was talking about fundraising and I was like, oh,

these are such good ideas.

So, I mean, part of this isn't all just like, look at everything I know.

Like, I think I know some stuff that maybe people who are much newer don't

know, but then also you guys tell me things I think, oh, I can.

It's all about stealing, right?

Like everything they did, look what they did.

You know, how can I push my my pot here?

So that's really who?

Yeah, actually, let me edit my answer for the things I learned from you was

good artists steal. Yeah, good artists steal all the great artists deal.

Yeah. Writers do it.

Everybody I think creative people do that.

And that's how we pass on culture.

And that's how we pass on values and information like nothing.

Nothing is there's nothing new.

There's only what like 18 plots or something that works in your high school.

And that's why we're still doing Shakespeare.

But it's every time I do, I'm like, oh,

well, here's a thing I can do that I've never seen before.

We've never seen before. So it's really smart.

OK, so let me tell you this.

This is sort of I just thought about this.

I saw Maywives of Windsor at Nashville Shakes on Thursday.

Their pre show was an improv musical theater troupe.

They improv a freaking musical musical improv.

I have never seen before.

And I thought I had my heart rate was just like out of my chest because

I was so worried for these people who had made a conscious decision to go and do

this. It wasn't like they got thrown under the bus.

Like they wanted to do this.

But I was like, I was so scared for them the whole time because like a whole

musical, not just like a like a two minute scene, the whole musical.

And the idea that they were given by the audience, they said, what's a gift

you've given that was really important to you.

You've been given.

And the girl said Cabbage Patch doll.

But these people on stage were so young, they didn't know what that was.

But it didn't matter because they end up being about Frisbee golf and going

to space and having your parents validate you.

I mean, it was just I mean, I guess they've got they had live music.

And I guess that guy is like, here are the songs I'm going to play.

And he would have started with one of them.

It seems they know the melody or whatever, but they were completely

making up the plot and stuff had to rhyme like I am stressed out right now.

I edit every time I watch it, I'm like, how are you people this crazy?

And it is just great.

I love it so much.

And I don't know.

I don't know how they do it because I can really do musical when I know it.

Yes.

And that's something that people keep asking me is like,

Thomas, you should really do a musical.

And I'm like, I don't I don't have the capacity.

Right.

No, the reason we're able to do them is because we have the new band

director, well, the newest one we've had.

And he's he was a musical theater kid.

So he was able to he's able to come in and like he's done with a cool

name, right?

Sweezy, Patrick Sweezy.

So do you use improv in your classes and your college classes?

Yeah.

So I don't normally do it in my

intro to theater class because those students are horrified to even hear me

speak. It's weird because it's a it's an elective course to get through their

gen eds. And so they're like, what have I gotten myself into?

Because I will go on tangents about like different things that I've

experienced and like I'll talk about like a very specific show that I did.

And they're like, what are you saying?

I think there's no experience in theater at all.

Nothing. There might be like one or two.

They're like, oh, yeah, theater is kind of cool.

Is it an acting class or is it like theater history?

OK, OK, it is.

Here is the word theater.

It is like bare bones, like just introducing them to it.

And that's what everyone thinks is an acting class.

But I'm like, I have an acting class.

It's called Fundamentals of Acting.

And so they think Intro to Theater is the acting class.

And like, no, no, no. But calm down.

It's OK. This is we're just going to sit and talk.

But their midterm is a fear box, which is like put everything it's such a I stole

it from Campbellsville University, actually the theater teacher there,

who also teaches burlesque, which is super cool.

Her name is Christy Connolly.

She's I think she's the acting instructor.

Christy is really cool, but she is very you coded.

She's very she's like my height, though.

So she's like a tiny you.

But she she is super cool.

I've seen her teach burlesque at S.E.T.C.

Like that was a class in that.

You don't know if they teach it at

Campbellsville, but like you could take one of the workshops that she does.

But Star is also the representative for K.Y.C.T.A.F.

or whatever that thing is.

She's like the theater guru of Kentucky.

I like her.

Yeah.

But Christy, she I stole her intro

to the theater syllabus my first time because I was teaching at

Campbellsville for a very brief moment at their Somerset campus.

I stole her syllabus for intro.

And it's like I was like, what is this fear box thing?

And it is a way for students to introduce themselves to their

comfortability. But on the outside, you put how you are perceived by the

people around you.

And then on the inside is things that you don't normally share with people,

things that you like hide.

So on the outside, there was this one student that I at Campbellsville that

she surprised the hell out of me because she on the outside, she's like,

people think I'm really dark and mysterious and da, da, da, da, da.

And then on the inside, she was like, so these are all of my bracelets for

when I was hospitalized for meth.

And I was like, whoa, I told you you could share whatever you wanted.

But that I wasn't expecting like that far.

And then she was pulling out pulling

out her pill bottles from like her depression, anxiety, ADHD.

And I was like, this is the coolest thing.

And you just have to do 10 things.

The outside, you can do like newspaper

clippings or print out words or photos or whatever.

But the inside has to be tangible objects.

So, yeah, yeah.

So I've gotten like teddy bears.

I've gotten sketchbooks like it's like every range of things I've seen.

And I just think it's such a really, really cool thing.

And I have to explain like why that one word describes the outside of them.

So like people think I'm perky because of da, da, da, da, da.

And so it is I use it in the midterm after the acting section.

So it's like, hey, this is what actors kind of have to go through.

So like explore characters is like,

how do you present versus how can you bring something inside out to the audience?

And so really cool tie in for our midterm.

Well, you could have your character, too, in a play.

It was a candidate to seductive them.

Yeah.

And like that, I think I'm going to start

introducing that later because I like my acting students have like latched on to

these characters for the murder mystery that they really like.

Yeah, I think I might use that as their midterm is like, hey,

create a fear box for this character so we can build them up a little bit more

like a Shakespeare character and Ibsen character.

That's really cool.

It is super cool like that.

It's it is one of my favorite assignments

that I do because I get to learn more about students.

So you but you do use improv in your acting class, you said?

Yeah.

We actually it's part of our warm ups is we'll do a short little improv game.

The first day actually talking about your last episode about like embracing

failure, that was a workshop that I did at the Association for Theater and

Higher Education last August.

That was a whole workshop was like embrace the fail.

Like you cannot be wrong in theater.

Like there is a different way to do everything.

And so I do an improv game where they have to count to five.

So like it's you stand across from each

other and you have to do one, two, three, four, five.

And then after they get the rhythm together, you add things in.

So like instead of saying three, you clap.

Yes, yes, that one.

I know that one. Yeah.

And if you mess up, quote unquote, you say yay.

And then you start again.

Oh, like you don't actually mess up.

It's actually you're celebrating the failure.

That's smart. That's smart.

Yeah. And then eventually it becomes

like a motion instead of any of the numbers.

Yeah. And then you have to go back

from it and like add the numbers back in.

Yeah.

So we did that one with that workshop.

And then it was a you had to create a static scene using just your bodies.

One of them was like create the solar system.

And then like everyone had to create like a planet or something.

And then the audience would give you

feedback on was this successful or not, or it's like what is the audience

seeing? Because like we were all sitting around the room.

So we're seeing different perspectives of it.

Yeah. So like my side of it saw a waterfall.

The other side saw whatever.

And so like they would have a couple

of seconds to reposition and try to make it more successful.

Getting closer and closer to solar system.

Right. Right. Using just people's bodies, which was just such a cool.

That's really smart, too, because we need to do a version of that as well.

But why don't I have not given them time

to like reposition with audience feedback?

That's really smart.

I like it.

What are some other games you particularly like to use?

I also do what I have renamed round

of applause because I think calling it past the clap is going to get me in

trouble because I'm like, I like it because it's funny.

But I like I should really be careful about what I'm yelling in a hallway

that has, you know, our offices of institutional advancement, maybe

yelling past the clap is not the smartest thing in the world.

But that's where you like have to clap

at the same time and pass it around the circle.

Right. I call it round of applause because at some point it just sounds

like a lot of people clapping at the same time if you're doing it right.

And I've had like I taught a workshop

with the student ambassadors on campus that they just could not get it.

Like there was like some interesting motor skills issue where like they

would they would see the person next to them clap and then their brain would

make sure to clap. And I was like, interesting.

But then I did it with a group of five

acting students and they got it immediately.

And I was like, interesting how that is different.

The group dynamics always different.

And that's one thing we talked about this week is that you might sort of do

a game that you've played like a hundred times and you just try it two

or three times and it does not work.

And then you're like, well, OK, that didn't work.

Now we do something else because that's how improv and theater works.

Yeah, you just move on.

You can't dwell on it for too long because the next thing is happening.

So you just let's try something new.

So I know we did some improv last week

sort of while we're waiting for scripts and it went they did the counting thing

where you all stay in the circle and you have to count to 10.

But you can't talk about who's going to say the number,

but no one can say a number at the same time because you have to start again.

And usually the beginning of the year,

that takes some time because they don't know each other.

But like by the end of last year, they were able to do it with their eyes

closed, their backs turned away from each other because they'd been

together. We lost 12 seniors last year, so they've been together.

Oh, wow. It was it was rough.

Now we this new crop, we have a bunch of really great drama ones.

We only have what we have four drama fours, I think.

I mean, we have a solid we have a solid class.

They're just inexperienced.

But they got they counted the fact they got to 20 pretty quickly, too.

I was really pleased.

So I think it's going to be and I don't know,

because I've been there so long and there's like kids of kids coming in.

There's not like, what is this going to be like?

And also done the musicals.

A lot of them have done the K through 12 musicals.

So you're not having to indoctrinate them into the system nearly as much.

There's a few that have just wandered in off the street, but they catch up.

They want to be there. They catch on pretty quickly.

But yeah, the improv will get easier as it goes on.

So do you do more?

Like one thing I've found is I do more like big group things

beginning and then as the year goes on, you can put them in smaller

groups on stage as opposed to let's play murder, murder, die with no

explanation on the second day like I can't do this.

Yeah, well, I haven't gotten as lucky in terms of like how big my classes are yet.

So because we're in a community club.

So I have five in my acting class right now.

That's really great.

You could do a lot.

I mean, different things that I'm doing, but that's a great number.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like five is so good.

It's like because you can do the smaller groups, you can do the big group.

But this is the largest acting class

I've ever had teaching so far because the community college, it's it is

fully an elective, like you take it because you want to.

It's no one is forcing you to take it.

Do they have to have just some kind of fine arts credit or is it just a random?

OK, it is.

So they have to have an arts and humanities credit and they have to

have a heritage credit and then they have to have an arts and humanities or

heritage credit. So what does that mean?

History. Oh, OK.

OK, pretty much history, religion, Appalachian studies, things like that.

And so that like it kind of gets

complicated where like they'd rather take a history class over an acting

class. So it's you know, it works out in the end, you know.

So I have had either two or three this year is the biggest one.

The previous fine arts coordinator, whatever his title was,

he said the biggest class was 17 in the 35 years he was there.

Oh, I don't know what I would do with 17 people.

I don't know. I have great faith in your abilities.

I'm not sure it was five.

It would definitely change the kind of shows that we do.

Yeah.

But the other thing is I can't I can't

force them to be in like the the show at night because they have jobs

and like they're going to school during the day and then working at night or

vice versa. So I have to just adapt that way.

So this Dracula parody that you're

doing, is that all people from the college or is it open to the community?

Like, how does that work?

So we are a community theater attached to the college.

So anyone in the community can audition with us.

So Dracula is two community members and five students.

Three of them are in my actual acting class.

OK.

And two of them are just off the street.

So that's nice.

Are they all adults?

Yes, they are all over 18, at least while I say.

Do you do any kind of any work with the high schools in your area?

Any kind of outreach or anything?

I do.

When I first started in this position, I would do workshops with the high

schools and I'm friends with most of the high school instructors.

But that's the one thing is trying to find the time to actually go to the

schools because it's just me teaching and I have to have office hours.

But I do little workshops when I can.

And it does help that I'm friends with with the instructors.

So, yeah, it's about who, you know,

who's the other and you recommending people to other people.

You are welcome to do a workshop with us any time he wants you.

Maybe we will.

I absolutely will.

I still remember Jacob Bolton coming back.

Yeah, that was really cool.

And he did a bunch of improv stuff and warm up some of what we still use,

like the handshaking thing and I still use that little Sally Walker.

Yes, yes.

Yeah. Ian said they do the handshake thing,

but they count the other direction than we do.

So when they got started, he started yelling out the wrong numbers.

They were all looking at it and he was like, this is the way we do this.

So like, it's OK, you learn something new.

That's awesome. That's great.

I'm so proud of you using such great work.

I've seen you do so many interesting shows.

I'm interested in coming and seeing this Dracula.

I wish you were in a different time zone because I get confused.

It's so far out there.

It's a two hour drive and then add a time change on it.

It's like because I know one time you literally like held a show for me

because I was like, oh, my God, I was wrong about the time.

I absolutely did.

And we'll do it again.

Like a hundred miles.

Was that was that the was that Rosencrantz, Gilmstern, whatever it

was, you had to walk through the audience to get to the seating.

So you had to walk the stage, get the seating.

You they couldn't let people wait.

Yeah, so I think that was RNG.

That was a really good. That was good.

I we were just talking about doing that show again,

just me and the people who were it was me who played Hamlet,

the girl who played Ophelia and then the girl who played Claudia.

We were like, you're Claudius.

We had we're like, we have to do the show again someday.

That was a good show.

And the one you did about after Shakespeare died and they're trying

the Book of Will.

I like that show quite a bit, too.

I would do that one again, but I would definitely want to be one of the the

actors, like I would want to be pretty fabulous.

You came in and still every scene you were in real life.

So I was totally OK with that because I knew that story.

Right. And I was like, oh, this is a thing.

So I really did like that show.

So, yeah, I did so much research on that man just for that show.

That's all right.

Love Ben Johnson.

Yes, he's great.

He's great.

It was nice to say this about Shakespeare,

even though they like were mortal enemies the whole time.

Absolutely.

But it's so cool because he's like the only person he's

he's buried standing up because he didn't want to pay for a full funeral plot.

That totally tracks.

He was super cheap.

So I don't know.

One of the great things about doing this program as long as I have is being

to go see other productions that my kids are in either on stage, off stage.

I don't care. I'll go see whatever.

And I've seen some really amazing stuff.

I've seen some really weird stuff.

That's that's one of the great I mean,

and I've gone all sorts of weird places to see plays

that I never would have known about otherwise.

So did you get or didn't they they redid your theater?

No, I redid my theater.

I'm actually the entire summer I've been renovating the theater.

So what did you do?

Was this paint the floor?

So we redid the backstage.

It was not well executed.

There was a ramp that wasn't even like you had to like go around things to get to.

So it's like if you had anyone in a wheelchair, they're not getting on the

stage and it was just like as a person who is trying to be like a space

for everybody, like I can't have that and the ramp is not ADA compliant.

However, it is now accessible to the door

backstage, whereas it was like in the backpack.

And then there was just like you had to step down into a closet for like

lighting equipment.

And I was like, hey, I'm getting old and my knees are bad.

I can't keep doing that.

So I was like, how do I add a staircase back here?

So I like there's an area now that we

can do shop work and then not have to step down into a closet.

I didn't know you have that much space.

That's awesome.

Yeah, no, there's it's not like a huge amount, but it's enough to like if

we needed to build a wall, we could probably do that back there.

So I just I took the stage in on the back.

We repainted the floors from I'm pretty sure it was painted in the 60s and has

never been touched because it was like maroon and gray.

And it just those color choices felt really old.

And I was like, it's time to just refresh this.

And so in doing that, it has pointed out the fact that our seats are older

than sin, so hopefully it just keeps we just we find some funding.

I had to buy a new curtain because ours was out of fire code because it was

bought in 2007. Oh, ours is super out of fire code.

Yeah. Fire Marsha was like threatening to find us.

So we're like, OK, we're going to we're going to fix that.

It's like sometimes people who design

theaters don't actually use theaters in their job.

They design things that don't make any sense.

So our next next thing I would like

to get what has to be done are important because the holes are just

getting I could put a child through a hole in the back curtain.

I think if I needed to or there's a couple of spaces around here that are

just not being tended to that are like this would be such a cool space if you

would take care of it because so much money, so much money.

So what you should do with your seats

is what Horse Cave did where they just took out all the seats.

You just do that and then people can bring lawn chairs after Robert left.

Somebody else got a hold of it and they took it all the seats and they did

cool stuff out there. They did that one man Hamlet out there.

Oh, yeah.

They did Shakespeare, a bridge they did.

There's a there's an Oregon Trail musical.

If you want to do a musical that might be.

I've thought about that because StarKid has Oregon that Oregon Trail musical.

It's because it's audience participation like they they run around with animals

like cardboard animals and there's like a hole in the animal,

the basket behind it, and the audience has foam balls

and you try to throw them in the hole and that's what they get to eat.

The audience earns points.

It's really it's a fun show.

Maybe I should do that. That sounds incredible.

It's only like five or six people, I think, because they did on that.

They didn't they did that really tiny stage there at the Horse Cave.

So it wouldn't work for me with the 70 dancing munchkins or whatever.

But part of this operation,

because part of it is I want to talk to people that I adore and tell stories

and wander off the beaten path is to help people who are new to theater

programs or are interested in starting theater programs.

So he came into a program in twenty

twenty three that had just lost a long time director.

Right. Yeah.

So Covid had busted up a lot of what was happening there.

That's the worst time to come into

a program because I feel like you had lost a bunch of momentum because nothing was

happening. I can't imagine starting a theater program right after Covid.

So what's something that you wish you had known then when you were having to

basically restart this program that you would tell somebody now who was

either starting from whole cloth or has come into a program that has lost

has lost long time director.

Did you get a lot of help from him

coming in or was he kind of already gone by the time you got there?

So I had a weird situation because he actually retired in the spring of twenty

nineteen. Oh, they were going back.

They had put out the call to hire somebody and then Covid hit.

And so that program just wasn't touched for a year and a half.

Three years. Oh, my God.

And so it was just the admin assistant taking care of everything.

And so she was part time.

So like she was just kind of like here

and they're trying to figure out what to do.

There was multiple events and stuff that he was doing.

Like a teen theater festival, the autumn shorts film festival.

He was teaching film classes like he was doing a lot.

Then he retired and like all of that stopped and then Covid hit.

And then when they brought the new girl in in twenty twenty one,

she had to like go through all of these documents with no help.

They hired an admin assistant who was like more business minded,

who didn't understand the logistics of theater and of art.

Because like you have like we do spend a lot of money.

But it is in assistance for other things like you can put art anywhere.

And that's something that I've been trying to get the college to see is

that like there is art everywhere, that it is not just us

spending money, willy nilly, being crazy.

But it is like we are furthering goals and things like that.

So when I actually was Julia's admin assistant the year before she left

because she decided to get married and have a good fulfilling life in Austin,

Texas, and so they were like, hey, you have a master's degree and like,

you already work here. Do you want to apply for this position?

And I was like, I've seen what she has to do.

Sure.

So they hired me on.

And so I had a little bit of things from with Julia.

But that's actually what I've been

working on this year is actually going through all of the paperwork

from Steve, who was there for thirty five years.

So like I have thirty five years worth of things to decipher.

And so there is a little bit of that help while also not.

So are you full time?

Is that a full time job?

Yes. So I am full time.

I teach a full class load as well as office hours and on top of rehearsals

and whatever else I decide to do, because no one tells me no.

I just have to justify.

So that's fun.

And if they do tell me no,

they're like, you should find a different way to do that.

So but I like I have a lot of paperwork that I have to sift through.

And Steve was kind of around a little bit when I first started.

But every time I'd ask him a question, he was like, I mean,

that's not my space anymore.

So I don't know where that is.

I was like, that's super helpful.

Thank you for a bit before you never remember stuff.

Things that I should have known that I know now is make sure to save all

receipts, make sure you know where everything is all the time,

because people will ask and then you have to have an answer.

And if you don't have an answer, you have to find the answer.

But yeah, no, I think this kind of goes back into like just go with it is

like there's no one right way to do it.

And this is like a talk that I would love to give is the Tina Fey way of

doing things of like if you don't have that, like if you don't have

the audition, if you don't have the spaces to do things,

do theater in your apartment, like invite friends over to do theater there.

Just make your own path like whatever you want to do.

You can do it by yourself.

If there's a show that I really like

that I'm like, oh, man, how do I do this?

I can kind of write it myself, but it's you know, and if there's like,

there's like, man, I think this is really cool idea that I really want

to try out, but I don't have a space to do it.

You can ask your friends like, hey,

I want to do this like improv about Shakespeare as a pirate.

Like, like, let's go do it.

It's the Tina fake it to you, Tina, make it is what I call it.

Oh, I totally. Yeah, I agree.

I mean, the goal was always to do

educational theater and everywhere I went, nobody had it.

So I was like, oh, now we do this now.

Like no one said, you want to do this?

I just said, no, we're doing it.

And that's a lot of creative people do that.

Like there's a David 10 has a really good podcast where it's like it has

the person's name, the title of the podcast, like talks to David Janet.

And a lot of the people he's talked

to, they talk about how they weren't getting the opportunities they wanted

as whatever kind of creative they were.

So they just made their own, you know,

and that you can't sit around and wait for somebody to call you and be like,

hey, do you want to come do this?

You have to say, let's go do it.

And then I've never tried to do something where everybody said no.

Like there are people that I can't right now or I don't want to.

But I've always been able to find

people who are like, yes, I want to come and play.

And of course, they're sitting ducks right there in my class.

So if you don't come and play, you fail.

And like Flashback, I think is a lot of good work with that because they

have done it in so many really interesting spaces.

And that's something we have not done.

I think we've done one show in the gym.

We did that murder mystery in the gym that was interactive.

They are talking about there's some land, apparently we have the district

owns like back behind the school board, the school board and the school

that's all wooded and club is talking about building a trail through there.

And wouldn't that not be cool to do a play in the woods?

I have wanted to do a trail theater production.

And my concern has been, well, it

has to be off campus somewhere because we have a space like that.

But if they build this trail that's

on school property, then we can hike on up that hill during class.

Yeah, because there's all there's lots of good things for that.

I saw Midsummer Night's Dream at Regent's Park in London.

And Puck will be like, come on.

We had to run after him.

And I thought I was like 19.

I thought this is this is cool.

I want to do that.

And I've just never found a way.

So I do want to do more.

I want to try to find more ways that I can do things that are not in the

auditorium, but scheduling with children is hard because I can't be like, well,

we're going to take over this classroom because they're like, no,

they're having class in there.

That's a really interesting idea is

doing theater in the wilds with no no net.

Yeah, the Kentucky Renaissance Fair actually has a Dickens Festival where

you can like watch a Christmas carol and walk around their entire grounds.

Like each scene is a different area.

That is the first two weeks of December, weekends of December.

They because I want to say their auditions are have happened or are soon,

but they've done that every year.

And that's one thing I really want to do.

But I just it's in Eminence, Kentucky, which is two hours from me.

So it's up there.

OK, because I didn't have that right.

That's why I lived up there.

Well, that's cool.

It's a it's a really cool space.

Yes, just over to their 20th year.

Yeah, no, that's how I'll go.

That's let's go. We should go.

Yeah, I am honestly.

So I have anything that I'm yeah, we should do that.

I will I will go with you.

I will let you know.

I will Google that and figure out when I can do it.

And then we'll go.

What what else should we do a podcast about?

What else should we digress about?

Do you think there are so many things

to digress about some different pathways of people like what like if

you didn't pursue theater, like what are you doing instead?

Yeah, that's a good idea.

How is how has like your time in drama?

How has that affected like what you're doing now?

And like what skills have you taken on?

Because that is where my life has been has come from, I guess, is like

transferable skills from theater.

That's the point.

But I built this program and look at all these kids that I mean,

I don't think it's completely because of me that they've gone on to do

great stuff, but I think we gave them a little boop.

No, I can agree to that because I

think the things that I learned from you were not always academic.

It was always just be a good person.

What are you doing?

Yeah, we're trying to be nice.

OK, what else?

Anything else that you want to tell our audience of people that we've

done theater with us and also hopefully people who are new and trying to get

it together and freaking out in a different way that we are freaking out?

Like we're still freaking out.

Yeah, you'll never stop freaking out.

Like that's the fun part of it is

like I never know what I'm going to walk into every day.

I never have an ordinary day.

And that's I think that's the fun part is like you don't ever have to worry

about it being boring. No, no.

We do cool things.

We do.

Oh, I just cannot.

I just oh, I love you so much.

And you're doing such great stuff.

I'm excited about Dracula.

That'll be the next thing, right?

Yeah.

You have dates on that?

Yeah, it'll be October 30th, 31st

at 8 p.m.

because I wanted to make sure after

Halloween people had time to like take their kids home or whatever.

And then November 2nd at two thirty.

OK, that might be easier for me to get to.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, I will just tickets at the door.

Yep. Tickets at the door.

If you want to call, we can reserve tickets that way.

All right. Well, I love you very much and I appreciate you coming.

And we hope to see you.

I'm going to I have to get a rehearsal schedule out for my play soon

and finish production analysis.

I'm about halfway through that.

So that's today's goal, I guess.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Yeah. Thank you so much for coming.

And we will see everyone are here.

Listen to everyone.

They will listen to us the next time we produce an episode of But I Digress.

But I Digress is a

We've Snatched production.