[Pipe and Drape theme plays.]
STEPHEN FALA: I’m Stephen Fala, and you’re listening to Pipe and Drape, the only podcast that spotlights the creative minds behind the theatre for young audiences industry. Every two weeks I sit down with a children’s theatre professional to hear their stories about the audition, rehearsal, and development process of theatre for young audiences. Each of them have bridged the path from youth to adulthood while living in worlds created for children. My guests have mounted shows small enough to fit in a minivan to productions so big they travel by caravan. You can join the conversation by emailing PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com or messaging @PipeAndDrapeStories on Instagram. On this, the very first episode of the series, my guest breaks down the definition of a “pipe and drape” show (the most common type of setting in the theatre for young audiences industry) and their experience operating as half of a two-person branch of a larger company. Thank you for listening with me today.
S: Today’s guest is actor Terrance Jackson. His recent work includes Barter Theatre, Hangar Theater, Georgia Shakespeare, The Players Theatre, a couple of Steve Martin plays down in Birmingham, Alabama, and the touring company of the Barter Players, the Player Encore Company, and TheaterWorksUSA. He received an Irene Ryan Award nomination for his performance in Twelfth Night at University of Central Florida and is a past recipient of the John Ringling Towers Performing Arts Award. Terrance is now an actor and creative content specialist at Barter Theatre, and an associate editor for the Popcast Media Group. He is a host, emcee, and spokesperson most recently for BancorpSouth. Terrance and I met in the heart of Appalachia, where I was literally the Christopher Robin to his Winnie-the-Pooh six days a week, and he is down there making magic today. Between performing and rehearsing the summer rep for Barter at the Moonlight Drive-In and working at the marketing team for Barter Theatre, Terrance is joining me to discuss his time performing on tour with the Minneapolis-based company National Theatre for children. Terrance, welcome! I am so happy that you can join me.
TERRANCE JACKSON: Listen, that intro was everything for me. That was an incredible intro. Honestly, I'm gonna use it for everything. Oh, when people ask me about myself, I'm just gonna say, ‘Hold on. Let me just play the intro from Pipe and Drape the podcast and then that'll tell you everything you know about me. So thanks. Thanks for that intro, brother.
S: It was so hard to narrow it down. And I wish, you know, there's so many visuals that I wanted to…it’s like how do I…? The promo work that you've done and some incredible media that you have created and so many things, memories that I have of things that you made just for fun. When we were down there working together, you wrote a song that we ended up all dancing to at the late night cabaret…
T: [Giggles] Oh, yeah!
S: So when when you were a kid, did you find yourself creating constantly or making up songs? What did you do as a creative outlet?
T: Yeah, what a great question. I…my mom. She worked at the county jail, she just retired a few years ago so shout out to my mom for retiring, but she worked at the county jail for over thirty years. So that was her day job. But at night, she would do community theater. And I..my sister who's ten years older than than me, she's also performer, we would go to the theater, you know at night or be at rehearsals or go see a play that she was in. But it wasn't until middle school where I had a…I was in I went to performing arts middle school. So I was in orchestra, band, and I was also in drama. And my orchestra teacher said, ‘Terrance, you know you're good at music. You're also good at acting, you should do this thing called musical theater.’ And I said, ‘What?' not knowing that literally that's what I had grown up going to see my mom in plays, like I didn't know it was called musical theater. And she was like, ‘Yeah, you know, you should audition for the high school; audition for the theater program.’ And so I did, so I auditioned. And I remember like it was yesterday, Steve, I got it. And like, I was the last person of the day, you know, I had my monologue prepared and everything. And yeah, I got in to the performing arts high school for drama. But before before that, like as a kid, I was just…You know, you hear stories about people who, you know, were creating from very young. I didn't do that. But my mom has a ton of VHS tapes of me being creative in the front yard or like, how I would mess around with my sister. When I look back on that now I'm like, ‘Oh, that was a creative way to annoy my sister.’ You know what I mean? But I don't think I was like trying to be creative. It just happened to be like, ‘Oh, that's a pretty genius way to annoy my sister who's ten years older than me,’ you know? But it really wasn't until I got into high school. And I was doing theater that I found out what creativity means and what it looks like. But I was obsessed. You know, we're going to talk about this a lot, obviously: theater for young audiences. I was obsessed with children's television shows. That's where it all began for me. Anything from Sesame Street to Nickelodeon had this show that was in the 90s called Roundhouse. You got to look this thing up. I mean, it's called Roundhouse. It was my favorite show. The only reason why I knew about it was because my sister is older than me. And they would sing dance and improv on this show. And I remember telling myself, ‘I want to do that.’ I want to do that in front of a live audience: sing, dance, and do improv. And so that's where it began, stuff like that, being inspired by Reading Rainbow and this show called Gullah Gullah Island. You know it?
S: [Excited laughter whilst recalling the joy of childhood.] I love Gullah Gullah Island!
T: Gullah Gullah Island was everything for me. So, when I look back, that was the foundation for me as a creative. It was like I wanted to create content for young people that inspired me, you know, that's inspiring like it inspired me. So then I went to college and got my degree in acting and the rest is kind of history.
S: What was the bridge between going to school to study theater even further and then ending up on a tour with National Theatre for Children?
T: The bridge, I guess for that was I was… I was finishing up working at the Barter Theatre, pretty closely after we did Winnie-the-Pooh together, after that contract was coming to a close, which I had spent fifteen months at Barter at that time. Yeah, my next contract after that was National Theatre for Children. “NTC” you'll hear me refer to it as. And NTC was super cool, because at that time, they were one of the, and they probably still are, at that time they were one of the biggest touring companies for theatre for young audiences. I mean, they were everywhere. They were all over different states. So the show I was doing was called The Resource Raiders, and it was an improv show. It was an improv-based show about science. And so it was cool, because we got a script, but in the script, there was tons of space for like, ‘and this is where you will do an improv game show,’ or ‘this is where you will do an audience participation.’ So the entire show we had characters we played, like a mad scientist and stuff like that, but it was heavily influenced on what the audience gave us. And so that was kind of cool. Yeah, so I did that right after right after being a Player.
S: This sounds right down your alley, knowing that you had these emcee and host skills, and also just improvisation in general. Did you have to do those things in your initial audition for NTC?
T: Yeah, what a great question. So I audition for NTC at UPTA, which is the United Professional Theater Auditions that are held in Memphis. And they call me back, and I did a really funny monologue for my general audition and so it was cool that they call me back, a lot of places that year that were doing comedies…I got called back for it, which is great. And I remember going into the audition and I'm pretty sure they asked for a funny story or asked for some improv-based things. And it was just kind of like an improv audition to kind of see how you work on your feet. And so that was pretty cool. But I also like to credit my improv experience. If you can improv for middle and high school students, you can emcee and host for anybody. I mean, there's no tougher crowd to me than a middle school gymnasium. And you're talking about science. Like, are you kidding? Nobody wants to hear that. That is some serious training when it comes to how to have composure in front of an audience. We rehearsed…I want to say it was a week or two weeks. But the thing about it was, because they were rehearsing so many different shows, we were probably one of maybe four other Resource Raiders that were rehearsing at the same time. And so we would rehearse in the day, kind of like with our particular director, and then we would all show each other our versions of The Resource Raiders. That's how we would practice the improv parts. And so that was really cool but also nerve-wracking a little bit because you're watching other people do your exact same show at the same time. But yeah, we rehearsed that for like a week. And because they have done this for years and years, it was like, ‘Alright, cool. You guys are just gonna go to our costume shop…’ There was no fitting or anything. It was just like, ‘We have something that fits your size because we've done this so much.’ We just went to this big room where they have all of their costumes. And you go right to the Resource Raiders section and pull the stuff from your size because their stock was that big. And it was like, ‘Yeah, go ahead and go to the the Resource Raiders set section and pull your bag,’ which has all the pipes already in it, all the set already in it. They were a well-oiled machine.
S: And so what was the goal of the company by doing this particular show?
T: The goal, I think, was to try to get as much exposure in the arts while also partnering with companies that had missions. For example, we were sponsored by Duke Energy, which was in South Carolina and North Carolina. They’re a big energy company there. And so we partnered…NTC partnered with them to kind of create the curriculum that we were talking about in the show. And that also worked with the South Carolina and North Carolina school systems. So all of that. So it was education and theater put together. But I mean, they were touring shows all over the US. We weren't the only Resource Raiders that were out touring, we just happened to be stationed in North and South Carolina. It was a two person tour. And so it was myself and my touring partner, her name was Kelsey. And we were in a car and our entire set was able to be put in a big duffel bag, and we put that duffel bag in the back of the car. And our set and our costumes were all in this duffel bag. We would literally put it over our shoulder and walk into a school. And we will do three to five shows a day. I mean, it was intense. Three to five shows a day. And they were forty-five minute shows. We might do three shows in North Carolina in the morning then drive across the border to South Carolina and do three more shows. [Laughter.]
S: Tell me more about this duffel bag that you were lugging across state lines that had everything inside of it. So what were these costumes and set pieces that you had to assemble and take care of for five or six shows a day?
T: Your podcast is called the Pipe and Drape the podcast. And so this show was literally a pipe and drape show. And so what that means is that you have pipe, which keeps the set up from falling. Right? In the drape that can either be your set, or that can be where you change clothes, you know, behind, right? And so in this two person show, when the audience comes in, they see this pipe and drape up, and our set was very sciency. It had the title of the show Resource Raiders on it. And then behind the drape, or some people call it a drop, behind that is where we would have our props, any of our other costumes that were changing. But we'd set up everything, because it was all pipe. So all we would do is break down those pipes and put them in the bag, we'd fold up the drop, or we'd fold up the drape and put it in the bag, fold up our costumes, and we were able to go to the next venue. And in National Theatre for Children, because they do this so much, they had this thing down. They were like, ‘This is exactly how you set it up. This is how you tear it down.’ We could, if we were running late, we could set up the show and under fifteen minutes and do the thing. I mean, it was down to a T. It was like, if we were running late, we would still be able to do it in less than twenty minutes.
S: Wow. In doing a show like that you're educating kids, you're entertaining kids, and you're setting up you're taking down. Did you have to handle your own hotel bookings, your own accommodations, checking-in with schools, collecting fees? What were your extra duties aside from the show itself?
T: Yeah, we were responsible for booking our own hotels. We had a budget and my partner was over the handling of the budget and the hotel bookings that we would do. We would have a certain budget limit that she would have to hit. And then we would have to turn those receipts in every week. And so I was over gas and the car, we had to rent a car, we had to rent a vehicle. And so we had to turn in gas receipts, stuff like that. We also had check-ins with the week out calls, day of calls, stuff like that to the potential venues that we were going to. Month out calls like, ‘Hey, Terrance here from NTC, we'll be doing The Resource Raiders at your school in a month, on this day at this time;’ try to be like super specific because sometimes schools are like, ‘Oh, yeah, did we…? Oh, yeah, we did do that! We did sign up for that, didn't we.’ [Laughter.]
If I remember correctly, I believe all of our shows from this particular show were sponsored by Duke Energy so they were always free for the schools. So we didn’t…I don't remember us handling any checks or anything like that. But we didn't have to book our show. I know some companies: the actors book the shows. NTC has a incredible home office team, and staff that does the bookings, and so they would send us our schedule and say, ‘Hey, this will be the schools that you’ll hit, this is the location of it,’ and then we would kind of handle the schedule from there.
S: What were some unusual things that you encountered when you were on the road with this company?
T: I definitely have a story of of one time where we were at a high school in South Carolina. And again, this is an improv show and I take audience participation. And I asked, like, I'm doing this funny bit right, doing this section. It's like, ‘Okay, who wants to participate in this next segment?’ People are like, students are raising their hands like, boom, boom, boom. And it's like, ‘Yeah, I'm feeling good.’ And I point to this girl, and the crowd goes, ‘Oooooh,' like that. The entire crowd goes, ‘Oooooh,' and as an actor you go, ‘Oh, no, I've either made…I just made a terrible decision. But I cannot tell her to sit back down.’ I can't say, ‘You need to sit back down because obviously something's going on.’ So she comes down and I see an ankle bracelet on her. And I'm like, ‘Okay, I’m either about to like, be killed by this girl, this ninth grader, or this is going to be really exciting and fun.’ And so I do this section. It was incredible. It was fun. But afterwards, the principal comes up and goes, ‘Yeah, we didn't know what was going to happen. That girl was on house arrest and she did this and this.’ And I was like, ‘Why did nobody tell us not to pick this girl? I could have been ended right here in front of all of these people!’
S: Did she have a good time?
T: I think she did! I really think she did. She was laughing and joking. But you know, I like to think that maybe that a had a cool effect on her. That somebody gave her a chance in this play about…this improv show about science. I like to think that it maybe it just inspired her to do something else or to do comedy, to be an educator to do anything. So I think about that often.
S: Being an actor, so many people see you. You’ll never know how many lives you touch or people you impact just because you're performing for hundreds of people.
T: Yeah.
S: And they're going to take something away from that day via just an experience getting theater for maybe the first time or getting some science facts. Did you have to come in prepped with all sorts of science answers for any questions the students may have had?
T: [Laughter.] No, we didn’t. Luckily, the script was…the parts that were scripted were heavy with the science facts and things. So when we did have to really educate, we were equipped for that part. We had a lot of questions from teachers asking us about their energy bills because they assumed that we were working for Duke Energy, [Laughter.] because that's who sponsored the show. So a lot of times, they thought that we were coming from Duke Energy, like we were actual representatives from Duke Energy. And it's like, ‘No, no, we work for National Theatre for Children. We just happen to be…our show just happens to be produced by Duke Energy.’ A lot of it was really like, ‘Hey, my bill was really high this month, you know, can you help me with that?’ And it's like, ‘No, PE teacher, I can't help you with that. Uh…I don’t…I don't really work for…I don't work for Duke Energy. I can't help you with that.’
S: What did you do to conserve your own energy having so many shows to do a week just staying vocally and physically with it enough to just keep going with these shows in this travel hotel life?
T: The way that I would conserve my own energy was: we were really quiet when we were not doing shows. And it's a two person tour. We toured this thing for like a month and a half, two months, something like that. Doing anything with just one other person is difficult, right? You just try not to be annoying, and you try not to get annoyed by them. [Laughter.] And I think we were just always tired. We just listened to music a lot, and got into our hotel, rested. We would get dinner, chat some din. But I talked a lot to my mom, family, friends on the phone. You also try to give your a tour partner some space to kind of also be a human because you're together all day.
S: I totally understand that it's a lot to be working and living with the same person, especially on such a fast paced schedule. What are some things that you've taken away from this experience performing for children?
T: One: you can never judge an audience by how they look or how they come into the space. Because there's nothing more intimidating than a middle school or high school audience walking into a gymnasium for an assembly, not even for a show, for an assembly. They have no…no one wants to go to an assembly, right? And so, I want to be clear, they weren't prepared to come in, ‘We're gonna go watch a play, we're gonna go watch an improv show.’ They were coming for an assembly; nobody wants to do an assembly, right? And then you pop up into a gymnasium and you're like, ‘What's this pipe and drape setup with “Resource Ra-“ I thought I was seeing…I thought the principal was going to talk for an hour.’ You just learn never to judge an audience by how they come into an auditorium because they will surprise you. If you come with your heart open, they will surprise you. And I also learned that…man, there was no difference between North and South Carolina when it came to laughter. The sound of a young person laughing is just like one of the greatest sounds ever. Because, you know how it was being a young person and trying to be cool, trying to be seen, or trying not to be seen, you just want to try to blend in with everybody else. To have a young person laugh out loud…there’s really not much better than that. Because I know the pressure of what it was like being a young person just trying to be cool amongst your friends. And even laughing is a vulnerable thing, right? And that shows enjoyment. And sometimes it's like, ‘Oh, you think this is funny? You think this is cool? Like, oh, you're not cool.’ And so, I never took that for granted, walking into an auditorium and saying, ‘Cool, I'm gonna make those cool kids over there laugh today. And then if they don't, it's all good.’ I also learned to take the pressure off myself—an audience will do what an audience does. And that's a cool thing to learn, when you take that pressure off yourself and say, ‘I'm here to serve the play, serve the playwright, and I'm just serving my fellow actor on stage, so I'm not going to do anything extra that's going to throw throw her off just because I want a laugh or something like that. Yeah, I learned a lot honestly doing this. I learned a lot.
S: Terrance, thank you for speaking with me today. How can our listeners find you online to see more of your work?
T: Yeah, you can find me on my website terrance-jackson.com or follow me on social media on Instagram @terrancedjackson.
S: Be sure to check out Terrance’s profile to see where his pipe and drape story has taken him.
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You can join the conversation about theatre for young audiences and find more Pipe and Drape content including photos, quotes, and TYA news on Instagram @PipeAndDrapeStories. And please be sure to rate and review Pipe and Drape wherever you listen to podcasts! Each star given or review submitted helps future listeners to find the show. Be sure to tune in every other Tuesday to hear theatre for young audiences creatives share their pipe and drape stories. Pipe and Drape is created and hosted by Stephen Fala and distributed by Anchor. Artwork for Pipe and Drape was created by Stephen Gordon and music was composed by Stephen Fala. Thank you for listening with me today.
WEBSITE: terrance-jackson.com
INSTAGRAM: @terrancedjackson
Connect with Pipe and Drape:
INSTAGRAM: @PipeAndDrapeStories
EMAIL: PipeAndDrapeStories@gmail.com
Host: Stephen Fala
Artwork: Stephen Gordon
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