S3E1: Season 47!: Vibrant Story Telling with...Wellness, Money, and Transformation

Resident Actors, Amy Rene Byrne, Kimie Muroya, Aaron White Celebrate the new changes to Season 3 of the Down Center Podcast, chat about financial and cultural changes in the theatre industry and announce BTE’s Season 47!  

Supporter Spotlight: Bob Tevis

Recorded and Edited by: Aaron White
Original Music by: Aaron White

Transcripts of all Season 2 and 3 episodes are available on our Buzzsprout website.

Check out our current season: http://www.bte.org
Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone.

Transcript

[00:00:00] 
Intro
Amy: Welcome to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we take a moment to reflect on the state of our company, our people, our art, and our town, and imagine what CAN be, front and down center.
Hello, I'm Amy Rene Byrne, resident actor and ensemble member at BTE and I am here with fellow resident actors Aaron White and Kimie Moroya. And we have so much that we want to bring you today. We are excited to announce BTE's 47th season. We're going to talk about how BTE is coping with the current state of theater worldwide, and we are going to discuss some exciting changes to season three of our podcast. 
 Season 3 promo
Amy: Aaron White. 
Aaron: Hi. 
Amy: And Kimie Moroya. 
Kimie: Hello
Amy: We're going to talk about some exciting changes to season three of our podcast.
Yeah. 
Aaron: That's exciting. 
Amy: Yeah, so let's do that. 
Aaron: Let's do that. 
Kimie: What's season three changing? [00:01:00] 
Aaron: Well, you're gonna get all the good gooey bits from season two. 
Kimie: Ooh!
Amy: I do like the gooey bits. The 
Aaron: gooey bits. 
Kimie: The outtakes? 
Aaron: There'll be outtakes, but there'll also be profiles. We're gonna have influx of new faces just like we did with season two, so we'll get to learn some of who the ensemble is.
 We'll also get to hear all the great backstage, stories , and fun things about what we are producing throughout the season. But we're also going to be talking with long time BTE supporters. Donors, board members, folks who, were here in 1978 and saw when they were producing shows in, Central Columbia Gym-a-cafe-a-torioum... to start profiling who Bloomsburg is and why we have been able to exist for as long as we have. So each podcast is gonna have a Little nugget with someone who has a relationship with BTE longer than the three of us because I've only been this I'm starting my fourth year. Kimi you're gonna be...! 
Kimie: Oh [00:02:00] my goodness, I am a full time ensemble member.
Aaron: That's right. That's right. A long time guest, but this is your second full year with us, which is super exciting. 
Kimie: I've completed my candidacy. 
Aaron: Yes that candidate hat is tucked in the closet
Kimie: Pay raise. 
Aaron: That's right, pay raise. And Amy, you've been here since. This 
Amy: is my ninth year. 
Aaron: But there are folks who have memories of 47 years at BTE. So we're gonna be interviewing folks and letting them share why they love our theater too. 
So, that's season three. I'm really excited about what it's gonna look like. 
 
Industry Context
Aaron: Let's start out, by offering a little bit of context. It's very apparent to all of us who are making theater and who keep an eye on the national theater scene, I don't think that it is underselling it to say that it's in a bit of a crisis. 
Amy: Theaters all over are struggling. Many have closed. I see organizations asking for very large sums of money in order to cover their deficits and stay open. [00:03:00] Places much larger than BTE , that our asking for, "we need 20 million if we're going to stay open this season." So there is a real crisis happening industry wide. 
Aaron: And a lot of that is rising costs. that those costs have, have increased and theater ticket prices have not. 
Kimie: When our community is also facing the same inflation challenges, how can we ask them to pay more to come when their their budgets are already stretched. That's a it's a very difficult conversation. 
A lot of very large Theaters and very small theaters have either enormously scaled back or closed.
 The Humana Festival no longer exists. And that was a huge place for new, work. Actors Theater of Charlotte has closed. Ashton Rep has closed. Atlanta Lyric Theater has closed. Some of the large, like Berkeley Rep has not closed, but it has scaled back enormously. Before the pandemic, they reported about 220 workers, employees in their company, and now they're at [00:04:00] about 90 full time employees. They have reported a 30 percent subscriber drop and a 25 percent increase in operating costs. 
Aaron: Never mind paying, , the living wage for your artists, that those costs have, have increased During the pandemic, there were lots of think pieces and a lot of letters to companies from the folks who make theater saying these practices need to change.
Of course, this was at a time when no one had work because live theater was a no- no, for ethical reasons and financial reasons. And so there was time to think about what priorities were. We're four years out from the height of the pandemic.
And we're still seeing collaborators that we're so excited to bring in, and the pendulum might be swinging to its furthest point. Maybe it's swinging back. But we find that it's difficult to bring in collaborators. for what we can afford to pay. The seesaw isn't quite [00:05:00] balanced. Because a lot of the industry has tied the financial value to, hours worked, as opposed to a final product. 
Amy: Which it may not be something that our audience members necessarily know, but theater has historically been something that has been very labor intensive and that's not tied to remuneration The iceberg analogy I think is so apt for what we do that you just see this tiny little tip of an iceberg as the public consuming what we create, but there is this enormous rest of the iceberg floating underwater that is all of the time and preparation and education and auditioning and auditioning and creating and writing and rewriting and a million other things that I'm not mentioning all wrapped up out of view. 
Aaron: But the hours that you put in, oftentimes, don't have a monetary value. We do try and be ethically responsible because we pay ourselves. We are ensemble driven. Is it ethical to [00:06:00] ask folks to have a full time job that they can't actually afford to live in the place that they live?
Kimie: I would argue no. 
Aaron: Yeah, yes, and that is what we landed on. 
Kimie: Burnout is a very real. thing and it happens a lot in this industry as well. 
Amy: And art's one of those things that will take as much as you are willing to give it Yeah, there's always something that you can tweak or change or make better. 
Kimie: If you have something that you're passionate about, you are oftentimes willing to give more of your time to it and that actually leads to a quicker burnout
Aaron: it's not a healthy place to be creating from. 
Making Money -Star Trek
Kimie: Would that I could live in a post currency world where, where money doesn't matter, 
Aaron: it's going to happen. It's going to happen. 
Kimie: Listen, I watched so much Star Trek. They don't have any paychecks. They just do it because they love it. 
Amy: Yeah, but they also have replicators that, you know, I 
Kimie: know, but that's, that's the, that's the world that they live in, right? They don't have any need for that.
 in this world, that's called fraud.
Kimie: Financial one and need in the Federation is taken care of and that's great.
Unfortunately, I do not [00:07:00] live in that world. So I do have to play by the rules of capitalism and all of that. And I have to buy groceries. I have to pay rent. I have to make sure that my needs are met. If I had a child or a family or a pet, I would also have to take care of that person, people, creature. It's not the case for my friends here who have all of those but Unfortunately does come back to being important. 
Asking for Money Skills 
Kimie: Which is another reason again It all comes down to skill sets, right?
We're really good at telling stories that that's how we've generated the amount of work that we have, And there are other people who are really good at asking for money. Hold on for this segue. One of the strategies that we've been chatting about in this recent transformational period is new endeavor in our fundraising campaign.
We're looking toward thriving in our 50th anniversary season, which is in a whole three years. Of course beyond, but we need to exponentially increase our financial resources. So with our board of trustees, we've contracted a new [00:08:00] development consultant, someone who is good at asking for money.
We look forward to connecting with donors, and bring financial abundance to BTE through fundraising efforts. 
We've been working with a wonderful consultant named Laura Stein and her company, Rooted Evolution, she's been a wonderful advocate for the whole company in trying to synthesize a bunch of information and, and give us a good reflection back of, of who we are.
 We've been talking a lot about identity and what we find important. We value community and we value art and we value education. And those three things need to be part of whoever we are moving forward. 
Bloomsburg and the surrounding communities have always stepped up to help us through. They helped, I mean, we would not have gotten through the pandemic without the individuals donors and companies small businesses that supported us through the pandemic, no way the doors would have been closed.
Amy: Yeah. Same for the recession. Same for numerous times that this community has stepped up and said, [00:09:00] BTE is important to us and we are going to make sure that we have access to live professional theater in our community because it matters. 
Aaron: So the art, where we will be producing fewer. Shows, in the past few seasons, we've been producing up to six shows a season.
This year, we're only producing four. 
We're actually taking a wellness break in the fall to rest and rejuvenate and to take in I like thinking about input output So when you hear this podcast, when this podcast drops, we'll actually be on break what are you doing on your break, Kimi? 
Kimie: I'm gonna go visit my parents who've moved to japan this summer and i'm gonna go see a lot of Kabuki and Noh theater and Bunraku and also just relish in my family's heritage 
Aaron: yeah, yeah. How about you, Amy? What are you doing over here? 
Amy: I have so many house projects that I need to do. 
Aaron: Honey do's!
Amy: I just, I, you know, we, we tried really hard to get our house into a certain shape before our son came along and we didn't quite make it to the finish line. So I've been [00:10:00] looking at unfinished trim, primed doors and windows for two years now. So I'm excited to finally finish those house projects.
Aaron: I have a couple of those too. Nina wants to have a little library outside of our house. She is a children's librarian and we are blessed with an inundation of children's books that we are hoping to share with our community. So that is, that's on the docket, and I'm making some puppets as well for Mercyhurst University. They're doing a Christmas Carol, too, and I'm making some puppets for them. 
Kimie: You just can't get away from it. 
Aaron: I'm trying real hard not to look at a computer screen. For the duration that is my goal and puppets can are all it's all my hands making things work 
Amy: I also have an additional goal of reading a book
Aaron: period 
Amy: period Because I never get a chance to sit down and read books anytime I have time to sit down and read I feel an obligation to read plays.
Aaron: Hmm. And 
Amy: So I have not read for leisure since my [00:11:00] honeymoon. 
Aaron: So that is what we're doing in August and September. It's the first time that we've attempted a break like this. As you can tell, we're excited and trepidatious. Because it also means that we won't be producing in the fall, for the first time in a long time. 
Play Tastings
Aaron: Because our first main stage show won't happen until the holiday, we will still be bringing things to our community and we thought that that was super important. And so we're going to be presenting four Play Tastings through the month of October. 
Amy: Hey Aaron, what are playtastings? 
Aaron: It's where you eat food.
And listen to a play being read. 
Kimie: Oh. Hey, Aaron, what is food? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. 
Aaron: Well, Kimmy, it is a thing at a restaurant. 
Kimie: Oh. That paper thing that they bring to your table.
Aaron: No, that's a menu. 
Kimie: Oh. 
Amy: The metal things that you stab stuff with? 
Aaron: No, that's cutlery. 
Kimie: Oh, the thing that's on fire in the middle of the table.
Aaron: No, that's called flambe.
Amy: Or a candle. 
Aaron: Or a candle. 
Amy: You fancy man. 
Aaron: Fancy [00:12:00] man. We are really excited to, to partner with four different restaurants. We'll be talking more about this in our October podcast, and we can let you know what those venues are. You get to Taste some really delicious food, hopefully maybe drink some some wine We actually have a brunch venue, so you can have a little mimosa or bloody mary and listen to a play 
Amy: I was gonna say it would be a crime to have a play tasting and there not be some sort of alcohol component 
Kimie: I mean, that's where the the play tastings like, title came from I was I think I made a joke where I was like and here we have a flight of plays.
Yeah flight of plays That's right. That's right. 
Aaron: There you go. 
Kimie: Depending on your interest in them, they may end up in future seasons. 
Long Time Supporter - Bob Tevis
Aaron: Now before we announce the exciting things we have to share with you in season 47, I have a real treat for you As we mentioned earlier, Season 3 is going to feature long time supporters of BTE. And in this episode we have the raconteur and Man About Town, Bob Tevis, who's been a long time supporter of BTE. I'll let him introduce himself. 
Bob Tevis: Well, I am Bob [00:13:00] Tevis, an exiting board member. I've served two terms. 
Aaron: Three, a three year term is one term. So, so you, you've, you've spent six years and then, well, you've spent 12 years, right?
Oh, because you did two terms right. In the past. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. 
Bob Tevis: I also, was on the board at another time, 2006. At which time I was pushed into being the president. I say that because there are a lot more qualified people. I won't name names, but there were a lot of, I'll call them heavy hitters who were on the board and they're the ones that say, Bob, you'll be good at this.
I, you know. I said, but I don't know all the numbers and so on, you know, that the accounting part but they campaigned and it turned out to be good because that was the year  Karen was up at working at the theater up at the university and the two of us managed to see the president of the university.
And we moved to get the university to perform here. They needed the space. Yeah. Yeah But you know, I've been here with BTE ,when I say with, supporting, [00:14:00] hanging around, doing props when I first got here.
Aaron: An essential part in one way or another. 
Bob Tevis: Yeah, and I encourage many people to come by and volunteer, even if they usher. Because once you see a, piece of theater here. Once you see the space, it is just, you know, it will win you over immediately when people come in from out of town, Pittsburgh, where I'm from originally, they just can't believe it.
This is a, this is an off Broadway house, you know.
Aaron: We're focusing on donors and fundraising toward our 50th anniversary. you've devoted 12 years of your life at least on the board and more in just supporting the company. So what drives you to, to give that much time and support?
Bob Tevis: it's very appealing and people are drawn to it. So it doesn't have to be New York. So when I came here, it was like, I can't even make the sound of the orchestra. Whoa, I was like, Oh my God, there's such.
There's a theater [00:15:00] company here. 
Aaron: Yeah, 
Bob Tevis: And I got to see I forget my first one of the first shows I saw of a "Streetcar" with a Rand and I mean, I walked away just so this was Broadway caliber to me I mean, the quality was, was obviously there. 
 We would tell people, have you not been there? You have got to go. I Became like their prize puppy dog, . I would drag people here. Well, and once they came in, once they saw the space too, they were like, oh my god. 
Yeah. 
You know? 
Aaron: I can't tell you how essential, we're talking right now, so much about. getting folks back in the habit of coming here  to entice new folks. And it's so essential for exactly what you just said. Come, you have to, you have to see this. 
Bob Tevis: My background is social services and so on. And I brought up, a group of kids, all boys, about 15 of them. And, I think this show was "Hard Coal: Life in the Region". It goes back and never had been to a theater, never saw live theater.
And the one kid during [00:16:00] an admission said, Mr. Bob, the, It's amazing. This is just like a movie. 
And it was so out of the mouths of babes. I mean, that's, it was so perfect to him, to them. They were all stunned. You know, it's magic. 
Aaron: When it's good. When it's good, it's magic. 
Bob Tevis: It's true. And people know the difference.
Aaron: A great big thank you to Bob for his time and recording with us. There's so much more to that conversation. Uh, I love chatting with Bob every time I see him. Maybe there'll be a extra special bonus episode of Down Center with Bob Tevis. He's such a wonderful member of our community.
So if you like Bob and all our past board members, our supporters, and our volunteers, our ushers. If you love theater, if you know someone who loves theater and would be devastated to know that BTE is in a financial predicament, just like all theater across the nation is in a financial predicament, [00:17:00] and that we're vulnerable, please have them reach out to us at bte. org. It's a great place to find information and we would be so excited to hear from you. It is, it's a big part of BTE's past and it is essential to BTE's future to build a new pool of folks who are happy and excited to support live professional theater in Central Pennsylvania.
 
Season 47 Anouncement
Aaron: Hey, Amy Byrne. 
Amy: Yeah.
You 
Aaron: want to tell the people about our new season? Season 47 is coming. 
Amy: We have an incredibly exciting season and I would love to tell everyone about it.
We are doing four main stage shows this season. They are all adaptations of classic literature, which is very exciting to me. Don't let that scare you away if you're not into classic literature. 
Aaron: Vibrant Stories began in book form. 
Amy: They did begin in book form.
And I think Vibrant Stories is really the, the key point here. We have and we have a wide variety. So we are kicking off our season with a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol. A [00:18:00] different take on A Christmas Carol. It is a three Clown Christmas Carol.
So we have three actors on stage endeavoring to tell the entire story of a Christmas carol With just their three bodies and the things available to them on stage It's been such a delight to work on and I am Very thrilled with how much the story is ringing through That's been super exciting to me because that's been one of my focuses as we work through it is making sure that everyone that sees it gets that Christmas Carol itch scratched. 
Aaron: Yeah, We have been building it and devising it together. Can you talk about the devising process? 
Amy: I'm the playwright, but also sort of manning this devising process with multiple actors in the room. So I put a couple of ideas down on paper, and then bring it into a room with wonderful collaborators and people who are game to play and we spend an entire week exploring the text, it's a fun, energetic, sometimes a little bit [00:19:00] frenetic process that I really enjoy. So I get to walk away from that week of devising and take all of these wonderful ideas that are swimming around in the air from that and commit them down to a rehearsal draft.
And then when we get into the rehearsal room, we're going to do kind of that whole process all over again. 
Aaron: Yeah. So absolutely not something you've seen before. 
Amy: Yes. 
Aaron: So that's happening over the holidays. What's happening in the, dead of winter?
Kimie: Yes.
In our dead of winter. January and February slot, when it's all cold and snowy out, we will be joining Paul Sheldon, author of the Misery book series, as he gets stuck in a car crash and then nursed back to health, maybe, by Annie Wilkes. Yes, that's right, folks, we are doing Stephen King's "Misery" boom, boom! Adapted [00:20:00] by William Goldman. 
Aaron: Yeah, I love him as a playwright, too.
Uh, it's such a good adaptation of that play. 
Kimie: William Goldman is also the person who wrote The Princess Bride, so 
Aaron: Princess Bride, he also wrote, Lion in Winter. Like, I mean, William Goldman is, he's a banger in my book as, as a writer. So, you get Stephen King and you get it through the lens of William Goldman.
Amy: I am so excited!
Kimie: Amy has been gunning for Misery for a long time. I believe I will be working on the fight choreography, so I have to figure out how to consistently and safely break Aaron's legs every night. We're bringing in Nora Gare to direct, who did this year's production of Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson, Apartment 2B, and we love Nora a lot. We're very excited to have her back. 
Aaron: Absolutely, absolutely. In the spring, we're actually, we're going to France? We're going to space? Where are we going?
Kimie: The Sahara.
Aaron: The Sahara. Oh, that's right. We're going to the Sahara. We're not in France. 
We're world traveling.
Hey, what are we doing in the spring, Amy? 
Amy: This spring we are bringing you The Little Prince or Le Petit Prince [00:21:00] francophile. This is a play of The Little Prince by Rick Cummins and John Scowler, uh, adapted, of course, from, the book by Antoine de Saint- Exupery. And it is a book that is near and dear to many people's hearts. 
Aaron: I grew up reading it. It was a big book in our family. It's such a hopeful and bittersweet story as I was reading the play, I was like, ah, we have to say these words. These words are so potent right now, so I'm thrilled that we're programming that for our spring show.
And of course, that also includes young people. We often have community kids, having a wonderful experience with us working with professional actors. That's how Kimmy actually began. She was in one of our BTE shows. And because we won't be using them in A Christmas Carol, although we plan a lot of audience participation in A Christmas Carol and kids might be involved in that, we always look forward to our summer show being the show that kids drive the show. Little Prince is gonna [00:22:00] have some community kids in it too, because we need little princes. And In the summer, we're producing Sideways Stories from Wayside School. It Is a series of books that I love by Louis Sachar. And it's adapted by John Olive
There's also an animated series that my son finds hysterical. and it's full of hijinks. And, plays with tween dread, which I just love.
We did wayside 10 years ago I actually designed the set 10 years ago. Elizabeth directed it. And Liam was a little baby. It was the first project I did after he was born and he's 10 this year. So, uh, that's a fun revisiting. 
 How many Christmas Carols have we done? 
Amy: This will be our 20th. 
Aaron: This is our 20th! . Oh my yeah 20 Christmas carols in 47 years. 
Amy: Whoo. I have a running joke This is so I'm directing this Christmas Carol and I have managed somehow to not be in any of our previous Christmas Carols since I've worked here So I have a running joke going that I'm gonna try to retire from BTE without actually being on [00:23:00] stage in a Christmas Carol. 
Kimie: Well now that you've said it we will endeavor to make it happen.
Amy: I will endeavor harder to make it. 
Aaron: An impossible task. 
Amy: I don't think there's any way I can possibly avoid it now. 
Kimie: Amy's like, no, I'm pregnant again. Can't do it guys, I'm pregnant. Let's not talk that into existence. No, I think it will be an impossible feat, but. 
Right Sizing
Aaron: All these shows are a part of our conversations about how to right- size our company.
In the last episode, I talked about, folks have been cycling out of the company and that our numbers have, diminished over the last 10 years or certainly since the pandemic. and that means that we don't have the same capacity to produce as much. And if we're going to pay ourselves an ethical living wage, size our output to a healthy level that we can sustain both on the human level and also financially.
It's something the industry has been struggling with and we're struggling with it too. there was a subscriber model that, that the regional theater industry ran on, that if we know that we have this [00:24:00] many people who are going to pay for a full season worth of shows, we can budget accordingly. Along with trying to right size for our health. our season 47 is, really heavily impacted by the generations that the three of us exist in are not interested in that subscriber model. 
Amy: People want flexibility. People are reticent to commit far in advance to something. 
Aaron: Folks have dropped out of the habit of coming to see theater. So we're hoping that in this reimagining that we can find presented events, things to bring folks to our theater so we get folks into the habit of coming to BTE on a monthly basis. 
As we mentioned before, we're trying out the Playtasting, so that's a whole month of different shows in an entirely different venue than a formal theater setting. We got BTE Improv, whose audiences are growing. They have a real following. A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. it's a presented event an outside production that we're bringing in for a week in early May. And David Moreland, a [00:25:00] longtime, BTE Ensemble Member, who is a professional magician, is coming in June. We're thrilled that he reached out to us and is, coming in to do a show with some magic workshops as well. we're diversifying. And we are finding a sense of transformation, new things, we hope that our community will join us in those fun things.
 Moving forward, we're going to be actively looking for ways to engage with the community and make it part of our workflow. So it's not an extra thing that we do, that it is part of the work that we're making. So keep an eye out for that in future seasons. 
Amy: Keep an eye out for Aaron to knock on your door.
Aaron: Hi!
Amy: I'm at work today. 
Aaron: Do you like theater? I make it. 
Kimie: Please tell me what you like so that I can make it. 
 
Amy: This has been Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble Down Center. Ensemble driven, professional theater, arts education, rural Pennsylvania, for everyone, with everyone.[00:26:00] 
We would like to thank the foundation of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce for the use of equipment that makes recording this podcast possible. October will be a big month for the new crew at BTE. Don't miss our October play tastings, four stage readings of four different plays read in four different venues around the region.
Every weekend in October there will be great food, good conversation, and a fresh look at four edgy new plays that we are considering for future seasons. Details for this and all our, details for this and all our, details for this and all of our, details for this and all of our offerings for Season 47 can be found online at bte.
org.
 Is that really how we needed to start today? Focus. You focus
Bob Tevis: I had some great experiences there. My favorite story from there though, and it, it, it, people make me tell it all the time, actually, is, [00:27:00] um, her friend who was the Raul Julia's Dresser, would tell me, you know, don't, Raul can't see anyone between shows today. So just take a note, tell him to, he'll get in touch with him or tell him to come back. Because, he's just wiped out. You know, sometimes they would get massages and stuff between. 
Aaron: Oh yeah, those runs can be grueling. 
Bob Tevis: So I said, okay. Well, a couple people stopped, left a message, and she said, Well, um, who was it?
And I said, I don't know, I just had them write notes. And she said, Okay, well, do you want to read them? I Raul, I stopped to see you, I'm hoping to do dinner sometime. And the next one, Hi Raul, I was hoping to catch up with you, I wanted to talk to you about the show, maybe some other time. Love, Helen Hayes.
And so I said, I couldn't even get it out. I said, love Helen Hayes. She said, Oh my God, get her, you idiot. [00:28:00] And I real quick threw open the door and it was a sea of umbrellas. No, Helen Hayes, 
Aaron: She was gone. 
Bob Tevis: But the end of the night, Raul came down and I got to know him, which was great fun, but I could hear him.
Everyone was gone. I thought, Oh, I have to stay here and see him. Can he, can I leave? I can't. 
Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. 
Bob Tevis: And so I hear him and then he, he stops at the top of the stairs and I kind of creep around the corner and he said, Bob, Helen Hayes. Helen Hayes, Bob. Oh, I'm. Oh, Helen, Hayes. And I said, I'm so sorry. I didn't recognize her.
She had an old top coat on and a little rain thing, a rain bonnet. And he said, oh. And then he, he laughed. He said, do you need a ride? And I, you know, that's how he handled it. You know, he wasn't, he wasn't. He wasn't angry, but he got, he probably made a lot [00:29:00] of mileage on me. You know, they turned her away, 
Aaron: Well, thank you again. I really appreciate it. 
Bob Tevis: Sure. Thank you. This is fun. 
Aaron: Good