S3E12: Announcing BTE's 48th Season!

Join Amy Rene Byrne, Aaron White, and Kimie Muroya as they unveil Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble’s exciting 48th season! From musicals and beloved classics to a tribute to one of America’s founding fathers, this season offers something for everyone. Tune in to get the inside scoop, behind-the-scenes stories, and a sneak peek at what's to come!

00:05 Introduction 
00:54 Announcing the 48th Season: The 39 Steps
04:28 Holiday Cheer: A Charlie Brown Christmas
08:07 Intimate Winter Performance: Radiant Vermin
12:06 Springtime Classic: Little Women
15:56 Educational Tour: The Amazing Mr. Franklin
18:34 Summer Family Show: Elephant & Piggie's We're in a Play!
21:12 Sensory Friendly Performances
22:40 I Am/We Are Project
30:04 Affordable Theatre Options
31:29 Season Highlights and Excitement
33:16 Final Thoughts and Farewell

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

Announcing BTE’s 48th Season!

Introduction 

Amy: Welcome to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we focus on our company, our people, our art, and our town-- front and down center. Hello? Hello. I'm resident artist Amy Rene Byrne and I'm sitting here with my fellow artists, Aaron White. 

Aaron: Hello

Amy: and Kimie Muroya 

Kimie: konnichiwa 

Amy: and we have a very exciting podcast episode for you today. I know you've been wondering, waiting, curious, investigative even. What will BTE's 48th season be? Well. Wonder no longer we are here to tell you! 

Aaron: Ba da ba da ba Oh 

Amy: yeah, yeah, yeah. Drum roll please. 

Drum roll please.

Kimie: Alright. 

Announcing the 48th Season: The 39 Steps

Kimie: Kicking off the season with a madcap, fast-paced, whodunnit, Hitchcokian farce, that's right, we are opening up the season with energy and comedic panache. It is the 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow, directed by James Ofalt I love this show. I have done it once before and it's one of my very favorites and one of the few shows that I actually had people go to my website to leave me comments about how much they enjoyed it. Hopefully this production will live up to that. 

Amy: Yeah. Aaron, you've also been in this production before? 

Aaron: Yeah, we did the show at BTE 10 years ago and it was, we were expecting Liam, that's how I know that it was, it's actually almost 11 years, I guess it is. 11 years. 

Amy: It's amazing how children mark time. 

Aaron: Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yes. And, but I played Hannay. It was part of my Resident Artist year at BTE. It was directed by Jim Goode. And we actually had five roles in it. We, we split the two clowns into three clowns, but we will be having two clowns this time around.

Kimie: Yeah. We'll do it, do it, do it the classic way with two clowns and, and my friend and fellow clown James is coming up to direct. I'm very excited about that. 

Amy: Amazing. I saw this in New York, right when it first hit the streets and was like a big deal. And I remember just cry laughing. I thought it was so funny and I hadn't seen anything that funny in a really long time.

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Amy: And that super, super stuck with me. But this will be my first time being in it. 

Kimie: Yeah. My mom still references that as her favorite performance of mine and constantly tells me that A BTE needs to remount the show that I was in. So when I told her we're doing 39 Steps, she got very, very excited.

Amy: Amazing. Karen will be in the front row. 

Kimie: Yes, she will. She's like, I'm bringing your dad this time. He'll like it. 

Amy: I love it. I love it. 

Aaron: Yeah. If you like Hitchcock it is the movie, but it's the movie in a theatre with four people. And so it's a fun little juggling act. Fun spy thriller, pre-war theme.

Amy: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: Which is interesting when I read through it again recently, and then it's also just really funny. So I'm excited to do 

Kimie: Wild, wild, fun romp. 

Aaron: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 

Amy: I'm super excited to get to do all this fun physical comedy with you on stage. 

Kimie: Yeah. Hey, my, I mean, my favorite thing to do in a clown show is to try to break my other actors on stage. So, 

Amy: Can't wait. Can't wait. I cannot be cracked. 

Kimie: I think-- 

Amy: That's such a lie. I've cracked so many times 

Kimie: V will hate me for saying this, but I think I managed to get them at least once every performance last time. 

Amy: Ooh, amazing. It's a great goal to have. So other than fans of Hitchcock, fans of comedy, who do we think this show is for?

Kimie: I think anybody.

Amy: Yeah

Kimie: I am not a huge like Hitchcock person and I still love this show. Truly. I think if you're just down for a good time this is a show to, to come and enjoy. Like it is just, is truly, I think it's for, for anybody. 

Aaron: Yeah. There, there's an affirmation of life, uh, that's tied to sort of the main theme of it because the main character begins to play like, I dunno if it's worth it. And ends to play with this sort of like, and this is great and I'd like to think that the audience will feel the same thing. 

Kimie: And there's a bit of a love story. 

Aaron: Yeah. Yeah, that's true. There is a love story drives through it. 

Kimie: Yeah. 

Amy: All right, so check out The 39 Steps that will be running September 25th through October 12th.

Holiday Cheer: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Aaron: And then next we will skate into the holiday season with a timeless and beloved classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas adapted by Eric Schaefer and directed by me, Aaron White. It is, uh, if you remember that wonderful half hour of TV when you were a kid that was just for you, that during the holiday season that it is that show. 

Kimie: See, I never watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special growing up. I do know that music, and I know that it's the Charlie Brown music, but my memories of it are all associated with Arrested Development. 

Amy: Hilarious. I wish y'all could see the look on Aaron's face, right? 

Aaron: It was, well, it was, it was such a, it was a very special thing that I remember looking forward to every year.

And it is also going to be a pretty special live performance. We're gonna have a, a live trio on stage, jazz trio playing that, that famous music. We'll have the, the animated snow and Charlie Brown trying to decorate tree that is just not quite there, but uh, with a little love and affection becomes something special. I also love it because it looks at the commerce of Christmas with such skepticism, like that is the thing that Charlie Brown is bemoaning.

Like, I just don't feel like it's Christmas and everyone is trying to, to spend their way into the Christmas season and through ultimately his friends and, and being around people that he cares about, he discovers he gets that sense of Christmas and 

Amy: That joy. 

Aaron: Yeah. And I, that, that's my favorite kind of Christmas story. 

Kimie: And we have some fun. I'm learning a new skill. I like to say whenever Aaron White directs me in a show, I learn a new skill. 

Amy: I think that's fair 

Kimie: because I am working on my skating skills. 'cause we'll be doing that ice skating scene. 

Aaron: That begins that animated series. We are, we are doing it. We're, we're doing it. We're, we'll be skating across on stage. Yeah. Skating across the A KT, 

Amy: Can't wait, I had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree all through grad school. Mm-hmm. And it played the.

Aaron: So you were doing an impersonation of the tree earlier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You doing awesome. 

Amy: That's really what I remember. More so than the special itself. I have to be honest. Yeah. 

Aaron: I listen to that soundtrack pretty much that, that, that is for me, one of the, the, the thresholds of whether it's the holiday season or not. If, if we get that. That soundtrack out. 

Amy: Yeah. So we'll just be bursting with nostalgia. 

Aaron: Yeah. And, and cute kids singing and, and Linus and Lucy playing while we dance In strange ways. I'm looking forward to seeing kids try and do the Pony, the Snoopy and the Pony. Yeah. 

Amy: Yeah. That, that iconic peanut stand. And speaking of kids, there'll be kids in the show.

Aaron: Yeah. It is a cast of 10 and we double cast. So we will be working with 20 kids in this show and 

Kimie: We are hoping. To audition those kids at the end of this month. 

Aaron: That's right, August 30th, coming up and there'll be more info on uh bte.org, but we'd love to see you come out if you, if you love the story or if you just are excited about being in a Christmas show, please come and audition for that.

And the show, speaking of runs from Black Friday, November 28th through December 28th. We take days off for Thanksgiving and take days off for Christmas, but otherwise it is all Christmas all the time. 

Kimie: Go, go, go. Christmas at at BTE is not a restful time for us. That's right. 

Amy: No, definitely not. But I feel like it's a really good kickoff to the holiday season.

Aaron: Oh, absolutely. I look forward to it every time. And then we 

Amy: stay in high gear all the way through. Yep. 

Aaron: Yep. 

Amy: And even a little bit after. 

Aaron: Even, yes. Just, just a few, little, little coda after Christmas. A little morsel of dessert. 

Intimate Winter Performance: Radiant Vermin

Amy: And then in the bleak mid winter, we're gonna cozy up on stage for an intimate, gritty up close and personal performance of the thought provoking play. Radiant Vermin by Philip Ridley, directed by Nora Gair. I am super excited about this one.

When we say up close and personal and intimate, we mean that the audience is going to be sitting on stage with us. Yeah. The last time that BTE did this was The Nether. If anyone happened to catch that out. 

Kimie: Oh, oh, sure. Actually, my intern project was after The Nether and we did it on the stage. Yeah. 

Aaron: So oftentimes the, the intern project would be produced on the stage, but the last main stage, stage is true.

Stage production would've been the net. Well, yeah, The Nether, I guess that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Amy: So, so it will be an up close and personal performance of this play, which is a really great one to do because it's a thinker, like it really challenges the audience. 

Kimie: Yeah. I found this play a couple of season selections ago.

I read it and I got really excited about it and I told the play selection committee and everyone was kind of like, oh, that's an interesting subject. I'm not sure set. But then we've read it and we've done a public reading of it. Aaron was very skeptical at first, but now who really likes it? Yeah. So I think, I think this is a really fun piece.

Aaron: Yeah. I, I, not skeptical of the play. I enjoyed the play quite a bit. The title is could potentially turn people off and and I want to reinforce that it really is, it is a thinker, but it's also a very funny play for most of it and ultimately makes us look at ourselves and how we think about home.

How we think about what we would give up or how much of ourselves we will sacrifice in order to have the home that we want. We had a really wonderful play tasting at Blind Pig. Last season, and one of the reasons why I think we picked it to be intimate was 'cause we had this little room of, a small number of people. And it was a magic night. It was a magic night with people really vibing with it. First time in a long time when an a grown adult answered a a rhetorical question that I asked on stage and he was like, no, like it really fervently and it just resonated around the room. And so, 

Amy: And that's kind of like the thesis question of the show too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So to have that like really like visceral response. 

Kimie: Somebody's gets so caught up in, in it. Yeah. 

Aaron: Would, would you do what we did? And the answer was, you know, and so an invitation to come join us for that sort of excitement, that sort of electric feeling in a room with people. It is a goal to recreate that. And we have, of course are welcoming back Nora Gair, who directed Holmes Watson and Misery in the past, and she's gonna come back and direct Radiant Vermin. 

Kimie: Yeah. Yeah, it's a very, I can't ever say his last name. Chuck. P Pal. Pal. 

Aaron: Pal. Pal. 

Kimie: Pal. Pal pal. Nik. Pal, pal. Palk. 

Amy: You can keep looking at me, but pal cannot help you.

Kimie: Hanock 

Aaron: pal. If you like Fight Club, 

Kimie: If you like Fight Club, it's a, yeah, it's very, it's very in that sort of vein that really dark. But, captivating. 

Amy: Yeah. 

So this is definitely one for the adults, though, I have to say like mature content. Mm-hmm. Adults, anybody who likes darker stuff. If you enjoyed Misery, if you liked The Nether, this will be right up your alley. 

Kimie: There's a lot of like interesting like, religious themes in it too. Yeah. Which is like, like. Christianity religious themes, which is really interesting. When we dove into it for our reading with Sarah, we were finding all these cool threads. Yeah. Um, so, 

Aaron: And talking about the line between righteousness and overindulgence. Mm-hmm. Right. Is really.

Really fascinating. Oh, I'm excited for people to see it. 

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. Really exciting themes, uh, that will run January 29th through February 8th. That is a shorter run than we usually have, so go ahead and get your tickets. Don't wait around on that one. 

Kimie: Limited seating. Yeah, as well. 

Amy: Limited seating, limited run. 

Springtime Classic: Little Women

Kimie: Then we will blossom into spring with the March sisters, BTE will be presenting a new, adventurous and whimsical adaptation of Little Women by Heather Chrysler and directed by our very own Sarah Elizabeth Yorke. 

Amy: I don't know about y'all, but Little Women was a huge book for me when I was a kid. 

Kimie: I was actually Louisa May Alcott in sixth grade for our famous people Fair, where we all had to dress up like a famous person.

Amy: Oh my goodness. 

Kimie: And I was Louisa May Alcott. 

Amy: I-- do you have pictures? 

Kimie: I don't know. 

Amy: Can I contact Karen and find out? Because I will use that as the promo imagery on the podcast episode. 

Kimie: You know, she's back in the country. You can contact her. 

Amy: Yeah, I, I remember my first real, kind of like digesting of the idea of death was because of this book.

And I remember coming out of my room as a small child, just bawling. And my mom's like, what is wrong? And I was like, she died. How? That 

Kimie: Spoiler! 

Amy: I mean the-- 

Aaron: We don't know who she could have be. Could be any of the little women. I mean, inha mothers been out for 

Amy: several. Decades, hundreds, a hundred, I was gonna say hundreds of years, but that, 

Kimie: but it's, 

Aaron: yeah, it is set in the Civil War.

Amy: It's been out for 500 years. 

Kimie: Oh, wow. Older than Shakespeare. 

Amy: No, no, no. Yeah. Spoiler alert, it's been out for a little while. But yeah, just the, the idea that the, that, that a character that you love could die was really very, very important to me. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Kimie: Just a very formative moment. Now, this probably won't make it in the podcast, but I really enjoy the book, Little Women and Werewolves.

It's like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's like that same vein. And honestly, I, I read it and I was like, oh, this is. Just Little Women verbatim, but also there's werewolves. Yeah. Yeah. That's how it was. Excellent. Yeah. 

Amy: Yeah. All of those, like, there's zombies and vampires, like that whole series. Yeah. No, that probably won't be,

Aaron: I remember, I, I, I will not be in it because it is a cast of, of four women playing all, all the roles.

But, uh, you know, Timothy Chalamet and, and Christian Bale both cut their teeth on, on that play. I had a big crush on Winona Ryder, so I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Kimie: Nina, don't listen. 

Aaron: She'll be okay.

Amy: Yeah, no, and this version is very rooted in story and storytelling, and it's a very whimsical approach, like Aaron said. It's for, it's for actors. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And they 

Kimie: women and non-binary, I think is the, yeah. The requirement. 

Amy: And they portray the four sisters. The sisters love interests. Mm. It's very creative and I think really centers around Joe's development, 

Kimie: Joe's development, and Joe's relationship with artistry.

Mm-hmm. And, and being a creative. In a world where you have responsibilities and ties to your family and how that influences you as you grow. 

Aaron: Sarah Elizabeth York brought this to us as a play that she has directed in the past and worked with Heather, the playwright, and she's, lights up anytime she talks about it.

I'm excited for her to bring that to us. 

Amy: Yeah. So I think this is a great one for, uh, I really think the whole family, I think. Mm-hmm. Even, I mean, like I said, I enjoyed it at a very young age and I think that would be true for a lot of kids. And there's gonna be a lot of really fun, creative use of props and imagery that I think kids will really latch onto.

And then I think, you know, for those of us that read it growing up. And have that nostalgia aspect as well. A really great one for the whole family. 

Aaron: It runs April 9th through the 26th, so a wonderful spring play for everyone. 

Amy: Yeah. Aaron, what else is going on in spring?

Educational Tour: The Amazing Mr. Franklin

Aaron: Also in spring, coming to a classroom and a library near you, our Theatre in the Classroom tour of the Amazing Mr. Franklin. And what a better way to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American Independence than to dive into the life and inventions of one of our country's free thinking founders. I, the, this is another play that I was in.

Kimie: No, we're just doing the greatest hits of Aaron's residency, uh, 

Aaron: of two thousand 13. 14. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I actually did half of this tour a couple 10 years ago, 11 years ago. Uh, and why 

Kimie: did you only do half? 

Aaron: Because I was in 39 Steps for the first half, and then Andrew Hubachek played Mr. Franklin. And then while I was touring it, Liam was born in the midst.

So I, I had four days off where I got to sit in a hospital and, and love my boy. So it is actually, Ben Franklin is one of those founding fathers that I actually can really get behind in his understanding of what America was supposed to be in being self-governed, like what it took to be a, a civically minded participant in a democracy. He, he was a big proponent for public education, a big proponent for libraries, a big proponent for educating yourself in order to participate fully in civic life. And of course, he was also quite a philander. Self-promotional individual. 

Amy: How much philandering is in this children's play? Is in this children's play?

Aaron: There's no philandering in the, the Tour 

Kimie: BORING.

Aaron: I don't even know if we allude to it, but he spent some time in France and that was fun. 

Kimie: One of my favorite bands, the Decemberists, collaborated with Lin Manuel Miranda to make a a song about Benjamin Franklin. And I love that song very much. But also I agree with Franklin, our national bird should be the Turkey.

Aaron: Instead of the eagle. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yes. 

Kimie: Turkeys are better than eagles except for the Eagles, Go Birds.

Aaron: Wow. Paning to our, our, our athletically minded. Yeah. Uh, fans. 

Kimie: Hey, I'm a Philly girl, so Go Birds! 

Amy: Yeah. So, uh, this is an educational tour. It will go to schools. It'll go to libraries. I believe it's geared toward K through middle school? 

Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. It plays well in middle schoolers too. Yeah. 

Kimie: So if you're interested in having this show come to your classroom or to a library near you, please reach out to our Education Director, Abigail Leffler. Her information is on our website. And the show will be on tour from March 16th through May 8th. 

Summer Family Show: Elephant & Piggie's We're in a Play!

Amy: And then we're gonna wrap up our season with a bright, fun musical for our summer family Show. Elephant and Piggie's We Are In a Play. The book in lyrics are by Mo Willems, and the music is by Deborah Wicks la Puma. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Kimie: LapUma 

Amy: Laima. I, I, I, I'm not great at pro pronouncing things, but I, I thought I was closer-- 

Aaron: it's a lot like La Puma. 

Amy: La Puma. , yeah. And that is gonna be directed by the Mr. Aaron White. Yeah, so this is a great, fun musical, well-known and loved kids book series. 

Aaron: I I was actually just talking to, uh, we're, we're actually on, in the middle of a two show day.

We're recording, uh, this during the middle of a, a Sideways Stories at Wayside School double feature. 

Kimie: This is my nap time. 

Aaron: This is, 

Kimie: thank you for sacrificing your nap time for me. 

Aaron: One of our Green room parents, Sarah, I, I mentioned this and she, she was so excited. I feel fondly about this play and about these characters.

Liam kind of, this is a Liam episode apparently as well. Yeah. Liam learned to read reading Elephant and Piggy have such fond memories of, because you get to be the character if you're reading those books. And so he would be Elephant and I would be Piggy, or he would be Piggy and I would be Elephant. You get to talk to each other and make each other giggle.

And in that spirit literacy is gonna be a big theme in this play. If you have young readers, it's a great time to, bring them in and, and be silly if you have older kids, it is also just a fun, joyful play. If you love Dragons Love Tacos, which we did a couple years ago, this is gonna be a great play.

Yeah. But it's also a musical, so there's, there's gonna be lots of singing and, and silliness and dancing. 

Amy: Yeah. And a lot of the songs are bop-- Do people still call songs bops? 

Aaron: Well, 

Kimie: You're forty. 

Aaron: At one point in our lives, after it was popular for us to know what things were called, they used to call songs, bops or Fire.

Amy: They slap. They slap. 

Kimie: Was it on fleek? 

Amy: Ew, gross. Way to be so cheugy. 

Kimie: What's that? I dunno, that one. Oh no. 

Amy: Oh no. It's cheugy to not know what cheugy is. 

Kimie: Oh, no. 

Aaron: And you'll someday reach an age where you don't care. That's where I'm at. 

Amy: Aaron is unaffected. 

Aaron: That's untrue. I, I, I, I, well, I may be unaffected. I just let, let it all wash over me. Yeah. It's just language.

Amy: Yeah

Aaron: I ain't old 

Kimie: Language is changeable 

Amy: But at the end of the day, yeah. A lot of these songs are Earworms. 

Kimie: Yeah. 

Aaron: Which is meant to be a good thing. 

Kimie: Yes. 

Sensory Friendly Performances

Kimie: And just a reminder that we have Sensory Friendly performances for Elephant and Piggy and also, Charlie Brown Christmas, and those are performances where we lessen some of the more overstimulating technical features and, and tone down some of the more overstimulating performances, but still very much the show. And those are great for young folks and anybody who has some difficulty with the sensory overload.

Amy: Yeah, I just recently brought my almost 3-year-old to our sensory friendly performance of Sideways Stories from Wayside School. And it was a really great thing because he could get up and he could walk around and it was okay if he asked loud questions. As you know, a 2-year-old is want to do, but he loved the show and really like watched the whole thing. Yeah. And also helped me with the glow- sticking because he wanted the glow stick and that was the only way that he could access it, was to do a job. So for young people, for people with sensory needs a really great opportunity to come and check out the show in a relaxed environment.

Yeah. 

Aaron: And, and in a really fun play. We are gonna be casting community kids again in this show, as we are often want to do in our summer shows. Auditions will be March 7th. And, more info to come on that. They are all singing roles, so if you have a kid who loves to sing, have a kid who loves to dance, we'd love to see them out for, for Elephant and Piggy.

Amy: Yeah, that'll run July 16th through August 2nd, 

I Am/We Are Project

Kimie: And let's not forget that ongoing throughout the season, we will be collecting stories for the I Am/ We Are project about who makes up our community and how who we are contributes to the collective identity of our area. We're collecting 200 and 50 stories for America's 250th anniversary and the first podcast episode will drop by July 4th.

Aaron: Yeah. Hopefully that's, hopefully 

Kimie: That's passed? 

Amy: Next July. July 4th. Oh, oh, okay. 

Aaron: Yeah. It's actually my hope that we will get, that we will get podcasts out sooner than that is my hope. 

Amy: Hold onto that hope Aaron. 

Kimie: It does say, oh, it says drop July. I said drop by July 4th. Sorry. That's me. That's on me. 

Amy: Yeah, I mean, drop by that. That could be the deadline. And then if Aaron gets his earlier then great. 

Aaron: Yeah, quite honestly, my hope is that folks will start calling in. We do have an information session coming up Yeah. This is a brainchild of Amy and I when we first started revamping the podcast. This was two years ago 'cause this is our second season. 

Amy: This is the last episode of our second season. 

Aaron: That's crazy. So we were bouncing around ideas about what the podcast could be and we talked about a sort of like a downtown Bloomsburg where we were spotlighting the town more fully or all sorts of ideas. I grew up around this area and have certainly felt the political tensions and the national conversations sort of infect what it is to be in our small town community and the I Am/We project is an investigation. So we're not telling you anything about where you live. You tell us, and the idea is that we're looking for stories about who you are and what your own personal beliefs are, and then how that impacts how you participate in civic life. We've been formulating it. I got a whole, we got a whole list of questions. We have some really wonderful practices that we got from Team Sunshine in the American Great American Gun Show, 

Kimie: and Ryan Dominguez and 

Aaron: Ryan. Yep. And Jerry Stropnicky Emeritus ensemble member who has gone all around the country doing story circles. So it, it will be a three year project. Hopefully we will have a live show in three years, but in the meantime, we're gathering stories to begin learning who Bloomsburg is now.

Amy: Yeah. 

Kimie: And this is kind of a, a carry on of the legacy of BTE. BTE has a history of creating these community sourced and driven works. If you remember Flood Stories, if you remember 

Aaron: Letters to the Editor 

Kimie: Great. This is in that same vein. We are, we're hoping to, to invest more into our community in the hopes that you'll do the same for us. 

Amy: Yeah, and 250 stories is purposefully a very wide net. We really do want to reach a wide swath of the community and really dig into to who we are and how the ways that we identify show up in the community.

And I'm excited about this. Part of mine and Aaron's inception of it was a, a real desire to get to know our community better. Because we started this podcast so y'all could get to know us better. Mm-hmm. We wanna flip that and get to know you a little bit better.

Aaron: Absolutely. So you can go to our website bte.org and follow the link to the Story Bank, and you can actually enter one in through our Jot Form. We also have the I Am We Are Hotline, which is 

Amy: Woot Woot! 

Aaron: AH hotline. It's a hot. 

Kimie: Hello, this is the BTE hotline. What are you wearing? 

Aaron: We're gonna get different stories. That's not 

Kimie: I was gonna ask, what kind of stories are we looking for, Aaron? 

Aaron: We're looking for three minute stories about how you participate in civic life in Bloomsburg. 

Kimie: What does that mean? 

Aaron: I mean, it can be anything from politics if you like, political action, if you like protesting, if you like voting, that's one thing. But there's also dealing with cultural identities with volunteering. If there's identities all around town, I mean, I'm Pennsylvania German, there are. People who are Irish, they're people who are in the black community, the Asian community that are here. And is that something that happens in the public sphere?

And we have Arts Fest, we have the Hawaiian Luau Dinner at the Methodist Church, if you know, there, there are lots of different ways to participate publicly. And all of those things come in to make the soup that is Bloomsburg. We are looking for stories that, that tell us who you are as an individual, something that you believe in deeply, something that you feel strongly about 

if you feel fervently about volunteering, why do you feel fervently about volunteering? If you don't participate in these public settings? Why? What about your personal beliefs makes you retreat from those, those public settings? I know it can be a real big question-- 

Amy: And we're, we're asking people to distill that story down to three minutes. Yeah. So like, who, who you are and how you show up or maybe don't feel like you can show up in the community. You know, stories about something that happened at the ice cream social I think that Bloomsburg is a really interesting town with a lot of interesting character and I think, this is my hypothesis--

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Amy: I think that that character is because of the people that make up this community. And so I think what we're interested in is delving into that character and all of these components that make Bloomsburg this really rich community in all of these different ways, but it's built by the people that are here and who they are and and what they believe in.

And I think we really want to kind of dissect that a little bit and look at how our collective identity, as you know, Bloomsburg surrounding area, rural Pennsylvania, what that means to people. What does it mean to you to be a member of this community? How does that impact you or how do you feel either galvanized or hindered by that? I think that people have a lot of really mixed feelings about, their own personal identities and then the identity of where they exist. 

Aaron: Yeah. And maybe feel left out by the loudest talking points in the area or nationally. And so I'm real, I'm really curious about how nuanced we can get instead of Democrat, Republican, or town--

Amy: I think there's a lot more that binds us than what divides us. 

Aaron: Yeah. Or Town Council and the parking authority and the people who drive the cars. You know, you bring up these hot button topics, I like to call 'em yard sign topics that we put in our yard. I feel strongly about this. 

Amy: Save the geese! 

Aaron: Right? But that ultimately that flattens us and our experience and instead of adding nuance. So I'm hoping, I'm looking for nuance. I'm looking to be surprised. I hope we're surprised by it. 

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a certain amount of open-endedness necessary for that surprise too.

Aaron: Yeah. 

Amy: So I think whatever that prompt means to you. Go for it. 

Aaron: You can leave, you can go to our website and, and enter in that store. You can also call the I am we are hotline at 5 7 0 7 8 4 5 5 3 0 and enter the code 1 0 5. 

Amy: That's so analog. I love it. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. It's for those of us who like not to live on just our phones. 

Affordable Theatre Options

Aaron: We also recognize one of the things that makes our population so diverse is income is, is expenses. We also recognize that inflation is a thing and that sometimes it's hard to make it to the Theatre or, I mean, personally I got a family and to go see a show can be a challenge, particularly if you have to get a, a babysitter. All sorts of things. 

Amy: Yeah. Theatre might feel like a luxury you just can't afford. 

Aaron: Yeah. So, if that's your bag, like me, there are several, cost-effective ways to see our shows, and we have low price previews for every show this season. We also have the Canned Food Preview during Christmas that, that's one of my very favorite traditions where you can bring a non-perishable food item and get into the show, uh, for the cost of that item.

Amy: I have never been somebody that ever participated in like Black Friday style events, but the first time that I got to see the Canned Food Preview line outside of the Theatre on Black Friday was like. A very, it was a very memorable experience for me. 

Aaron: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that, that's a great low price way to, to see our shows.

We also have Flex Packages available, uh, so you can go online or call the Box Office and check out those that have discounts-- 

Kimie: Just like at Costco, buying in bulk makes it cheaper.

Aaron: But we, we recognize that not everybody can see as much theatre as they like and we want to provide professional theatre to you so check out all these options. 

Amy: Yeah. 

Season Highlights and Excitement

Amy: Well, this is really wonderful. I'm excited about this season. 

Aaron: Yeah, me too. 

Kimie: Yeah. 

Amy: What are you most excited about Kimie? 

Kimie: The new skills that I have to learn for both of Aaron's plays. 

Amy: Aaron, what are you most excited about? 

Aaron: I'm excited to do a musical. We've had presented events where we've had musical acts and I like to put music into the things that I direct, but I have a wealth of musical offerings in Charlie Brown Christmas and Elephant and Piggy, so I should get my fill. I don't get to perform any of them. I, I, I'll directing them, 

Amy: But you're laying a foundation for future musicals 

Aaron: tis my hope that 

Amy: you can be in. 

Aaron: Yeah. That's my hope. Yeah, that's my hope. And, and to be funny with all three of you, or with all three of you all, uh, this, all, 

Amy: Aaron has separated himself from himself.

Aaron: Yes, I have. Speaking to myself in third, first person. 

Cut that. 

Kimie: Uh, cut that. Cut that cut. 

Amy: That's in, it's in, it's in 

Aaron: Having the opportunity to be funny with the, the both of you in both 39 Steps and, and in Radiant Vermin. Yeah. I think is gonna be a good time. So. 

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what I'm most excited about too, is having two solid shows where the three of us are on stage getting to, to play with each other.

Yeah. And if I had to say the thing that I'm most nervous about, it's the new skills that I will be learning for Aaron White's musicals. 

Kimie: Listen I've got my skates. I'm, I'm out there. I got my little knee pad protection. You'll see me down in the park. I'll be doing, I'll be. Rolling. Yeah. Yeah. Doing my little roller blades down along the river on the, on that trail.

Amy: I'm gonna take my rollerblades outta outta my garage and come join you. 

Kimie: Yes. 

Aaron: And when people see it, they'll know why. 

Amy: Yes. We should get, we should get shirts. Yeah. 

Aaron: Training for Snoopy. Yeah. Training. Training for Christmas. 

Final Thoughts and Farewell

Aaron: This has been Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center. Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone.

With everyone. We hope you'll continue to support BTE through attendance at our shows next season. Continuing to bring you professional live Theatre here in rural PA is incredibly important to us, but we need you to keep doing what we're doing. So please come check us out. Check out our season and buy tickets online@www.bte.org.

Kimie: Or in person. Just walk to the, yeah. 

Amy: Yeah, we got a Box Office. Come, come, come. Come in. 

Aaron: Come say hi. 

Amy: Come say hi. 

Kimie: You can also call us on the phone. 

Amy: Yeah, we do. We do also have a phone. 

Kimie: You could also message us on Facebook or Instagram. You could also message me personally. 

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. Just come. We just want you here. Aaron is so over it. 

Aaron: I'm not over it. I'm just careful what you ask for. 

Kimie: Hey, if it gets butts in seats, I'll do it. 

Amy: Alright. We hope to see you next season. This is BTE out,

Aaron: Oh my.

 Well there There is an h in it. 

Kimie: Yeah. Oh, that is weird. Pala-Palahnuik I think Chuck Palahnuik. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Kimie: In the tag, you'll have Palapoop.

Amy: Pala pala pala poop 

Kimie: Pala Poop Poop.