Faire Folk at Work
Beaverton High School (1st Period)
Welcome to another episode of Fair Folk at Work, Beaverton High School Edition with their teacher Shannon Derry. You know when I talk about Shannon with everybody at the fair they say what's he doing and I say he's teaching at high school. We then all sort of go yeah that kind of makes sense. So Shannon welcome and tell who you have here and what you've been up to. Well we have Hudson and Max and they are part of the Barney Bratz and the Barney Bratz are a group that I put together a couple years ago to bring kids to the fair keep the fair alive. Where do you get these kids? From my drama program at Beaverton High School I teach them the old shows, the old narrative shows and how to pass the hat and how to play games and how to do stuff on the street and how to have fun at the fair. We do two or three, it used to be three, but then we do one of the Renaissance here in Oregon. We do the Canterbury Fair and we might do the Shrewsbury Fair as well. It's real fun. The parents come along and we camp out. We were just like a guild at the Renaissance fair and we build a stage and we decorate it and we paint it up and some of the kids write shows once they learn the style of theater for the Renaissance fair and they write a show. Some of them do the old classics like the one you wrote, Yield Tale of Good King Arthur. Thank you very much. We learn how to pass the hat. I'm still waiting for the residual check. It's in the mail. Oh, yeah. Okay. I'll look for it. Yes, yes, please do. It's one of those things that I thought fair was such an influence on me as a kid. I felt so lucky to be able to go and participate in this place that valued learning, that valued talent, that valued humor, that valued all these really wonderful things that at school we do value it, but it's not it's not in the real world. And here's a chance to try all the stuff we teach in the classroom but in the real world. And a chance to just have fun and to be in that whole immersive Renaissance fair experience, which I think is amazing. I think Phyllis created something that's so valuable for people, but for kids especially, I think being a fair brat like I was, I was pretty lucky, you know, being in a safe, fun environment that was caring and that was based on humor and art and creativity was so valuable. And having done the the fair circuit for a couple years started seeing that the fairs are changing and we're getting a lot of circuit acts, not that they're bad, they're great, I love them, but that's all there is now. And when you know, I grew up there was, you know, comedia troops, there was, you know, little, you know, groups of people, groups of friends who would come together and put together narrative plays, period plays, there was Canterbury Tales and, and then, yeah, how about we hear from the kids themselves? Absolutely. So here's what's going to happen. Max and Hudson have been given a question to answer ahead of time. After answering that, they'll give a series of questions that they have never heard before, followed by an improv game created just before we went on the air and is new to them. Why don't we go in the order we set up first? So Hudson will be first Hudson, what grade are you going into? And then answer the first question, what was the time you first saw something theatrical and thought that was something that you wanted to do? Then what thought or action or person propelled you to actually do something on stage? Yeah, so my name is Hudson, I'm going into junior year, the answer the first question. The first time I saw something theatrical was actually my grandma. She writes and performs her own plays back in Utah. She's been doing that since I was born, so it's always been kind of a thing. You know, all of my aunts and uncles were on the stage performing, doing dances and all that. Can I interrupt? What kind of shows is your grandma write? Oh, so she wrote the first play she wrote was about my great great grandma, Tia. It's about her life and her story living through the great depression and a bunch of difficult things. And it's a musical, so she wrote all of the songs herself. She it's a one-woman play and she goes around and performs it and it's it's really cool. Have you ever been in one of your grandma's shows? Not that I can remember, no. You might have been baby number two in the great migration across America or something. Oh yeah, just kind of just kind of existing in the background, you know? And then how did you get? Do you remember? I'm fascinated by this. Do you remember the first show you saw of hers? The first time I ever saw her on the stage was when I was about five or six and we went to go see The Nutcracker, which was like a annual thing that my family went to. And she and my aunt Megan were on stage dancing and just performing and I thought, oh my gosh, that's that's so cool because they had like snow falling from the ceiling. They had ballet is awesome. And then the first time I got introduced to like stage performing was actually watching Hamilton, which is kind of a cliche, you know? Everybody loves Hamilton, you know? But that was the first time I saw something similar to what my grandma did and was like, that's actually something you can do. You can be on stage and perform. And I thought that was so cool. Do your parents have a theatrical component to their lives? No, but they have a musical component. They're both musicians and they both play some kind of weird instruments, not typical. My dad plays the organ. He does that for church and we have one in our living room. And then my mom plays the harp and the piano. So music's always been kind of a big thing in the family. So performing. You talked about your aha moment. Was there somebody who sort of gave you a shove to get on stage? I think my parents have always been that big. You have a great voice. You should go sing more. And then when I when I first got to high school, that's really when it's when I started because I was walking down the hall and I saw a poster that had the date and time for Percy Jackson auditions, the musical. And I love Percy Jackson and I love musicals. So at that point I was like, hey, that would be kind of cool. But I was a little nervous. So I went home and told my mom about it and she encouraged me and was like, that's absolutely something you should do. You should try it. Fair enough. Max, same series of questions for you. What was the first time you saw something theatrical and what made you get up on the stage? The first time I saw something theatrical was actually Thanksgiving. My cousin Aiden. He was talking about Barty Braff and he read like a script for me and I thought that was so interesting. And I remember going to go see Beauty and the Beast. I thought that looks so fun. What part of Beauty and the Beats appealed to you? I really liked just like everything about it, but especially like watching like people just like perform and like be funny like judgment, I guess. And you said I want to be the one making the people laugh. Yeah, I think I'm ready for my next question. And looking back on what you've done so far on the stage, what and this will be for you, Max at the start. What moment do you remember giving you the greatest joy? Oh, it's a hard one. A time when you just said, wow, I'm in the right place at the right time. I would have to go with learning the one of our when I like the opening scene Hobbit Dance with that was really fun and it gave me so much joy to do it. And what were you doing? I don't know the show so you'll have to give me some kind of context. We were doing a dance for like when the show opened. I think I don't know what this dance was called. It just made you happy. Yeah, it just made me happy. Okay, Hudson, can you answer the question as well? Oh, could you repeat the question? Oh, of course, there you are being all professional. What theatrical experience moment or moment thus far has given you the most joy. There are two that come to mind, like just immediately come to mind. The first one would be in a production we did Dr. Horrible and I was cast as moist who sounds it's exactly sounds like a choice role. Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely not my favorite. The costume was I was just drenched in water constantly. So I was just stopping wet. But what's up in this and talk to Shannon the director a little later about how you made this choice to cast Matt as moist. But continue please as your dream stage. So moist was the main character sidekick and he had a little song and I think that was the first moment as it was like a jazzy upbeat little thing I had a top hat and a cane and I was doing kicks everywhere. There was one you remember can you I'm sorry to interrupt but can you sing a few bars from moist enter the song? Oh gosh yeah I can try. Nobody wants to be moist on the dance floor I glide on stairs I'm petrified. That's so hairy we've died. So yeah it's a song about how nobody wants to be moist and how he just his powers are his powers suck. Shannon I'm gonna have to break this this conversation up but did you write this song and or how responsible are you for this production? For that particular production we had it was a student directed piece it was from Dr. Horrible's what's the full title of Dr. Horrible? Dr. Horrible's sing along blog. And it's a show that's able to be produced and the student wanted to do it and so we did it. We started our our awesome year last year with that show. I am I'm I'm gonna just say I'm in awe and you can just sort of insert that in through the rest of the interview but Hudson you said there were two a moment that compares to that one. Well so the first moment was I was on stage as moist and I was doing my little dance and one of the pictures on the wall fell off and broke during like a dance break and so I turned over to it and I said I didn't do it and that got a laugh and that's when I was like oh this is this is what I want to do this is amazing just the quick little improv the little just the little things that go on stage and then the second time was as a golem. I the whole Hobbit show is very upbeat and very light except for my scene. My scene the lighting goes all blue which is not a color that's in the lighting scheme and looking back on the recording like this hush kind of fell over the audience as soon as I like crawled out on stage like it got serious which was really cool and I felt really spooky and I liked the power that that gave me you know. Shannon why do you like the floor so much in your movie right along I'm gonna give the next question to Max to start off with and I'm gonna switch back to fair and I just like to get your impression of what fair is like. I thought it was really cool it was very like it felt like a very happy place and it like felt very safe like especially with it being so big and open. Okay you mean five adjectives you would use to describe fair to somebody who's never been there. Guys I forgot what an adjective is and Shannon the teacher would you who's teaching a high school English summer school would you like to jump in on that? So you remember adjectives describing word? Oh yes. Okay um I'd say it's very lively like lively much upbeat is definitely one of the things I'd say. How does your body feel when you get out to fair? I'm excited. What was your fair costume? I can't look like a peasant I actually used my hobbit pants again that was it was very like light so I want to get too hot. Fair enough. What made you want to be a peasant? I'm not sure actually. You already had the pants so the rest of it followed. Okay Hudson same thing for you what was your first impression of fair? My first impression of the fair was that it was a very tight knit community that had been going on for a long time. It was there are a lot of connections and people that you could meet and people who are like friends that don't see each other very often. That's actually quite perceptive. What was your fair costume? My fair costume was a lot of it so this was my second year so my first costume was all of the stuff from the department and I was a little bit more fancy. It was all blue all very ruffles but this year I got a bunch of stuff off of Amazon and toned it down a bit so I have like a little pouch thing and a green little vest and boots. My pants haven't arrived yet they still aren't here so I'm just wearing black leggings underneath everything but it's definitely more of like a also a peasant vibe because that's just that's just me you know. I'm a peasant. We're very much a peasant. Yeah. Thank you. I pride myself on my peasant vibes. I think it's also your turn to do the next question. How does your experience at fair compared to non-fair theatrical experiences that you have done? The fair is a lot more improv and bouncing off of whoever is in front of you. State productions are more scripted like you know what's gonna happen and there's still a little bit room for improv but not as much as you would get at the fair. Max it's your turn. How do you feel working out at the fair versus being on stage patrons on real seats rather than haybills? It's definitely a lot more improv like Hudson said. Most of what I'm doing is like stage managing and that's very new to me and though I enjoy it very much like it's very different from stage managing a normal show like during like Mamma Mia or like the Hobbit. What do you like about stage managing? I just like being able to see like the audience watch these people shows and like how every time they like they should improv because every shows are like a little bit different with some things. Max if you could start your own fair what time period or fantasy world would it be and what would be your role? Oh I think I would stick with like the Renaissance times. I definitely like time period. Maybe like a night. I think a night would be really cool to do. Well how would your Renaissance fair be different from the Silverton Canterbury fair? I'm not sure. Okay fair enough because of the Canterbury fair I would like to point out to my listening audience of maybe 20 is that it is a nice fair it's in a nice there are a lot of trees. It really looks nice and the people there are you know I would say it it tends a little bit more to towards pirates and elves than your fair in Nagura but it has a very nice vibe to it. Okay Hudson you get to make your own Renaissance fair what time period or fantasy period would you do it? I would do it in either the 1700s, 1800s that time era it would be I'm kind of thinking on like a dock. Okay more you've just arrived in this new place and there's a bunch of stalls and cool things that you can look at like welcome to this place I would be I think more 1800s. Why 1800s? That's my favorite time period and why is it your favorite time period? Because the clothing in that time period is so cool like we we've downgraded I want to go back to the 1800s style of clothing and what would be your role in the 17th century fair? I would be I'd be the town beggar I'd be the town weird guy who goes up and like harasses people and gives them cool trinkets and mutters into their beard and yeah that sounds like fun yeah and so you get to answer the first question next question first. Do you know what you know you guys know what a counterfactual is right? No. No. Interfactual is like imagine a world where the South one the Civil War or Germany won World War II and anything that might blow from that. Okay yeah you imagine a world with no theater there's no theater TV movies there's no no media kind of stuff what do you see as your career path? Honestly probably the same career path I'm going towards now which is a funeral director okay but I do see myself going into like healthcare okay like but for animals you know pets. A veterinarian yeah yeah I've always liked that too. Is there a particular type of animal that you would gravitate towards treating? Birds and cats. You realize as you put the two together that would not be a good thing. Yeah no that probably wouldn't be good. Well the cats would probably appreciate it the birds less so. The birds would they would not like me. You would be the Sweeney Todd of veterinarians. Oh yeah Max same question to you in a world without acting TV theater movies what would be your career path? My career path has always been the same in theology. I've always wanted to be a zoologist. Very cool. What I guess you're not allowed to have a favorite animal if you're a zoologist. I mean you can mm-hmm just a little trickier because there's so many animals. Give me a favorite of yours and why? Oh okay I'm gonna have to say platypuses. Yeah I got a say of all the animals in the world that was not the one I was most likely to have guessed. Why the platypus? There's the only mammal that can lay AIDS which I find very interesting. That was remarkably succinct answer. Thank you very much. Wait a minute. Is there a lot of demand for platypuses in zoos these days? Well zoology is a very big thing but a lot of zoologists just study animals instead of working in a zoo. Okay. Yeah so I think I don't know studying platypuses would be a very interesting thing to do. What is the natural? Excuse my ignorance but what is the natural habitat of the platypus? It's like murky water like rivers. Okay. And I think what is it called? Gotta think about my geology. That's the wrong thing. How about geography? Yeah geology that's the right one. I think they live what is it called? North America. Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. Have you ever seen a platypus in its natural environment? No I'm not. Have you seen a platypus in its zoological environment? I think I actually have I'm really little though so. It somehow made an impression that and it's laying eggs on that is not left to you at this point. You know I'm gonna have to take a moment to drink some water. It's amazing. I'm gonna try a an improv here but it's not gonna be your traditional give me an adjective a verb and a number kind of thing but it's gonna be a little more structured and it's going to be Hudson is gonna talk first and that at a certain point I'll break off and then Max will come in as the next character that is introduced and we'll go back and forth like that. So it's not safe the first thing that pops out of your mind. Oh that can be entertaining as well as we've demonstrated. But I think I've mentioned that this will be edited down so all the pauses of people thinking will not be translated into what people will hear so you will come across as much more coherent. So take your time to go. Hudson you're get to start. Okay. Are you you know your your age you are just yeah you yeah control. Think about the essence of Hudson and get into character. Rest well done. Imagine that you have just won the Academy Award. Congratulations. The only thing I want from you to tell me is what category you won the Academy Award in. Hmm Academy Award is like movies movies movie. Okay. I probably want it for in a creepy role you know. So acting let's let's say you're the best supporting actor. Best support or do you want to be the best actor? I mean entirely those are the two categories in acting. Best supporting actor. Okay. Now what I want from you is your acceptance speech. The only thing different being that the band has been told to sit on their hands and you can take as long as you like for your acceptance speech. All right. My exception speech we go a little something like this. Thank you for this beautiful. Yep. Thank you for this beautiful Oscar you know. I've always wanted one of these to put on a shelf. I'm gonna take this time to thank my knees for carrying me through all the pressure I put through them while crawling around and jumping on stuff. I guess people think their families and stuff and these kind of things. So like shout out to mom. Whoo! And my cat my cat's been there for me through this entire you know production of which gave me this beautiful award for a best supporting actor. Oh that's it. Now we are one of the traditions of the Academy Awards is after you win one. You do the morning TV shows the next day and so we're going to go to the studios of Beaverton AM where you're meeting the host and I will interview you as said host. Okay. Okay. My guests here today had an quite eventful last night where she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. I'm talking about Beaverton's own Hudson Morissette? Morissette yeah. Well Hudson thank you for coming here so early in the morning. I imagine you had quite a night last night. Oh yeah I hate late evenings and I hate early mornings so being here is kind of tough but it's worth it. So did you get much sleep last night? You know I left early like three hours early just to be able to sleep. Which I do it every time. Oh well getting back to your performance the film was called Zombie Beach Party Bingo and your role was a net. What drew you to the role of a net in Zombie Beach Party Bingo? Well you know I've always been ever since I was a child I've always liked zombies and when I heard this show is coming out to me a net seemed like the strong independent woman type character and I know I don't really fit that role so I was kind of surprised when I got cast as it but I think I made it work you know with all the action sequences and all the bingo fights you know with those zombies stuff. Well you were recently voted the worldwide critics circle greatest new talent and you were the worldwide number one box office star for the second year running. Why do you think you are so successful on so many levels? Because I'm so attractive you know. Nobody can resist this face. No you know the world's always needing some new talent. I think I bring a light-heartedness and humor to what can be seen as a very serious profession. Is there anything in your training or background do you think leads to that place where you are at? All the Renaissance fairs that I've been to have helped my improv skills and communicating with other people as well as all of the shows that I've been in and started because you know I got all of the main roles and all of the high school performances I've been in because I'm just that great but I digress. What actually leads to my next question which is how do you stay so humble? I'm the best at being humble if you couldn't tell. I should win an Academy Award for that just because I'm so good at it but definitely remembering where you come from like you didn't start out this great and it takes a lot of work to get there so remembering that other people are still on that journey and that you know you aren't always gonna be at the top that helps. My sources tell me that one point you could have discovered the cure for cancer or become an actress. What propelled you to go that direction? Well you know acting's pretty cool. Cancer's not that cool. Well no arguments there. I see you brought your friend to the studio with you and that's a deep part of your humble nature to spread the joy and Max this is your coming up. I'm a friend from childhood. She grew up together you know next door neighbors. Yep. Well here in the AM Beaverton studio I'd like to welcome Max Herrera who's Hudson's long-time friend since childhood who was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress but lost. I did lose. Thank you for coming. How does it feel to lose? I mean losing isn't the best but the award definitely deserved to go to Hudson. What a loyal friend. Right. How did you sleep last night? I slept very well. My sources tell me that it was you that was initially offered the role of a net in zombie beach party bingo. Why did you turn down the role? I sprained my elbow trying to get a semi to haunt. In retrospect how do you feel about the decision to turn down the role of a net in zombie beach party bingo? It was a bummer but my elbow thanks me. Now you opted to take the role of lifeguard number two. What attracted you to that role? It just seemed like a good role because I've always wanted to be a life guard in my past life. And did you have any problems wearing the zombie lifeguard suit? Yes, someone thought I was actually a zombie and I got hit. Yeah that was me. Sorry. Oh, I knew it. Another highlight of your career has been was when you were the spokesperson for Benny's used muffler store located outside of Medford. Can you tell me what joy do you have been a muffler spokesperson wearing a muffler outfit? So many joys about being a muffler spokesman like you get you did a 50% discount. How does it feel to wear the muffler costume? It's very itchy. Can you tell me what a muffler is? I cannot tell you that. The muffler is put around the exhaust pipe to make the car quieter. Yes, I forgot that. Well, do you like bringing smiles to the face of faces of small trills or in that come to Benny's used muffler store located somewhere outside of Medford? Yes, many children come and I love seeing their little weird crooked smiles. When they look up at those mascot dressed as a muffler. Yeah. Do you hand out sugar-free lollipops or are they just the sugared variety? No, we only give them sugar free to you from the joy. Good job. Shannon, would you like to jump in here and bring this thing to us? I don't want to wear the muffler costume. You must. What would you like Dan? Just bring it on home because we're drawing it to a close. Well, I think Benny's has the best deals on mufflers. Muffler repair when my platypus truck breaks down, I always take it to them. Okay, well, that's been my fair folk at work interview with the fun kids from Beaverton High School. Anything else you'd like to add Hudson or Max? Your listener should come see our shows. They're pretty cool. They are very cool. Shannon, the teacher, can you tell us the listening audience what shows are upcoming? Coming up this year, we have we're going to start the year with the Adams family musical and we're going to do a holiday show called The Games the Foot by Ken Ludwig. It's a really fun holiday Sherlock Holmes kind of murder mystery. We've got three student-directed projects. One of them is The Outsiders. One of them is a musical about a village called townsman townsman and one of them is a adaptation of Breakfast Club and then we're going to end the year up with a play called Beanwort Show. So two big musicals lots of stuff and then we're going to go to state festival and do all kinds of other stuff too. So is there someplace people out there can get tickets or information or even where Beaverton is? Google Earth. We have a website for the school Beaverton High School and on the Beaverton High School website we have our own page for performing arts and we're right there. You can get tickets there. Well there you go. Thanks for much and special thanks to Hudson and Max and teacher Shannon and I think I will find the recording button and here we go. Stop recording. That's my July 2024 interview with Shannon Derry of Beaverton High School and two of his students, Max and Hudson. If you have questions or comments you'd like for me to pass along to Shannon you can email them to me at DJNG@earthling.net. Questions about the podcast itself can be also emailed to me at DJNG@earthling.net. Finally if you or somebody you know would like to be on Fair Folk at Work email me at DJNG@earthling.net. I've been your host Dan McLaughlin and thanks for listening to another episode of Fair Folk at Work but that's it for this time. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.