Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 7.50, it's FLX Morning Monday, brought to you by NSTEC Automotive and Trailer, your go-to destination for hauling and vehicle services. 2567 Edwards Road, Waterloo, online at nstecautomotive.com. We love doing our theater interviews, and Tina Bonner's with us with the South Seneca Falcons players. Good morning.
Tina Bauder: Good morning, Ted. We've got the Mount Olympus Diner coming up in just a few days, so before I get carried away with the story, give us the dates, places, and times.
Paul Szmal: Sure, our dates for the show are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this coming weekend, December 6th, 7th, and 8th, and on Friday and Saturday the show is at 7.30, and on Sunday the show we have a matinee at 2 o'clock at South Seneca High School Auditorium in Ovid. Tickets are very reasonable, $6 at the door, general admission, $5 for students and senior citizens, so this is neat, we get our comedy mixed in with a little education. We learn a little bit of Greek mythology and stuff in between, so tell us about the Mount Olympus Diner.
Tina Bauder: Yeah, actually, it's a great play. It's basically Zeus and Hera have a restaurant on Earth, and lo and behold, somebody from, you know, that Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives show, we won't say his real name, but comes to visit their diner, and so he hears that their food is great, but even bigger than that, they tell stories to all of their customers, so they have a Greek chorus, they have a bunch of the characters out of the myths of the Greek stories and legends and gods and goddesses, and we have some fun telling some of those stories in our show. And then we mix a little of the modern day in as well. We have a track star named Nike, and we have some Amazon guys, and so it sounds wacky.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. Well, it's wacky, but you know what's fun is the kids really realizing, oh my gosh, a lot of what we have around us is named after, based on some of these stories, you know. Hearing, you know, their big surprise, Amazon and Nike, of course, are the big ones, I'm like, well, where do you think these things came from?
Tina Bauder: Exactly. Well, and for that matter, look at names like Ovid and Ithaca and all of those that are out of Greek mythology. How many people know that?
Paul Szmal: Yeah, not a lot. I know that in our middle school, our sixth graders study it, and of course, you know, the Percy Jackson series really helped a lot in terms of a little bit of background for kids because they're really into that, but they just, they're eating it up, so am I, we're having fun. Got a 14-member cast. Tell us a little bit about this cast.
Tina Bauder: Yeah, I got a great group of kids. Some of them have been doing shows for several years. Some of them are brand new to the theater. We have, you know, we always have challenges in a small school when it comes to, you know, casting shows, boys, girls, this, that, but we've learned how to work with that and create a production that everybody can enjoy, and the group of kids that I have is just fantastic. They are a lot of fun to work with and grow with, and they're becoming my theater leaders, so it's awesome.
Paul Szmal: Are the new kids sometimes scared coming in, and how do you bring them through that? How do you direct and coach a newbie?
Tina Bauder: Well, I'll tell you, it takes a lot of patience, and it takes a lot of the whole group working together. It's nice to have different levels, kids that have been on the stage before and kids who haven't. They see from each other that it's, you know, they get a little nervous. I had one young sixth grader say to me a couple of weeks ago, you mean I have to memorize this? So, you know, you go from that extreme to the ones who walk in with things more memorized than, you know, and it just is fun to watch, and they grow together. They learn patience, they learn grace, they learn all kinds of things working with each other on that stage. So, it's a wonderful thing. Theater in school, theater programs top the list. Obviously, I'm biased, but when it comes to learning life skills, we do it. We do it every day, and they learn so much.
Paul Szmal: I'd be really scared because I'm the kind of person that will, I'll remember a line through 93 rehearsals, and then on the big night, I'll freeze up.
Tina Bauder: And it happens, you know, that does happen. I always warn them that anything is possible, right? Scarier times, you know, what is it, the actor's nightmare? They just get in the loop, and they can't get out of it on stage. So, it's real. They also, you know, the other big fear that I always try to make sure they're aware of is, you know, we, this day and age, we use microphones, but, you know, historically, you know, we are learning to project, and they could certainly project, trust me, because kids are loud, but they get up there, and the first thing that goes is your, you know, your air, right, because you get nervous.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. So, you talk about how blips happen, you know, actors forget to turn on a microphone or something happens weird, a battery thing, whatever, you got to be ready. And that's one of the beauties of school theater is they learn how to, on the fly, make a situation turn out better than it was just about to, you know.
Tina Bauder: Even when you practice for weeks and weeks and weeks, things can happen. It's live theater. It's a beauty and a curse at the same time. I love that school theater and community theater, too, because, obviously, we talk about the community service players. It is thriving so well, and particularly in our area. I mean, I live in the Marcus Whitman School District. I've seen a couple of their productions, and every single time, I come away blown away saying, these cannot be high school kids doing this.
Paul Szmal: No, you're right. I shouldn't be so surprised, but, you know, those last two weeks make a huge difference, you know, nothing like the last minute, right, and nothing like pulling it together. But I have a great faith in youth. That's really what I'm all about. Yes, they can get nervous. Yes, there can be, you know, this is a worrisome thing, but they pull through. They really do, and they work hard. And, you know, they learn how to work through the nervousness, which is huge in this day and age, being anxious or, you know, being worried about things, and they just focus on it. They know. They call this, lovingly call this week Hell Week, and probably most schools across the country, because this is where a lot of guts get pulled together, and the glue happens, and it's a beautiful thing to watch, and I really have. I've been blessed to be able to do it here at South Seneca for 33 years, and working with different groups of kids and different adults. My adults are also a godsend, you know. I have a team. I could never do any of this by myself. I have a tech director, Jared Pratt, who was one of my students when he was from middle school on, and I have several of my former students are my either tech director, costumer, help with just about everything in the show, and it's quite an adult team too, and I want to make sure that I give them a lot of credit, because without them, we would not pull it all together for sure.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it's going to be fun and funny, the Mount Olympus Diner. It's a comedy written by Stephen Murray. It'll be at the South Seneca High School Auditorium in Ovid this Friday night, 730, Saturday, 730, Sunday, 2 p.m. Tickets at the door, only $6 for general admission, $5 for students and senior citizens. Tina, it's always great to talk South Seneca players with you, and best of luck. Break a leg.
Tina Bauder: Thank you so much, Ted.
