001Welcome back to the Clawcast podcast series. This is the Shell Shock Edition. I'm Mr. Shell, Clawson Public Schools Superintendent. This is our opportunity to sit with some of our wonderful students and talk about the great things that they're doing in our district. And what a what an opportunity to sit and talk to two of the stars of our recent musical school musical freak freaky Friday. Maya Price Clawson Middle School eighth grader Taliana Merritt Clawson High School 9th grader. Ladies, honored to have you here. Thank you for being on the show. >> Yes, thank you for having us. >> As I mentioned, the uh show wrapped on Saturday, four um different productions of it, I think. Is that what you call? Four different four different productions. I saw the Saturday afternoon matinea, if you will. Fantastic.
002You were amazing. Your castmates were amazing and such a gift to our school district uh that so many students and staff are involved in it. And again, you were wonderful. Well done. >> Thank you. >> And thank you for being here. >> Looking forward to talking a little bit about uh the the musical as well as as you as individuals and human beings and what uh what makes you tick a little bit. So, let's start about your roles. Let's talk about your roles. Maya, you first. So, your role in Freaky Friday, tell us about it a little bit. >> So, at like the start for like five minutes, I play Ellie and then for like the rest of the show, I play Catherine and Ellie's body and it it's so fun. Um, but Catherine is
003like a completely different person than Ellie. She's like she says like bigger words. She uses bigger words in sentences. And this is a mother this is a mother daughter >> character situation, right? So you start as >> daughter. >> Yeah. >> Flip to mother in daughter's body. >> Mhm. So she's just like Ellie's like not happy with her. >> Oh, this is Ellie over here. >> So for most of the show, she's Ellie. >> Okay. So tell us about your role a little bit. So, I play Katherine Blake and at the beginning I start and she's my daughter and I'm her mother and then again like >> 10 5 minutes through >> we switch but we're still in the same bodies. So like I just have the mind of Ellie and she would have the
004mind of Catherine. >> So what what is it that made you the actual switch happen in the production? So there's this hourglass and when it breaks it's like this magic hourglass >> when it breaks it switches us so we can like see life through the other person's >> okay >> like walk through their shoes and so like for most of the show I get to play I get to be Catherine but I get to play as like a daughter and like get to be like a really funny character and like kind of crazy whereas like the mom is very like type A like very get this done. >> Yeah. >> And then like at the end we switch back again for the very like last like 3 minutes. >> Okay. >> Once we've switched >>
005the It's so unique in in that that contrast how you have to go from child to adult, adult to child in your role. I one of my favorite parts of the of the whole show was the song where you're at the locker and the tattoo versus the the smoking. >> That was that seemed to be a lot of people's favorite. >> Hilarious. And that's referenced again later in the show. It was that was really really funny. >> So your backgrounds, excuse me, in musical theater or or any productions like this, talk to me about your history and your background related to experiences that led you up to such a huge role in our school production. Maya, start us off. >> Okay. So my first musical at Clawson was the Adams Adams family and I was
006ensemble cuz I wasn't a very good singer when I was in sixth grade. Um, >> so ensemble means you don't have a specific role individually. You're with a bunch of people sing. >> You play a bunch of different You're just like kind of on stage. Yeah. Yeah. And like dancing. It's It's fun. >> Okay. >> But it's not as fun as a lead cuz a lead's really funny. >> So you made that jump from ensemble to a lead role. What do you think you attribute that to? How did you How were you ready for it? >> Um, I don't know. I mean, I had a supporting lead last year, so that got me like a little bit ready cuz I had a few lines. I didn't have very many. >> Okay. But I had a
007few. So that kind of helped a little bit. >> So you built your way there. And the beauty of our musical in our district is when you're in middle school, you can be in the production, the high school production. So it's sixth grade through 12th grade, which is unique. I don't think most schools have that opportunity. So what an opportunity for you to be able to do that as a middle grader. Most both most of you as middle schoolers um have that opportunity, right? >> So pretty neat. What about you uh in your history leading to to this role? I do theater like all outside of school, but for Clawson I started in sixth grade and I did Matilda and I did Adam Simley, then Foot Loose, and then Freaky Friday. >> Good. >> So,
008>> what about outside of school? >> Outside of school, I have done um Shrek, Frozen, Wizard of Oz, Beetlejuice. I'm in Legally Blonde right now. >> Where where at? >> Um I do it at Stage Crafters. Um, I've done it at Village Youth Theater in Birmingham and I've done it at St. Dunston's in Cranberrook. >> Okay. Excuse me. Little horse today, guys. Sorry. So, um, extensive experience there. So, I love the talking about your paths to to get to such a a big role. I mean, the nerves that must come with it. And clearly it didn't come out cuz you you guys did it perfectly. But I mean really, you know, you could say it's thousands of people or or maybe a thousand people saw that production. I don't know the actual number, but our
009our auditorium seats quite a few and it was pretty full and and uh you know so to do that at such a young age and do it so well. So impressed by both of you. You should be so proud of yourselves. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> So let's talk about all those lines. So, you had to memorize tons of lines over an extensive period of time. So complex. I don't know how you do it, but I'm curious. Of all the lines, and you told me that you counted them, how many lines did you have to memorize? >> I had 408. >> 408 lines. Let's say you both had that same number. If you had to choose one of your favorite lines in the production, what would it be? Maya, go ahead. Um, my favorite
010line is in busted and my favorite line is this is so not organic. >> This is so not organic was your favorite. >> I'm so glad you said that and I'll tell you why later. >> Yeah, I know why. >> Tally, what's your favorite? >> Um, one of my favorites I have so many and I really can't choose, but one of my favorites was probably when we like started the show. We got to walk out in front of our curtain. Yeah, >> great curtain. Love it, by the way. >> Yellow curtain. >> Yes, I love it. Thank you. >> You're welcome. And um I got to like talk to the audience and I was like, "See, she made an effort. She looks nice. You could do that." >> And it was really just fun cuz
011you got to look out in the audience and like talk to them and interact with them. >> Are there nerves? So you talk about your first line. So you walk out there for your first line, your first few lines. It's like if you equate it to maybe sports, you that first minute or two while you're It can be mo the most nerve-wracking time, but then you get into the game. Is it the same with with a production, you get your first line out of the way or a few lines, now you're into it and you're good to go? >> Yeah. I feel like when I went like in front of the curtain, I was like, "Oh my gosh, there's so many people." And then after like the prologue after like the the curtains opened and
012I started singing and I like went to the table and I did the all that it was so much easier and I felt like there was no one there. >> Sure. >> For me honestly like being on stage like it's not it like that first line I don't care like >> we've been practicing. I know we know it. We're going to do great. I trust the people that I'm acting with. >> For me it's more like >> my solos or like songs that I like the start of the second act. We have two songs that were like really hard. They were really hard songs >> and those always would like scare me because they were really high in my voice. >> Yeah. >> And I just like >> that would scare me more than like
013going on stage and saying the lines cuz I knew I knew the lines and if I messed up the lines, nobody's going to notice that. Like that's something I could come back from. But like if I like my voice cracked or like the note didn't hit correctly, that almost is more nerve-wracking to me >> than like sitting a line or seeing all the people just because of how many times I've done it. >> Now it's like I it needs it's >> perfecting it. >> Yeah. Interesting way to look at it. Yeah. You said you can't with a line you can come back from that or you know us in the audience don't necessarily know. >> Yeah. >> And and you're the only one that knows so that's easy to easier to come back from. So
014I get I can appreciate where you're both coming from there. >> What about in your personal life uh you know related to productions and musicals or plays or have you had a chance to sit in theaters and and see some and if you have what might be some of your favorites or one of your favorites? Maya, start us off. >> Okay. So I see a lot of musicals. >> Okay. I have like a whole like book of all my play bills and um my favorite ones that I've seen um >> um I've seen Hamilton on Broadway and Hades Town on Broadway and that was it was so fun >> coming to Detroit I think. >> Yeah, I'm going to see if I can go see it. But they were like really good. >> Haven't seen
015it. Want to see it? Need to see it. You highly recommend? >> Yeah. Yes. Yeah. >> What about you, Tom? Um, well, I we're going to see The Outsiders um at the Fiser and then probably and Juliet, which are two shows that I'm really excited to see. But some of the favorite ones that I've seen like just as like high school productions, probably Legally Blonde, which when I was five, I saw here when we did it here, which really started my love for theater. Like when I saw it, I fell in love with it so much. Like I loved it so much. It was one of my favorite things I've ever seen. I was 5 years old, but I would sit in the back of the car and just sing all the songs after seeing
016it. And I think I came and saw almost every show here after that just cuz I loved it so much. >> Sure. >> And Juliet, my 50th birthday, we went to New York City and I saw it on Broadway. Yeah. >> Did you like it? >> It was fantastic. >> I'm really excited. I think we're going to go see it. I really want to see it. >> You were choosing between that and MJ the >> MJ Experience musical >> which came to the Fiser and we got to see it at the Fiser. So, I love that. >> But those are great choices. Looking forward to seeing Hamilton. Hope you get to see You said Outsiders and Company. So, enjoy. Um, last question, and I didn't prep you for this one. >> If I, Mr. Shell,
017had to be play a role in that musical. What do you think would have been the best fit for me? >> Catching you off guard. >> Um, what do you >> Maybe backstage stage crew? No, no, no, no. I think you could have been on stage. I think >> grandpa that would have been >> you could have Yeah, you could have been a good grandpa. >> Okay. The grandpa I saw. Yeah, he had a cane. >> Okay. All right. I'm not going to take that as you call him old by any stretch. >> It was a key role in the production. I would be happy >> to play that role if I had to. >> Grandpa's just like really funny, too. >> Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, again, you two are spectacular. Your castmates amazing. Uh
018so proud of you. So proud of our our the whole team. Um Mrs. Keys, Mrs. Lawson, um your mother, Mrs. Dalvio, and the rest of our staff who helped out. I know there was plenty of them who were who were there. I saw them and all the parents that are boosters. Unbelievable. It was all hands on deck and and um what an amazing production and show >> and I can't wait to see you both next year in in our musical next year and and uh honored to have you here, ladies. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, this was like this was really fun. >> Yeah, it really was fun. Always have a great day, guys. >> Thank you.