Transcription Pending
Adventures in Educational Theater.
I'm Jennifer Dooley, the founder and
executive director of Edmondson County
Drama, which is a K
through 12 theater program,
in the wilds of rural Kentucky.
And with me today is not Britt Norris.
He abandoned me with the sound equipment.
So now we can talk about him and he'll
never know, but he might come back.
And as you know, he is the tallest
technical director at Edmondson County
Drama and therefore
technically a director.
Actually joining me today is Fallon
Willoughby, who is one
of our OG drama darlings.
And she, make sure I say this right, you
are a first year experience instructor at
our local community college.
I am an associate professor.
Associate professor, fancy.
Thank you very much.
Yes, and a published romantecy, which is
now my new favorite word of the day,
author.
And we will talk about that
also amongst other things.
Is that your official title?
Why do you guys have titles now?
It's so weird.
So before we talk about the wonder that
is Fallon, where we always give our
audience an update on what we're
currently doing in the program.
So we are blocking the con, the show
we've been working on
for the last month or so.
And blocking rehearsals take five ever.
And they take even longer now, I think
they did when you were in the program.
So Fallon was in like the original
productions that we
did the very first year.
She worked on those programs,
primarily in tech.
She was the first Lightbox goddess.
Have you seen her light system now?
It's so pretty.
I'm so jealous.
You don't have to like push anything up
and down and the lights can change color
in the middle of the show.
It's just, it's magic of the devil.
So now we do blog rehearsals, we spend,
we do, we block five pages a day,
12th night where we had a student
director who took so much time blocking.
We had two student directors and one took
forever blocking and one
did the way it done before.
And I figured out that if you take all
that time at the front end, it saves you
a lot of time at the back end.
So we spent a lot of time on that.
But it seems like
we're not making progress.
And some days we don't.
Like yesterday we worked on fight
choreography and we worked on a page for
a day because there
were 20 kids on stage.
It's kind of like sound cues and cutting
the chandelier loops.
It's kind of like
cutting the chandelier loops.
Very much like that.
but we figured out if you build the solid
foundation with the
blocking, everything takes less time.
So I estimate 10 minutes per page
But then that gives the, if the kids have
something physical to work with, they
know they're blocking, they're moving
around the stage, they know their stage
business, they know where all the set
pieces are, we can block scene changes.
And this show has a scene change for
every scene, but it's at a con.
So the furniture is primarily folding
chairs and tables and
a couple of podiums.
And that's really all there
is, just moving them around.
And we have people that are working the
con who can move the furniture so there's
no dead air because you know how I hate
scene changes where everyone has to sit
and wait for something to happen that
makes my skin crawl.
So we do not have that problem.
And we will buy t-shirts for everyone who
is working on the stage
crew that will be part of that.
So it'll be great.
Okay, so if they have that movement
linked to the word, it's easier for them
to learn the dialogue.
All right, we also, I got a call from
Kentucky Shakespeare this week whose
website we'll link in the show notes.
And they offered to come and lead a
workshop with our students.
We try to invite them down at least once
a year to work with us because they are
an amazing, amazing
educational resource in our area.
Last year, because of some grant money,
they came down four times.
They did,
They worked on us with Midsummer.
They did
workshops, one with the middle school,
one with the high school.
And then they did a stage combat workshop
over at the public library.
So we wanna get them down
there as often as possible.
They offer all kinds of
for students K through 12 about American
history, Kentucky history, Shakespeare,
theater in general, but
also they will work with you.
Like a couple of years ago, they did
dialect and like physicality for
Victorian England when we did Pygmalion.
So they don't have to, you know,
specifically Shakespeare stuff.
And so when they called yesterday, I was
like, hey, you wanna
compete just had a fist fight?
How to do hand-to-hand combat?
And they were like, yeah, so they're
coming Monday and I'm super excited about
that because the kids-- Do you keep
having children sign waivers?
No, we don't because they've come before
to do stage combat and last time they
came, we did sword play.
And I thought this was really smart.
This is long ago that Kyle Ware was still
touring and I don't think he does that.
He works more in the
office now and directs things.
So they gave them all PVC pipe with like
pool noodles wrapped around it and they
talked about how to, it's like
choreographing a dance and
they went so, so, so slow.
So there was never any point.
And if a kid started to get out of
control, they'd be like, no,
they'd stop the whole class.
So I'm not worried about that.
I'm not worried about
anybody getting hurt.
No one either knee broken
or, you know, knock on wood.
Yeah, nobody getting their fingers sliced
off by a slap or a set.
Like we've had no injuries because of
Kentucky Shakespeare.
Those have been all
completely on our own.
So
really excited.
I love them and not sponsored by Kentucky
Shakespeare, but we should be.
Last week I said we were not sponsored by
but I talked about how I go to all my
prep work at Spencer's.
I go to the old Spencer's and stare at
the brick wall and work there and not
sponsored, but should be.
so back to Fallon.
Before I ask you any questions, I want to
talk about how, and I say this now,
Fallon's wearing all black.
Usually her clothing is so colorful.
Like she watched out on one of her
novels, but her hair's purple and blue.
So I feel better about saying that.
And pink.
So and pink, yeah, it's all the colors
and I can't, I don't know, I dyed my hair
black and it has gone poorly.
So I'm done with that now.
All right, so now rapid
fire questions, but not really.
You can talk as long as you want.
So why did you decide to
join Edmondson County Drama?
These many, I mean, well, what year did
you graduate from high school, Fallon?
Do I have to say that?
No, you don't.
I graduated in 2008.
I don't know, I
thought it was longer ago.
So that's okay, that's good.
I don't know, you all run together.
I can think about, well,
who was in a show with Fallon?
Well, Steven was in a show with Fallon.
And that's how, because I remember
years-- Steven also graduated in 2008.
He did, and none of you can
be more than like 25 forever.
That sounds great.
I can't because if you get,
if you guys got to 40, I
couldn't, I don't know.
Let's not talk about that.
Okay, I'm good with that.
It's fine, yeah.
And Madison, she also got to be like 25.
I know her kids were
like 11 or something.
My child is 11.
Your child is 11,
Madison's kids are that old.
They're maybe seven, but still.
Yeah, no, you're 25, it's fine.
It's okay that your
child's image is my grandkid.
That's totally fine by me.
So why did you choose to get involved in
theater when you were in high school?
Gosh, we were the very
first ones, weren't we?
So it wasn't even
co-curricular, it was all after school.
Yeah, I don't even
remember how it came to be about.
I just remember we were talking about it.
I think Colton Wilson was super involved
with it and we loved you and
it was like, let's do a thing.
So were you in my English class already?
Okay, yeah, I think
it's like a lot of people.
It was many years ago.
It was many years ago, yeah.
I think so.
So what was your first show?
Art Tower?
Okay, so you were in
the, were you in the box?
Yeah.
So Fallon's the
original live box goddess.
I was never on stage.
And that's okay, I mean, we do now, if
you come into, because it was
co-curricular, so anybody
did whatever they wanted to.
If you come into class now, you have to
memorize the Shakespearean monologue for
Shakespeare Madness and get up on stage
for like 20 lines or whatever and then
you have to appear on
stage for the first show.
You may not say anything, but
you have to be on the stage.
That's mean.
Well, because what was happening, we
first got to be co-curricular, was that
we had kids show up and be like, so I
just do hair and makeup and they didn't
wanna do anything else
the rest of the year.
And I was like, no,
everyone gets to play everywhere.
So we'll all try costumes.
We'll all-- I did all the things.
And then we'll poke around the box.
And I did, so when we did drama too, you
made me do a monologue.
So I did get on stage for that, but I was
never in front of lots of people.
Yeah, and you survived.
So we do make them get on stage that
first show, but if they never appear on
stage again, that's a
thing that happens a lot.
Taylor didn't do very much on stage.
I was the spotlight person for our town.
You were.
And they came and WD Ford it right before
the show and I was
terrified I was gonna get high.
(Laughing)
Thanks so much.
(Laughing)
We still have the same spotlight.
It's so loud.
It was so bad.
We did borrow a spotlight,
two spotlights from the gym.
They used to do that thing like they do
when the Wildcats come out at UK.
They use the spotlights upstairs at the
gym and so we steal those because you
can't hear them at all
because that was so loud.
You can't hear the cues.
It's like clunk, clunk.
But we did have a bunch
of light and sound cues in
the Rain where he turns on the light
equipment in a stage and it was supposed
to make a bunch of noise as part of the
sound cue like you so we
did get to use it for that.
Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk.
It was meant to be.
It's so loud so I don't know.
So are there any particular memories that
stick out for you from
your time in the theater?
Oh my God, how long can I talk?
Well the second part of this podcast
we're telling people this stuff, how to
do it and then we're just yapping about
stuff because most of our listeners
frankly are people that were in drama.
So it's almost like I was in that show.
I remember that, I
can't believe that happened.
Let's see, so the
spotlight night was grand.
I literally told Brett, I was like, so if
the moon starts sailing across the sky, I
am fine, you need to come check on me.
Because he literally did it I think five
minutes before the show
started and it smelled so strong.
Oh, I didn't remember that at all.
Yup, and then all the shows were great.
The
They're cutting the chandelier loose.
Cutting the chandelier loose because we
couldn't get the sound and the light cues
to go at the same time and I thought you
were gonna murder us.
And then the people who were supposed to
fall, we had to eject from the show
because they didn't go to rehearsal, they
went somewhere else and
made some bad life choices.
That did happen.
So we killed my husband and Kevin and
there was somebody
else, one of my kids maybe.
I think there were three people that got
killed by the chandelier and had to be
dragged out of the house.
I know Sean and Steven
were being crushed maybe.
No, they were killed as a chandelier.
But I do remember that we
made, Sean was supposed to have,
chaps.
Oh yeah.
And we couldn't find any because we had
money so we made them out of bath mats,
out of brown bath mats.
We started together.
I remember that.
That was fabulous.
That's also the show with the line, it's
a record player, it plays records.
So like 10 years later, I was in the
Kohl's with the different drama kid
Alexander, Christmas
shopping in Lexington.
And this guy says to his wife, "Look,
it's a record player, it plays records."
And I called Steven and I was just crying
because I couldn't even talk.
And he said, "Did you
see a record player?"
I was like, "I did, it plays records."
And no one else understands.
We dragged a rat across the stage in that
show on a piece of wire.
So many grand things.
That was a grand show.
That secret was in that show.
Oh, that was a good show.
Let's see, I still say,
sin.
Yes.
Because of drama, I'll be
like, "Oh, so and so of sin."
And people just look at me and I'm like,
"There's reasons that I really don't
wanna explain to you that
that just came out of my mouth."
Yes,
an OG phrase definitely.
Like the couch of sin.
So we keep all our
couch stored vertically now.
That's probably a good plan.
We take the cushions off.
We do,
They're all backstage.
They're not in the dressing room.
We only have one couch now.
One is plenty.
Probably.
And of course I directed.
So that was lots of fun.
And that was good.
I think if that had gone poorly, I would
not have invited other people to come and
direct, but I knew you could do that
because you're type A like me.
So I knew you would have
everything ready and ready to go.
We know what you wanted.
And we've done that show.
So we did Midsummer Night's Dream.
And then we did
Jersey several years later.
We're just a place in the Jersey shore
and the root camp and
mechanicals were all hairdressers.
And like Oprah and Tonya were
beach bones and it was good.
And then last year we
did Midsummer in the mall.
I was not prepared to do that show again,
but we had seen some of the, we saw a
production of it through Kentucky
Shakespeare, of course,
they were touring with it.
And the kids were
like, "We want to do it.
We want to set it like now."
And they wouldn't set it in the school,
but we could make that work.
And they're like, "What if
we're trapped in a mall?"
And I was like, "Yes."
I remember we went and saw a production
of it in Louisville and they had like the
hoop skirts that were painted metallic
without the dresses over it.
And I just thought it
was the coolest thing.
Didn't bottom have like a metal head that
you could see through?
It was like, yeah.
So, and that was like-
And none of it fell asleep and I had to
stop him from snoring.
Yeah, I remember that.
Yes, that was a good production.
That was also Kentucky Shakespeare.
(Laughing) Not a sponsor.
But should be.
So I will say one of the big tips I can
give is don't let your actors use clothes
that you're really attached to and that
you want to come back because I had
several pieces
disappear or not returning great
I've lost my favorite pajamas that way.
Yes, I feel that.
So, cause let's see, I did it gothic.
Yes.
And so I supplied a
bunch of the clothing.
Yes.
And I didn't really have a lot of it to
begin with cause I was a
poor, sad little child.
Yes.
And that was guilt
bought trauma clothing.
(Laughing)
That's terrible, we're
not gonna talk about.
But it's still fun.
It's what it was.
So I had those knee high lace up boots.
Yes.
Yes, I wore those every day, I think, for
like three straight years.
Yes.
The lovely person whom I do love a lot,
who wore those duct tape all over the
bottom of them to soften the sound while
she was on stage and
they never recovered.
Yeah, I didn't hear it once.
Yeah.
And then some of the clothing just like
disappeared and they swore they didn't
take it, but I never, it was gone.
I was talking last week about how, lots
of for my house, like we
have production analysis where
we have like a column for like costumes,
hair and makeup, props, that whatever.
And there's a key on the right hand side
and it has colors for different things.
The world of the colors is, I think light
blue, I have to bring it from home, but I
don't bring things I'm like.
I hope this is my great grandmother's
wedding dress or something.
Although I don't have those things.
But so you have to definitely be like, well
this is an object and if it gets broken.
Because I did bring something last year
for a show we called Trap, it was this
perfect beautiful green goblet and it
said in the script she had a drink, she
drowns herself with salt water from this
goblet in the middle of the theater, it
was very gothic and amazing.
That's amazing.
The girl did a great job dying.
We bought her a dress for five bucks at
Goodwill that she wore
at every show that year.
And the first, and it was
that dress we wore for that.
And
shattered that goblet.
And it was Jason and God, when he first
started working at the newspaper, he had
it on his desk when he worked at the
paper and it was in our house and he
always kept his change in it.
And I was like, I had replaced it with a
mason jar and he's
like, where's my goblet?
I was like, mason jar?
I could bring it green.
So yeah, they shattered the crap.
I was like, well, okay.
Cause I thought, oh,
this is the perfect prop.
So we had to go
somewhere and find a glass thing.
But yeah, so it's just stuff.
You have to look,
let it go, man.
If you're gonna let it go, yeah.
And I've donated things since.
You have.
The lovely Cinderella dress that will
never fit me ever again.
But like, half an dozen
people have worn that dress.
It'll definitely be in this show, if not
on an actor, there's a scene where it's
backstage at a costume contest.
It's definitely on that rack.
That's awesome.
So we're definitely using it.
And we have several sort of medieval
dresses and stuff that you've given us.
I know lots of kids have worn.
I will never be the size I
was in high school again.
So when I let go of it, I was like, this
has to find a happy home.
A lot of people do that.
Like all my prom dresses are here.
I'm not wearing those again, but they've
been, I bought a prom
dress for like 50 bucks in 1997
that has been worn every year here.
The black flapper dress
with the silver on it.
Yeah, no, it's been, that's
the best 50 bucks I ever spent.
My prom dress was in a
Midsummer Night's Dream.
I did get it back.
I don't, I may have re-donated it.
Yeah, she had those wings.
Oh, she was so cool.
So that was lots of fun.
She was so cool.
And Gavin kicked
because Steven told him to.
Nick had to pretend to be asleep.
Gavin was so cute in that show.
He was just five years old.
Also Gavin said, if I mentioned him on
the podcast, he would rip
his arm out of his office.
So I mentioned him every single week.
That's okay, it's all good.
It's okay, I was gonna bring him up
because I remember him being in my show
because I was so excited.
He had little fairy wings too, didn't he?
It was so cute, yeah.
He did, and Amy Payne, we had to, like my
kids were so little then that we had to
have a babysitter on set.
We had a child wrangler in the crew.
We did.
And Amy Payne was there
with, because Ian was tiny, tiny.
So tiny,
and I remember like, you
were pregnant all the time.
All the time?
A lot of things.
And then when you weren't pregnant, we
had your cute tiny little children.
So that was always fun.
So yeah, so I, the first, well, when we
were doing our town, I was
wearing Taylor during our town.
And Eustoritis, the
coolest thank you notes.
And I still have all of them.
Yes.
I don't do that as much anymore, because
I am old, but I shouldn't
write more thank you notes.
We do have a thing we call happiness
circle now, where in between shows,
between a morning show and night show,
everybody sits in a circle, and they have
to say a nice thing about anybody in the
circle, it's not like you say a nice
thing about a person next to
you, just wherever you want.
And usually they are, especially if it's
the last show of the year, there's
hysterical crying by the end.
And I start to my left, and I go all the
way around, and it gets to me, I say a
nice thing about every
single kid in the circle.
It's okay, I can make
you say it with a picture.
Oh, oh, Greta, yes,
she was that show too.
Yeah.
We still have those
set pieces behind you.
But that set piece and those stairs,
we're still using those.
So once you build something good, it can
last forever and a day.
Ever, we did all kinds of things.
purpose of our podcast course is twofold.
We're trying to help people who want to
start or have been given the opportunity
to run an existing theater program
or who have been well and told that they
now are the theater teacher for school
because they don't have tenure and they
do what they're supposed to do.
And so we're trying to give them advice.
And last week we were talking about
things that you need to do before.
Because like I'm ready to
go, I think out of script
I want to go audition like right now.
And I know that that's not a good idea
because I need to have a better idea of
what the physicality of
characters have to be.
And if they have to do things with their
voice, that is interesting, maybe more
different than what they usually do.
Or I have to make sure I can double cast
people if I've got 27
characters and 21 actors.
Because that was a great idea.
But it's better than not having enough
parts of the makeup parts for children.
you're princess number seven.
So do you, and I know this was many moons
ago, do you remember any prep work
specifically that you did
for shows or things that you?
Well, so learning all the lighting
functions was my greatest fun.
Oh yeah.
So I did a lot of that.
For directing,
since it was the first time you made us
put together an entire binder of doom and
then we competed on who
could have the best one.
That's right.
And I won.
It was the best one.
Because I am me.
So I have problems.
Yes.
No, you were like me.
Oh, this is the thing, we
have to do the thing to 110%.
We have the best version of the thing.
I made people dress up and
take pictures in costumes.
You did.
And I blocked out a seat.
I did so much prep just to
be like, I can do the thing.
Well, and that's the, you know, because
you had done that when you started to
direct, then you had
all that stuff already.
And we knew what the
costumes should look like.
And you knew what kind of lights you
wanted and things like that.
And I decided to make Puck a Girl.
Yeah, which I think we made-- I don't
think Steven has ever forgiven me.
He brings that up in weird times.
But also that bit, that bit where he
picked her up and choked her, like, okay,
so for our listening
audience, we did not murder a child.
On that note. And now her daughter is in theater.
I'm so excited.
And so what happened was, so we had
Steven who was this massive child.
Like he's-- Six foot something.
At least six three,
six four, I don't know.
Anyway, great big Burley, could have been
a football player, was a band of theater
kids dead, not even mad about that.
And this very small girl,
she's still the same size.
And she has kids who are in theater.
And so they were able to do this bit
where when Oberon gets mad at Puck,
she would wrap her arms around his arms
and he would put his hands on her
shoulder and his
fingers on her or in her neck.
Very much looked like he was choking.
Yes, and so he was so much bigger than
her, he could pick her up, but she was
controlling the action, which is
something they're gonna talk to our kids
about next week, I'm
sure in stage combat.
So she was holding him, but it looked
like he was holding her and she could
throw herself around and kick her legs
and make choking noises.
And all Steven had to do was stand there.
And it was so realistic that when we did
the night show, her mother got up in the
audience and yelled, hey.
And I was like, "Bran-da, sit down.
"We are not killing your kid.
"Because if you kill them, "you can't
come back and do another show."
So yeah, that was, and I don't remember
whose idea that was.
I don't, it's been too
many, probably Steven.
Yeah, that sounds like he saw
wrestling or something maybe.
He was like, "Hey, I can do this thing."
And I was like, "Mmm."
No, that was a really--
She was game and it worked.
Oh, of course she was game.
Yeah.
So that was a really cool bit.
And I think about that a lot.
I do know, I loved that show immensely,
but that was also the
day my grandfather died.
So it was a very hard day for me.
Yes.
And I showed up all in gray and you were
like, "What are you doing?"
Yes, why aren't you
wearing the pretty clothes?
I just picked up the first clothes that I
saw because I was in tears trying to hold
it together to do the day.
And so that was a really hard day and I
still have really happy memories.
So it's so conflicting.
It is, but I mean, I'm really glad that
we were able to be there and support you
because this, ultimately, I mean, yeah,
we do theater and I love theater and
theater, but also it's because we built
this community that you are still a part
of low these many moons later, right?
Where you come to shows or she just
brought me a board game from 1960s, which
is all about Shakespeare.
And I don't understand it at all.
It's like Shakespeare Monopoly, but also
Parchese, but also Trivial Pursuit.
It's called the
Shakespeare Bookcase Game.
It has all kinds of tiny busts of
Shakespeare that you play with.
I'm so excited.
Look, I digressed.
I got it at the Friends of the Library
Booksell of which I am a board member and
you should go to every hour.
Are you a board member
at the Pumac Library?
Oh, how fancy.
For the Friends of the Library.
Okay, for Friends of the Library.
Okay, so, because they're doing a lot of
theater down there
with the Library program.
So we've got a kid down there.
Sam Tres works with a
theater program down there.
And then several people that went to
school with Gavin and Gavin I think works
tangentially with them sometimes.
They are always doing something when I'm
volunteering at the bookstore.
Yeah, so, yeah, we did a Greek tragedy
with them last year.
We had, I think, three
or four kids in that show.
But we try to be a part of the stuff we
can, but it's just, it's so late at night
and so far we can't always do.
Yep.
What they're doing.
But they're doing great stuff down there
at the Library with the theater program.
Yeah, so I'm glad that, you know, when
kids do have things that happen,
you may have been out of school, we had a
girl whose father died during dress week.
And I said to her, if you
can't do this, then that's okay.
And she said, no, this is the only thing,
this is the thing I have to do right now,
so I can't worry about this other thing
right now, because I can't
do anything about my dad.
And so we all left rehearsal one night
and we went out to the funeral home for
the visitation to, you
know, support her family.
And there have been, we had a drama kid
whose mother died like
literally on Christmas.
And we all went out for that, you know,
so this is, you know, and we had, we lost
a student in the theater program.
We all went together to that funeral.
So I mean, part of being part of this
family's community is if you do have
something terrible happen,
then we're gonna be there.
When that student died
that was in the program,
all the kids came to my house and there
were kids that didn't even know that boy
that came and met along, brought me a
mule latte and all the donuts
they had at the minute mark.
Cause he said, I had something bad has
happened, I don't know what it is, but I
brought you all the food I can find.
So it's really, it's great,
it's great that we have this.
And it's been going on long enough that
like I said, like the kid who got choked,
Mackenzie, her daughter is in shows now.
Well, actually no, all of her kids were
in the musical cause
they're little biddies.
So.
I still have a red curtain that Matt Long
gave me after one of the shows that he
wore for some reason.
I don't even remember why.
A red curtain? It is a red see-through curtain.
He had it for some
reason and he gave it to me.
Was it Shakespeare branched?
And I still have it.
And I remember
absolutely nothing but that thing.
We need to get Matt Long on the show.
Did you do
Shakespeare branched with that?
I don't think so.
What else were we doing?
Cause that was Zach and DJ and Matt.
Well, we didn't have as
many classes, remember?
So like I did the one and
then I couldn't do the other.
So I was on the fringes of everything.
Yeah, that's right.
But they wouldn't let us do
as much when it first started.
That's true, we were on block, yeah.
And that show was co-curriculum because
we started doing classes
because I wanted Zach to stay.
Or if I was, I was doing lights.
That's true.
That's what I thought, I didn't know if
you'd done lights for that show or not.
I don't remember.
Who did, did I direct that?
I directed that one.
Had that angry volleyball
girl that takes pictures.
She was the,
isn't that terrible?
I forget all of your names.
I love her so much, but in high school,
she just looks so mad.
And every time they would break or drop
something, which there's a lot of mess in
Shakespeare bridge, she would come out
with this mom and just be so mad.
I remember that.
What is her name?
She took photos of my family.
She has a really cute little girl.
What are, did you learn anything that you
think, because you're not
doing theater professionally.
I am not, no.
Like the other people we've talked to
thus far, and they're the vast minority,
have done theater and made money at it.
And that's not something you chose to do.
90% of the kids have not.
So did you learn anything while you were
here that you think you'd be able to
carry out into the world?
The most ironic thing, because I hated
being in front of people, is that now I
teach and I'm always in front of people.
Yes, so how do you square that?
I will say that classroom management and
being able to keep people's attention,
even though I wasn't doing it, I had to
direct it and tell people how to act.
I learned how to
project and I watched you.
And so all of those things inherently
helped me down the road do
the same thing, basically.
That's very interesting.
Because sometimes it does feel like I'm
wrangling a group of crazy
children in the classroom.
Directing is very much
like teaching, I think, yeah.
Or acting.
I feel like when I'm in front of a
classroom, it's just like being on stage.
But that's interesting because you were
like, yeah, I don't
really wanna be on the stage.
I hated being in front of
people and now I am daily.
Do you think it's easier because they're
closer to you as opposed to having that
gap between you and the audience?
I think part of it is I
can be whatever I want to be.
I'm not playing a part, so whatever comes
out of my mouth is me instead of having
to memorize lines and be something,
a perfectionist.
So I was terrified of messing up.
I know, right?
It's shocking.
This is new information for everyone.
Rude.
No.
That's why I let you be a student
director because I knew you
were gonna do all the things.
So you have freshmen but
this is a community college.
So are they all, a lot of them like 18,
19, or do you have some like mix of older
adults who are coming back to school?
We do have more, well, we have
non-traditional students but
majority of our students are actually
straight from high school.
Okay.
Because we be much
cheaper than a certain college.
Sure.
what is the purpose of your class?
Is it a required class that they take?
It is required.
And so it is the how to
college and adult class.
Okay.
Basically.
So we do like, here's how you take notes.
Here's how you study.
Here's how you manage your time.
Which a lot of them are
like, oh my God, I didn't know.
I watched 40 hours of Netflix.
Right,
Because I make them do a time log
activity that they hate me for.
Where they have to do a lot of stuff. Okay. And then they have to do a lot of stuff. Okay. And then they have to do a lot of stuff. Okay. And then they have to do a lot of stuff. Which they hate me for.
Where they have to say what
they do every hour for a week.
Oh.
Yeah.
But then they're like, wow, I'm spending
a lot more time doing all
these things than I think I am.
That's really smart.
So,
it's a lot of things like that.
Then we also talk about like, money
management and financial aid and I cry
about student loans.
(Laughing)
Other like life skill type things.
So it's a mix.
How long, do you know how
long they've been doing that?
It became mandatory seven
years ago when I started.
Okay.
Because I know that wasn't a thing like
when I was in school.
But I know they're doing that at four
year college as well.
I know like.
So I taught university
experience at WKU as well.
Which is basically the same class.
Is that the same kind of thing? Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of universities are making it
mandatory because research has proven
that it helps retention rates.
Sure, sure.
If you are lost the
wheeze, you don't take notes.
You don't study properly.
Then you're gonna quit and
they don't get your money anymore.
So no.
Like at Campbell'sville, they have like a
success coach or
something they have to meet with.
When I was at Western, they wanted us to
take a freshman orientation class that
was supposed to be that.
And somehow I got out of it.
I really don't remember how.
You didn't actually have to take it.
I guess, I don't know.
So university experience at WKU was, you
should take this class.
It is really suggested.
And so like some of the materials
mandatory and would kind of
like really try to get you to.
But it wasn't actually.
It wasn't actually mandatory.
So you can get away without taking it.
There's only a few programs that like
actually really require it.
Yeah, Transy had it and the way they did
it was like, they had a professor and a
student, upper level student.
So I taught that one year
when I was like a junior.
And I was an SOL.
And also when I was teaching university
experience, we weren't all necessarily
doing the same thing.
So depending on who your professor was,
you had a vastly different experience.
Oh, but this is a more
like med-tech curriculum.
Okay, well that's good, yeah.
And they've changed it at WKU since then.
Yeah, no, I think it's a good idea
because especially these
kids coming out of COVID.
Oh.
I mean, I think it's gonna get better as
it goes along, but they just, some of
these kids spend a formative chunk of
time not peopling and they don't.
And that's part of
what we do in the class.
We do what we can in the online class,
but for the in-person class, we're like,
I'm gonna make you
talk to each other now.
Yeah, and I think that's good.
And they're really sad about it in the
beginning, but then
they're like, I made friends.
And I'm like, it's amazing what can
happen when I make
you talk to each other.
Yeah, and I think it's a good idea
because a lot of kids
don't have the backup.
A lot of them don't
have support systems, so.
Yeah, and then do these kids come back
after they have come out of your class
and asked for help for
things or do you, good.
Yeah, so we have an app for the school
that students can ask questions on.
And I put it on my phone and then I
answer all kinds of questions.
I'm on there a lot.
There's some other professors who are
too, but it pops up and I'm just like two
seconds of my day I
answer a question and I help.
That's really cool.
I've had students email me, be like, I've
noticed you're on here a lot.
Can you help me?
I do that.
That's very
Just like students will come back and be
like, I'm not sure if you're the person
and I'll be like, well, I
can always help you find.
No, yeah, that's kind of like our job
here in the library is I will answer all
the questions I can, but if I don't have
the answer, I bet I can
find out who has the answer.
That's cool.
So do you help them transition if they
decide to go on to a four year school?
So part of the thing we talk
about in FYE is like transfer.
So are you here for a tech career?
Or are you here to transfer?
And then the WKU advisor and some of the
other ones will come
into the class and talk.
And we go over like, you can get
scholarships if you'll finish your
associate degree in GPA.
And we do like all that kind of stuff.
else, so you learned how, I think it's
interesting that you're talking about how
you feel like you can be
more your authentic self
when you're in front of your classroom
because of the work you did in theater.
When I feel like, when I am in front of
students, that is a
character that I am playing.
That is not, I don't know if it's very
interesting to me because I've never
thought about, I
should just be me at school.
That would be, I don't think.
I still have a job.
So wonderful.
(Laughing) I got lucky.
One of the biggest things to me about
life is that I am who I am.
Yes.
And so even when I'm in front of them,
I'm up there and I'm this crazy teacher
who has pink and purple and blue hair and
comes in wearing space high heels.
But I am always who I am.
And I've had a lot of kids tell me that
like, I dyed my hair for the first time
because you're an adult and
you have a job and it's okay.
Yes, yes. Or you make me feel more confident to be
myself or to try the same thing.
Good, that's good.
That is very important to me, so.
I mean, I don't know that I
feel like I'm inauthentic.
I just feel like this
is my teacher character.
Now I am like, this is
my more professional self.
There are things I'm not gonna let come
out of my mouth but
sometimes I want to, yeah.
Sure, sure. Yeah, that's interesting to me that you
think you're, that's really cool.
No one's ever said anything like that to
me when they talk about what they've
gotten from the program.
I think that's really neat.
So is there anything you wish you could
tell high school in drama, M.S.K.A.
drama, you, that you know now?
So I did not realize I was
bi until I was in my late 20s.
Okay.
Partially due to the religious trauma.
Okay.
And the father.
So even though there was things there, I
ignored a lot of it.
Right.
Because it was easier to ignore it than
have to deal with all the consequences
that could come with it, right?
Right.
Because like my dad used to say if any of
his children were gay, he'd kick them out
of the house and never talk to them and
all of those fun things.
And I wish I had just been more willing
to pay attention to that.
I don't think it would have changed where
I wound up but it would have been nice to
be more aware of earlier.
Do you think you would have felt more
comfortable in your skin maybe?
Probably, yeah.
That's interesting also.
kind of theater, have you done
any of the theater since then?
Like been a part of it or gotten to watch
it or like what is your kind of like
experience with theater now?
Well, I did come back when I did
AmeriCorps here and I got to do "Hipassa,
Billy Never After"
and all of those things.
I had such good luck
with AmeriCorps help,
let me tell you.
We did the lip sync battle during that
and I got to be Baby Spice
and I won and that was great.
that was really my only other theater
experience that I've got to be a part of
other than just coming
back and watching shows.
So, and my child is
discovering that he enjoys theater.
I would really like your
childhood like theater.
I'm trying so hard.
I mean, both of them are parents.
So we're working on it.
I mean, if he's supposed to dip his toe
in the water and just be like
member in the musical,
we're happy to have him do that.
I'm trying.
I can't even get him to agree to it.
I think I'm just gonna have
to drag him here screaming
and then immerse him in it and we'll see.
Or just have him come to auditions
because we have auditions for two days
for the musical and have
him come sit back and watch.
I can do that.
So really like sometimes, because we do K
through 12 and there's usually about one
kindergarten a year who just,
he is not, this is not his jam.
There was a drama kid that brought a
kindergarten like two years ago and he
came back and I said, he's just too
little, he's just not ready for this.
But then we have others that
have come in at five years old.
A lot of times they also have older
siblings or cousins or whatever and that
makes it easier for them.
But yeah, I mean, we
want you to come and play.
So, and it's, I mean,
everybody gets cast.
It's not like, oh, what
if I'm not good enough?
No, you're like, what if
I have to be in theater?
You have to breathe air.
I think that's always been the case.
It is like, I'm never gonna be like, oh,
there's too many,
there's too many children.
There were 70 kids in
that musical last year.
I still think you're crazy.
Let's go.
I mean, how can you
tell them no?
Yeah.
With all the sad faces.
Everybody gets to come and play, because
you don't know what kind of effect it's
gonna have on a kid.
Yeah, I'm trying to tell them, you don't
have to be on stage.
I wasn't, you can do all the other
things, but it's just lots of fun.
If he wants to tech, we ask they be in
middle school for their tech, because we
have found younger than that, they can't,
we have to go looking for him.
But yeah, no, just have him sit with him,
come sit on auditions, and see if he
wants to try it out, because you will see
kids, they'll go to
the stage and just go,
I don't like you saying happy birthday,
and they'll be like, happy birthday.
And we're like, yeah,
you're gonna play, you know.
I love it.
And sometimes they get braver, and
sometimes they say, I did this one time,
I'm not gonna do it again, I'm like,
that's cool, we love
you anyway, do whatever.
So yeah, no, we'd love to have it,
especially since you guys both
done shows with us, I appreciate that.
So how did you get the job you have now?
How did you get there?
So I went to school for an
English and History degree.
Are you in school right now?
Yeah.
(Laughing) You're worse than me.
And I worked as a tutor the entire time I
was in school, and when I went to decide
what the crap I was
actually gonna do with my degrees,
because I'd always wanted to be a college
professor, so right when I went to
graduate college, it was, oh look,
another crash in the economy.
And we had people with PhDs trying to
become just instructor level teachers,
like applying for instructor positions,
because the job market was so bad, and I
was like, maybe that's not the best
decision to make in my life right now.
And I realized that all the people I
worked with had student affairs degrees
to work at a college, and I was like, I
like this college
thing and helping people.
So when I got a student affairs masters,
I became a graduate assistant at WKU, did
a couple different things that way,
and then
get a job straight out of my masters
degree, but I worked at
Sears for a little while.
Yes, I remember that.
Oh, lovely Sears.
And then did AmeriCorps
for a year, and so out.
I think that program has such potential.
It is amazing.
But the fact that they don't pay you
enough to live on, and that you have to
leave after what, is it three years?
Three years is the max.
So you're just
getting into the community.
Now I have heard there are districts that
have AmeriCorps, that the person gets to
stay, but the district has
to fund part of their thing,
no, that program, I mean, you were really
good at it, Steven was amazing at it too,
and then we'll get somebody who doesn't
know anything about anything, and then
we'll get somebody good, but then they
have to leave, and I'm like, how can you
build community and have all these
resources ready to throw at these kids
and know what the kids need,
if you can't stay?
I would have loved to stay at that job,
but it literally paid $1,200 a month.
That was terrible, just terrible.
The only thing was they put your loans in
forbearance so you don't have to worry
about them for a year,
and that's basically--
And you don't accrue
interest when it's in forbearance.
Yeah, so it was not--
so from AmeriCorps, I actually wound up
landing an advising position at WKU for
organizational leadership,
while I was there, so I already had the
one masters, and I was advising students
for organizational leadership classes.
So is that like a
full-time job, is advising?
Yep.
And students would be like,
well, what is this class about?
And I would be like, this is the
description in the book, and I was like,
this is dumb, I should know what these
classes are, so I
decided to get a second masters
because working at WKU, you get one class
free every semester.
Yes, yes, yes.
Minus some tax loophole things.
Yeah, yeah.
So I got a second masters, and finished
that second masters-- Which is in what?
Organizational leadership.
Oh, okay, okay.
Yep, and while I was getting that
masters, one of the other advisors was
like, don't you have a master's degree?
And I was like, yes, yes I do, and she
was like, would you like to teach?
And I was like, actually, yes, that is
the thing I wanted to do with my life.
So I started teaching
university experience.
Once I had more org lead masters, one of
the professors was like, and
now you're gonna teach for us.
So I started teaching organizational
leadership on the side too.
Oh, that's great.
So I was doing that, and then things went
into chaos because they decided to merge
all the advising
together in one place at WKU.
Oh, right, yes.
Before there were some central advisors,
but then it was like by program.
And just through some other things that
happened, I was like, "I
need to find a different job."
And I had applied for a couple things I
didn't get, and I was sitting at my desk
one day and literally like
seven emails came through.
And they were like, "Hey, Sky CDC just
posted this job for
first year experience."
And so I applied for that, interviewed,
turned out the person I had been working
with to teach at WKU, her
husband was the provost.
So I didn't feel like I didn't know
anybody, and that helped a lot.
Yeah,
So I got that job and started at Sky.
That's awesome.
So, and I've been there for seven years.
Okay.
Let's talk about the writing stuff.
Do you wanna talk
about the writing stuff?
Sure.
I wanna talk about that.
So you've got three, two novels are out,
the third one's coming out in February.
March.
March?
Maybe earlier, we'll see.
I read the first one.
I cannot put it in my library.
No, you cannot.
I really, I thought it was cute.
So when people ask me about it, I'm like,
it's like if Hogwarts was a college kind
of, and there was some spicy.
So the, I saw a meme one day that was
like, what if magical creatures had just
always existed and we were happy
together, basically.
Right, right.
And I was like, ooh, that's fun.
And then she started out as a baker, and
then I decided I was annoyed with that,
and then she became a college professor,
and I easily could
figure out how to write that.
Oh yeah, no.
That's the thing I do all the time.
I was like, oh, this
is Fallon, that's fine.
Yep, and so she's a college professor,
and she's trying to figure out a spell,
and a very handsome witch comes and buys
the bakery that I was
determined to still have.
And so they wind up together, and they're
soulmates, and they're spiky.
So are they gonna come, I haven't read
the second book yet.
Do they come, are they like minor
characters in the second book?
They are minor characters in the second
book, and the second book follows her
best friend who is a health inspector,
and they're trying to save this farm,
basically, from being bought up by a bad
corporation that will pollute the water.
And the inside jokes are so much fun.
And people are like, "I
want to be in a book."
And so I've named
characters after people.
I want Tyler to be in
a book, that's fine.
I can do that.
I can support that.
Why did the bus get so
high when you did that?
Because I'm excited.
I've never been in a
book, I've been in a song.
The third book is written, so you'll have
to be in the fourth book.
Okay, that's fine.
Do you have thoughts
about that fourth book?
Like are you having, let's see.
So the second one's about this friend,
the third one, I read the thing about it.
Oh, so it's about a
student at the college, right?
Yeah, two of them.
That's the main character.
Oh, you have both students, yeah.
One's a vampire and one's an elf.
Yes.
So do you have thoughts about, like how
far out do you have this series planned?
It's gonna, in theory,
gonna be the whole alphabet.
And I know the next two at least.
Okay.
And then some of the short stories.
So it's like short story
book, short story book.
Okay, and you have that sort of like the
main ideas for this part already.
So the next one is gonna be
called "House and Hauntings."
And it's about a
werewolf and a medium witch.
I'm gonna tell you right now, I didn't
think about the alphabet
thing until you said it.
I feel really tough.
But that's cool.
So how are your classes going?
Are they going well this semester?
Yeah, it's the point of the semester
where I'm utterly completely and totally
exhausted because it's all kind of hit.
So fall break is in two weeks.
I'm doing our writer's retreat, so I
don't know that that's gonna actually--
Where is that gonna be?
It's on the west, Nashville.
So do you do the thing, have you ever
read Stephen King's on writing?
Yeah.
Oh my God.
That made me think for five minutes I
wanted to be a writer.
I was like, oh, this
is literally the how-to.
I can do it.
Then I was like, I don't
wanna do it, I will not.
It's one of my favorite writing
So like one thing that I remember him
being very, and other writers I've read,
I like to understand how people do things
that they're good at
that I'm not good at.
Not because I wanna know what I do that.
I'm like, oh, you're
good at that, show me.
So do you have like a certain, like you
write this time every day?
Do you do that?
Your face doesn't have.
My brain squirrels too much.
I have tried to do that.
And then I'm like, no, I wanna do this
other shiny thing right now.
And I can't let it go until I do it.
Right.
But this also isn't your
primary source of income.
So if you don't write a book right now,
you're not gonna lose
the house or whatever.
Right.
I bounce around a lot.
So like right now I'm editing book three.
See that's the part I wanna do.
I wanna edit.
I'll edit your stuff if you want me to.
I just don't, I cannot start from whole
cloth out of blank thing.
If you want to grammar edit
my books daily, we can talk.
I would very much enjoy doing that.
Okay.
inspired and then I will write a lot.
So I wrote this current novel in spurts.
So like I wrote
10,000 words in one night.
Wow.
So like I will like just hardcore hit it
and then burn myself out and then back up
for a day and then go back to it.
Well that tracks.
I understand that completely.
I wrote baked and
brewed in a month in 30 days.
I wrote that entire novel.
For the novel November thing?
Yeah, in 30 days.
And then added on a little bit to it,
sent it to an editor and
boom, published it the next year.
So yeah.
So do you work with a publishing company
or are you self publishing?
No, I'm self publishing.
Okay.
I was going to, but right now the market
is kind of crazy and you can send like
the recommended thing to do right now is
to send 10 query letters to agents.
And then it can take anywhere from six
months to a year to hear back from them.
Yeah.
When you can just put it
out yourself much faster.
And that would raise my anxiety levels so
far through the roof that I think it
would kill any joy I had for it.
And it's just, I can
just do it all myself.
And then I know what's on the book.
I got to pick my covers.
I get to do.
Who's doing your covers?
I'm in control of all the things.
Who's doing your cover on?
Malice and Mayhem.
She's Scottish.
I love her to pieces.
And so I was having trouble.
I was trying to make the cover myself.
That is not in my wheelhouse.
Yeah.
So.
So what's your overhead
if you're self-publishing?
So the thing with
self-publishing is it can vary.
Okay.
A lot.
And that's what people think they have to
spend like thousands.
And I have talked to
people who have spent thousands.
You very much do not.
Now I'm lucky in some regards, because I
don't do some of the
steps of the process.
So I spend about $700 to $1,000 per book.
I have paid off the first
book and the second book.
Okay.
And I haven't done the math since then to
know if I've, but I'm
making money every month.
Well that's just good.
Are you mostly selling
like from Amazon and stuff?
Well, and so I will plug one more chapter
bookstore in Cave City.
Taylor is one of the best people on the
planet and she has sold like 30 copies of
my book in three months.
So like Cave City has that main street
and there's like Ace Coffee Shop.
Yes, I'm obsessed with Ace Coffee Shop.
Almost as much as I am with Spencer's.
Not sponsored.
But should be.
(Laughing) If I had,
So she's down the street.
Okay.
Right beside the Casey's.
Okay.
So.
All right, so where are you selling most
books, like at local bookstores like that
or through Amazon or through personal
appearances?
I will be at a ball on November 1st.
Oh, that's fancy.
At the White Squirrel.
So that would be a good one.
They have the ball at the White Squirrel.
They are.
And that place has everything.
White Squirrel Brewery.
Not sponsored.
It's sponsored, but it should be.
It should be.
No, not sponsored.
(Laughs)
It's the person who does a bunch of the
pop-up events around Bowling Green.
Right.
So she's organizing it.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, that's cool.
So what is the theme of the ball?
Fantasy.
Okay.
Cross up.
Okay.
Are there gonna be other authors there?
Yes.
Oh, that's fun.
She's gonna have several
vendors and different things.
So, and the tickets
aren't super expensive.
You should come.
Okay.
What is it?
November 1st.
I don't know what I'm doing.
It's a Saturday right after Halloween.
It's like months away.
You think every day is months away.
All right, that's all the pearls of
wisdom we have for you
this evening and this episode.
I wanna thank Fallon
Willoughby for joining us.
And as always for Brent, for raining in
all my digressions and
getting hours and hours of tape.
No, this is the best part of his day, is
listening to me talking his ear.
So feel free to contact us at
hippychick101 at gmail.com.
That's H-I-P-P-Y-C-H-I-C-1-0-1.
You know how to do this, right?
At gmail.com.
It's like the highest to the end of every episode.
I feel like the more I can tell people,
the more likely they'll remember it.
For any questions, confusion, concerns.
And as I've been telling my students
since time immemorial, have a great day,
stay out of trouble,
and don't make babies.
Don't make babies!
Some of these people are adults.
They can make babies if they want.
You can make babies if you are
financially and emotionally prepared for
that responsibility.
Well, cock on that, nobody!
(Laughing)
Then maybe you guys should rethink your
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