S3E11: Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Past & Present

Resident Artists Aaron White and Kimie Muroya sit down with cast members from the 2025 summer production of Sideways Stories from Wayside School and Alumni from the 2015 production and uncover a collage of fun and fascinating tales.

Plus a Bonus Bit! We announce the launch of a new story gathering initiative and companion podcast: The I Am/We Are Project.

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

S3:E11 Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Past & Present

Intro

[00:00:00] 

Aaron: Welcome to Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we stuff all the zaniness of our company and our people, our art and our town into our backpacks. March it up to the 30th floor, toss it out the window, and watch it go splat, front and down center. Hi there. I'm resident artist Aaron White and I'm here with my fellow ensemble member, Kimie Muroya, and a whole crew of BTE kids.

This episode is all about Wayside School and the sideways stories that our community kid cast members both past and present have gathered in their time making this Gorf-filled, barfenschpielin', tango-tastic summer play.

Summers At BTE

Aaron: Kimie Muroya, you were a BTE kid? 

Kimie: I was very briefly, for one summer, when I was I think 14 or 15. , A long time ago. I was an ancient Greek idol. Mm-hmm. Written and directed by Richie Cannaday, former ensemble member. And I had a blast.

Aaron: As like a grownup, this is what, how many summer shows is this for? 

Kimie: Yeah, I [00:01:00] think this is my third, 

Aaron: for you, what is, you've done enough of these, now that you kind of have an idea about what these summer shows are. We're gonna be interviewing a bunch of kids some of whom this is their first show, and some veterans. For you, what are these summer shows?

What makes them special? 

Kimie: They're real fun 'cause they're an experience for the kids to work on a professional scale, all the adult actors and all of the designers and directors and stage management are all professionals. We run on functionally the same budget as our main stage.

A lot of times costumes are built for the kids. The set... just as much attention is paid to all of the production aspects. As they are for our main stage shows, which is really exciting to me.

Source Material 

Aaron: The play is based on, a series of books by Louis Sachar. And, uh, I know my kid has read them. Have you read them? 

Kimie: I have read them, not in a minute, but I definitely remember reading them. I don't know if I've read all four of them, but definitely the [00:02:00] first couple and enjoying them immensely. Reading this script and like working on this process has unlocked a bunch of those memories where I'll be like, oh wait. Yeah, that did happen in those books. Having those moments of wow, this thing for my child is coming around and coming back and Yeah. Um, 

Aaron: because the kids know them too Yeah. 

Kimie: Yeah. And having conversations with the kids about the material and getting really excited about it together.

Yeah Cool.

 Class of 2015 - Time Travel

Aaron: We had a little class reunion for this podcast, the class of, 2015 sideways stories from Wayside School. Actually two conversations with Rhys Kaufman and Emily Rose and with Logan Kissinger.

I was hoping to catch, , Tanner Lenhart, as well. He shot me a text right before we recorded and said, "ask Logan if he remembers the potato story." It just so happens that everybody remembers the potato story. So listen for that. Had a really wonderful time talking to three BTE kids that hold, a soft spot in my heart. I'm [00:03:00] always fascinated to see where they go. And, I really enjoyed our conversation.

Roll Call 

Aaron: hey, Rhys Kaufmann! Tell me who you played in Sideways Stories from Wayside School. 

Rhys: I played Myron in Sideways Stories from Wayside School. How about you? 

Emily: I'm Emily Rose and I played Leslie in Sideways Stories.

Logan: I am Logan Kissinger. Mm-hmm. And I played Damien in sideways stories of Wayside School. Mm-hmm. And that was 10 years ago. That was 10 years ago.

Aaron: Liam was a year old and I designed the set on the porch with him, like in the little bouncy-maggo. It was like one of my first jobs after he was born. 

Emily: Oh my God. 

Aaron: First theater jobs. Crazy! 

Rhys: Hard to believe.

Emily: And then we say things like that, like Liam was a baby, and I'm like, oh my God, I'm so old 

Aaron: because he's 11. 

Rhys: Well, when I heard BTE was doing the show again, my first time was. So soon. And then, and then Aaron texted me and was like we want people from the cast from 10 years ago. And I was like... 10 years ago! It was [00:04:00] a little... mind blowing. 

Emily: I was Liam's age now, now when we did it. 

Aaron: Yes. And Rhys, how old were you when you were 

Rhys: I would've been 14. Going on 15.

Logan: Well, by the time I was in Wayside stories, I was 17. Right, right. And that's one thing I noticed about, I looked on the website to see what the cast was gonna look like.

Now is, I noticed you guys were using all real children this time.

Aaron: Yep. And that's roughly the spread. We have a younger cast and, well, that's not actually true. We have a more diminutive cast and then we have a taller cast. And it's interesting 'cause the ages actually kind of cross pollinate, but Yeah,

Logan: definitely one of the first times I had to shave for a role, which was exciting.

Man, it was kind of the culmination, like I was 17, so. 

Aaron: So prior to, because we probably met doing, Very Special Christmas Special. yeah. Yeah. And like in your lifespan at BTE, where, where does that show fall for you?[00:05:00] 

That, because you would've still been a teen, like a pretty old teenager at that point, right? 

Logan: Yeah. That would've been. Let's just say that my career with BTE ended at Sideways Stories. Okay. I started when I was about 12. Got it. So it would've been about halfway through. Got it. All of my time doing shows with the ensemble.

it honestly the time we were in these shows, kind of felt like the local kids that were in all of these shows growing up sort of developed their own like... "Secret Ensemble." You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. No, that's true. In some ways, we really did start to reflect the environment we were in.

Emily: Thinking of, you and Sydney and Logan and Tanner and like that group who was just slightly older than me that I still had the chance to do like four or five shows with.

When I showed up, you know, like, these are the heavy hitters, these are the kids who are in every single show. And it was like really cool that you get to have that experience of like , doing shows with kids starting when you're 12 and then, we all graduated high school at the same time and had [00:06:00] done so many shows together. 

Rhys: Yeah. It was a separate like Yeah. Little Haven of, you know, we, it was very cool and I like, well like you mentioned, that group of kids who, like we were, was there when I was there and like.

I felt like we were the team of, of the time and it felt so cool to be a kid and like working downtown and like, have a lunch, have a lunch break, and walk to the subway together and 

yeah. 

Rhys: You know, it was like, it was, it was a cool feeling. Yeah, it was a, was a little pack., 

Logan: Yeah. It comes in cycles though. 'cause even when, when I was. Bacher's age at that time. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Logan: There were the kids that were a couple of years older than me. Sure. That were their own little, yeah. Secret Ensemble, you know what I mean? 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Logan: Names that are still kind of commonplace here would be like Violet Race.

Mm-hmm. And uh, Dante Green.

Aaron: They were just a smidge older than you guys. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then right behind that was Rhys and Sydney. And Emily was then even younger. Right?

What's interesting right now, , with this [00:07:00] core group of kids that are in the show right now, like they, these are the COVID kids.

Or, or actually the, the older kids are the kids who were kindergartners, first graders during COVID. Okay. Right. And then the younger kids are the ones that their kindergarten, first grade experience was, was after we got back. 

Logan: Wow.

Aaron: Right. So. There was a pretty significant interruption,

mm-hmm. But these folks that are in this show are the first ones to return. Yeah. So they're the first ones that were in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe or, A Christmas Story. Mm-hmm. Right. And they, that was kind of the first group back and it's funny because there are a couple kids who were seven during Dragons Love Tacos that are, they're rock stars in this show.

Mm-hmm. Like they, Arwin who we, we actually interviewed for the show, but she was just a little chaos machine at seven years old running around in Dragons Love Tacos, and now she is a solid generator. Like if you want energy and super focus and an understanding of character, like [00:08:00] she'll, like, let's go gang we're going. Yeah. So it's fun to see how the, it's, it's starting to get back to that. Yeah. Right. You know, but, but we had to kind of restart a little bit.

Logan: Nature's healing 

Aaron: Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Counterparts

Rhys: I remember there were two casts

mm-hmm. 

Aaron: And one of the things that we teach, 'cause you have a counterpart, right? The initial thing is You know, a human thing that this is competitive, I have to do it better than this person, right?

And the things that we start with is, Nope, you guys are team and you already got the gig. You booked. You booked , and now we all just work together to learn from each other, to crash on the rocks... I was choreographed the last two days and you teach it to one cast and they make a big old mistake. And it's like, yeah, now, now everyone can learn from that experience.

Rhys: Just to jump off what you said, I think it's interesting 'cause now that I think about it, when I look back on that, I never was in the head space of like, oh, our cast is better than our counterpart cast.

There was a culture created where we just appreciated that. Oh, they do [00:09:00] that differently. They made it their own, each version was unique and we appreciated that aspect of it. It my head didn't even go to they're not as good as we are or, or vice versa, you know? Yeah. 

Something that I certainly learned that, recognizing that that could be an impulse. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. That could be be something that, you know, if, if you're used to playing sports, that, sometimes that's the, . Go to. I think it's one of the great things that we teach is like, nope, we're all on the same boat and we're going the same direction. So figure out how to get your own individual brain , into the ship.

Aaron: It was you, me, Sidney. Logan. Mm-hmm. And Izzy. And Izzy, 

Tanner was in that cast, and I'm, we're gonna try and talk to both him and Logan next week. Who are the other folks? 

Emily: There was E Elport Okay. Was on the other team was Sydney's counterpart, I think. Katie Golum. 

Aaron: Oh, wow. Cool. Yep. 

Emily: Hannah Concolic was my counterpart. Mm-hmm. 

Rhys: Okay. 

Emily: I don't remember who yours was though.

Rhys: He hadn't done any [00:10:00] other BTE up until then, or like, I, I didn't, I didn't know him.

Interesting. My counterpart, I think his name is Greg. That sounds great. Name is Greg. I think his 

Aaron: name is Greg. And Greg and Greg.

Emily: I was the youngest of all the kids in the classroom. We did have a bunch of younger kids who were puppeteers. I remember Michael Stefanovich. . Played Miss Zarves and then was Ralphie later that season in the, in the clock. In the clock. 

Rhys: Was Levi in it too? 

Emily: Yeah.

Yeah. Oh my god. Levi and Andrew Renzo for the guidance counselor. Yes. 

Aaron: Yes. Pickle. Oh my God. Whom I'm playing this year... so all the grownup castings are actually grownups as opposed to . 'cause I that they were younger. 

Emily: Those were the only adult roles played by kids though. 

Aaron: And Mr. Kidswatter was Michael Fritz and, 

Emily: josh 

Aaron: Josh Concolic. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. 

Emily: Hannah. Yeah. 'cause Hannah and Josh were on the same team. 

Aaron: So, um, so that's all the people.

Memories 

Aaron: Do you have any favorite memories?

Logan: Roles that were portrayed by ensemble members that, don't work here anymore. [00:11:00] Um, legends Yeah. To me. Yeah. Especially legends to all of us. Yeah. Yeah. Danny Roth's portrayal of Mr. Seeing somebody else say, Mr. Goff's lines, I can hear and feel the heat from Danny's voice. You know what I mean? 

Aaron: Yeah. The air 

Logan: coming outta his mouth.

Yeah. Oh wow. It was, his presence was always so magnanimous. It felt like, it felt 

Aaron: it, 

Logan: it definitely felt like, um obviously I was supposed to be intimidated by him then. 

Aaron: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because 

Logan: I was playing a child being turned into an apple by a telekinetic ear wiggler. 

Aaron: Yeah. Yes. What a strange play.

The Potato Story

Logan: Yeah. I could tell you about the potato story if you'd like.

Emily: I feel like we shouldn't spoil the plot for people who don't. Yeah. 

Logan: Like I said, I needed to do some memory exercises to get back [00:12:00] into the headset of remembering most of this anyhow.

Aaron: Do we have a shared traumatic, we, we have to find out if this is a shared traumatic memory.

Emily: I'm so interested to see if it is because this story, I tell it all the time. My family tells it all the time. 'cause my family was in the audience when it happened. 

Rhys: It's one of my favorite. Theater stories I have. I, it's probably the funniest. Thing that's happened on stage in a show. I've been in it. It was a perfect moment. 

Emily: You say that was the person who wasn't responsible for a going wrong, though? It was entirely true. It was me.

Rhys: Okay. That's true.

Logan: I remember it was Rhys Kaufman's job. To reach into the desk drawer and pick up the apple.

Rhys: There's this character who can turn people into apples. Okay. Yes. And at some point it might happen in the show. And so there's a blackout and suddenly an apple is on stage where a person used to be. That's how it works.

Emily: And we were all standing at the back and we were kind of cowering and Danny Roth and Andy Hubachek were on stage going [00:13:00] at it, and I happened to glance to the side. Mm-hmm. Thank God I did. Thank God I did because there was no apple there.

Logan: That desk drawer also contained a few other items, including potatoes, pencils, staplers, you know, any all sorts of things.

Emily: And I was the one in the lineup who was responsible for getting that apple onto that spike mark. 

Logan: I can't imagine what was going through his head when he reached into that desk drawer and there was no apple. 

Emily: And it was our second preview.

Logan: I honestly, I don't remember if this was during dress rehearsal or if it was during a live performance? Yeah. I think it was during a live show. 'cause we didn't stop. 

Emily: This is my second show ever at BTE. This is my first time. In this moment, I was like, I'm gonna get fired.

I'm 12 years old, I'm very aware of my replaceability and I'm going to get fired.

Logan: And one of the magics of live theater is that if something isn't where it's supposed to [00:14:00] be... nobody's gonna come out and give it to you. You know, it was one of those things where we were. Running things and there was no way for us to prepare for there not to be an apple inside of the desk drawer when said character was going to turn into an apple.

Mm-hmm. So what do you do?

Emily: And I remember holding onto Sydney and whispering to her and being like. There's nothing there. And the whisper went down the line of all of us of what do we do? . And so we're like, okay, there's apples in the trash can because they get struck there at the first scene. 

Yep.

Emily: So 12-year-old Emily. I'm like, okay, well Danny's character can't see me. So I climbed across, I crawled across the stage and earlier that same show. Christine who played Miss Jewls and who honestly, in my memory, one of the coolest adults I ever worked with. But she had kicked the trash can off stage, so there were no apples in the trash can. So I get all the way over there and I'm like, now I'm [00:15:00] alone. The other kids are watching me from the other side of the room, and my mom always says that from her perspective in the audience.

It looked like we were looking for the mirror. That's all I'll say for the, for the listener, but that I was looking for the mirror. Mm-hmm. But instead, we're getting so close to that moment that I'm like, I don't know what to do.

Rhys: The unknown perspective is really incredible because, we're getting to this moment and there's a blackout and we're all, the students are standing there and I just, in this, in this blackout, I hear Emily go, I didn't preset the apple. There's no apple, there's no apple. We're all like freaking out and then Emily goes away disappeared. 

Emily: And I opened the desk drawer and it happened to be, this was totally not intentional, the drawer that had potatoes in it.

So I reached into the drawer, the blackout happened.

Rhys: This feels like, this feels like the, the longest blackout in the world. Like in [00:16:00] reality, in reality, not a very long blackout, but we, we, last, we saw Emily was over there, something. And there's a blackout and we're just waiting.

Logan: Everybody just wordlessly waiting to see what was going to appear in the light.

Rhys: We are waiting with bated breath and the lights come on

Logan: and the lights come up on the transition and there was a potato 

Rhys: and there is a potato

Logan: sitting on the floor where the apple's supposed to be. And in unison, all of us are, you know, supposed to say an apple and without, and magic of live theater. We, we all made the connection and we all improvised it together we all go a potato potato.

Rhys: I mean we, uh, many of us break. Many of us have to turn around and laugh up, but the most incredible, I have this vivid memory of seeing Danny Roth stand there, Danny Roth fully [00:17:00] expecting an apple. Apple be there. Yes, yes. 

We see him acknowledge the fact that it is not an apple, it is potato.

And in real time he adjusts and he modifies this monologue he has and replaces the word apple with. Potato and replace his applesauce with mashed potatoes. And it was a masterclass. I mean, it was, he just went with it and, and I, the audience probably would not have noticed if we hadn't broken character and laughed up like Danny saved the moment perfectly, and it was just this magical mishap that was hilarious.

Emily: now that I'm older, it was terrifying when I was younger. Now that I'm older, I'm like, it was so cool to watch him do that. Yeah. And to watch him adjust. Lemme tell you, you don't realize how much you talk about apples for the rest of that show until it's not there. 

Aaron: Oh. Uh, because it's all, 

Emily: the whole cast is adjusting their lines for the rest of the show. 

Rhys: Same potato, the rest [00:18:00] now that's the version that we were in now.

That's the, the multiverse we entered.

Logan: We just moved along and every time that there was a moment we were supposed to reference to that moment, we had to recall specifically that, that one time every, every, everyone else got turned into apples. Yes. But this guy turned into potato was was special. That one show? Yeah, it was a special potato. Yeah, special potato.

Emily: But I also just remember, 'cause again, I was. So scared of like, i'm gonna get yelled at. I'm gonna get fired. , And I remember the kids in the classroom never leave.

And I remember bowing. And walking off stage.

Danny tapped me on the shoulder and I'm 12, so I'm, I'm short and he's quite tall. 

Yeah. And I 

Emily: remember looking up at him in his insane outfit and he just went, you know what, kid? That was pretty slick.

Aaron: Oh man, gl, that's glorious.

Rhys: [00:19:00] So no harm, no foul, but that memory is so special to me. So I, when you texted me about this, Aaron, I immediately was like, oh, I'm so glad Emily's here too, because, oh my God, 

Emily: I wonder if Logan will say the same thing. 'Cause he was there too. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rhys: I'm, I'm really curious, I'm really curious if, if that is something he, a 

Aaron: strain that everybody remembers. Haunted by. Yeah. Haunted by.

And that's like truly a sideways story.

10 Years Later

Aaron: I'm gonna ask, because Tanner and Logan have separate paths too. Tell me a little bit like what your last 10 years have been like? Where are you now? 

Rhys: That show was, was entering my freshman year or I just finished my freshman year of high school.

And since then, I went to Ithaca College for musical theater. Got my BFA in 2022. And I've been working since then as an actor. I moved to New York, that summer after my first professional theatrical credit. I've been in New York since then. I've worked at some regional theaters and cruise ships, and I've joined Actors Equity recently. [00:20:00] So it's been a really exciting journey and I owe all of it to BTE and what that was for me growing up.

Emily: I was in middle school. So for a kid who was worried she was gonna get fired, took that, that second day. I was trying to count this morning before I came in. I think I ended up doing 20 shows , from, from wayside through. I ended up doing 20 at BTE. That's great. Through high school, I got to work with BTE. I got to, do an internship with BTE as a high schooler. When I was, uh, 16, I became the youngest affiliated artist at BTE. I think I still am. I wear it as a badge of honor.

I'm also a New York girly now and I'm still an actor. Gotten to do some off-Broadway shows. I've done a national tour.

I've gotten to work with like really cool people. I got to work on Sesame Street. I got to work with Steven Schwartz. Yeah, just doing the acting thing too.

I was at a closing night party for an off-Broadway show two weeks ago. Mm-hmm.

And I met, some friends of a friend who are in Harry [00:21:00] Potter and the Curse child on Broadway. And she wanted to talk to me about where I grew up doing theater and I was like, oh, at the BTE. And she knew she's from Minnesota and she knew exactly what I was talking about. Really? Yes, she did. Fascinating. I know. It was crazy. At the 

Aaron: BTE. 

Emily: At the BTE. Yeah. 

Aaron: What have you been up to since you left? I. Since I left Sideways Stories at Wayside School.

Yeah, yeah. 

Logan: It wasn't less than a week after the end of Sideways Stories that I ended up going to, some dance intensive that I won a scholarship for. Yeah. I would be at dance classes two or three times a day. Mm-hmm. I would spend about a full-time job's worth of time 

Aaron: of dancing 

Logan: on dance. Yeah. And between here and there, that's pretty much everything I did at that point. Hmm. That's amazing.

I've sort of semi been involved with the theater except for the two years that I had moved away. Where did you move? I don't think I knew that, uh, Colorado.

I worked at a, a hospitality ranch that had about 200 horses. Whoa. Do ride. Is that No, no. I, [00:22:00] I cleaned toilets. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yep. A a bunch of very wealthy people came for weeks at a time to be cowboys and Yes, I made the rooms look nice. There you go. There, 

Aaron: there, 

Logan: there are many facet 

Aaron: to hospitality Ranch.

Yeah. Yeah. 

Logan: I picked up a few new vernacular pieces there too, like, howdy. 

Aaron: Yeah, sure. 

Logan: I was never a howdy guy until I moved home and then all of a 

Aaron: sudden you were, 

Logan: you are howdy.

Yeah. I eventually got a job, 

Aaron: What are you doing now? 

Logan: Now I'm just a full-time employee. I love my job. If anybody who knows me from work is listening. I work for AutoZone and I work for Geisinger, doing a similar thing for both jobs. . I deliver. For AutoZone, it's car parts. To the, like the local garages and dealerships. And then I change my outfit. I do my own little quick change and I deliver home infusion medication in the afternoon and evenings.

Aaron: Essential jobs. 

Yeah. 

Technically. Yeah. [00:23:00] Yes. Yeah. One, one. I definitely feel more personally fulfilled in delivering than the other. 

Logan: If somebody doesn't get their breaks on time, I don't feel any sort of way about that. But if I were to mess up a route and get somebody their medication later than they needed it, I would be torn. You know what I mean? 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Logan: So I definitely feel as though. One technically is more important 

mm-hmm. 

Than the other. Sure. But I do understand that they're technically both still essential in the logistics of people's lives. Society's, yeah. It's an interesting balance. And the work environments kind of reflect that too. 

Aaron: I'm sure like you feel, the pressure you feel when you enter into it, you mean, or 

Logan: Well, that, as well as the types of people that you interact with. Dealing with customers in automotive. You get to work with a lot of people who are currently dealing with the most frustrating part of their day. Or months.

Or months. 

So, when I come to [00:24:00] deliver medication pretty much everybody I deliver to is excited to see me. They're relieved that what I'm bringing 'em is there. Yeah. They're not worried that it's going to be wrong.

Because if it is, that's not something has happened in a way that I have no control over. 

Aaron: You just get to be the deliverer of essential things. 

Logan: It really is. Don't shoot the messenger personified.

Aaron: Well, I I, man, that's fascinating.

Summer Show Takeaways

Aaron: What have you taken away particularly from those summer shows?

Because. I think they're a different breed than the Christmas show or other shows . Where kids involved. But what about the summer shows have you taken with you as a professional actor now?

Emily: I, I'm glad I got the experience of doing both the summer shows and the in season shows. Because to do the in-season shows sometimes you're the only kid in a room of all adults and it, that's really cool and you get like a lot of one-on-one time, but when you're doing the summer shows and it's kind of like you're at. At a crazy summer [00:25:00] camp. 

Mm-hmm. 

Emily: Where your job is to come in and go to summer camp. 

Mm-hmm. 

Emily: And you still have a job to do, but it's you and 80 other kids who like the same thing you like and, that was always the fun part about it, specifically being a summer show.

But I think more than anything, for me it's in teaching that it has affected me because I started acting when I was five, and obviously you meet a lot of adults, who it's like, this is a person I wanna be like.

You also get the flip side where it's like, okay, so this is a person I never ever wanna be like, but a lot of the memories I have from the summer shows and from watching adults who are used to directing adults direct an entire room full of kids. So much of that sticks with me of I want to be able to be that person for those kids that Elizabeth was for me, or that Danny was for me it really affects the way that I teach, but also my work ethic, I think that I try to instill in the kids. because Even though it was a good time, again, you're still here to do a job, and they were very, [00:26:00] they were like, we can have fun, but also we gotta get this done.

We got deadlines.

Rhys: The biggest takeaway for me is how much I appreciate the way we were drawn into this world, this professional theater, and given this unique experience, and not as children, but welcomed into this, this space in this world. When I look back on it and think about how precious , those experiences were to me and how impressionable I was at the time, I'm so grateful that we had such an amazing space like that with such warm, people leading us, and fantastic role models that gave us an idea of what true artists were and, compassionate people , who would connect with us as legitimate people even if we were so young at the time. And I try to pass it on now, and I'm, and I love engaging with kids and getting to know them for who they are.

And, I think a lot of that is because of the way I was treated at that age. There's not many experiences like that for kids where [00:27:00] you have this professional standard and this expectation that, you feel you can rise to a challenge. We're working in this real theater, i, I remember I was in, the Seagull one fall, I think my freshman year at high school. It was me and then a bunch of adult serious actors.

And it was a very serious show and it was just such a different experience. I had this one line that I, I said, going swimming. And I was, I overthought this line so much and I was like, how do I say it? 'cause there's no, I'm in front of it. Like, I don't, I'm not saying I'm going swimming, I'm just saying go and swim.

It's great to have those experiences too because, then you really feel like you're a part of something serious and, and legit. But the summer camps, like Emily said you're with this group of people your age and you all can , feel like you're part of something and significant and have a blast doing it. Yeah, i'm so glad that the community still has BTE and , the next generation [00:28:00] passing the torch and it's great.

Logan: Took away. Hmm. Having somewhere to be that was structured in the time Yeah that I was supposed to be in kid lore. Free to do absolutely anything or whatever I wanted. To have something that was, to be built in conjunction with a group of other people to have a communal thing to work on. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Logan: I feel like it definitely drove me in future life to seek community. You know what I mean? 

Aaron: Interesting.

Logan: It wormed its way into my life in the way that, it makes me seek team oriented workspaces So, while I do enjoy being on my own on the road like I cover. approximately an average of 350 miles a day. Mm. That's incredible. So lots of podcasts. Yeah. Lots of podcasts, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. , I do still appreciate starting and ending in a space where people are [00:29:00] excited to see me.

I have in some ways designed my life around being able to experience and in some ways support creativity in the arts, I still come here to take photos of some of the shows when I can. Yep. It's fun to watch my pictures pop up on the website, their own signs and stuff. But it honestly, just as far as the takeaway, it made me want to be around people. I'm not by nature, a very social animal. So it was definitely a healthy want, I think. Yeah. 

Aaron: Yeah. Thank you so much for your time. Yeah. I love talking. Yeah. We, we have to make a point to block out another hour to talk.

Rhys: Thank you for.

I Am /We Are Promo

Aaron: Such fun talking to that crew of folks. And here's some. Inside baseball. There's so much that had to get cut out of those conversations. So many wonderful stories and memories of legacy ensemble members.

And it reminds me how important it is to tell stories to remember people and to discover what is important [00:30:00] to us and the people who impact us. Real quick, before we talk to our present cast of Sideways Stories for Wayside School.

This episode will drop on July 1st, which means in three days we will be commemorating the 249th anniversary of Independence from the British monarchy and set us on a path to self-governance.

It also is a line of demarcation, July 4th as the kickoff for BTE's I Am/We Are project and our 250 for 250 Story Gathering Initiative. BTE has a long history of making theater pieces about Bloomsburg, and the I Am/We Are Project is a chance for us to talk to our community about how their individual beliefs impact the way that they participate in civic life and make Bloomsburg Bloomsburg, um, starting July 4th, 2025 and running all the way to 2026. We have a goal of collecting 250 stories, three minute stories that you can either call into our hotline or log into our web portal [00:31:00] and leave a video or audio message and tell us your story about how your personal beliefs have impacted the way that you participate in our 250-year-old democracy.

Of course politics and the national debate can get really heated and the ensemble wants to know how Bloomsburg either reflects that national conversation or maybe even is a lot more nuanced than what the national headlines might point to.

The hotline and the website will allow you to, to leave a three minute story. Remember, stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end, just like the potato story you just heard. And they should illuminate who you are as an individual and what your personal beliefs are. And then how those personal beliefs came to play in civic Life in Bloomsburg, but also Central Pennsylvania. If you come from a different community, we'd love to hear about that too.

Along with collecting all of these stories. There's also really great news for listeners of the podcast. We will be collecting and editing [00:32:00] and releasing some of these stories onto an I Am/We Are Project podcast that will be a companion piece to the Down Center podcast. So they should arrive directly into your podcast feed.

We'd also love it if you could share these episodes with your friends, and invite them to tell their story. We want to get as many people as possible, as many different kinds of people and as many kind of different stories as possible. And we can only do that with the help of our community spreading the word so that hopefully all of this will culminate into a live performance in three years in our 50th season. The I Am We Are Bloomsburg project. That's the goal.

 And now, without further ado, let's hear from the class of 2025 at Wayside School.

Class of 2025 Honor Roll

Kimie: Hello, who are you and who do you play in Sideways Stories and Wayside School.

Eugene: Hello, my name is Eugene and I am playing Myron in the Snorple Cast.

Arwen: My name is Arwin and I play Leslie in the Snorkel Cast.

Kimie: The Snorple cast. [00:33:00] Why is it called the Snorple Cast?

Eugene: Because Leslie plays the snorple and Damien plays the Flurb. There's two different instruments and those, they decide to make those the name of the cast.

Kimie: Hello. 

Scotlyn: Hi. 

Kimie: What's your name and who do you play?

Scotlyn: My name is Scotlyn and I play Leslie in the Flub Cast. 

Cole: My name is Cole and I play Damien in the Flub Cast. 

Kimie: And do you play the Flurb? 

Cole: Yes. 

Kimie: And how do you play the Flurb? 

Cole: You play it like a trombone, but with keys 

Kimie: like a, like a. Key bone.

Cole: Yes. 

Kimie: That's fun.

Shows and Ages

Kimie: So how many shows have you been in at BTE?

Cole: This is my first show at BTE? 

Eugene: This is my first one. 

Kimie: This is your first one. Are you excited? 

Eugene: Very excited.

Kimie: Would you wanna do another one? 

Cole: Definitely.

Arwen: I've been in, uh, two three. Yeah. 

Kimie: And what, what shows were you in in the past? 

Arwen: Dragons Love Tacos, the Velvetteen Rabbit, and then this one. 

Kimie: Awesome.

Scotlyn: This is my third show. 

Kimie: Your third show? What were the other ones? 

Scotlyn: A Christmas story and a Christmas Carol. [00:34:00] 

Kimie: Okay, cool. Who did you play in a Christmas story? 

Scotlyn: Uh, Ralphie. 

Kimie: Yeah. 

That was fun. I remember that. Yeah. 

Aaron: But this is your first summer ?

Scotlyn: Yeah. 

Kimie: Cool. Scotlyn has to work on the bee farm in the summers.

And how old are you, Scotlyn? 

Scotlyn: I am 12. 

Kimie: Hey Arwin. How old are you? I'm 

Arwen: nine. 

Kimie: Nine. What grade is that? 

Arwen: I'm going into fourth.

Audience Hook

Kimie: What part of the show are you excited for the audience to see?

Eugene: I'm very excited for them to see the tango. 

Kimie: Yeah. Do you like Tangoing? 

Eugene: Yeah. 

Kimie: Is tangoing your favorite? Yeah. Because you get to tango with me? 

Eugene: Yeah. 

Kimie: Yeah.

Scotlyn: Any bit where Mrs. Or Mr. Gore turns people into apples. 

Kimie: Oh, yeah. I'm excited to see that too. 'cause I'm not quite sure yet how we're gonna do that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All I know is I gotta wiggle my ears and stick out my tongue and, and my purn people pin po apples.

And so what part of the show are you excited for the audiences to see? 

Cole: Ms. Zarves. 

Ms. Zarves. What's special about Ms. Zarves? 

She's made out of the classroom.

What? How's that work? Her eyes [00:35:00] are from the two windows and her nose and mouth are the bulletin board. 

Kimie: Oh wow. I still can't picture it. We'll have to find out when it happens. 

Arwen: I really like when Myron pulls my pigtails. Yeah. Because I get to like, make the pigtails like talk and dance. A little bit of, I think it's really cool. 

Kimie: A little bit of puppeting. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun. 

Doing the Homework

Kimie: Have you read any of the wayside books? 

Arwen: I have not.

Scotlyn: No, but I'm excited to.

Kimie: Oh, are you going to Uh, 

Arwen: yeah. 

Kimie: Yeah. Do you know when you're gonna read them before or after the show?

Scotlyn: Probably after the show. Okay. 

Arwen: Probably after. 

Kimie: I do the same thing when I'm doing a show that has a source material. I don't like to watch or read the thing because I wanna make it all entirely my own, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

have you read the Wayside books? 

Cole: I've read all of them except for one. 

Kimie: Which one haven't you read?

Cole: Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger. 

Kimie: Yeah. And that's the second one? 

Cole: I think so, 

Kimie: How do you feel about like the differences between the book and the show? 

Cole: It is different because they're all crammed into one show instead of [00:36:00] four. 

Kimie: Yeah. It's kind of, it's kind of fast. It's like very episodic, but it's fast.

Cole: Like usually a, uh, scene would be a chapter in it, but there's so much, so many chapters that happen in one scene. 

Kimie: Right. Because there's like 30 chapters in each book. 'cause there's 30 different stories. 

Cole: Yeah. 

Kimie: And 30 stories. Mm-hmm.

Um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, 

Have you read the Sideways Stories from Wayside School books? 

Eugene: I've read two so far. Side Way Stories from Wayside School. The First One. And Sideways Stories From, I mean, wayside School gets a little weirder. 

Kimie: What's the difference between the books and the show? 

Eugene: Some of the characters are like mixed together. 

Kimie: How do you mean? 

Eugene: Like, like, like Paul and Myron are mixed together. 

Kimie: Like your part Paul and your part Myron. Yeah. So you're pyron. 

Eugene: Yeah. 

Kimie: Or mall.[00:37:00] 

Eugene: Um, he's called Myron, but um, he pulls pigtails, like is a coolest thing. Like 

Kimie: Got you, got you.

Favorite Part of a BTE Summer show

Kimie: What's your favorite part about being in A BTE show?

Eugene: That... I get to be somebody else.

Kimie: Yeah. That's fun. I like to do that too, 

Arwen: I guess it's because we get to act with all these other different, like all these actors.

Like we're not professionals, but we get to act with professionals. So it makes this like play become like more than just like. A story. It's kinda like a... I don't know, I don't know how to describe it, but I really like BTE shows because we get to act with other professionals even though we're not professionals. 

Kimie: Awesome. Thank you for fitting that into a soundbite. Nice. You are a professional now.

Cole: Meeting the new people. Because I only knew one of the people before [00:38:00] this show.

Who did you know? Rosie. 

Kimie: Rosie. Okay. And who now Who are some of the awesome people that you get to work with? 

Cole: Should I just start listing off the cast? 

Kimie: Yeah, go ahead. 

Cole: Um, 

Kimie: we're gonna make, we're gonna make this sound like you know, everybody immediately.

Scotlyn: That you get to be someone different and be a part of a community and see new people. 

Kimie: Yeah, I like that too. I love that too.

Kimie & Aaron Wrap up

Aaron: Those kids are great. 

Kimie: I love talking to them. 

The rehearsal room has been such a joy this summer, and not that it hasn't been a joy in previous times, but it's just like, I've been very much enjoying these kids.

Everybody's really invested in and devoted to making the show happen and... 

Aaron: oh, yeah.

Kimie: Being their characters. 

Aaron: And enjoying each other too. They always COHEs to a certain degree, but this one, this bunch, they're like, yeah, they're tight. It happened pretty quick.

The other fun thing, it's interesting, a bunch of them are really literary. Like they, they loved. Like, particularly Eugene and Cole. , [00:39:00] They've consumed these things already.

Yeah. So I am hoping that other people have as well. But Scotland and Arwin not having any point of reference. I mean, they're diving in. Yeah, 

Kimie: they're diving right in. They're, they're making characters. They're forming opinions. It's great. 

Aaron: Yeah. Anything else you wanna say?

Kimie: Um, I'm enjoying dancing with you. Yeah, me too. We get to tango. Yeah. I have a very silly little tango. 

Aaron: Good times for sure.

Kimie: I'm having fun with all the various characters that I'm getting to create.

How about you? 

Aaron: Uh, I mean Lewis is, uh, the art teacher. The what? The yard teacher? Yes. Thank you. Not the art teacher.

The yard teacher. Kimie Muroya: Articulation Consultant. 

Yes. Dialect coach. And that's right. 

He's probably the, he's the most normal adult, in the school, like on whatever normal means, but baseline adult.

Uh, and then for both Kidswater and for Mr. Pickell, eh al, [00:40:00] they all start from somewhere. So Pickell is a little bit of Tim Conway in, Carol Burnett's when he was the Nazi with the, the puppet Hitler. Yeah. For a kid show. Yes. But it's very funny. I mean, Tim Conway is always a good place to begin.

Kimie: He's very like Freud to me. 

Aaron: Yeah,

Kimie: like. The joke version of Freud? 

Aaron: Or the sort of, I don't know. From, basically from the seventies to the nineties, it felt like any psychiatrist had a certain german vibe. Comedic, broad psychiatrist, miss CIA archetypes 

Kimie: is interesting 'cause she, she's foreign, but there's not a. Specification. She's just broadly, broadly foreign. European foreign. Yeah, 

exactly. 

Kimie: So I am just mashing together, dialects. I'm opening my mouth and whatever comes out comes out. 

Aaron: Yeah. Which is part of the fun, I feel like we, we are broadly European.

Kimie: Yeah. 

Aaron: For both those characters.

The other side of it, the fun thing is that you get to be the outlandish obstacle that all these kids have to negotiate. They become, the [00:41:00] heroes of their own stories in spite of the adults as opposed to because of the adults.

Kimie: Which is generally my philosophy when approaching children, anyways. 

Aaron: That they're gonna be, they'll be fine without you? 

Kimie: No. That I need to be the obstacle that they are overcoming. 

Oh, I see. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. 

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. You know, I am, I am the outlandish adult that they, they need to navigate and that's, that's my favorite way to interact with children 

Aaron: There's great joy that they have when that happens. You can either be a nurturer by, supporting them or you could be a nurturer by giving them situations of adversity that they can rise above. Yeah. Yeah, that's very true. . I wonder if that's just a Lewis Sacher because Holes is similar.

Well thanks for talking with me. Yeah. It's happen. Yeah. Come say sideways stories from Wayside School. Yeah.

Kimie: Bye Bye.

Outro

Aaron: This has been Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble: Down Center. Ensemble Driven. Professional Theater. Arts Education. In Rural Pennsylvania. For [00:42:00] Everyone. With Everyone.

Sideways stories from Wayside School runs from July 10th the 27th. There's a sensory friendly performance on July 12th at 2:00 PM and weekday. Matinees open to the public and groups over the weeks of July 14th and 21st

Summer Theater school classes run through August 1st. We have offerings for ages three and up register online today.

Starting July 4th, add your story to the I Am/We Are Project Story Bank and help us reach our goal to collect 250 stories to commemorate our Democracy's 250th anniversary by calling the I Am/We Are Hotline at 570-784-5530 and enter extension 105.

Add your story. Snag your tickets. Register for theater school! All at www.bte.org.

Secret Stories Tag

Aaron: Secret stories from the 19th floor.

no, I was just gonna say, I remember in my summer [00:43:00] show in ancient Greek Idol, having the biggest crush on the guest artist who was playing Hades and bunch of other guys, his name was.

Phil, I think, anyways, we were, me and, and a couple of the other girls, I remember us being like obsessed and like, um, and just being like, oh, how old are you? What do you like? You know? And that kind of thing is very, uh, it was just a core memory.

Emily: Do you want my line to Elizabeth Dowd? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 

Aaron: yeah. Yeah. How, how'd you get into the show? 

Emily: So I was scouted, I guess outta class., She pulled me aside at the end of the class and she was like, I'm directing the show sideways stories. And she wanted to know all this stuff. And I showed up at the audition. Did the callback, whatever. And we got all the way to the end of the day and we were, I remember we were walking up the steps outta the house and she pulled me aside into the aisle.

She was sitting and she goes, Hey, uh, can you do a headstand?

And I'm a child actor, I've been told to [00:44:00] always say yes. And I said, yes ma'am, I can. 

I could not. 

Emily: Spoiler alert. So then she called me like a week later and was like, Hey, you booked and you're gonna play Leslie. And I'm like, great.

And then I had to torture my family for a couple weeks, middle of the living room, learning how to do a headstand. And I did learn how to do it, and then they wouldn't let me. 

Aaron: They wouldn't let you do the headstand. 

Emily: It was a safety issue apparently. So I got to do a frog stand and then, , I would get spotted.

Yeah. Yeah. And they would hold my, they would hold my feet in the air. Yeah. They were, 

Aaron: we are spotting. 

Emily: But it was, uh, I feel guilty about it every day. And I don't know if she's gonna know about that till now. 

Aaron: That's, that's the actor's way. It's fake it till you make it, you know?