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Now this is the FCB Podcast Network. This is Fedaccas Pass for Henley. Hi, everyone, and welcome into another episode of Backstage Pass. It's Victoria Henley here at the Beautiful Mountain of Entertainment Theater in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I am so excited to be back here with some of the casts of Array Variety Show. So we've got some incredible cast members with us. We're gonna start off with Ellie, who is the dance captain. Ellie, how are you? Hi'm good? Thanks, Thank you so much for being here. So big fan of the show, and you do an incredible job with all of the numbers. Walk me through a little bit. What is choreographing these very complicated routines? What does that look like for you? Well, so I don't choreograph, but we actually bring in two really incredible choreographers who live in this area. One of them is Amanda Russell and the other is Amberlynd Seago who's actually also one of our performers. And we rehearsed for about three weeks, so they choreographed the entire show. We learned it in two weeks and then we were cleaning and making sure everything looked really nice for that last week, but we learned a full two hour show in about two weeks. That's incredible. I can't even wrap my head around that. Like, Okay, so, how long have you been with the theater. What has has been your experience so far? Yeah? I started here last year in March with our inaugural season. I was one of the first cast members in our main season, and then I did Christmas and now I'm back here again for the second season. So I've been working here for over a year, almost a year and a half now, and it's been really nice to be on the ground floor of something new and exciting and bringing a unique show to Pigeon Forge has been really incredible to be a part of. Absolutely. I mean it's just from the audience perspective, it's such an incredible thing that you guys do and that you bring to life. Now I'm in a past. We're going to get back to Ellie here Deronte who is forgive me if I get this wrong. You're the vocal captain, yes, correct, Okay, Well, you do an incredible job with all of these vocalists. I mean, what is that like, what is the dynamic of working with so many different people. Oh, it's very interesting. I'll say that we have a good time together and like learning the music together. Got Hugh that picks. We get together and we pick all the songs for the show and then sitting we sit down for a couple hours each night during rehearsals for about three weeks and we all learn the music, which takes a lot of time and a lot of them have to go through and figure out who's singing what song and figure out what part each parerson we will be singing. It's a long process, but we managed to come together and do it pretty well. So you think of Pigeon Forge as being more of a country music talent. You come here, you're gonna see some comedy, you're gonna hear country. But in this show, I mean you have everything. There's a beautiful song that you singing Hebrew and we're actually going to talk a little bit more about that. We have, you know, religious music, we have country music. We have I think you guys do what didn't you do? A song by Rihanna Umbrella? Yeah music? Oh yes, and I love it. So tell me a little bit about what does it look like when you're curating the lineup of music. There's truly something for everybody. How does your brain work when you're orchestrating all of that. One of the first things we try to think about is making sure we find songs that not only people have heard and those songs that have been popular, but I also try to pick songs that people may not necessarily know as well, so that we can introduce them to something new for sure. For sure, what's just exceptional? And I mean when I tell people about the show, there's something for everybody. I mean, you're gonna find something. Whether my nine year old grandma loves it, my mom loves it, I love it, and it's truly an eclectic mix. So I'm going to pass this over to mister Jase Here. Jacena, I'm gonna tell you, I've been a fan of your work since Country Tonight and you've been the youth performer of this area for a long time. You're the youngest cast member of the show. How old are you ten? You're ten? Okay, So how long have you been doing this? About five years? Five years? Oh my gosh, that's crazy. I mean, no big deal, right, So what is it like, I mean, or how do you find a balance, if you find a balance between just being a kid. Most kids do regular kids stuff and here you are entertaining you know, thousands of people, probably millions of people at this point. What is that like? I think it's just fun to be myself to do what I like to do. Yeah, it's just really fun. And music is what you like to do. Yeah, that's awesome. What's your favorite number in the whole show that you do that? I do little bitty pretty, little bitty. Okay, that's cool. What who sing? I'm not little bitty? Who sings that song? Little bitty pretty one? It's it's a little bitty pretty one? And why do foo's following love? I love that? And so you work with your We're hearing from from Hugh here, and Hugh is kind of the guy that oversees all of this. What what's like working with dad now? Film? I I want you to be honest with me. What's it like? Is it do you always listen to what Dad has to say to you? Guys? But oh, give us the inside scoop on what that's like. It's fun to have a parental backstage. He is a little diplomatic. He's giving me the politician answer, Well, I work with my mom, and I'm the first to tell you we work well together, but sometimes you kind of you butt heads a little bit. But that's great that you work with your dad and you just do an awesome job on stage. So, Hugh, I'm gonna pass this over to you. You're just doing an incredible job with this theater, with the show, and not only are you putting together something that brings people joy, but you're touching lives. Now. When I came into the theater, you were I'm just gonna kind of put you on the spot. You were talking to this kind of biker guy in the in the lobby, and he seemed very emotional and very touched. Tell us about that particular story and maybe some other stories of people that have been touched on a spiritual level by what you do. You know, he came, he came to the show two weeks ago and uh, in what he heard something in the song that we were You mentioned the song in Hebrew and we singing Hebrew, and he heard something in that Hebrew, in in playing English that we didn't sing, but he heard it. And while we were singing in Hebrew, he heard a voice clear as day say come to the altar and uh, and so he just wanted he came by. He just came by just now to ask me if that was something that was in that song or if he actually heard it from God. So, uh, yeah, we and we hear stories like that all the time. You know. I talked to a lady the other day and uh, and she was crying and she was so touched by the show and she's going through chemotherapy and she's just having issues with cancer. She said, from the moment the curtain opened and I saw you, and I saw your shirt, and I have a shirt on and this this shirt says everything will be okay, she said. From that very first shirt, she said, the show was just everything I needed. And uh, and I feel like we do change people's lives. I feel like we touch people's lives more than we know because we do this every day. This is something, this is our job and we do it every day. Even though it's our job, It's not just a job. You know. This theater was started with a mission, and we feel like this is our purpose in life, is to change people's lives and just to share our hearts with people who may never step foot in the church may never hear the things they need to hear, but they need to hear from our heart and the truth that a relationship with God is real and not just something you go to church to listen to. And it's something that we feel like we were meant to share with people. I've prayed with people in the lobby who've come up to me and say, can you pray for me about this? We have a prayer request option on our website where people can actually, you know, put in their prayer request and we pray for. My wife and I do devotions and we sit at our table and we pray for those people. So, yeah, I feel like we're doing and I don't want to I don't want to take credit, and I don't want to sound like I'm trying to talk about how great of a thing we've done. All we've done is be willing vessels. God has opened every door. God has put people in our path that are amazing at what they do. So we're surrounded by great people. And we certainly can't take all the credit as far as putting the show together, as far as any of this, you know, we can't take it. It's it's the power of God and the talents and abilities of everybody that we're surrounded with. Well, you know, I think to quote P. T. Barnum, and I'm sure I'm paraphrasing, but he said, the noblest art is that of making others happy. And that is what you've done with the show. I mean, you're making people happy, You're touching lives, and these performers you brought together too. I remember I was here the closing show last year and there was not a dry eye in the house. And I'm not talking about the audience. I'm talking about the performers. All the performers. It was I don't think one performer was like not crying, you know, and I've never seen that for a lot of people, and I know many entertainers. For them it's a job. And I could tell that this was more than just a job for them. And you've created that atmosphere and that is that is such a beautiful thing. We're gonna come back to you, Hugh. We're gonna hear from Hugh of how to book tickets for this amazing show because there's so much coming up. They have the Illusination Show, Holiday shows, so several different things that you'll have the opportunity to see Ellie, I'm gonna bring this back over you, over to you for a moment. Now. You dance in so many incredible numbers throughout the show, kind of walk for all of the fans out there of different types and styles of dance. What can we expect to see dance wise in the show. You'll see just about everything. Our open number is hip hop. We also do clogging, We do tap dance. We do a really beautiful lyrical number in our gospel section during when you believe. The Hebrew number that we were talking about, we actually have prayer flags and it's a lyrical number, but it has a bit more of a spirit full element to it. There's some Latin style dancing as well, so we really touch on all forms of dance as well. So not only are we a variety show in music and content, but a variety of dance styles and different genres as well. Sure, absolutely, and Durante, I have to to ask you, because you you oversee the vocal elements of the show, what's your favorite vocal number? What is the acapella? Lember? We do phantom? That one I actually approached to you the other night after I because I love the Phantom of the Opera. It's my favorite and I've never heard it performed quite like that. You have it. You know, the beat goes really hard to it. It's just really incredible to walk us through. Was that Pentatonics? Where where does that come from? No? The version that we do, oh my goodness, who is It's not? No, it's not who is? It put me on the spot. It's just a really great but completely different versions you get when you go to Ecstacy Phantom of the Opera. It's just something I ran across. I found it just kind of searching for music and I ran across it and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is it. We've got to do this. Yeah, and we're finding that we really like to do numbers that are very different. We'll take a version of a song and flip it and do it in a different style as opposed to the original style, just so people get get to hear the same song but in a different form, and it's something fresh and unexpected as well. So I have to ask. I'm just going to leave this open. The costumes of this show are exquisite, and there was a void in this town you know, you go to a lot of shows and I'm not knocking them. I love the shows here in town, but you see overalls and straw hats because it's country, and then you come here, I love fashion and I'm just blown away by the quick changes the wardrobe. They even have quick change artists that you can expect to see. But who does the costumes for the show? You do? The costumes? Really wow? And do you so? How does that work? Do you make them by handy? The dazzle? We do do a mixture of things. We have a team of ladies that we hire that come in at the top of each season and we sit down and we talk through the show and figure out what each look should look like depending on the song and depending on the movement that's going to be happening. And then we have a huge warehouse full of costumes there. We go through and we try to pull things that we have in there. We try to take some things and maybe add rhyme stone to them, as different fabrics to them, new zippers so they don't of course, you know, just making sure that each look is different. We try to make sure there's a change for every song. That doesn't always happen, but we try to make sure that there's something different so that you know, the audience's eyes are kind of wild with the looks from each song. The song. Yeah, it's such a visceral show and like every to me, every element of it. The vocals are there, the dancing is there, the fashion, it's just it's a really dazzling show. So, Jase, I know you're you're double. You're so impressive. You're double. What are you doing homework? Are we doing algebra? I can't sell it? So he's doing his arithmetic? Look at you. Okay, I was homeschool too, I know how that was. I'd be at my fashion shows doing the stuff. So, uh, Jace, what what is your I mean, you're only ten. What does the future look like for you? Have you? What's your do you have a few years from now? What do you see yourself doing this? I'm sure, Uh, I've never really thought that far. You're just you're just enjoying the moment, right Okay, Okay, So I've got to ask you what's your favorite thing to do when you're not doing this? Because I've only seen you when you're performing, and you're great at it. What's a normal kid thing you do, play with my dog shit at home, playing games. Nice? Nice, Okay, So yeah, I gotta gotta keep that balance in well again, if you're looking for, you know, a show that has it all youth performers, Jase does an amazing job with that, Hugh. We're going to kind of end on what do you want people to know about this show that sets it apart from the rest, and how do we get connected with you on all the social platforms. Our big our big thing is that when we created a show, we wanted to create something that you couldn't just go down the street and see as well. Uh and you touched on it earlier. There was a show in town a few years back. It was an amazing variety show and they had a lot of different things. When they closed down, it left a huge hole in this town, and we always thought, that's the kind of show we want to put in the town if we ever get this opportunity. Once we did, we weren't trying to replace that show. We weren't trying to be you know, Opry two point zero, but we did want to fill that hole that they left, and to the best of our ability, we wanted to improve upon that. So I think with the specialty acts that we have, the variety that comes in the juggler comedian, our magician, our gaucho acts, our quick change artists, our aerial artists, and all of these different acts, these are something that you know you're not just going to go anywhere and see. So that's what we went and in the top of it all, we wanted to wrap out all up in a giant, big celebration of life, just so everybody left feeling really good and knowing that they had a great time in solid, top quality entertainment. To see that, you can go to a Ray Variety show online and it'll tell you everything you need to do. You can even buy tickets there. You can call our box office. I think that's eight six five two four five four three eight six. It's two four five for fun if that makes it easier for you. But yeah, those are those are the ways to get Ahold Ofvious and we'd be glad to help you out. We have a combo package because we do have a magic show in the afternoons. It's called Illusination. It's a great show, incredible magic show, and it's one of the best magic show I've ever seen for kids, so it's for whole families, but kids absolutely love it. So that's we offer a combo deal where you get thirty three percent off of the show when you book both of them. So nice, go online, call us or just stop by on the parkway. Absolutely and you will be so glad that you did a ray. We'll post all of the web links, all of the social media handles, and of course illusination make sure you check out that incredible show as well here at the Mountain of Entertainment Theater in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. Thank you all so much for joining us today. It's been so great pleasure. Thank you. It's good to see you guys, both of you. Always so good to see you. Yes, my my mom Lynn, as all of you know, she is here. You can hear her taking pictures in the back. Well. Thank you as always for joining us on backstage pass. We'll see you next time. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where Real Talk Lives. Visit us online at Fcbpodcasts dot com.