S4E12:Connecting with BTE's 49th Season

Aaron sits down with Amy, Abby and Kimie  to reveal BTE’s Season 49 titles to the podcast listeners and some new ways to see the work of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble.
Artist Spotlight: Lethan Candlish

Transcripts of all Season 2-4 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

S4E12 Connecting with BTE's 49th Season

[00:00:00] 

Intro 

Aaron: Welcome to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we take a few moments to look where we've been and reveal where our company, our people, our art, and our town are going, and celebrate it front and down center. We are about to jump into Season 49. 

I'm Aaron White, and I'm here with my fellow resident artists at BTE, Amy Rene Byrne.

Amy: That's me. 

Aaron: And Abby Leffler. 

Abby: Hello. That's me. 

Aaron: And we got season 49 titles. We got play tastings. We got hometown artists returning to play on the AKT stage. And we got new ways for you to come and experience what the ensemble makes with other real live human beings in season 49.

Surprise Season Thru Line - Human Connection

Aaron: So I was, thinking as I was driving in today, there's this surprise connective tissue across all the titles that we've picked. It's not the official tagline, but it is something that is true for all of the main stage plays that we have, it's either about families and what it is to be a family, how families support each other and all those sorts of things, and it [00:01:00] also i- it has protagonists that are striving for human connection in one way or the other. Sometimes we think about connective tissue across a season. I think we think about it maybe more than the people who get our season brochure. 

Amy: Yeah. Mm-hmm. I think that's probably true. I think it comes up most when we're talking about season artwork.

Aaron: Absolutely. It is interesting to me, in 2026 when I was listening a- and three stories on the news were all about artificial intelligence and what's coming down the pike in the next year, which it seems to be very much in the zeitgeist. It seems to be the thing that is outpacing and taking up a lot of oxygen. For me, it's like I'm not sure who asked for all of this, but I guess it's coming. 

Amy: Dude, outside of our industry, it's big for everybody. Right. I feel the arts right now are maybe one of the most resistant sectors- Mm-hmm to it. My husband does not work in the arts industry whatsoever, and AI is huge. Right. They use AI to summarize their meeting notes. They have an AI right now scheduling them for things. He'll be like, "Oh, the AI scheduled me for three interviews today." 

Aaron: Right. 

Amy: And everything [00:02:00] in all of their company meetings is how can we utilize this technology that we've paid so much more to optimize our workflow?

Abby: It's even in Taco Bell drive-through.

Aaron: Taco Bell? 

Amy: Taca- Taco Bell. Talk about the Taco Bell. 

Aaron: In the new Taco Bell in Buckhorn, you don't talk to a person when you order your food.

Amy: Ah, I got feels about that...

Aaron: have always been a little bit of a of a knowledgeable Luddite, right? That I'm skeptical about technology. I feel the way it changes the way that I think and the way that I create things. Trying to get this podcast on the air, I've engaged with technology because it allows me to do the things that I wanna make.

This is one of those things where because it is no longer a tool, it's a thing that I don't have a choice about, it makes me look to human connection even more. So I think all of the titles that we have, and I think what we can provide for folks is that opportunity for live human connection. If you're sick of talking [00:03:00] to a computer all day... 

Amy: sick of screaming, "Representative. Representative" I- "I want to talk to a human." 

Aaron: Yes. I got a new interface on my car that has Android Auto, and I'm trying to be safer and not write things down while I'm driving. I'm trying to actually 

Amy: Sorry, the image I have of Aaron writing in like- on notebooks all over his dashboard. Yes. Yes. Yes. Driving with his feet. 

Aaron: I'm trying to take note take note, take note, and trying to get the AI to understand or to do the thing that I need it to do- Mm-hmm ... creates so much... I cursed at Google and then it reprimanded me, right?

Amy: It doesn't wanna be cursed at, it needs to be better. 

Abby: Yeah. There are consequences. 

Aaron: What we've crafted here in Season 49 is a season full of connecting to other human beings. It's in a lot of our thinking in some of the strategies that we're trying to invite people into our space. We're going out to people. So let's get down to it and start talking [00:04:00] about what plays we're doing.

Season 49 Fall Show - Cry It Out.

Amy: Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun. That's foreboding. We need a happy one. Yeah. Where's the drum roll is what I- Yeah ... what my brain was searching for. 

Abby: Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, 

Amy: Ba. Ba. Yes. 

Aaron: So our first title.

Abby: Is Cry It Out by Molly Smith Metzler. 

Aaron: Ba, ba, da ba. 

Abby: Wah.

Aaron: That's right. 

Amy: I am so excited for this play. Yes. Cry It Out is, as you might imagine, about babies but I think the real story here is about early motherhood, early parenthood- The changes that matrescence has irrevocably on a human being. 

Abby: What the societal expectations are, and how you can't win no matter which way you choose to be either a working mother or a stay-at-home mom. 

Amy: How that interplays with your relationships, with your spouse, with your family, with your friends.

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Amy: It is one that, that hits very close to home for me. I would imagine Abby it hits [00:05:00] close to home for you in some capacity.

Abby: Yeah. I think so. I think it also talks about that internal familial expectations, whatever those are individually for a family, but also what the society expects of you, but then there's no right choice, right? 

Aaron: Another big part of it is how economics impacts the choices that young parents have.

Abby: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: Whether a mother can work or cannot work. Whether a mother wants to work or not work. What's really fascinating about this play you have three different young mothers, they all want something different out of their lives, and the choices that they have are impossible on all three fronts. Like- Mm-hmm ... even when you have the financial means to make those choices, society is saying you're still doing it wrong.

Abby: Sometimes those pressures are from other mothers too. and we see that in the play.

Amy: And the pressures you put on yourself. 

Abby: Yeah, for sure. 

Amy: Whatever preconceived notions you entered into pre-motherhood with are being challenged in every way by actual motherhood.

Aaron: So all of these [00:06:00] choices we're bringing to our audience in a bunch of different ways.

Amy: If anyone happened to catch our Play-Tasting- Mm-hmm ... last season- 

Aaron: It was last fall. 

Amy: We're taking it from play tasting to fully staged fully produced production.

Aaron: Recognizing that hopefully the folks who would really benefit by having the story told and to have these kind of conversations, young mothers of young kids, are probably not able to come see the show. It takes a lot of effort to get somebody to watch the baby and get your energy up to go out. We are doing two weeks on the Alvina Krause stage. We're doing- we're staging it in the round, so hopefully it feels exciting. I'm directing the show. And thinking about what it is to invite young mothers into the theater space to bring babes in arms if they wish.

For two weeks after our run in the Alvina Krause Theatre, we're going on tour for two weeks while the fair is in town. a wonderful guest actor from Williamsport, Billy Martell, will be joining the cast. We're taking the show to Milton and [00:07:00] Williamsport and Sunbury and other places to where moms who may not have robust support systems can get to see the show and join that conversation, and experience what the two main moms in the play get to do, which is have coffee while their kids are taking a nap.

So we're doing some in some coffee shops. We're doing some in other more non-traditional spaces where moms might feel like they have the agency to get up and move around and take their kid and still get to watch the show. '

Amy: Cause we all know that altitude is an important factor of whether or not your baby is crying at certain ages. I don't know how attuned your kid's altimeter was, but standing, okay. Sitting, absolutely not. 

Abby: Literally not. It depended on the child. 

Aaron: So that's Cry It Out, coming in our fall slot in September and October.

It's A Wonderful Life

Aaron: Hey Kimie, you wanna come on over really quickly? I'm gonna ask Kimie Muroya to come over and join us in her wheely chair, and I'm asking- 

Kimie: Hello. 

Aaron: Hi. [00:08:00] Welcome to the podcast.

Kimie: Hello. 

Aaron: Hello. Why would I be asking you to come over to, to join us at the podcast? 

Kimie: I don't know. 

Aaron: We're talking about a play that happens at Christmas. 

Kimie: Oh, yeah. That one. 

Amy: Yeah. 

Kimie: Yeah, we'll be doing a production of it's a Wonderful Life. 

Aaron: Ba Ba Da Ba Ba Ba Ba Baaaah jingle, jingle. 

Kimie: Jingle. Oh, Angel just got its wings. Yeah. Longtime fans of BTE may remember our previous productions of Merry Christmas, George Bailey the radio play version. This will not be that. This will be a fully staged live production of the film, It's a Wonderful Life.

Abby: Mm-hmm. 

Kimie: And and I will be adapting it. Amy will be directing it. And we're looking at some really fun ways to make this work on our stage. Film is a notoriously difficult thing to adapt to stage because it has so many locations and so many ways that you can cut and show where the audience should be focusing, and stage is a little bit of a different beast.

Amy: This weekend I spent a good time talking to our potential scenic designer [00:09:00] about that very thing, about the, the cinematic feel of it, and how we achieve all of that within the confines of the Alvina Krause stage, especially for a story that feels so rooted in place.

George Bailey feels very trapped in Bedford Falls. But I think what we really discover as we go through the story is that it's rooted in people- ... and in community, and in family and in love, and you know how that translates to a scenic design.

Aaron: No, no man is a failure who has friends, right? Yeah. No person is a failure who has friends. Yeah. 

Kimie: And I'll say a big aspect of this adaptation will be stars. 

Amy: Yeah. 

Aaron: Thanks, Kimie. I'm so excited for people to see your good work. She's- Yeah. 

Amy: She's done an incredible job of adapting this. I've read a lot of different adaptations- ... of It's a Wonderful Life, it's interesting the, the liberties that people take with it. I have to say that Kimie has created a, very thoughtful, very inventive, but very true to the film adaptation of- Yeah ...It's a Wonderful Life.

Neuro-Influencers

Aaron: in the winter we will [00:10:00] be putting together another brand new play. Not an adaptation. For our Theater in the Classroom tour that Abby is directing, and I'm spearheading the writing of called Neuro-Influencers: This Is Your Brain on Social Media 

Abby: Yes.

And taking the stare down from Aaron, I 

will,

no 

Amy: I like the yes and you gave him. Yes, 

Abby: and... And,

That's the fanfare. 

Abby: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. This is a great play and subject matter focusing on the idea that social media and technology are not going away.

Mm-hmm. They're here to stay, and how best to have the healthy practices to utilize it for what you need it, but also acknowledging that overuse of anything has its consequences. So how can we give tools to our most, impressionable in our society to acknowledge those things and move forward with the stuff that is not going away and is here to [00:11:00] stay, but also remembering that human connection, right?

I think, like you said- Mm-hmm ... earlier in the podcast that all of these plays have something to do with family or human connection. Yeah. I would say Neuroinfluencers does too. 

Absolutely. 

Abby: It calls attention to the need for that in order to navigate this new world. 

The three characters in the play are neurotransmitters.

They are uh, serotonin cortisol, and dopamine, and the, they go through a journey of recognizing how these social media platforms hack the processes that are made to work together in social groups. Dopamine is made to feel joy when you're motivated to go do something. Cortisol is made to protect the tribe, right? We're in danger. I need to protect and make sure that we can survive. Serotonin pathways are made to help a, a baby go to sleep, to calm ourselves so that we can go to sleep and feel healthy the next day,

so these things are made for [00:12:00] real world experiences, and when you plug them into these social media platforms in the virtual world, they respond differently. Mm-hmm. And it makes it hard to really truly connect to the real world, because you are so occupied with your virtual world.

That's the play in a nutshell. I'm excited to bring that to the classrooms of Central Pennsylvania and abroad. 

Abby: Yeah. I think it's an important thing to bring to the schools 'cause in a world where schools rely on the iPad, it is a convenience. Making sure that we give them space to offer something like this in that special TIC flare

Mm-hmm ... if you are a teacher or a school counselor or what have you, just find us on the website- and reach out to me.

Aaron: I'm having my 12-year-old and all of his friends read through it with me. I promise it will be a lot of fun, too. Yes. Yes. Th- this is not something that is- That's 

Amy: a hallmark of our TICs.

Yeah. Yeah. Our TRCs are usually quite fun. 

Aaron: Yeah, learning while having a great time. 

The kids get to see these influencers, these [00:13:00] neurotransmitters who are also influencers on their phones- you watch them trip into the social media pitfalls. And you get this real visceral response, and I'm excited for the kids to see that.

Lethan Intro

Aaron: We're gonna take a little pause here from the season announcement to bring you into a conversation I had with Lethan Kandlish, a self-proclaimed Bloomsburg native who has gone out into the world and now is returning with his engaging story of resilience and in his solo performance of Who Am I Again? on August 15th. Here's my conversation with Lethan Candlish

Lethan Candlish - Presented Event Spotlight

Aaron: Where are you heading this summer? You going a bunch of different places? 

Lethan: Yeah. Yeah. I started off about two weeks ago in Cleveland- Okay ... where I did the BorderLight Fringe Festival. I had a great time there. And now I'm in Kansas City doing KC Fringe. Then in early August I fly to Minnesota- Okay ... where I do the [00:14:00] Minnesota Fringe w- in Minneapolis, which I'm really excited for. 

Aaron: Very cool. National tour really. 

Lethan: That's where it's going. Yeah, it's my first one. Yeah. I'm very excited about that.

Cool. And then of course I come to the, the pinnacle of it all where I come to Bloomsburg, B-T-E- A-K-T. 

Aaron: The the crossroads of the universe says Laurie McCants

Lethan: yeah. That, that, that's what it's been for me in my life. That's one of the reasons- Yeah ... I love sharing that. 

Aaron: Do you consider yourself a Bloomsburg native? Is that- 

Lethan: I do I wasn't born in Bloomsburg, but all my formative years were Bloomsburg from nine till much older than nine we'll just say. 

Aaron: How did you wind up here at nine years old? What, what brought you here? 

Lethan: Well, I have a father, and my father got a job at Bloomsburg University as a drama teacher teaching technical theater. And yeah, that's kinda how he's...

And the, that got me connected with BTE and the whole blooming arts scene in Bloomsburg, which is always fun. 

Aaron: I know that, your dad designed a bunch of stuff for us as well what, during- Mm-hmm ... his tenure at the university. So you're embedded in our history for sure.

Lethan: I am. the whole ensemble and everyone there is kind of embedded in my heart. I feel it [00:15:00] was a necessary part of my artistic development. I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for all the support I got from that community. 

Aaron: Did you take theater classes and that sort of thing or were you on our stage at all when you- Oh, yes ... were here? 

Lethan: Well, it was when I was, I think it was 19, I wanna say '93, 19- Okay ... or somewhere around there. I was in- Okay ... I was in my first production of A Christmas Carol where I played- There you go

Peter Cratchit and Turkey Boy. Today, said- The turkey boy ... White's Christmas Day. Oh, yes. Yep. Classic. 

Aaron: Absolutely.

Lethan: That's when the bug bit. It was all downhill from there.

Aaron: You have fallen prey to a path that many have fallen prey to in that- 

Lethan: Mm-hmm

Aaron: Tiny Tim turkey boy. It wasn't 

Lethan: Tiny Tim. It wasn't Tiny Tim. That was- Oh, okay Yeah, I was Peter Cratchit, the, the older brother 

Oh, 

Aaron: Peter. You were the older brother 

Lethan: Yeah 

You 

Lethan: were the older brother. Yes I wasn't quite cute enough to be Tiny Tim. Not quite there. I just... The hormones put that off 

Aaron: funny how that works. The you... The cute goes away all of a sudden- ... and then you have 

Lethan: to... And then you're just a brat for about five years 

Aaron: That's [00:16:00] right. Tell me what happened after leaving Bloomsburg. Where did you go? 

Lethan: Well, it's all kind of tied in together 'cause the piece that I'm gonna be sharing at AKT It's a piece about brain injury, and my brain injury happened in Bloomsburg, Mm-hmm ... when I was just getting ready to leave. I was, Okay ... beginning my senior year of high school in '99. Mm-hmm. And I before that, all my plans were to be an actor.

I was, of course I was planning to go to the standard place, New York, LA, some place where I could bail out my art somewhere else and Yeah. Yeah ... but, Yeah ... yeah, the standard. But, ... after my accident, I didn't feel comfortable on stage as an actor as much anymore. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I worked At Knoebels Grove Amusement Park, there's a big castle there. The Time Machine Theater when I was about 15 years old. Okay. And I've been telling stories there. Storytelling is not quite the same as theater, I felt a little more comfortable as a storyteller for some reason. Okay. Mm-hmm. And then I saw, Jay O'Callaghan coming to- Yeah ... bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, and I saw he's a nationally acclaimed storyteller. I'm like, "That's interesting." I [00:17:00] went to see his performance, and it was the most impactful performance that i've ever experienced. It was so profound, it made me decide I need to be a storyteller. So after that, Hal Pratt, 

Aaron: I know Hal and I- Okay ... I knew that he did storytelling, but I don't know that I ever saw any of his work. I did- that, that's a facet of his that I didn't know about, so that's 

Lethan: very cool. Well, if you ever get a chance he's a remarkable storyteller.

He and Karen Rozell. She used to be the children's librarian at Bloomsburg Public Library as well. They are just remarkable storytellers. They became my first two mentors.

I found out about a graduate program in storytelling. And one thing led to another, and my master's thesis was actually the first draft of this piece I'm gonna share. And it- it's evolved a lot since then, but that was- 

Aaron: Mm-hmm ... 

Lethan: the short of how I got to that piece. 

Aaron: It's interesting hearing the distinction between actor versus storyteller. So when you- Yeah ... when you say storytelling what do you mean and how do you draw that line and distinction between storyteller and actor? 

Lethan: Like you say, s- we tell stories all the time. You also have to draw the distinction between someone who tells [00:18:00] stories and a storyteller.

With a storyteller, you have the world of the story and you're creating this whole world on the stage as well, but it's also a direct communication with the audience. My my mentor in graduate school he used to point out how- If you're looking for a comparative art form, stand-up comedy is actually a lot- closer to storytelling. But stand-up comedy you're hitting, you're trying to hit the punchline. You're trying to hit the joke every- Right ... 30 seconds. Right. While storytelling you can go for more sustained, sometimes it's funny, but you're going for a more sustained build. And so storytelling kinda rests in this weird limbo gray zone- between character performance and casual guy at the bar and stand-up comedy.

Aaron: It also seems to me that your canvas isn't necessarily what's happening on the stage, it's happening in the minds of the people that you're sharing that story with. That's what it sounds like in your description. 

Lethan: I'm glad. I'm glad 'cause th- that is actually one thing I was taught in graduate school, and I don't entirely agree with this- but if you see a really wonderful storyteller you don't see the storyteller at all. You completely forget there's a performer on stage. You get lost in that canvas [00:19:00] of your mind. And it could be I'm just not quite at that level of storytelling yet. But I do think there is a performative aspect that is very important.

Aaron: Mm-hmm ... 

Lethan: as I play the verbal collage, because I play about eight or nine different characters in the piece. And they're all distinct characters, so it has a very theatrical element to it in that way. But fluid and it's all talking to the audience. People see each character as a distinct character- telling their story, but they also still feel that each character is talking to them. It's about that direct connection. 

Aaron: On your website, you mentioned storytelling playing an important role in recovery from brain injury. Can you just tell me a little bit more about that and how you've found it useful for yourself and hope others might experience similarly? 

Lethan: Yeah, certainly. That, that's actually one of the things that I really feel strong call to, I hope to kind of, continue some of this work and continue some of this research bec- ' cause I've written some articles about it. The idea is I found storytelling through Jay O'Callahan, and I was recovering, but I knew I wasn't back to where I was. That I had become a different person. Mm. That's one of the, things [00:20:00] about trauma in general, is it's an instant change where a whole part of your personality is changed. Now, some trauma it's easier to synthesize that change with who you are now. But with brain injury, it's really hard, 'cause you don't even necessarily recognize that change happened, because you don't remember- you had brain injury.

Aaron: Yeah. 

Lethan: And I was trying to adapt to this change. I didn't wanna be an actor, which is what I had wanted to be from the time I was 11 till 17. Yeah. So I had this idea and I was trying to take this new idea of who I am now. And there was also things that I knew were hanging on from the accident, and I address that a little bit in the piece. Then I found storytelling, and I had this idea I wanna tell my story. When I went to graduate school I end up getting involved with a brain injury rehabilitation center- that was just down the road from my house. And we- Yeah ... I started actually a several year relationship with them. And meeting other survivors of brain injury, which I hadn't done a lot of before.

'Cause once I got out of the hospital, I was trying to get back to my life in Bloomsburg. I was trying to go back to the quote, unquote, "normal life." But once I got into [00:21:00] meeting all the other- survivors, we began sharing stories of survival, and I began to see how many similar themes there were in our stories. The details are different, but the stories are the same. And that helped me see how it's not all my story, and by making it not my story, I began to be able to heal more. Mm-hmm. Because I saw more o- more people are like me.

Aaron: Pointing back to a common frame of reference.

There's something human that we define ourselves through narrative, I think. Mm-hmm. And w- when you can see a common narrative, that it's not just mine, that it is something more broadly human in one way or another that it expands our ability to define ourselves.

Lethan: Yeah. By finding those threads of narrative that are similar, it allowed me to kinda synthesize- Mm-hmm ... my own story. One of the things I love about storytelling. This is where it's differs from theater in some ways, with storytelling, it's your story, so who knows where it's gonna go? 

Aaron: It can evolve. Yeah. It can shift. It can change with you.

Lethan: Exactly. And I was talking to my now wife, she was my girlfriend at the time- about that. And, She said, "Lethan, this is all really good, but you're kind of, you're [00:22:00] writing the same thing that you said originally in the piece. You're not doing anything new. What does this mean to you now?" 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Lethan: And that caused me to go back and approach the piece again. And I started writing a book I started through a series of blog entries that I put together, Eventually I began to see that there was a theme in this piece about storytelling. And my hypothesis, specifically w- with brain injury, when trauma happens, everything changes, and even if you have someone saying, "Oh, this happened, so this is why you're different." That doesn't make sense to you because there's no experience by which you can define it.

And so you don't have a narrative to explain who you are now as opposed to who you are were then. We're talking about narrative defining us together. By creating a performative drama piece, you are creating a piece that- necessarily the narrative can be understood by an audience. That's the aim. That's the goal. 

Aaron: Right. 

Lethan: And because of that, you have to create a piece that you yourself understand. And I think narrative therapy and drama therapy, there's a point to that, but it's more about the expression, and it's not necessarily putting into a cogent form.

Aaron: You're not doing the, line drawing, right? If you [00:23:00] have a bunch of disparate dots, you're doing the work of drawing the line to the next dot, it sounds to me like the work of writing show is the building of those pathways, and I can only imagine... is that something that you feel? Is that something that you experience happening while you're doing it, or is it something you realize later on?

Lethan: That's a really good question. I think- you have a realization where you're doing something and you're like oh, that makes sense now. When you're doing storytelling, you're making these forms, and people start noticing how you are able to express yourself a little bit clearer. I think that's probably the best way is when someone says, " So what happened to you?" 

Aaron: Oh, wow. 

Lethan: You have a story you can say, " This is what happened. This is who I was, this is who I am now, and this is where the change happened." 

Aaron: Gotcha. But it's constructed after the fact as opposed to remembering an experience.

Lethan: Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Interesting. I think because the experience isn't necessarily remembered. Right. Right. But by constructing it after the fact- You create the narrative. And it's, in some ways it's like memory, because memory is not objective. Memory is in no way concrete, and memory is not real. [00:24:00] Sure. You construct your memories. 

I guess this is how I feel about my piece, 'cause right now I have this piece that is really well-received and has had a lot of great feedback. But I wanna take that to the research level, and I had , the privilege of publishing with some doctors who actually found my book, and we started a little- ... collaboration from New Zealand and Australia. But we published an article in the Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences. And what we found is- The use and research on using storytelling as therapy is minimal.

But the responses have been overwhelmingly positive for people reestablishing identity after trauma. 

Aaron: Sure. 

Lethan: And that's one of the things, that, I feel re- really called to do. My dream fantasy is that this piece can be picked up to a point where I can get enough notoriety that I can actually approach some hospitals and approach some medical universities, and we can put together some programs where we start doing experiments of how can we use storytelling as a therapy.

Aaron: And not just have the potent anecdotal evidence, but this is true. Let's look at this [00:25:00] further.

Lethan: Exactly.

Aaron: Lethan, thank you so much for chatting with me.

Lethan: I'm really looking forward to coming. I'm re- really looking forward to being there and sharing time- ... with this community that I love.

 Bloomsburg is my penultimate show have a show in State College on the 20th

I think. 

Aaron: uh,

Break legs, I guess, in, in, in the Midwest

Lethan: well, in StoryTime we say bust a lung. 

Aaron: Bust a lung?

Lethan: Instead of break a leg, bust a lung. 

Aaron: All right. Bust a lung, friend. Hopefully. And do... And we'll see you when you're in town.

Proof 

Aaron: In the spring we have Proof by David Auburn. 

Abby: Bum ba bum ba. Math. 

And not just math. There is a really cool human component to Proof. I remember seeing this on Broadway in its last iteration with Mary-Louise Parker. It's on Broadway right now.

Amy: Mm-hmm. I believe still, yes. 

Aaron: I think it closes in August. It is... it's a favorite play of ours. And yes, math is a part of it, hence Proof. But also a question about when [00:26:00] someone says they've done something, we ask them to show proof right? And that's a major part of the, the play. So there's a fun mystery tied into it. And a family legacy.

Amy: I remember being really floored by it, and surprised. It's always fun when a play is able to surprise you. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Amy: And, this one really surprised me. In a way that has stuck with me- Yeah ... for quite a long time. 

Aaron: I remember not being able to look away from Mary-Louise Parker as Catherine, and I- Oh,

Amy: I would have loved to have seen her in that 

Aaron: role ... she was incredible. And it was a rainy day. We were soaked. And anyway it was just like the per- one of those Broadway moments that I'm... I still hold dear in my memory. But it is a play that grabs you and then draws you in, and it makes you laugh, and it makes you root for a different character- depending upon what moment it's in. So I'm thrilled that we get to bring it to Bloomsburg and and show our audiences it. Ba. And then you wanna do Charlie? You do

In the Thrust configuration

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical

Amy: Then [00:27:00] we will be rounding out the summer with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the musical.

Aaron: In a world of pure imagination. Pure imagination. Ooh, harmony buddy good 

job. 

Abby: I'm prepping. 

Amy: I am super excited about this one. This one is a newer musical. The rights just became available for it fairly recently. It is not your mom's Willy Wonka. I will say that it is...

if you are a fan of the Gene Wilder one, there is just enough of that flavor- Mm-hmm ... of Willy Wonka in there to, to appease you, but it is much more of the, the Johnny Depp family of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is dark. This music for this one is so trendy and interesting.

Aaron: music is by Marc Shaiman someone who can write an earworm . Known for Hairspray, for the adaptation of Mary Poppins Some Like It Hot.

Abby: Addams Family. [00:28:00] Mary Poppins.

uh- Catch Me If You Can ... Catch Me If You Can. Yeah. So a Broadway juggernaut, and we get to bring his music to the Alvina Krause stage, which is thrilling. 

Amy: I think my favorite part is what they have done with Mike Teavee. Mm-hmm. Where he is turned into an iPad kid, and the Oompa Loompa song around Mike Teavee is called "Vidiots." It's my favorite song in the entire musical. 

Abby: As in video and idiots, 'cause when she first said that to me, I was like, "I don't understand." For the people who are a little slow on the uptake- ... I am explaining it for you.

Amy: And we get to kill children. 

Abby: Besides the the adolescent homicide, what excites me is I'm always a fan of nostalgia, but I'm even a bigger fan of nostalgia when there's a modern twist, you will hear me complain, no shade, but you will hear me complain about My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, all the things that are the traditional productions- Mm-hmm ... that the-

Amy: I would argue My Fair Lady is an adaptation of [00:29:00] Pygmalion, so you know. 

Abby: But the musical version- There are expectations with it that- yeah

The horse race scene, all those things are things that are expected to be a specific way, and a lot of productions will attack it with that in mind. So this is something that has similar expectations, through film, but this, has a twist to it that will pay homage to the nostalgia of what we loved maybe growing up, it also is like, but hold on to your hats- You're gonna have a little bit of a different experience here and I'm really a fan of that.

Amy: And it speaks to Aaron's Ludditeness in some capacities. It's a warning fable.

What? What's the term for that? There's a term for that when it comes out of my mouth, I'm gonna feel really dumb. 

Grassho- ant and the grasshopper. Yeah. Fable. Well, Aesop's Fable. Oh, shoot. 

Amy: It is a cautionary tale. You could make an argument that Charlie and the Chocolate [00:30:00] Factory is a morality play maybe.

Because it rewards the one person. A- and even after that reward happens, you have to get over the fact that he also was not perfect. 

Amy: Yeah. 

Anyway celebrates the foibles of human nature and- 

Abby: A parable? 

Aaron: Parable. That's the word maybe.

This is thrilling. I can't wait for people to hear this podcast.

Play Tastings

Aaron: So on top of all of those titles, we also have three Play-tastings. As Cry It Out was a play tasting earlier in the year.

We're gonna try out "Or," by Liz Duffy Adams, which is a really fun farce, but very text-driven, and we're curious about how folks will navigate the, the text of the play. , I think it's very fun and hilarious play, but we'll find out. 

Amy: It- It's a sexy play ...

Aaron: it's a sexy play. 

Mm-hmm. Yeah, 

Aaron: In a way that we haven't done a whole lot of sexy plays.

We've been doing a lot of family fare recently, and hopefully will be a fun play that way. Over Winter by Mackenzie Rayne Kirkman and Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector. Three [00:31:00] really interesting, I like to call them discovery titles that we discovered in our last play selection process and are excited to read in front of folks and see what they think so maybe we can program it in next season and get some excitement going around those titles.

Sliding Scale

Aaron: I mentioned before that Cry It Out has a different way of engaging with our community. Amy, you've been working along with Kimie and a lot of other folks in the ensemble to bring a new way to come see shows at the Alvina Krause Theatre.

You wanna talk about that? 

Amy: Yeah, absolutely. I'm super excited about this initiative. As everybody knows, the cost of everything is rising. That is true for theater as well. It is becoming more and more expensive for us to make our shows, and we are noticing fewer and fewer people able to pay the cost of admission to come and see them. So in order to get more people through our doors and make our work more accessible, while also hopefully netting us enough income [00:32:00] from those attendees to keep going into the future, we are introducing a sliding scale ticketing system for our main stage plays.

Five predetermined tiers. You get to choose what makes the most financial sense for you, pay that price for your ticket, come and see our show.

We trust that our community wants us here- ... and that people want to be able to come and see our shows.

So we are hoping those that are able to pay a little bit more will do so in order to fund those that need a lower price ticket to be able to do so, so that everybody can come. Our houses will be more full. The experience will be better for you as an audience, for us , the actors on stage.

Anybody that was able to come and see Radiant Vermin, we had the restricted seating. We put it up on stage, and so what would've been a very small audience in our big full theater house felt [00:33:00] like a full live experience, and it just changed the entire dynamic of the way that, that people experienced those shows.

Aaron: Yeah. People talking to each other afterwards, people being excited about experiencing what they experienced together. We are also doing that with Cry It Out. We'll have onstage seating for that. We'll- we're actually changing the theater space for Proof. We'll be in thrust seating. So we're looking for ways to give folks that communal experience, and sliding scale pricing is another way to invite folks to come.

Amy: You can see a BTE show for just $16. Tell everyone you know. The goal is to get as many people through our doors as humanly possible. 

Aaron: What's really great a- about this sliding scale is that if you are someone who has the capacity and wants to make sure that we make it to the 50th, to the 60th season, right, that we have the true price cost, which is $36. , 

Amy: Our recommended ticket price is staying very close to what it has been for the last three years. And that is $36. That's the price that if everybody paid that price, [00:34:00] we would be able to pay to produce our shows- 

If you want to sustain and match the rising costs and keep the quality of performances where they are, you can pay $46. And if you wanna give the gift of theater to someone else that would, maybe wouldn't be able to come without your gift the $56 price ticket is an opportunity for small philanthropy every time you pay a ticket.

I like to think of it as passing it forward. Yeah. Right? It's a pay-it-forward model. 

Amy: Pay-it-forward 

situ- situation. I can't tell you sometimes where I was getting a f- I got a free taco from Four Taco- Yeah ... because

Amy: Someone paid a- 

Paid it forward.

Amy: Yeah. Right. If you enjoy doing the pay it forward in the Starbucks line.

Yeah. This is a great way to go about giving that gift of theater to someone who, who would like to come but

Amy: Finds the cost a barrier. 

Exactly. 

Amy: Which for so many people, I'm right there in that boat. 

Yeah. Me too. A- and so between the true cost, the recommended ticket price, and the $16 ticket that Amy mentioned earlier, we also have the $26 ticket 

Amy: You're saying, "I can't [00:35:00] quite pay your recommended price, but I can pay a little bit more than the 16." I mean it when I say a trust in our community. Yeah. That we, we are trusting that you want us here and that you're gonna pay what makes sense for you.

Yeah. And in order to enable that to happen we have a wide spread of pricing options. You can choose a ticket price that's most closely related to what you've paid in the past. If you paid a senior price or if you paid a student price- Mm-hmm ... or a child ticket price, you can pick the price that mirrors that.

If you're doing your finances for the month and you realize that you can stretch your funds and spend an extra $10 to give the gift of theater to somebody else- ... please do. 

Aaron: Come and join us and get filled up. The more I look at screens ... i'll bring it right around- Yeah. Yeah ... callback, right? The more I feel disconnected.. I feel thin and I feel empty. Coming to a live performance and sharing things with human beings fills me up with a sense of of joy and connectedness.

And if you want that to fill up your cup 

Amy: Yeah ... 

of human connection. 

Amy: And I think [00:36:00] this is an exciting way for us to do this, and something unlike anything that we've done before. The, the only thing that I can liken it to is back when we had the $12 subscription model. Yeah. But you had to commit to a whole year of $12 a month.

There's no commitment here. Right. You can come see one show for $16. Maybe it's a title you're not sure about. Yeah. And you're like, "Eh, I don't know that I wanna pay $36 to go see this title I'm not sure about." Come and check it out for 16. And then if you really liked it, come back. 

All right.

Amy: Yeah. Tell your friends. Yeah. Share it with other people. Yeah. 

My hope is that folks will use this for return visits. That- Yeah ... they like the show. Go watch it again, right? Mm-hmm. In the theaters. This gives folks an option to do that in a affordable way. 

Amy: Yeah, and an exciting thing about seeing theater multiple times is that- 

Aaron: It is different 

Amy: every time ... it is different every time. You'd never get the same, exact same performance two times and that is the, the beauty of- Yeah

this weird ephemeral art that we do.

Sum Up.

Aaron: Well, thanks for sitting and chatting and sharing

Amy: yeah, I'm excited. [00:37:00] I feel like there's a little something for everybody-

if you're a parent Cry It Out is, a rock solid title- to kick off. A wonderful family friendly show for Christmas that I think could appeal to anyone. Neuroinfluencers could not be more timely. Especially as AI is exploding, and as we're all on our devices, the a, a good look at what that is doing to our brain chemistry is really important.

Yes. 

Abby: Yeah,

Amy: Proof anybody that's thought about life, legacy, family, themes that would appeal to almost anybody.

And then Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is gonna be good old- dark fun. 

A musical on stage in the summer, a summer event to come into the air conditioning when it's sweltering hot, and come and see a show. 

Amy: Yes. 

Thanks, guys, for chatting with me. 

Amy: Thank you, Aaron. 

You betcha. 

Amy: Yeah. See 

Aaron: you later. 

Amy: Bye. 

Aaron: Bye. Bye.

Outro

Aaron: This has been Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center. Ensemble-driven professional theatre, arts education in rural Pennsylvania for [00:38:00] everyone, with everyone.

Season 49 tickets are on sale now. All the shows we've announced in this episode, plus presented events, Theatre School classes, and Play Tastings are just a click away on our website or by calling the box office at 570-784-8181.

You heard Lethan Candlish share a little bit about his show, Who Am I Again?, coming to the Alvina Krause Theatre on August 15th, sponsored by Geisinger and Encompass Health. And on August 21st and 22nd, the hometown band Norwood makes a triumphant return to the Alvina Krause stage with their special blend of heart-pumping rock and epic storytelling in Over the Shire and Far Away, with a very special Center Street Beer Garden event on Saturday, August 22nd.

For more information and to get your tickets, visit www.bte.org

End Tag

Kimie: And- Bam, ba-da-bam, 

[00:39:00] Bum. Jingle jingle. 

Kimie: Bum. Jingle, jingle. Wow, an angel just got his wings. So yeah, Folks who have been enjoying 

I have it tuned up for-- You can-- No, back away. Back away 

Kimie: Folks who have been enjoying BTE for a long time may remember our productions of "Merry Christmas, George Bailey," the radio play.

This is going to be very different. This is- 

Did you say, "

Aaron: It's 

a Wonderful Life"? 

Kimie: I did say it. 

Amy: No 

Kimie: one did. 

Aaron: Yeah, 

Kimie: she did. Yeah, I did. She 

did. Okay. Because then I made the noise. Yeah. I was thinking about making the noise, and I wasn't listening to you. I'm so sorry. Continue on.

Amy: I think just say go from It's a Wonderful Life again, just so Aaron knows he's gotta say- Great.

Aaron: And then

Amy: This is s- that was such a good transition, Aaron. It was. And- 

Everybody hold on to this segue.