S2E1: Professional Theatre in Rural PA

Running a professional ensemble theatre company in rural PA is not for the faint of heart. Join Aaron, Amy, and Elizabeth while they discuss the joys, trials, and tribulations of the “great BTE experiment.”

Recorded and Edited by: Amy Rene Byrne
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

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center
Professional Theatre in Rural PA

[INTRO MUSIC]

AMY
Welcome to our first full episode of Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we, the people of BTE, put our company, our people, our art, and our town front and down center. 

AARON
We're here at the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce building, and we just wanted to thank the foundation of the Chamber of Commerce for providing resources to bring this podcast to your ears.

AMY
Very good job, Aaron White. 

AARON
Thank you, Amy Renee Byrne. How you doing, Elizabeth Dowd?

ELIZABETH
 Hi, I'm Elizabeth.

AARON
Uh, we're, we're sitting here. We three. We happy three resident actors and ensemble members of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. 

ELIZABETH
What exactly is the difference between an ensemble member and a resident acting company member, you may be wondering? Well, I'm here to tell you. 

AMY
Ha ha ha! Love it! 

ELIZABETH
An ensemble member is any full time employee who is in service to the mission.

And, uh, Resident Acting Company, we are one of the artistic bodies. We are the Resident Acting Company. That's our name. That's our job. But we also direct and teach. 

AMY
Mm hmm. We do. 

AARON
And it was not always that way. 

ELIZABETH
Right. The ensemble used to be the name for the acting and directing body. But we started to recognize that we have so much dependence and gratitude and that really the ensemble is how BTE structures itself.

And we've been making really conscious changes to reflect that and open the door for lots of voices. to shape what we do and how we do it. 

AARON
Yeah, we're a not for profit organization and we are playing with the structure of what an institution, particularly an artistic institution, looks like. Elizabeth calls it the grand experiment.

I've adopted that in my thinking because it's hard to sustain a hierarchical system financially in rural Pennsylvania. Our mission, it says, Ensemble Driven. Professional Theater. Arts Education. in Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone. And I think that's, that's what we're here to talk about today about what that mission means. Cause it's a thing to endeavor in. 

AMY
Yeah. It is no small feat to make professional theater in rural Pennsylvania–

AARON
As you well know, Elizabeth. 

AMY
Yeah. Yeah. You've been doing it longer than, uh, than Aaron and I have. 

ELIZABETH
Yeah, but never alone–

AMY
Never alone. And I think that is why that ensemble component is so important.

And one of the reasons that we felt like we needed to extend that title to everybody that works at BTE, because we really need every single person that works within our organization to do what we do. 

ELIZABETH
And when I think about it, the founding company members, it was much larger, but in the early days, we didn't have costume designers or set designers.

We all did it all. And it was some years before we could hire people with better skills than we had to come and design for us. And so when I think about that, I kind of see that our shifting is in fact kind of circling back to what it was in the beginning, because it was just these actors who some had skills in costumes.

And so we would, I mean, I can remember sitting and sewing the costumes and going into build the set. And now we have people with. Better skill sets than I could have dreamt of who do that as a full time position at BTE. And so we've come a long way, but I think we are still looking at this doesn't work without lots of people working at full capacity for what you see on the stage.

AMY
How old were you, Elizabeth, when you came to Bloomsburg? 

ELIZABETH
I had just graduated college, so I think I was 21, 22. 

AMY
What do you think 21, 22 year old Elizabeth would think of Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble today in 2023? 

ELIZABETH
Oh, now you're, uh, now you're gonna make me cry. 

AMY
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. 

ELIZABETH
No, I don't think I, I ever could have imagined that it would last this long, and all the chapters in our history, and all the people, there are so many people who have You know, even if you've been here for one show, you're part of why we're still here.

You came, you shared your creativity, your energy. And I just think of like this great net that is out there of people who have Shaped who we are and allowed us to continue and that's unbelievably beautiful to me. 

AARON
Uh, yeah. It's interesting how you get to central Pennsylvania, right, right, because, well, you came from Northwestern.

ELIZABETH
Right. 

AARON
It's interesting to get people, if they aren't already here. To get them to come to play. It's actually something a challenge that we're currently in the midst of as the emeritus members of the founding members are retiring. And I think the theater community is going through its own paradigm shift.

I mean, it always feels like theater is in some form of crisis, but I feel this also feels somewhat unprecedented post pandemic. And all the reframing of thinking that happened during that time, that there's a, an interesting struggle that's happening in the theater. But to get those theater artists with that new shift and paradigm to central Pennsylvania to play is a real thing.

For me, I grew up here, right? So I grew up down river, um, in a place called Dalmatia, Pennsylvania in lower Northumberland County. And benefited from theater in the classroom. I remember your husband Rand coming down with his Box of Light company and theater in the classroom tours to the elementary school that I went to.

And I imagine, I know a lot of those kids, that is the theater that they know. But it is a real thing to try and to make art here. I was a freelance artist here, tried to escape through my 20s and then You know, like suck me back in and it still feels like home. I don't think that central Pennsylvania ever didn't feel like home.

I was looking for something more outside of it, but it's still, there was still a bearing that drew me here when I was a freelance artist. It was like, in order to stay sustainable and say, I'm a professional actor. It was actually, I'm a theater professor at a university. I'm a designer at BTE. I get to guest artist sometimes at BTE and I'll design other sets and teach workshops at other institutions.

But it's really tough to say, I'm going to do this professionally in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah. And it's not the middle of nowhere. There's just a lot of space between cultural centers in the area. Right. And so to make that go is really tough, is really tough. 

AMY
Yeah, so I'm not originally from this area.

And when we landed here for my husband's job, you know, I didn't have any reservation about coming with him, but I did have immense fear about what am I going to do with an MFA in acting in rural Pennsylvania? And then when I found out that Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble exists here and has existed for over 40 years, it was mind boggling to me.

I was like, how can this area sustain a professional theater? And then I thought I gotta go there. Actually, Aaron White told me to go there, which is a longer story: how Aaron White got Amy to Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble years before he himself became a member. 

ELIZABETH
Tell it now. 

AMY
So, uh, I had moved to Williamsport.

And I was trying to carve out any sort of a theater foothold that I could find. And I had, uh, contacted all of the local universities and said, Hey, I know you're not currently hiring any staff, but I am here. I have a master's if you need adjunct work. I'm here and Jay Stanley was the chair of the theater department at Lycoming College at the time and she was so wonderfully receptive and she said, Hey, I do work with this group called the Actors Group.

There's no money, but it's a theater on a shoestring company. We like to do work that makes you think, which is my favorite type of theater. And she said, I would really love to direct you. And I thought, okay, this could be my in. To future employment. And so we did the number, we changed the son to a daughter and that began my work with the Actors Group.

And then I don't remember what show we had just done, but we were out after a show and Aaron was bartending at the Moon and Raven in Williamsport. And he heard us talking, he said, are you guys actors? And I said, yeah. And he's like, We started a conversation and, uh, he's like, you should come play with us.

He's like, do you guys pay? And I said, nope. And he goes, can't. But it, it started a conversation. 

AARON
Well, and that was actually Liam. My, my son had just been born. And so time was so precious at that point and for any freelance actor. And I think again, culturally, this is what we're talking about. Time is money.

Right. So how much can I make in a certain amount of time? So to say, I would love to do something with all this idle time that I have where I don't have to get paid is, is a luxury or, or something that has to be subsidized by something else. 

AMY
Well, and at that time I didn't know what my path was going to be.And I had. dreams of trying to make the Actors Group somehow financially profitable. Like I wanted us to be getting paid. But the reality is, is I don't think that that ever would have happened. But I think I remember talking to you about that. I was like, not yet, but here's my plan. Like, I think at that time I had a plan.

AARON
Mice and men. 

AMY
No! No. Best laid plans. 

AARON
That's right. 

AMY
Uh, but yeah, then, then Aaron's like, have you, have you checked out Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble? And I was like, no, what is that? And that began my journey here. 

AARON
At some point or other, we were drinking wine on a porch. 

AMY
Yeah, that was before I came in to audition.

So I, you talked to me about Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble and you said, reach out to these people. So I sent an email unsolicited to Elizabeth Dowd, Jim Good, and I think Lori McCants. And Elizabeth replied and said, Hey, we're doing this show Skin and Bone. Come and see it. And I did. And I got so lucky. I happened to pick the performance where there was going to be a party afterward for the playwright, Jacqueline Goldfinger.

And so I got invited to Laurie McCant's house. I got to meet the whole company. I fell in love with Daniel Roth. And that was, that was truly the beginning of my journey with BTE. And then I got called in for a general audition. And beforehand, I went to your house and sat on your porch and drank alcohol and talked about what this company was.

And I remember saying something along the lines of, uh, I don't know what I'm auditioning for. I have no idea if they'll, they'll hire me. And you're, and you said something along the lines of. Give it time. He said, don't, don't worry. Give it time. And I was like, okay. And I did not get hired after that audition.

And then the education director job came open and I applied for that. 

AARON
And so it begins the relationship. 

AMY
Yeah. So it begins the relationship. 

ELIZABETH
I think that speaks to one of the great gifts of BTE too, because BTE has always been a long road. You know, we didn't always know that, but it's such a different thing as an actor to go, well, this season doesn't offer a whole lot for me.

And I have certainly had several of those seasons or like maybe a decade and then you kind of come into a new artistic phase and then suddenly you're being used a lot and it's just a remarkable thing to go not everything has to happen in this show in this moment and of course this moment and this show are terribly important and their own but there is a separate growth path available to you and.

I don't even know how to describe what that is, but BTE has achieved it, and I think that the quality of our work reflects that. 

AARON
Mm hmm. Yeah. I, I remember seeing Rose Tattoo when I was in college. That Laurie was in and then Emma was actually the first one that as like a fully formed human being, I think I came back to see because it was right before I audition.

And it was like, oh, this is of quality. Like, there's something more than just people wanting to put on a play for the passion of it or for the interest of it. It was like, there's, there's real skill here. And that was really attractive. It's interesting to me because again, the industry itself doesn't allot for space in that way, in very many arenas, space and time to grow space and time to form that sense of community outside of a general community.

I feel like New York feels like it's a community. Pittsburgh feels like it's a community. Philadelphia feels like there's a, you know, that there's a scene, but very seldom outside of like City Company or other ensembles, Team Sunshine down in Philly, Pig Iron, that that ensemble metric gives space for people to grow in a organization.

ELIZABETH
Well, there is now the network of ensemble theaters, and so I think BTE and Touchstone and so many ensemble based companies that were happening as an alternative to the hierarchical model that had been lifted so much in the American regional theater. And now I think there are as many ensemble companies, you just might not know their names because they're scrappier, but the work is excellent.

They just might not have the size budgets of a Guthrie or an institution and BTE falls somewhere in there. I think we seem highly evolved compared to other companies, but we weren't always that way. And what you said earlier put me in mind, Aaron, of the fact that in the early days of BTE, we were all in the same age range.

So I played Mrs. Antrobus in Skin of Our Teeth when I was in my early thirties, maybe not even, maybe still in my twenties and the audiences accepted it. But I think back on that and I think, Oh, what did they see? What were they, you know, how were we different from a community theater? Other than that, we were trained and we were, we did all have training.

This was not an avocation, but I remember a woman named Marsha Salvatore, who was a consultant who would come in periodically and talk to us about our growth. And she said. If you want to be taken seriously, you have got to cast age appropriately. And we were like, Oh! And that became a new chapter, you know?

AMY
Well, you guys were coming out of the higher education model where you are playing these characters that are outside of your age range. You're representing the maturity of whatever department that you're in. So, Yeah. You had stepped into an entirely different world. 

ELIZABETH
Yeah. 

AARON
Yeah. And with each leap like that, and I think we're in one of those leaps now, uh, with our IDEA initiative where we're trying to provide stories that are both windows and And mirrors for our community, speaking of higher education, I remember, and this is not too long ago, this was, you know, 2000, 2004, where part of my education was, you got to figure out your Latin accent and your Eastern European accent and your Arabic accent, because I'm tan because I have dark features period where that would have been where those were the roles that were possible for me.

And in the last. 10 years that I think the, the, the industry has jumped where that's, that's, I mean, that, that would be really icky, be really icky and, and, uh, almost, uh, an act of violence to do that as a, as a responsible theater company.

AMY
Absolutely unacceptable. 

AARON
Yeah. And to make that jump. As a professional company where the majority of our population does not reflect those folks.

Those stories for us are more window stories than they are mirror stories. Not to say that there aren't folks that are seeing themselves through those stories. That's one of the other incredibly valuable things to make sure that we're presenting those things. But it takes a different pool of resources.

When you jump to casting actors of the right age, you had to pay for those actors. Paying for 50 year old people who were established in the industry and you had to pay them the wage. Right. And now we're finding the same thing. It takes a lot to get an actor of color to come here, be part of our community for a little while, and leave that urban center where they may be needing to hold down an apartment, which is stupid expensive.

ELIZABETH
That's a big thought that I've been having, how much the change in housing and the housing crisis is happening across the country for everybody. It has impacted our work because it used to be that, you know, we would provide housing and homes, community members who had spare bedrooms would open a home and a guest artist would stay and form a friendship.

And it was quite lovely, but there came a time when that wasn't appropriate anymore. People needed their, their own space and coming to Bloomsburg is an entirely different economy. If you're coming from Philadelphia or from Manhattan and. So, at first, it's great because your dollar will buy you so much more food and so many more drinks, but you still have to pay your rent.

On a BTE salary, you have to maintain an apartment. So even though BTE has been fortunate in providing through incredible kindness of our community and housing sponsors, we've been able to provide wonderful housing for our guest artists, but they still have to pay city rates for the places where they are not staying.

And that has made castings difficult in ways I could not have anticipated. 

AARON
Yeah. So it's one thing for. Us as artists to have this place, this ensemble, this artistic home in a rural setting for us to grow. And it's another thing for, for the rural setting to have a professional theater to provide, whether we're talking about window mirror stories, simply entertainment.

I feel like our Christmas show and our holiday shows are traditions for families that wouldn't be there regularly. Any other things that you feel like professional theater You know, how does that impact the community? 

ELIZABETH
Well, I think so much about the youth in the community because you've got band, you've got music, you've got choir, you've got sports teams, you've got art class, but there are so many kids and there are not theater programs of substance in many schools.

There may be the one musical. But when I first moved here, Bloomsburg High School did regular plays. They did plays. And I don't know whether they were doing those already or whether they did that in response to BTE and went, Oh, you could do plays and musicals, but they would do three shows a year. My high school did that.

And I love the fact that over our long history, We have been a place where we've created a tribe, you know, the band kids are a tribe and you know, the sports team are a tribe and we have a theater tribe and the people who have been part of that tribe and go out into the world, whether they go on in theater or not, they come back and they talk about how important BTE was to their ability to see themselves in a wider context.

And I think that's one of the most important things that we do. 

AMY
Yeah, I agree. I was thinking when you were talking about the holiday show about all the other ways that we are also Engaged with our community like tree fest, which is a fundraiser for us But it really that is a holiday trend addition. You walk into the Caldwell Consistory and you are transported into a Christmas tree wonderland.

And then those trees are donated to families in that would not be able otherwise to provide a Christmas tree. And I just think about all the different ways that we are really, truly embedded. In this community. 

AARON
This is a question mark for me. One of the other things at the end of, of our mission statement is for everyone with everyone.

And, uh, I, I would say that our area, particularly our town is kind of where the rubber meets the road in the national culture conversation slash war, where we have a really strong conservative area. But then there's also a really strong and vocal culture. liberal contingent and then a whole bunch of people in between.

We actually probably have more moderate people in this area than the folks who are the loudest. And for me, for everyone, with everyone is a really interesting thing to straddle or to encompass and to actually provide for everyone. That's a real big statement. Well, I think our season choice has always been mindful of that.

We've always tried to choose pieces that Excite us artistically that feel like they're playing with form and that they are about right now. And then also just providing entertainment, which is not a just, providing entertainment, just, I keep saying just, but the opportunity to laugh together. 

ELIZABETH
Absolutely, I think that BT has always tried to find in a season choice, something for everyone.

AARON
And I think it becomes harder and harder as folks have streaming services and there's a lot of options to fill time. Where are the things that can get to the most everyone that as possible? It's a perpetual question for me. Because we often talk, Amy's husband and the folks that I grew up with would not come to the theater if We weren't part of the theater.

AMY
And it's, it's interesting. My husband's language about the theater has changed so much over the past decade. He was sort of a reluctant theater goer. He would say he was fine with it. He was excited about it, but you could tell this was not what he was going to choose to do with his Friday night. And then over the years, like, Just his language about seeing shows, his responses to shows, the way that he has, the way that he engages with the shows has changed so much.

And I think that's so cool. And ironically enough, one of the things that changed that the most for him was Working with young people when I was the director at a local high school, I brought him in again reluctantly to help me build the sets. And so he worked with these young kids and it was such a revelation to him what it is like to be a theater kid.

Because he was a football player. And he was like, none of that would have flown in my world. This whole being yourself thing, that did not exist for me in high school. There was a road I had to walk. And if you didn't do that, you got absolutely razzed and tortured. And he said to be in this auditorium with these kids who are just gleefully being themselves and supporting each other while being themselves, it was revelatory for him.

He was like, I did not know that that existed.

ELIZABETH
That's beautiful. 

AARON
Yeah. And I think that that hopefully there's an opportunity for our audiences to grow in that way too. Yeah. I think Rihanna Giddens, uh, used to call country and blues, like there's the rub, right? That those, those music forms happened because different area cultures within an area rubbed up against each other, that, that there's a possibility for that to happen in our space in the and in the things that we do.

ELIZABETH
And I think we do. We have been fortunate in having, uh, creating a theater going habit that is just part of the fabric of life. And there has always been blessedly. And if you're 1 of the people who do this and you're listening, thank you. But there has always been a core group of people who will come to anything.

They don't have to like it. They like going to a live performance. They like that energy. And they don't have to love the play, they love theater. And we have been blessed with always having a core group who we could say, well, you know, you've got that X hundred number of people, fill in the blank, it'll grow, expand and shrink, but people who will come to anything.

And then you have those people who will always come to the holiday show or to a title that they happen to have encountered and go, Ooh, I'm curious to see that. But our survival has depended on those people who have. Acquired a theater habit and part of what's been so very difficult through the pandemic is that that habit got disrupted and that that experience and that even that kind of not even conscious feeling of safety in a space has been altered and we are battling that and we are so thrilled when we look out and see houses that go, Oh, Oh, Oh, they're coming back. They're come, come out, come out, wherever you are. You know, we feel it so much. And when we look out and see that there's a buzz, I will never forget during which coming up the stairs.

And standing on the landing and hearing a buzz in the house after like two years of silence. Yes. And it was so, I just thought don't ever forget this moment. Don't ever take it for granted ever because it was such an amazing thing to hear people together talking with that thing that we call the buzz.

There's anticipation of something about to start. Oh, it's beautiful. 

AMY
Oh, I sat in the sound booth and I just cried. It was such a It was like a relief, and a hug, and a shot of espresso all wrapped up in one. 

ELIZABETH
Yeah, yeah. 

AARON
And that, I think, is never to be underestimated. That sense of community, or sense of sitting in a room together.

We just finished Dragons Love Tacos, with an entirely different flavor of show. an entirely different flavor of audience because it was so interactive. And when you get 300 kids yelling taco ingredients at you, and, and then feeling like that they have the agency to, to shout and have fun and, you know, be at a rock concert.

ELIZABETH
They were playing with you. 

AARON
That's right. It was, it was like playing with 300 kids. On the playground.

ELIZABETH
It was a joy machine.  

AARON
Yeah. It was a lot of fun. And that is something that you can't get at home. You just can't. Right? You can't get that sitting on your couch watching. 

AMY
There is no YouTube channel that can encapsulate that.

AARON
And so I think that making sure that that continues is, is another really important thing that we offer a community and I think is something for us to strive to do as we try and provide value and, and create, um, a demand, right. As coming out of, out of the pandemic. 

AMY
Yeah, I think that there are so many big challenges to operating a professional theater company in a rural rural area from people to ideologies to what it is like to run a theater post pandemic, but I'm also hearing so many joys and triumphs and successes and I am curious.

What, Elizabeth, what do you think the biggest challenge over the years has been? If you had to pick just one ? 

ELIZABETH
Uh, one of the challenges that comes to mind is choosing a season that's always been a tightrope, balancing actor, passion and roles because we have the obligation and the privilege of needing to cast a resident company.

And so that defines some things. And then looking at what will serve the for everyone part of our mission. Yeah. Um, and that's been very, very delicate decision to make every year. And what is a known play? We would hear boards say, well, just got to choose a title. Everybody knows. And we would always say, what is, what is that title?

What is that title? And we've come to believe that doesn't exist. But we do listen. Uh, and the other part of it would be foundations, uh, which is, Ben, Bloomsburg exists outside of the kind of then diagram of so many foundations reaches. Philadelphia has the Franklin Foundation and the Pew Foundation, and artists, companies, and independent artists can get funding for new projects and to grow.

And we are restricted to the National Endowment for the Arts. And to the Pennsylvania council on the arts, both of which have had budgets that have shrunk so incredibly over the years that BTE has been in existence. We've been fortunate to be supported by them. And then of course the Schubert, which is a New York based foundation.

But outside of that, the number of foundations that support the arts where Bloomsburg exists. are very few and that's a real struggle for us. It puts that burden of fundraising on our community and thankfully and blessedly they have always answered that. Um, we have survived on 25 donations that have swelled to make us survive over time.

And some really significant donors from business leaders and who see the value of the company being in this town. Absolutely. Um, and we're not a huge town. And so, as just as you're saying, we'd have to depend upon the grassroots. There's also a burden of asking those larger donors again and again and again, because there's a finite number of them too.

Yeah. And, and Milco and the Mitrani family. Absolutely. Funded BTE over decades in such a significant way and the McGee family coming, you know, coming to our aid and, and everything from providing, you know, carpeting the carpeting that is still in our, our office area, which we call the clubhouse, you know, all that came from the McGee family as a donation to help us get started.

So yeah, there are absolutely names who have stepped forward, not over years, but. Decades, and that's pretty rare. It's really beautiful. 

AMY
It's very humbling to step into this company, this institution, this wonderful thing that has been built with so much love and sweat and tears, and I am just so thankful for the work that has, that has gone before us, before me and Aaron.

And I, I We'll never take any of that for granted. And I just constantly am thinking, don't be the one that messes it up. 

ELIZABETH
Oh, don't think that because we've messed it up a million times, but I do think what I'm excited about is that, Hey, potential audience member out there listening to this, there are new faces or long time audience member who goes, well, there's Elizabeth Dowd doing that Elizabeth Dowd thing.

Um, you know. Sure, I have people who enjoy that, and there are probably just as many people who go, Oh, it's Elizabeth Dowd again. Well, great. And, and now there are newer faces, and that's just fantastic. It gives me such hope. 

AARON
Along with, uh, Amy and I, we're currently in rehearsals for Twelfth Night. It's a cast of 10, and the three of us aren't in rehearsal right now, so there are seven other people.

Some are guests, and some are gonna be here for the season, uh, and hopefully longer. That gives me joy and excitement and, uh, feels like a bit of a triumph too, that we, we have, we have some energy for the future. 

AMY
Yeah. The beginning of this rehearsal process has started the current season for us. So we brought in a resident acting company candidate and three apprentices that are going to be with us.

And they are young and smart and energized and excited and talented and–

AARON
Getting paid. 

AMY
And getting paid and talented. So talented. 

ELIZABETH
Yeah. I look at them and go, if I knew what they knew when I was that age, I can't see myself, you know, but I'm just so impressed and delighted to be creating with them. Delighted. 

AMY
Same. I'm so excited to share them too with our audience. 

ELIZABETH
Mm hmm. And our guest artists do. 

AMY
Yes. 

ELIZABETH
Yeah. We have some wonderful first time guest artists and, uh, it's just come and check it out. If you can't hear how exciting it is, you have to come and discover it yourself. 

AARON
That's right. Yes. Yes. And our whole next episode will be about 12th night.

AMY
So if this portion has piqued your interest, make sure you, you check that episode out too. Okay, in terms of making theater in rural Pennsylvania, I mean, this is a topic I feel like the three of us could talk about forever and ever and ever. Are there any, any highlights anybody wants to, to make sure we, we squeak in here?

AARON
Well, I met my wife doing my first play at BTE, and her name was Nina Edgerton then. I thought it was going to stay Nina Edgerton, and then she surprised me and took my last name.

AMY
Oh, did she really? 

AARON
She did. But, uh, we were doing In the Next Room, or the Vibrator play, which got a lot of pushback in play selection, speaking of the challenges of, of picking a season.

And we were not looking. And that's another reason why I'm in Central Pennsylvania. I will say that this theater, even though I wasn't part of it, I was a guest actor, and that was... A decade ago, over 11 years ago. I would not have been in central Pennsylvania and I wouldn't have the life that I have and the house that I live in and the child that I get to play with, who was just in Dragons Love Tacos.

He made his BTE debut this summer. And he was delightful. 

AMY
Yeah, he was very funny. Uh, lots of proud papa moments, but I wouldn't have those things without this theater. That's, that's pretty significant. I think the fact that BTE affords the ability to make a life is really remarkable. The fact that I'm not having to pound the pavement every three months and audition, audition, audition, audition.

I, I know what the scope of my year looks like. I know what I'm going to be in. I know what I'm going to be directing. And I have a say in the next season selection and the shape of the company and the shape of. What we are putting out for the world to consume. And I think that that is a luxury and a really wonderful, wonderful thing to have as an artist.

ELIZABETH
And for me, I'd say it's being a citizen artist. It's the relationship with an audience over time. That is just, I never, ever, ever wanted to be famous. That was just never something that I aspired to. And the dream of New York held very little cachet for me, but the ability to feel that I could make an impact on people's lives and be around to see it and not do what I have kind of pejoratively termed hit and run theater, where the audience sees it and goes, you never encounter each other again. And the fact that I can have a conversation over time, and I can see and know that BTE's presence in this community has changed the community, and the community has profoundly changed and influenced Who BTE is and the stories we tell that reciprocity, I guess is the word, is just an astonishing gift.

So that's been so powerful to me. And I think it was Whit McLaughlin who termed that phrase that we are citizen artists. He's a Philadelphia theater maker now, company New Paradise Laboratories. I'd like to credit the people who, you know, we're here and have gone on to do amazing work elsewhere. But. I think that notion of being a citizen artist, uh, is so different than being a celebrity.

AARON
Yeah. And, uh, hopefully this podcast will be a place to ask those folks who share being citizens in this community. We can hear who they are. I'm curious who the for everyone with everyone is. 

ELIZABETH
Me too. Yeah. I want to hear from our audiences. 

AMY
Okay. Complete 180. Elizabeth Dowd, what is something that our audience may not know about you?

ELIZABETH
I have a little problem with popcorn.

Actors notoriously don't eat much before a show because digesting and being on, like, the balls of your feet are not compatible. So often after a show I go home and my food of vices. Popcorn. I love it. 

AARON
She makes good popcorn too.

AMY
She does make good popcorn. 

AARON
Popcorn worth having a problem for. 

ELIZABETH
Thank you. 

AMY
All right, Aaron White, what is something that our audience may not know about you?

AARON
I very often in many of the places that I have worked in the past have been recognized by my voice before or my laugh before anything else. That people will come out in the hallway and say Aaron's here because of the laugh. 

AMY
I love that so much. Okay, something that our audience may not know about me. I love that I planned this question and then didn't plan an answer for myself.

That is the most Amy Byrne thing I can possibly think of. Um, people may not know that I was born in Alaska. 

AARON
I didn't know that. 

AMY
Yeah, I was born in Alaska. We moved when I was one, so I don't have any cool memories of it, but I have some amazing pictures of me as a small child in front of, are they glaciers?

Icebergs? 

AARON AND ELIZABETH
Glaciers. Glaciers. 

ELIZABETH
Have you been back? 

AMY
No, I would love to go back. 

AARON
See, I, but I feel like you got a, you got a foothold in the collect ‘em all of the 50 states. 

AMY
Yeah, right? 

AARON
You're swinging with the light bat you know? 

ELIZABETH
Yeah. I think it's of note, too, that you're a hunter. 

AARON
Oh, that I'm a hunter? Oh, is that, that, yeah, I guess that does surprise folks.

ELIZABETH
Yeah, it has surprised me. 

AARON
Yeah, I do try and get out for a buck every season. It will be tough this year because of the Christmas show. Because I'm in the Christmas show. Yeah. So I'll have to get out. I just like going on the side of a mountain when it's cold. It's also to be known I'm a rather poor hunter.

But I am a hunter. 

AMY
The hunter actor, I think, is a very particular breed, much like the sports actor is a particular breed. 

AARON
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll do both of those, please. Yeah. All of the above. 

AMY
Aaron White, jack of all trades. 

AARON
Except math. 

ELIZABETH
Yeah, but you're a musician, so you do math all the time. 

AARON
It's true.

ELIZABETH
Pretty sophisticated math. Pretty beautiful math. 

AMY
Math that I cannot do. You can give me a spreadsheet any day, but do not ask me to do chord math. 

AARON
I'm all full of embarrassment now, so we can end the podcast. 

AMY
Yeah, yeah. We can end the podcast. We can end the podcast. So. So, uh, with Aaron's embarrassment, this has been Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble Down Center, Ensemble Driven, Professional Theater, Arts Education, Rural Pennsylvania, for Everyone with Everyone.

Please join us for our next episode where we discuss our upcoming production of Twelfth Night and we interview the director Tara Bradway. It is available now on all major podcast streaming services.

[OUTRO]

AMY
What is on the docket today? Well, we should probably introduce ourselves first. We should introduce ourselves Oi, oi, oi

I need more coffee. 

ELIZABETH
No, I think it's doing a second one. It's doing we've done that. You know, we did that. 

AMY
Right, right. It is Yeah, I already introduced myself. 

ELIZABETH
Yeah, exactly