Join host Ryan Paul on this special Utah Shakespeare Festival edition of the APEX Radio Hour for a deep, insightful conversation with company actor Blake Henri. Blake traces his transformative journey from a Texas high school baseball prospect to taking on three major roles in the 2026 Engelstad Theater season: Sir Toby Belch (Twelfth Night), Laertes (Hamlet), and Thersides (Troilus and Cressida). Discover how authentic mentorship, deep character exploration, and human-centered storytelling redefine classical theater's most complex figures.
From the Ballfield to the Ghost Light: Guest Blake Henri shares how a high school injury and an unexpected moment alone on stage redirected his life path from sports and business toward a passionate, career-focused pursuit of classical acting.
Depth Behind the Antagonists: A compelling discussion on breaking traditional performance stereotypes to discover grief, regret, and genuine human love in roles like Sir Toby Belch and Laertes.
The War Correspondent of Troilus and Cressida: An inside look at transforming the classic truth-teller Thersides into an embedded modern media correspondent who reframes historical conflict for a contemporary audience.
Mentorship and Supportive Connections: Reflections on the mentors, directors, and collaborative colleagues who opened doors, provided reality checks, and fostered a sense of home within the regional theater community
Connect with SUU & The Festival:
[Reese Whitaker]
You are listening to the Apex Hour hosted by Ryan Paul on KSUU Thunder 91.1. This show allows more personal time with our guests, allowing them to give us their stories and opinions. We will also give you new music to listen to, hoping you enjoy some new sounds and genres. Welcome to this episode of the Apex Hour.
[Lauren Bird]
Welcome to the Apex Radio Hour Utah Shakespeare Festival Edition. I'm producer Lauren Bird and I'm here today with Director of Apex and Professor of History Ryan Paul and our special guest Blake Henri. I'll turn it over to you, Ryan.
[Ryan Paul]
Thank you, Lauren. We are so excited, both Lauren and I, to have Blake Henri in the studio today. Blake Henri is an actor here at the Shakespeare Festival this season.
He's actually in all three of the Engelstad shows. He plays Sir Toby in Twelfth Night, Sir Toby Belch, Laertes in Hamlet, and here's the thing about the one. I've had multiple people, the internet and Stuart Shelley, who we both know, give me different pronunciations of this particular character.
So I would like you to pronounce it the way that you would like it pronounced.
[Blake Henri]
I always say Thersides.
[Ryan Paul]
Therside. Go ahead and Thersides. Thersides.
Yeah.
[Blake Henri]
And so I said, although John's big joke in the first company meeting was that I don't know how to pronounce things. So take that with a grain of salt.
[Ryan Paul]
That's just what I say. So he plays Thersides in Drones and Cressida, which is a really important role and unique in this production, that it's not the same way in other productions. So we'll talk about that later.
So I'm excited to have you here and have a conversation about these things and discuss more about your experiences. But I always like to start with a question of kind of how we get to now. So can you tell me a little bit about where you're from and how you kind of decided what to do?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. So it's kind of a pretty long story that I'll try to make a little bit concise. Growing up, it was, I went to a private Christian school where in middle school, so fifth, sixth, seventh grade, or maybe it was sixth, seventh, eighth, you tried out all the electives.
So you went to art and then for a trimester you were in choir, for a trimester you were in band where you learned hot cross buns on the recorders, and then trimester you were in drama. So when you got to high school, oh, it was starting in eighth grade, eighth grade, and then into high school, you got to choose what you wanted to do. Well, I come from my brother, Taylor, and my sister, Erica are two incredible artists.
And I always hated that I was never as good as them. So while I enjoyed art, I was like, I don't wanna do that. Visual art.
Visual art. Yeah. Yeah.
My sister can do it all. Taylor's just very good at drawing, just freehand stuff. And then I was never really big about my voice.
So choir, I was like, nah, I'm good. Band, I wanted to be in band, but only if I was in drumline, but our drumline was like state recognized. So I didn't get into that.
So I was like, okay, well, I guess I'll go into drama. But the thing was, I had in my mind that in some way, shape, or form, baseball was gonna be my career. That's where I was headed.
I was playing in high school tournaments as a middle schooler. That was just my path. That's where I decided I was.
And when you go into high school, you audition for your placement in drama class. So you start off in drama one, and then end of freshman year, you audition for drama two, drama three, or advanced drama. Most of the time, you'd go from drama one, and then you'd go to drama three, and then you'd go into advanced drama your junior or senior year.
Drama two was usually for people that were like, I love theater, but I'm not trying to make a life of it. I just want to, you know, check my box for elective and move on. So I remember I auditioned with, I don't remember the comedy contemporary monologue, but I auditioned with angels and ministers of grace defend us from Hamlet because it said damn in it.
And I thought that was great as a to be able to cuss in high school as a, you know, at a private Christian school.
[Speaker 11]
Yeah, exactly.
[Blake Henri]
And I remember our theater director, her name was Christy Robinson, still is. She's an incredible, incredible human. And she grabbed me afterwards.
She grabbed me by the shoulders and she said, Hey, you need to take this seriously. And I was like, okay, sure. I'm gonna go play baseball.
And so that year, going into my sophomore year, me and my dear friend, Tommy Hart, who's now a crazy successful DJ, but he's a phenomenal actor, musical theater singer. We got put from freshmen into advanced drama immediately, which just didn't happen. And so that was another thing that, you know, it's like say that, you know, God or whatever you believe in.
But for me, it was God. He gives you signs and whether you want to listen to them or not is up to you. And I was trying very hard not to listen.
And so junior year, um, I blew out my knee and it was kind of the like, okay, well, he's going to make you listen regardless of what you're trying to do. Um, but before that, like my baseball coach hated my theater teacher, my theater teacher hated my baseball coach, because I still have a picture of, um, I was Valjean in Les Mis and everyone else is in full costume. And I'm in a dirty baseball uniform because I ran from a tournament, basically on stage for look down.
Like it was just, there was no time to get into costume. Um, and so when I blew up my knee, it kind of shattered everything because as a high schooler, you, you think you have everything figured out and you think you know what you're going to do. Um, and coming from a family with two incredible parents, um, that were divorced.
So sometimes money was tight or, or things we wanted was tight or, you know, just the normal struggles of growing up. I, my first thought was not, okay, time to go into theater. It was, let's go into business.
Let's go into something that is steady where I can provide for a family, provide for myself, um, provide for my family, family that provided for me for so long that brothers took me to rehearsals, to baseball things, you know what I mean? Just support every show and things like that. And I remember we just closed.
I think it was that Les Mis. It was closing night, you know, in high school, you help with the strike of everything. So finished cleaning up screws.
And I wasn't sure if where my life was headed, I was very lost. And I remember I was the one who told K Rob, our theater directors, which we called her K Rob, that I'll set the ghost light. You can go home.
Our door's locked automatically. So like everything was fine. And I remember I set the ghost light and I turned off the lights and I was standing on stage and it just kind of hit me.
It was like, there, there is nowhere else that feels like home the same way this does, no matter how hard I'm trying to fight it, how hard I'm trying to run, how hard I'm trying not to have this be a part of my life. I can't deny that it's ingrained and it's something that I can't live without in a serious capacity. And so I went home to my mom and she is an incredible singer.
She sang her way through college, um, incredible person. And, um, my dad is very type very, you know, there's a plan for everything. And if you don't have a plan that we don't do it and you have to have budget and you have to know where you're going, where you're headed, how you're going to get there, the steps you're going to make and everything like that.
Cause I went to my mom and I told her that I think I want to do theater. And she said, you know, I think that's great, but I think that's a pretty difficult choice and it's going to be hard to provide for yourself. And it's a hard life to live and all this stuff.
And she didn't talk me out of it, but kind of like gave the reality check. And I was like, okay. And then I went to my dad and my dad said, do what you love and, you know, God will provide the rest.
And I was like, this is so backwards than how I thought this conversation was going to go. Um, and then my mom saw me and of my cement and she's now my absolute biggest fan. So that's kind of changed the tides, but it was good to have kind of this two person, um, reality check of like, yeah, my mom just wanted to make sure that this was not something that I was just flippantly going to try.
Like, you know what I mean? Um, that you thought through this and you knew this was going to be a life of rejection and hurt and pain and isolation and loneliness. Um, but on the flip side of that, it's also the best thing in the world.
And there's nothing more fulfilling in my opinion. And it has to be both. It can't be as good unless it's equally as bad at the worst parts.
[Ryan Paul]
So where, where was this? I mean, where, give me a location you grew up in.
[Blake Henri]
This was Dallas, Texas.
[Ryan Paul]
Yeah.
[Blake Henri]
Plano and outskirts of Plano. Um, and so my dad at this time was also still, he was in Dallas. He was living in Addison.
So just a little bit further, it's still North Dallas, but South. Um, but yeah, so grew up in Dallas. I moved to Houston when I was very little for a handful of years and then moved back to Dallas.
So Dallas has been home.
[Ryan Paul]
So what, what did your parents do for a living?
[Blake Henri]
So my dad, he's done a lot. He was at Hewlett Packard for a long time. Um, he's kind of like, he's a Jack of all trades and a master of many is Tyler Childers.
I think as a person I gave you, he does the classic thing in his concerts where he'll stop halfway through and the band's jamming and they'll introduce everyone. He has one of his guitar players. He plays guitar, electric guitar, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, mandolin, like just a fiddle, like everything.
And he says, he's a Jack of all trades and a master of most, which I love. And so my dad's had a lot of different careers. And a lot of them are people coming to him and being like, Hey man, I'm, I'm swimming and I need help.
Or friends that are like, can you help with whether that's anything with accounting or marketing or managing? Um, he's been like, he's a CFO of a company with his friend right now. So he's kind of jumped everywhere, but his major field has been in energy.
And then my mom, she, if she listened to this, she might yell at me cause I don't know if this is true, but to my remembrance, because they got divorced when I was like eight or nine, I don't remember her working before that. Um, but when the divorce happened, she worked with a dear friend of mine whose dad was a reconstructive surgeon. And she kind of has fit into this role for many, a few different companies of office manager, which usually is just a title.
They give someone when they do 15 other jobs that they don't have labels for. So she's become the heartbeat of a lot of these offices. Um, and she just got a job at a real estate investment firm that she's loving.
And so, yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
So baseball was your first, that's the first thing you remember wanting to be?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. So growing up, it was, I mean, I'd have a baseball game at 10 and I'd be, I'd jump in the car and change into my football uniform for a game at one and then change back in my baseball uniform for a game at three and then go to a soccer game at four. So like I did everything.
It was, I was, that was just my house. My older brother Taylor and I, we just, we played sports. That's what we grew up doing.
Um, and baseball was the one that felt like it clicked. It felt like I, um, I understood it. I enjoyed it.
Um, I enjoyed football a lot, but there became a time in middle school where really became academic, like playing for my school instead of playing with friends that I was like, I'm just not, this isn't as fun. It's, it wasn't about, you know, 20 of your closest friends coached by your dad playing ball. It was like, oh crap.
Now people are starting to think about their future, which turns into now egos are getting involved. So it just changed as a sport. Um, and something about baseball or at least baseball where I was is that did never really seem to, you know, kind of creep into that equation.
And it was always until the day that I stopped playing, it was always just friends playing ball, which was my favorite thing.
[Ryan Paul]
What was your position?
[Blake Henri]
It was utility infield. So typically first, second, and third, um, cause our shortstop, he went to play, he went to play and pitch at Oklahoma state. Um, like we, we had, we have people elsewhere that were fine.
They did not need me there. Occasionally they'd be like, we're up by 15, Blake, go pitch. And I was like, yeah, this is awesome.
Um, but we had people that were throwing mid nineties with nasty stuff being looked at already when they were sophomores.
[Ryan Paul]
So it's interesting to me that, and this is the stereotypical idea of Texas, right? That in your school, you've got to choose electives where it seems to me the obvious choice. Are you going to play football?
Are you going to play baseball? Maybe basketball. I don't know, but it was.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. And it was because seventh grade was when you could start playing sports for your physical education credit, or you could stay in PE and you know, you'd every two months you'd walk a mile. And that was like your credit.
Um, but most people started playing. And the great thing about the school that I was at is coaches from every sport really looked at everyone. It was not like, these are the football players, so I'm going to stick with them.
It was like, oh, this kid's playing baseball, but dang, he's fast and he has good hands. Let's see if he can play. Like, you know what I mean?
Like they were really interested in getting the best for everyone involved, which was special because that's definitely not, especially in Texas, not how it typically is. And there was no pressure from our school because we were state champs and have, currently have people that have played for us playing in professional leagues across all leagues. So it was not like, no, we only play football.
It was every sport got, at least from my remembrance, I'm sure people feel differently, but from my remembrance, every sport got their kind of kudos and, and their people and everyone really enjoyed what they did.
[Ryan Paul]
So what, you know, this, so your audition, probably what, 12, 13 years old, maybe, maybe a little younger than that. And what do you think it is that your drama professor sees in this little kid to say, you got to take this seriously?
[Blake Henri]
It's a good question. I've thought about it a lot. And it's the one thing I've always wanted to ask her that I just don't know, because technically I had been in theater before that, because Tommy Hart, that same musical theater actor, great friend that I was talking about before in sixth grade, we were on a basketball team together and he drug me out of the basketball tournament to go audition for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
I didn't know what an audition was. I sang Amazing Grace for the audition because that's the only song that I knew I knew the words to. And so again, I had done a show, but it's not like Joseph made me go, oh my gosh, this is, this is it.
This is what I want to do. I still, it was still like, this is a fun afterschool activity and it was a children's show. So it's always double cast.
And I didn't sing because I was cast as Pharaoh and one of the brothers. And I didn't sing any of the Pharaoh songs until tech week because the kid I was playing opposite with, who was the other Pharaoh for the other cast, was obsessed with musical theater. And so every day he'd be like, do you want to sing or do you want me to do it?
And I was like, go, like, have fun. Yeah, go for it. And the only thing I can think of, and this is just based off of what I've heard from other people around my career is something in that 12 year old had depth that, because I mean, that's a crazy monologue to pull from seeing your dead father walk in front of you for the first time that you just grieved his loss for Lord knows how long your uncle, I mean, you know, Hamlet, but your uncle just married your mom. And it's like, it's crazy to think about the circumstances. And my guess is she knew that.
And I connected with something in it that a 12 year old, it was different than how it would have been seen by someone else who, you know, but this is all speculation. I don't know, but that's my guess.
[Ryan Paul]
So it seems that, that people in your other people in your life were listening to higher powers or other the universe or whatever you want to call it about you as well.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. And it's the more I reflect back, the more stories I have of, yeah, God was doing a lot of stuff at me that I wasn't ready to deal with yet. Because at that time, I mean, there, there was nothing you could have said done, told me that would have gotten me off.
Like, even if my path was heading towards, you're going to be a drama teacher and a baseball coach. I was thrilled with that possibility. Like there was nothing that could have ripped that element of my life out of me.
And so looking back on it, I was like, Oh yeah, he tried a lot. There were many things that he put in my way, you know, a rock in the middle of the river that I just nudged and kept going. But you never see that when it's happening.
Yeah. It's almost, you almost see it as an inconvenience at the time. It's like, stop bugging me with this.
I'm trying to focus on this. And it's the, you know, the old saying that, you know, a man tells God his plans and God laughs. It's that, like looking back on it, the things that happened and jumped out like that sort of was.
[Ryan Paul]
So what you're really saying is historians matter.
[Blake Henri]
Oh, so much. Couldn't agree more. Wisdom right in front of us.
[Ryan Paul]
Wisdom right in front of us. Solomon is sitting right here. So, so you, you blow out your knee, you decide that that's for whatever reason, you're not going to teach.
You want to be an actor. Right. And then where does it go from there?
Do you go to college to be an actor? Do you just travel the circuit?
[Blake Henri]
When I decided, and one of the reasons, you know, it was such good advice from my mom is like, I had no idea. There was, there was not a thought behind my eyes when I made that decision. I didn't know the next step.
I couldn't even tell you schools that I'd be interested in. So I auditioned for the schools that I had heard about. So Carnegie Mellon, NYU, something in LA that I don't remember, USC.
And I remember going on visits or even virtual visits or taking like virtual tours because those had become big right when I was in high school. And I was like, I know myself. And if all I'm doing is theater, I'm going to burn out and end up hating it before I'm graduated.
And so while these schools are great and they're great for some people, they just weren't a good fit for me, but I still didn't know what that meant. And so K. Robb told me about SETC, Southeastern Theater Conferences, which basically you go up and you perform two monologues in front of 50 to 80 colleges that are just sitting at tables.
And then sheets get posted with your name for a quote unquote callback, which is just a personal conversation with the school. And so I did that.
[Ryan Paul]
So this is like a, when you say 50, it's like, you don't do it 50 times. It's like you and like the scene from a chorus line where there's 50 people in the dark smoking cigarettes, wanting you to 5, 6, 7, 8.
[Blake Henri]
You got two minutes. And if you blow it, then you blow it in front of 80 schools. It's not, you don't go, oh crap.
I didn't do good for Stephen of Austin, but I'll do good for that. No, if you do bad in those two minutes, you do bad in front of everyone.
[Ryan Paul]
What was your monologue?
[Blake Henri]
I did that. I did a, um, I think I did a brawn from laughing stock, which, oh my gosh, it's such a good show. It's a show real quick about a failing theater, summer stock in a barn.
And they have a final season, like hail Mary to save their company of Charlie's aunt, Dracula, and a third show that I don't remember, but one of their donors ends up dying. And so in his will, he's requested that his school be used as a school of York. So they use the third slot.
They replaced it out for Hamlet. And it's just, it's a perfect encapsulation of a farce meets summer stock because people are making entrances because they never do rep. So they keep making entrances in the wrong show.
There's the old guy who's been there for forever who can't keep anything straight. It's just great. So Braun is a little intern who loses the skull of Yorick and he's freaking out about it.
And so he draws a face on a cantaloupe and is trying to convince the artistic director to use the cantaloupe because he's trying so hard to make sure it works. And it's an incredible comedic monologue. And then the second one, the only thing I remember about it is it's, it was very dramatic.
I think it was from a monologue book, which is a no-no. But there were some people that hated the way it did that monologue. Because again, I was like, oh, I'm, you know, 17.
So emotion means yelling. Let me just yell the whole time. And these being seasoned professionals were like, don't ever do that again.
I was like, okay, great. So due to monologues and there's, I remember there's a kid whose name was also Blake that we got to know each other and became friends because, you know, you feel alone in that moment. And, but we had the same name.
So immediately we're best friends. And he ended up hating me by the end because it's going to sound like a brag, sorry, but I got so many callbacks and he got so little callbacks. But every time he saw the name Blake, he got excited because he thought it was him.
And then it ended up being me and he hated me by the end of the day. And I felt so bad because that's the first time I've ever encountered like quote unquote animosity when it came to the acting world. But I was, so afterwards you're in this big conference room and then you go in what I would assume would be like a big banquet space where they do weddings or whatever, because then it's like step and repeats and tables where there's merchandise and flyers and people and like more people standing behind tables and University of Oklahoma, whereas where I went to college was in the corner and they had this huge, you know, set up and this angel in human form, Erica Daly, who luckily became a friend of mine when I ended up going there, came out and grabbed my arm and oh, excuse me, Tom, the director came out and grabbed my arm and was like, I need to talk to you. And then put me to Erica and Erica gave me like the whole spiel about OU. And then Tom took me and convinced me to come to University of Oklahoma to have a official in-person visit, audition, callback, everything.
And right before I went, my stepdad at the time, the day before was diagnosed with cancer. And so I was like, okay, well then I won't go. And my mom was like, no, no, go, go.
You have friends, stay with them, which thank the Lord for Will Baker, because he took me in as one of his brothers. Otherwise I would have been completely alone and went alone. It felt very off.
It didn't feel right. And then through the whole process of that weekend of being shown everything, seeing shows, auditioning, talk to, I was like, this is the school because at the time they were about as close as you could get to a conservatory without being a conservatory. But you also had to take generals.
You had a football team, you had a baseball team, you had gymnastics, you had volleyball, you had basketball, you had everything. And so it was like the perfect answer for kind of this duality that I had at the time of my soul or my mind or whatever I wanted, because I could spend all day, every day in the theater building. And then on Saturday, go see a football game and just kind of drop everything and be a college student.
And it was perfect. It's exactly what I wanted without knowing that that's exactly what I wanted.
[Ryan Paul]
Beautiful. Let's take a first break here and then we'll come back and talk about how you get involved with the festival. So I will tell you, and I said this to you, I think, privately, and I know I said it to Beth Lopes on the podcast, but I will tell you that Hamlet is not the greatest tragedy at the Shakespeare Festival this season.
The greatest tragedy is that Blake Henri had to shave his beard. Because you have had one of the most amazing, you talk about jealousy, like that Blake kid, that is nothing compared to the jealousy that I feel with your beautiful, amazing beard. And we said this, do you remember this Lauren?
I do. And Lauren Bird, but Beth's answer was, well, then we wouldn't see his beautiful, glistening eyes as Laertes. And the reason I bring that up is because the songs you have chosen, for those of you who listen to our radio show or podcast before know that we ask our guests to provide a list of songs that we choose from to play during our breaks instead of commercials.
And all of these are pretty gut-punching. They're some of the most beautiful songs in the canon, but really some depth.
[Blake Henri]
I mean, you emailed me on a deep day, apparently. A deep one. I tried to just give you the first thing that popped in my head.
[Ryan Paul]
And you were the, how many times have we been doing this? A long time, Lauren and I. And you're the first one who's ever said, no, no, no, scratch these two, put these in, like you thought about it afterwards.
So we're going to start with one that I love this song. And if we had more time and it wasn't about me, I'd tell you more about it. But this is a song called Help Me Make It Through the Night.
Oh gosh. Now the author, the writer of the song is Chris Christofferson, one of the most brilliant Shakespearean songwriters in the world. But the version that we're going to play is performed by Tyler Childers.
Can you tell us why you chose this song?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah, I think for exactly the reasons that you said. Like when changes, but when you messaged me, when I heard, because music is an integral part of my life, like it's huge. And so saying something like, what's your five favorite songs?
It's a death question to me. I hate it. Like I'll spiral and think about it for days if I have the time.
So I was like, instead of doing that, because I have a show to get to, just give the first ones a pop in your head. And Help Me Make It Through the Night, I think is top five most beautiful songs in general ever written when it comes to lyrics and storytelling. And it perfectly encapsulates loss and yearning and needing someone, even if it's not correct.
And so if the song touches me deeply, it just immediately becomes one of my favorites, no matter the genre or singer or anything. And that was one of the first ones that popped into my head.
[Ryan Paul]
Okay.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
This is Help Me Make It Through the Night, performed by Tyler Childers.
[Speaker 7]
Dancing soft against my skin, like the shadows on the wall. Come and lay down by my side, till the early morning light. All I'm taking is your time.
Oh, help me make it through the night. I don't care who's right or wrong. And I don't need to understand.
Let the devil take tomorrow. Cause tonight I need a friend. Yesterday is dead and gone.
Always out of sight. It's so sad to be alone. Cause tonight I need a friend.
Yesterday is dead and gone.
[Lauren Bird]
That was Help Me Make It Through the Night, performed by Tyler Childers. You're listening to the Apex Radio Hour, Utah Shakespeare Festival Edition. I'll turn it back to you, Ryan.
[Ryan Paul]
Thank you, Lauren. We're here with Blake Henri. He's an actor in this season's company, the 2026 Utah Shakespeare Festival season.
He plays Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. See, here's the thing.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
I had it in my mind that it was Thursayites.
[Blake Henri]
Oh, yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
But it's not that. It's Thursayites. Thursayites.
Yeah. Thursayites in Trails and Cressida. And I've said that word so many times in orientations, and it's just...
And Laertes in Hamlet, which are running in rep in the Ingolstadt Theater. And then in our Randall Theater, we'll have something... We have Something Rotten, She Loves Me, and See How They Run.
And then the Ainshows open very soon. This is the second week of July. Open today, actually.
I think a preview with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the book club play. So we left off with this conversation about going to Oklahoma to school. So let's fast forward a little bit to graduation.
You've decided that acting is what you want to do, which, to be fair, lots of college theater kids want to do it, and then somehow it doesn't work. Where's your journey from graduation to your first paid gig?
[Blake Henri]
So it actually starts before graduation. And the man that I always say I owe my career to, which Chris Mixon, the way he puts it is he says, I owe half my pension to Paul Mason Barnes, who's an incredible, incredible director, incredible friend, incredible man, who started the Great River Shakespeare Festival. He helped start the education department up at Oregon.
He's just been integral in so many different places. He came to guest direct Othello my junior year. And, oh, I shouldn't tell a story because it reveals so much, but I'm going to.
I'll be vague. My first experience with Shakespeare in college made me hate Shakespeare. I didn't want to touch it with a tinfoil ball.
I didn't understand it. I thought it was dumb. I hated the production that was done.
I hated what we were trying to say, which sucks because my thesis project in high school, which was our critical research paper, which was basically compare a book you read in your career at school to a book off of this list. And you had to write like 18 pages or something like that. And I did Macker's and Hamlet.
And so I was in love. I loved it. I loved everything about it and got to college freshman year, immediately hated it.
And so I wanted to be anything but a Shakespearean actor to the point where through college, I worked in a scene shop. I did carpentry. I helped build stuff, whatever they asked me to do, I did.
And Paul came and auditioned for Othello and we had callbacks. And I was at work right before the callback. So I showed up to his callback covered in sawdust.
I was wearing my cowboy boots, you know, holes in jeans, paint covered, sweaty.
[Ryan Paul]
Your new baseball uniform.
[Blake Henri]
Exactly. Yeah. But the ultimate, like, I couldn't care less about what's about to happen.
I did my audition or callback left. And I was like, great. Come to find out, which he now tells me that I walked out of our little black box theater where the audition was.
And he turned to his team and he said, who's that cowboy who speaks text so beautifully? Cast me in Othello, which was the biggest eye roll in the world that I had to do that. But it ended up changing my life.
He's the director that opened my eyes to everything that helped me see what it was actually about, that helped me understand it, to help me realize that this is something I could do and I could understand and I could make a difference in and with that made a difference in me, the way he taught it and the way he helped us see what it meant. And so from that Othello, because he was there, he auditioned our entire program for the apprentice program at Great River, where he was going to be directing. And I walked into the audition room with him and he goes, OK, so this is just a formality, like you're coming with me if you want it.
So what do you want to talk about? And so didn't have to do a piece or anything and knew that I had that job. So my first job was actually understudying Chris Mixon, as well as Jim Poulos, who's been at the festival a few times, and Michael Fitzpatrick, who's been an actor here.
And I understudied Dogberry, which is what Mixon played. And the crazy thing about Mixon, which if you know him, you get it. He didn't show up to the festival until tech week.
So I played Dogberry for that whole rehearsal period. And it's a truly humbling experience as an actor to watch someone else take none of your choices. Like you think you're like, yeah, I thought it was pretty good.
And then he steps on stage and he just he didn't keep anything. And I was like, OK, well, I tried. That was a good, you know, month that I worked on that.
But that was much ado where I studied Dogberry and Leonardo with Jim Edmondson was the director who's just he's recently passed, but he's changed my life with the way that he could talk to a person. And I could go on story after story story with Jim, but it's Paul's partner. And then so from there, I was brought back the next year to be a part of the company.
And then after that, I went to Island Shakes. No, after that, I don't know what I did. I don't know if I did anything, but then came back again the following year and then went to Island Shakes, which is kind of where the journey into USF began.
[Ryan Paul]
So it's interesting that you're your gateway, not into Shakespeare necessarily, but Shakespeare in Shakespeare, acting Shakespeare, acting in Shakespeare is Othello. Yeah, that's kind of what you're saying. What was the role?
[Blake Henri]
I was Montano as well. I was a senator at the beginning. But and if you know anything about Paul and his directing style, he's kind of like Carolyn in a way that if there's they would rather find a way to combine a few kind of tertiary characters to make a role that has meat than cast three people in roles that are like you have a scene in three lines.
And that's kind of what he did with some of Montano. He made him a little more integral, but it was also like the perfect step into that world because I got to see Jake Ryan Lozano, who's a thriving actor right now and Halston Mann and Cameron McClure, who were Rodrigo, Iago and Othello, just tear it up and make me understand what text and verse was.
[Ryan Paul]
Do we say Carolyn Howarth, who's directed Troilus and Cressida this season?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Because like last year with Eros, when I played Eros for her, she Eros is a I think he has one of the most beautiful death scenes in all of Shakespeare. But in the text, he really has a scene at the beginning and then he has the death scene like he's not. That's kind of it.
And Carolyn combined him with the messenger that Cleopatra kind of beats up in the room and he made him you visually saw that he was Antony's right hand man and kind of best friend and confidant. And it's just it shows their intellect and knowledge of not just the text, but also people and characters in general, because whenever they do it, it's just it makes so much sense. It's perfect the way they do it.
[Ryan Paul]
Which isn't I mean, the my entry to to you and I correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this might be your first it was your first performance here at USF was in the play that goes wrong.
[Speaker 11]
Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
Right. That's where I which is the character that, you know, that is the funniest of all in that whole company. Right.
And and that's the first time that I saw you on stage, which was not in a Shakespeare role.
[Speaker 11]
Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
And then and then you come back the next year and you're heavily involved in in the work of the Bard. So where does this how does the call to come and do the play that goes wrong for could come to you?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. So twenty eighteen, I'm doing an Iliad up at Oklahoma Shakespeare and it kind of goes through audition season for rep. And so I close it and I reach out to Paul and I'm like, man, I kind of shot myself in the foot because I now auditions are done.
I don't have anything for summer. Do you know any place still auditioning? And he said, well, I'm directing at Utah.
So let me talk to Brian Vaughn and also Island Shakes is still they have a later season. So reach out to them, gave me email, made introductions, sent this beautiful email to Brian Vaughn about me. And it was basically like, if he's a spear carrier, he'll be the best thing spear carrier that you'll ever see.
You know what I mean? Like just very kind and very anyways, that struck up a virtual friendship with Brian and I. We talked a lot back and forth about, you know, I don't think it's a workout this season.
Please make sure that every time you submit, you talk to me. And so, you know, at the time, we were still doing callbacks in New York. So I'd go to New York and he'd always end up running late in auditions because he and I would talk into the room about just how we're doing, how everyone is, how life is and things like that.
And then I always say it's funny because that's the first half. So that part of my career and things that happened after to Paul Barnes, because that's what got me like in the door here, regardless of whether I was cast or not. But then the second half, I kind of dedicate to Jeffrey Kent.
At least this is my understanding of what happened. And if anyone listening has a different story, please feel free to correct. But this is my understanding.
So Jeffrey directed Play That Goes Wrong. I just sent in a cold videotape. And at this point, Derek and Tanya are the two that are viewing them.
And at this point in casting Robert, his doubling track was going to be Mr. Knightley and Emma, or at least something in the musical. And at this time, I was not confident in my voice. I was not in a place where I was like, yeah, let me go to bat with some of these incredible vocalists that I know they're auditioning.
And so when I got the side for that, I put it on tape, of course, but I was like, okay, well, that's probably not going to be an avenue that I go down. And then what I was told happened on this side of the table, the table that we're not privy to is Jeffrey was a big fan of my work. He always says it's one of the best self tapes he's ever seen for that specific role, because they gave the beginning of the show.
And so like the first monologue, I'm behind the door. And then there's eight physical gags after that, which you can't do in a self tape. So it's one of those things as an actor, you're like, what the heck do you want me?
And I even emailed I was like, do you want to see physical bits? Or do you want to focus on text and language? And the response was like, do your best.
And I was like, I don't know what that means. It doesn't help me out at all. And so I Yeah, it was anyways.
So they I kind of got put aside because I wasn't going to be an Emma. And they kept sending Jeffrey these Broadway actors for Emma, they were kind of casting musical first. And these people were incredible.
Like, I know, and they'd be perfect for Emma. But Jeffrey was like, guys, I can't do a show with an actor that doesn't have one clowning, but two, more importantly, a play, like they don't have plays on their resume. And I think you guys are underestimating how difficult this farce is.
It's the farciest of farces, like it just is. And so he sent back my resume to them. And he was like, tell me you can't use this kid anywhere else.
And that's when I played Carl, in my opinion, 20 years too young, but very blessed. I got to be a part of that production. And that they that Jeffrey stood up for me and a raisin in the sun.
Yes. Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
It's interesting. We've talked with Jeffrey Kent. He was on one of our first interviews.
And, and that seems to be a very Jeffrey Kent thing to do. He talked about it in terms of fighting, right? Is that you can give me an actor who has never held a sword, that's a great actor, but I'm going to spend too much time getting to the fight that you want.
And so he knew who he wanted.
[Blake Henri]
And yeah, I mean, I'll, I'll thank him until the day I die. Because the reason I'm here is because he stood up and fought for me because of some weird thing he saw from a kid trying to figure out play that goes wrong in his room.
[Ryan Paul]
So again, the ghost light speaks. Yeah, exactly. So you then come back and do, you know, we do some Shakespeare with us, but I want to, we're going to take our, our next break.
And then I want to kind of talk about each of the three characters.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
I don't mean to like fast forward the rest of your amazing work. But let's talk about these three characters. Cause you're one of the few that are in all of these three plays in some fairly major roles.
So let's take our second break. This is a song that I, I have listened to and just really, I, I, I'd never heard this version before, but it's just amazing to me called just over in the glory land by Wade Bowen. Why did you choose this one?
[Blake Henri]
So at some point, I'm sure we'll get to one of the songs that I'll tell the fuller story, but my grandma and my family had a music festival and the rule and her music festival was you can play whatever you want, but you have to do one gospel song. You have to play one gospel song. It's in your contract.
And honestly, when you emailed me, this was the song that was playing when I was listening and I was like, well, there you go. That's an easy choice if I've ever seen one. And I think it's just a great, always makes me happy and makes me move a little bit and brightens my day if I'm feeling a little down.
[Ryan Paul]
So yeah. This, I will tell you, Lauren, this will be added to my, to my playlist.
[Blake Henri]
It's so good.
[Ryan Paul]
That may not sound important to you, but Lauren knows. Okay. This is just over in the glory land by Wade Bowen.
[Speaker 3]
Just over in the glory land, I long to be by my Savior's side, just over in the glory land. Over in the glory land, I will join the happy angel band, just over in the glory land. Over in the glory land, there'll be a mighty host I'll stand, just over in the glory land.
Well, I am on my way to those mansion's fair, just over in the glory land. There to sing God's praise and His glory share, just over in the glory land. I said, over in the glory land, I will join the happy angel band, just over in the glory land.
Over in the glory land, there'll be a mighty host I'll stand, just over in the glory land. There to sing God's praise and His glory share, just over in the glory land. There to sing God's praise and His glory share, just over in the glory land.
I said, over in the glory land, I will join the happy angel band, just over in the glory land. There to sing God's praise and His glory share, just over in the glory land. Just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land.
Just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land.
[Lauren Bird]
That was Just Over in the Glory Land by Wade Bowen. You're listening to the Apex Radio Hour, Utah Shakespeare Festival edition. I'll turn it back to you, Ryan.
[Ryan Paul]
Thank you, Lauren. We're here with Blake Henri. He's an actor in this season's Shakespeare Festival Company.
He is playing in all three of the Engelstad Shakespeare shows in Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, and Hamlet. We've been talking about some backstory, and the thread that seems to tie it all together is inspiration. You've talked about, very beautifully, these people that have come into your life in ways that you hadn't expected.
That somehow you've turned in those directions, like the pinball getting bumped in the right way. I want to talk about this season specifically, because you play three important roles. I have thoughts, actually, about all of them in some way or another that I want to talk to you about.
Let's start with Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. What moved me about this production, and I've seen a million Twelfth Nights and a lot of them here at the festival over the years, is that, one, there is a, redemptive may not be the right word, but an interesting Malvolio end in the play. And what I've seen in your performance with Sir Toby Belch, that I haven't seen in many, many others, is, at some point, a real regret of what they're doing with Malvolio.
Is that...
[Blake Henri]
Yes, it's dead on. He's hard, because Toby is hilarious, and he's such... He's just the guy you want to hang out with.
But if you're not careful... Excuse me, and forgive my little bit of French, but I say it because it's the perfect word for him. Like, he can just become an ass.
Like, he can just take it too far. And a lot of Tobys, they'll take it too far. That happens in every play that's in the text.
But you never see him feel bad, and that's a very valid choice. Like, if you don't want your Toby to have regret, which is very easy, because especially that we've added lines back in that are not Toby's, where instead of exiting after he tells off Andrew, which is what it is in the original text, and then he's not back, we've brought him back and given him some of Mariah's lines to say, I was a part of this as well. And so that was something from the beginning that I was very concerned with, was, I don't want people to turn off from him because he's a bully.
I don't think he's a bully. My biggest thing with Toby is Toby is a man who doesn't know how to grieve. He's just lost his brother.
He's just lost his nephew. And there are so many different avenues of grief that everyone, even if you're similar in your walks with someone, of how you grieve losing someone, you're different in minute ways. You just are.
Grief is different for everybody, and it's different every day. There is no standard way to handle grief. You'll wake up one day, and you'll be fine.
It still happens with my grandma. My grandma passed away in 2020 or 2021, and there are still days I wake up, and it's like, oh my gosh, it just hits you. And you have these two beautiful depictions of how grief is handled.
You have Olivia who cries, walks around her room crying every single day to show her grief. She dresses in only black. She's only melancholy throughout the day.
There is no break. She does not let up. And I know people like that, that when they lose people that are close to them, that they think they have to be there because they can't handle anything else.
Their world is consumed by that. And you have Toby who just lost these two people that are very dear to him, and his way of dealing with it is pushing that thought as far away from his mind as possible, which is an equally valid way because it's two people that are just doing their best, and they're both wrong in some places, but they're both right in some places. And it's still relatively fresh in the world.
And so that was the big thing I wanted within Toby is he's not just an alcoholic partier. There's a reason behind doing what he's doing, and that's escapism. He's trying to run away from the loss of his family that he was close with.
And in that, I think you open up this depth to him that is so much more than just, oh, he likes to drink and sing and throw parties and have fun because that even helps with Sir Andrew because it's really hard when you get into the relationship of Toby and Andrew to not see Toby as someone who's just using and manipulating Andrew. He is. But if you root that in a man that is like, I will do anything that I can to make sure that I'm no longer alone, that you're here with me because I genuinely love you.
I genuinely think you're my friend, and I genuinely want to spend time with you because we can talk about stuff, because you party with me and you don't judge me. That one thing to me kind of opened it for him. And if that's the case, that he's kind of running away from these emotions, same thing with grief.
At some point, everything you've pushed away will come crashing down on top of you for the better because then you have to deal with it. And I think what he does with Malvolio is, I think Malvolio has been terrible to him for a very long time, especially because Malvolio doesn't see with grief. He judges the actions.
And so there's drinking, which Malvolio is against. There's partying, which Malvolio is against. He's being loud, which Malvolio is against.
He's crude and crass, which Malvolio is against. So Malvolio attacks the actions, but Toby takes that personally because at some point, we all do. Like if you get attacked about your actions, of course you take that a little bit personally, especially or even if you don't know that the reason you're acting this way is because of a deeper reason within you, you're still going to take it personally because your subconscious knows that.
And so he lashes out and he decides to be like, I'm done just taking this from this guy. But at some point, the glass shattering happens and you need a crap moment from Toby to realize that this has gone a little bit too far, especially with our new ending of him kind of justifying some of it to Olivia with Mariah as a teen instead of letting Mariah do that by herself.
[Ryan Paul]
So where does this, in your mind, this, I don't know if penance is the right word, but the glass shatter you talk about, how much of that is you bringing to the character and how much of that is John D'Antonio, the director saying, this is what I want you to do?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. So this is on my second show with John and one of the things I love the most about him is we talk a lot and I know both as an artistic director, which is huge, but as a director that there is nothing too big, too bad, too mean that I can come to him with that we can't resolve and continue to move forward. And that was one of our big conversations was, do we want Toby in the finale?
Do we want Toby to exit and we don't see any of this remorse or anything like that? And he was leaning more towards having Toby in the finale. So when he told me that, which is before I even got here, that's when I kind of started thinking, okay, what is the arc to get there?
And something that I came up with in the room that then talked to him about that he really vibed with was the moment Festy starts swapping really quickly between himself and Sertopis when Malvolio is locked up is the glass shattering moment because that's not something that we talked about. We thought he was going to go down and pretend to be Sertopis, poke a little fun at Malvolio and then we'll let him go and everything will be fine. But then he starts being cruel to him, which in my opinion is correct because Malvolio was very cruel to him at the beginning.
He says, I saw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool that has no more brain than a stone just openly in front of Olivia, a person that Festy is really trying to get back in good graces with. It's the worst insult a fool could ever hear. And he's been holding on that for the entire show.
So he starts poking the bear a little bit more than what we think is going to happen, which makes Mariah and I go, this is not what we talked about. What are you doing? Why are you flopping?
And then I think his line is, nay, I will never believe a wise man until I see his brains, which is like the whoa. And then that's the thing where it kind of makes you go, oh crap. I've always in a fountain and he's tied up and he's blind.
Like everything that once was jokey to you with this subtext now behind it makes you realize how, yeah, we went a little bit too far with this one. And so once he's getting lower down, that's the big moment of change. And Katie and I just, Katie plays Mariah, just did that in a rehearsal one time and John loved it.
So it was kind of both.
[Ryan Paul]
I think it's a beautiful way to add complexity to a character that can, as you said, often be played as fairly one-sided. I mean, this is interesting to me about Shakespeare, right? Is that we don't know how Sir Toby Belch is played in Shakespeare.
And what you have done is you've added depth and complexity to the work of Shakespeare. So I often think that it's interesting. We talk about Shakespeare as being, you know, oh, you know, like we love him, we love him, we love him.
But in reality, we have added so much more to those words. Like what you did on that stage has enhanced the words of the Bard and what you and John have put together and the rest of the team. So let's talk about Thursites.
So this is Troilus and Cressida, which, you know, is a challenging play for a variety of reasons, right? I mean, it's not necessarily many people would say Shakespeare's best work. It's certainly no Hamlet, certainly no Pericles, which we all can agree is Shakespeare's greatest play.
But I think that this is a beautiful cut of this script. And you are a big part of that cut. I mean, I tell people in the Grove that if you have read the Wikipedia, Troilus and Cressida, or read the play, this is not that, right?
This is different. And your character is a big example of that. One of the things that Carolyn Howarth has done is kind of adjusted the timeline sort of a little bit.
I mean it's a little more advanced. And the character, and please correct me if I'm wrong, in the original version of Troilus and Cressida is a servant who's kind of misshapen. And you are none of that in this play.
We start the play with you as what I tell people is a war correspondent, that your character is actually the one communicating the story to us. I liken it to Edward R. Murrow or Morley Safer embedded in Vietnam, the person who's telling us at home what we're seeing.
And when you heard that version, can you tell me a little bit about what your thoughts were?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. So that was another thing that Carolyn and I actually talked about before I got here because I love Carolyn for so many, so many reasons that I could do a whole podcast about. But she's another director that just talks to her actors.
And she called me and she was like, hey, I'm about to send out because before we get here, each director sends out a video or a written thing, whatever they want to do, introducing themselves, talking about themselves, talking about the process, and then talking a little bit about what the idea behind the concept is because it just helps actors with memorizing lines and getting in the world. So you don't show up to something where you have no time to rehearse in a completely different place than what the director has envisioned for because we've all been in those rooms where you're like, oh, you wanted this? Well, I was thinking it was this.
And then it takes a whole two weeks of rehearsal to just unlearn everything you've already done. And so she called me and she was like, I'm about to send out my video or paper about Troilus and Cressida and I know you're going to have questions. That's what I'll leave it at.
So call me with anything. And I was like, okay. So I eagerly awaited the email to be like, this is what it is.
And I read it. And as someone who – I read this in college but that was my last. I've never been in a place where we did it.
I've never been a part of it or been reading anything. And through her description of it, I mean, it clicked with me immediately. There was no convincing.
There was no helping me understand parts. And so she even reached out to me again. She was like, so do you have any questions?
And I was like, no, I get it. I was like, I can't wait to start with you. And she's very sweet and she talked about how for specifically Thursides, it was a very half-baked idea.
She was like, and I needed an actor in it that I knew that would solve problems and I knew that I could trust. And she's like, so I'm very happy I have you. All that to say, make this idea work.
And I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, you got it. Let's do it.
But to me, literally, there was no – there was nothing that she said or that I read that I was like, I don't really get this. It was perfect because you have to find a profession or a calling or a trade in which he can be his absolute self. He can say these horrendous things to people of power and not have any repercussions except for a little bit of stuff with Ajax, which he causes upon himself.
Like he knows for a fact when he starts poking Ajax that Ajax is going to physically hit him in some way, shape, or form. And he keeps going. He gets smacked and then doubles down and the insults get worse.
And so what is that thing in a more modern lens that you're allowed to do that? Well, you're media in a time of warfare. You have these written rules that can dictate how people act from either side when they see you and it's a beautiful way of turning invisible because if you're wearing that media badge or vest or depending on the time that you're in, you can't be – you're not treated the same as just the opposing side.
And so that's why I can be in scenes with the Trojans and no one looks at me and you kind of forget that I'm there until I step out and then make commentary about it, which is the second answer question of he has all of these takes that are – I mean it's got to be 70 percent of his characters to the audience and what kind of person would do that? Well, a person who's writing directly to his audience, a person who is spitballing and bouncing off of people that he's about to go write an article and send back home about and it was just perfect.
[Ryan Paul]
What I liked about it is the framing of it almost – so there's this thought that – and again, I'm not a scholar of theater, but there's a thought of we are with you in the audience and we're the third leg of the stool and we're all kind of in the soup together. But having your character in the role that they're in that we're so familiar with now that what I almost felt was I'm watching Troilus and Cressida through a TV screen. That I am not – like I am further removed from this watching what is happening projected to me in a distant place.
[Blake Henri]
100 percent. It's like director's commentary. John talked about that in Twelfth Night and I'm like that's kind of what it is.
Because Carolyn, we were working on the prologue and she just kept saying – she was like, I just want this to feel like everything that's about to happen is set up as the article that you're writing about it. Like you're telling us all of this. I was like, well, have me start at the typewriter and lights up and I'm, you know, click-clacking away and then I read the first line as if I just typed it and then I introduce you guys into our world.
She was like, yeah, that's it. Let's do that.
[Ryan Paul]
I think it's interesting. My last Thursites question is a matter of logistics. So when people see this play or if you've seen it, there's some time on stage where you're just kind of – before the show starts, you know, wandering around, fixing things, looking at things and just kind of like getting the lay of the land.
And I'm wondering in that scenario, one, I'm sure there are times when that goes longer than you intend it to be.
[Blake Henri]
Oh, yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
And secondly, when they said, okay, this is what we want at the beginning of the show, do they say this is what we want or do they say, you know, just kind of wander around, do reporter stuff for 15 minutes?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. So it kind of depends and it varies by director. So Carolyn, I found out – anyway, so I'll get to that in just a second.
I showed up in a rehearsal and she had asked me. She was like, I need to figure out a way to get Thursites to be outside of the world that we're in, that we as an audience accept him as a truth teller and accept him as kind of almost removed from the middle of the conflict he's in it. But he steps out of it and that needs to not be jarring.
It needs to feel normal. And I was like, okay, let me think about it. And the next day I came to rehearsal and I was like, let me be there when the audience comes in.
I was like, let me be seated and working, just doing whatever I need to do. There is no introduction of Thursites. Thursites is there from the beginning and he's there until the last line.
And she goes, I'm so glad you said that. I was like, why? She goes, I wanted to do that but I never wanted to ask an actor to be out there for that long doing nothing.
And I was like, no, throw me out there. Let's do it. And we kept being like, you know, this is low on the list of priorities because, you know, you can – anyone here is professional enough to fill five, ten minutes on stage by themselves.
And then we get to first preview and we still haven't talked about it. And so I went to her and I was like, do you just want me to do something? And then you give me notes, tell me if it's wrong.
She was like, yeah. I was like, great. Well, first preview, we ended up holding for 15 extra minutes.
So I was out there for like almost 30 minutes if not more. And I remember through – I heard through backstage that we were holding and I was like, OK. I'm just going to – I'm going to show Carolyn everything I can think of that I could possibly do in this timeframe because it will never happen like this again, you know, knock on wood.
And so I went upstairs and I took pictures of the graffiti that is up there and wrote about it and then came back down and took a picture, wrote a little bit of the article and came back. It was just like a bunch of pinging and bouncing around and Carolyn loved it. And so I basically did a truncated version of that where I acknowledge the audience in the sense that I look at them but it's not like Twelfth Night where my entrance is interaction.
It's not direct interaction. It's just letting you know that I'm also here with you so that when I pop out and I'm like, this is what you're about to see. This is the history of where we've been for the last five years.
It feels a little less jarring and it feels less like a play is starting and more that you're just having a conversation with someone that's been there with you.
[Ryan Paul]
So in Twelfth Night, if that had happened in Twelfth Night, would Sir Toby engage with the audience? Like I've seen you in some roles where you actually came down and chatted with people and talked with folks.
[Blake Henri]
John's a big fan of giving me entrances to the house for that reason.
[Ryan Paul]
But your character, I mean, Thursites would not do that. Like he would not have.
[Blake Henri]
I think he would, but I don't think it would be loving. I think Toby is like, welcome. It's good to see you.
Welcome. Welcome. Hi.
Let's have a drink. Let's talk. Give me a bite of your tart whether I want it or not.
Like that's Toby. Thursites is the one that calls you out if your phone rings or throws a book at you if you're sleeping. You know what I mean?
So it's a different kind of audience interaction. It's more of a – I would say it's more abrasive the way he is with everybody.
[Ryan Paul]
He's been there. I mean I think that's important, right? This war has been ongoing for seven years and he is, we're likely to believe, been embedded in this conflict for seven years also.
[Blake Henri]
And I'm not working my tail off for you to sleep through the story that I'm trying to tell you. Like I'm – we're not doing – you know what I mean? Like that's the kind of edge he has.
I think the thing with Thursites is he's so frustrated because he sees how stupid everything is and he's so terrible but he's right. He's completely correct in how cruel everything and how unjust everything is and how stupid it is that thousands of people are dying because someone wanted to cheat on someone else instead of just handling it like adults yourself. And all of that tension and pent-up resentment and anger and disgust is there.
So if you choose to interact with Thursites the way you would with Toby, you're not going to get the same feeling back because he's so fed up with where he is that he has to watch people die. He has to capture people dying. He has to document it.
He has to – I remember the character clicked for me because Apollo, the scenic designer, was talking and he brought this book. It was this huge collection of just war photographs. He said a line that – it was perfect.
It stuck with me and I was like, there's my character. He said, every war photograph is an anti-war photograph. And I was like, that's it.
Thursites hates his job but he loves his job because it's necessary. And if he didn't do it, people would forget and people would pass on and people would diminish and they would take away how terrible this thing is. And if I don't take that picture of Patroclus as he's taking his last breath and show the world that this young boy was just stabbed by the people that quote-unquote led him and loved him and cared for him, then we're going to do this again in five years.
And we're going to continue this process as we have up until today, which is why it works in the modern time because nothing is different.
[Ryan Paul]
Yeah, I think it's interesting that we're – especially when we're talking about media and the importance of ethical journalism. But I also think that it's a very relevant moment in the play. And your character is very much playing the role of a Shakespeare fool in not the stereotypical way.
[Blake Henri]
But it also is because the difference between a clown and a fool in Shakespeare is a clown is there for jokes, laughs, and yucks. A fool is there to be a truth teller. So Lear's fool is not funny.
Like, yeah, there are some lines that are good ones. But Lear's fool is the only person in the world that can tell Lear to his face, this is how you are, this is how you're acting, this is how your actions have consequences, and not be immediately beheaded. So fools are truth tellers and Thersides is the ultimate definition of that.
The difference between Thersides and a Shakespearean fool is fools usually do it in riddles. Thersides will tell you to your face with zero colorful language exactly what he thinks of you and exactly what he thinks of what you're doing.
[Ryan Paul]
Which makes it more relevant and more present. A hundred percent. All right.
Let's talk about Laertes for a minute. And this is a character that most people know. But I want to talk specifically in your mind about Laertes and the Polonii.
I think that's what Beth called him, the Polonii, right? We see Laertes in the stereotypical Laertes is the pissed off brother who is mad that Ophelia is dead, is going to blame Hamlet for killing his dad and killing his sister and they're going to concoct this. But I think your Laertes is a little more nuanced than that.
Can you talk about your take there?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. So one of the big driving things with my Laertes is Carolyn started it. Carolyn started the whole thing because we were just talking about casting in general and she had asked me what I thought about my casting and things like that.
And I told her how I felt about Hamlet and Laertes because at the time it was a decision between that or a different role. And she goes, no, I think you're going to be great because I've hated every Laertes I've ever seen. And I was like, oh gosh.
And then I swear every person I told after that said the same thing. It was just he was a hothead. He was misogynistic.
He, yeah, he was temperamental. So he just became this like, and I don't think it's people's fault for thinking that because he's in like three scenes and you see him and he's gone for an hour and 45 minutes. And then he's back and he's back at a 12.
Like there is no, he walks in, he sees his father's dead body and then we get where he jumps to. You just get this like exposition that Laertes has killed multiple people coming through the house and he's stopping at nothing to get to this King. But you don't get a rant like Hamlet.
You have two hours to see his journey. Laertes, you see none of it. And there's a beautiful line in Hamlet that Hamlet says where he says, you know, I'm very sorry, dear Horatio, that to Laertes I did forget myself for by the image of my cause.
I see the portraiture of his. Like Hamlet and Laertes are the exact same person. The difference is Hamlet was there and Hamlet was talking out his journey and talking out his feelings and he had people there and he had people whereas Laertes leaves.
And then he just gets these mentally devolving letters from his sister where he's not really sure what's happening. And so he jumps into the act five with no ramp up. But the biggest thing for me for Laertes is I was like I have one scene with Ophelia kind of I guess I have a monologue in the first scene.
But like I have one scene with Ophelia to make the audience care about me and remember me. Otherwise I am just a hothead who's coming back in and threatening to kill people. And that's very hard to like sympathize with when you've not heard any of his story for the past hour and 45 minutes.
[Ryan Paul]
That's what I like about this thought process right with this family. Polonius also could be a very stereotypical, you know, sycophant to the king and his words to his son could be very trite and seen as very, you know, axiomatic and those kinds of things. And what I see in this version of Hamlet is that this is a family who loves each other like not just like the Polonius loves his son and loves his daughter separately.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
But collectively this is a unit.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. Because typically you get in the typical Polonii the most love you see is Polonius to Laertes. And that kind of feeds in Ophelia's descent if you will is because once Laertes leaves the only person she had was Hamlet and she was just told that you can't interact with Hamlet.
So she's like, you know, all this stuff horribly keeps happening to her. But this is the first time I've seen one where it is Hamlet breaks up a familial unit. It's not just he commits an atrocity by killing someone as he removes a father from two children and it feeds I think Ophelia.
I don't want to speak for her but I think it feeds into her madness. And I think my favorite line or line says the most for me is so small and so irrelevant in other productions. But when he comes back in and he says I don't remember what he says but something like what's your cause of grief?
And he's like where's my father? And it just shows that in my opinion he's just been in denial for the past however long it's been. It's like no, there's no – my sister's – like I'd rather believe my sister's completely lost her mind and is telling me nonsense than to believe that someone has killed my father.
Especially someone that refers to me and I refer to them as my brother. Like you're telling me my brother Hamlet killed my father? That's crazy.
Like something must be wrong with you sister because that's – I don't believe that. I'll come back and let me see what's going on. And then he says where's my father?
And he says dead. And then he immediately throws – because like Laertes is very respectable. He does everything by the book.
He follows the king's orders. He follows his father's orders. And he says I dare damnation.
I don't care if I go to hell for this. Let come what comes but I'll be revenged for him. And it's – Laertes is just Hamlet if we have another five hours for Hamlet to debate whether or not he should do this or not.
Like he hears what happened and just immediately jumps to, okay, fine. Then I'm going to kill whoever did it. Not just because of my emotional revenge but because that's the honorable thing to do.
[Ryan Paul]
Yeah, I think it's interesting. I love the idea that with this structure of a family and Ophelia is added into more scenes in this production as well to really get this relationship with her and Hamlet and with her father and Laertes. But this idea that – and I hope this doesn't trivialize it for you but it's this princess bride.
My name is Indigo Montoya.
[Speaker 10]
You killed my father.
[Ryan Paul]
Like it's not just – you didn't kill somebody. You killed my father and it's a man that I loved. I'm not just pissed that you killed my dad but you – this is someone who meant something to me, right?
And this creates this quest that moves forward. Is that fair?
[Blake Henri]
Yeah, absolutely. And it's the same way in the princess bride. It's not revenge for revenge's sake.
It's revenge because you ripped out a chunk of my heart and not just him but also my sister because Laertes 100% blames Hamlet for Ophelia. What happened with Ophelia? So in our world, in Shakespeare's world of Hamlet, Hamlet has taken away the only two people in Laertes' life, kind of the third because the third person in Laertes' life would be Hamlet.
And by killing his brother and sister, taking away his family, he has then subsequently removed himself as someone that Laertes can count on and consider family or friends or any person he can go to. And so with one ill thought out – I mean Hamlet stabs Polonius and he says – Gertrude said, what have you done? He says, nay, I know not.
Is it the king? So like he doesn't plan this. He doesn't think about it.
He acts irrationally and with one stab has killed Polonius which drives Ophelia mad, which removes himself from Laertes' heart. And Laertes is alone. There's no one left in the world.
There's not a single person. And with one stupid, selfish, rash movement, Hamlet has destroyed this one person, his brother, his entire life. And Laertes is not going to stop until that's revenged at some point because now he doesn't care.
He has nothing left. There's nothing for me to be here anymore for. So if this ends in my death either by jail imprisonment or being put to death or because I get killed in this battle, that's fine because there is nothing left for me here.
[Ryan Paul]
And he still gets his moment, his Sir Toby moment of regret in this like deathbed confession of – I don't know if he's – I mean do you think he's like, oh no, what have I done? Or is it just I still think you should die but I should have died a different way?
[Blake Henri]
I think it's – it's a good question. I think it's potentially a little bit of both. I think a lot of it is actually – at least the way I'm playing it is Claudius is like, Hamlet, take this hand from me and Hamlet gives a legitimate apology.
He says, forgive me. I've done you wrong. What I did was madness.
Free me so far from your thoughts that I have shot my arrow or my house and hurt my brother. And it's the first time in any conversation that there's been accountability, that there's been recognition to Laertes that like this is really messed up and someone is sorry for that. And I think that messes him up because when he comes back, he just like – it's like kill, kill, kill all these servants, gets to the king and the king makes it about himself selfishly.
He's like, I loved your father. It's like I don't care what you thought about my dad. This is not about you.
This is about me. And then on top of that, you double down and you say that you couldn't put Hamlet in jail. You couldn't lock him in his room.
You couldn't do anything to him because his mom loves him and the people of Denmark love him. I don't care how many people love him. He killed my father and has driven my sister to madness, which means pretty much death.
And so it's the first time in his interaction coming back to Denmark that someone has gone, I'm sorry. I did this and it's wrong and I don't know why I did it. And I think he sees legitimate regret and he even says halfway or three quarters of the way through the fight, I'll hit him but it's almost against my conscience.
So he's thinking about it. Like it's that whole final thing. He's just turning and turning and turning.
And I think when he gets killed and it's the end, I don't think it's a deathbed confession of a sense of like, let me just clear my conscience. So I'll go to heaven. I think it's the glass shatter moment.
It's the same thing you're talking about. You refer you compared to Toby Belch when Fessy starts messing and Toby goes, oh crap, we've gone too far. When he gets killed and he knows his life is over, he thinks about everything.
And I think he sees in that moment, I messed up as well. I took this too far. I never should have been allowed myself to be so heated and so full of revenge that I allowed Claudius to manipulate me into something that I might not have done.
It's the thing I say all the time in today's world is like, man, if we could just get those two people in a room and lock the door, everything would be fine. Just whatever they need to say because they'll go through the first round which is yelling and insulting and slapping and hitting and all the bad things. But then when the hurt is kind of out there in the open and then it just turns to talking, it gets resolved.
And that's I think the thing with Laertes is it never gets to that second stage until he gets cut. And then it makes him go, oh, what am I doing? Like, yeah, here's everything that happened.
Kill me if you want to or even say that you don't forgive me. That's fine. But I'm going to ask you for it and allow you to make the final choice over my body whether or not you clear me of my sins to go to heaven or not.
[Ryan Paul]
And the rest is silence.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
So it's interesting that Thracites, you know, we talked about this glass shatter for Sir Toby and for Laertes. But Thracites gives us the warning like we never see he doesn't get a glass shatter moment. He tells us pay attention because the glass will shatter.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
And you got to think about where you're going to be when that happens. Yeah.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. So it is when it's coming. Yeah.
[Ryan Paul]
Yeah. Yeah. Let's take our final break.
This is a great song, Faded Love by Bob Wills. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, right, who is instrumental. If you don't know Bob Wills, he is instrumental in American music.
There are so many branches from the tree of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. But this song was by him, Faded Love, but it's going to be performed by, please, I hope I get this right, Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition. That's it.
Tell me why you chose this song.
[Blake Henri]
So I'll do a real quick story about it. But around late 90s, early 2000s, this is my grandpa's favorite music. And my grandma grew up on a farm in Itasca, Texas with 11 brothers and sisters.
And the only time that they took a break and working was to come in and listen to Bob Wills. That's just who Big Papa, her dad, loved. And she hated it.
Oh, she hated Bob Wills. And she always said this is how she knew God had a sense of humor because she married a man who put Bob Wills next to Jesus. And so at the time, you could only see these kind of we would, I guess, consider cover bands.
But they're just unbelievably talented bands playing in like smoky bars. And my granddad was like, I'm sick of doing that. I can't do it anymore.
So what if we start? He got with one of his friends and said, what if we started a music festival where it's smoke-free, drinking-free? It's very family-oriented.
And my grandma was like, absolutely not. And he was like, why? I was like, because you're going to be in the front row tapping your foot and I'm going to be doing all the work, which is exactly what happened for the next, you know, 20 years that we had it.
But this was, it's been my favorite song since from, like, this is, what is your favorite song? This is the answer, Faded Love. It's a song that, you know, it makes me think of her.
It makes me think of my mom, my family. It's, if you're listening at home and you have space, go dance. Because my grandma always said this is the, it is against the law to not dance when you hear Faded Love play.
And it's just kind of the quintessential when I think of Western swing and that style of music and love and family. This is kind of the song that wraps all of that up.
[Ryan Paul]
Okay. This is Faded Love, performed by Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition.
[Speaker 5]
It's you. As I read you were so sweet. I remember Miss you darling more and more.
As heaven would miss the stars above. With every little thing of you and remember. As I think, as I watch, that it was in the springtime.
When you said goodbye, I remember. I miss you darling more and more. As heaven would miss the stars above.
With every heartbeat I still think of you and remember.
[Lauren Bird]
That was Faded Love, performed by Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition. You're listening to the Apex Radio Hour, Utah Shakespeare Festival Edition. I'll turn it back to you, Ryan.
[Ryan Paul]
Thank you, Lauren. And might I say, mighty fine inflection.
[Blake Henri]
I was about to say.
[Ryan Paul]
I'm sorry.
[Blake Henri]
Billy would love that.
[Ryan Paul]
My anglicized pronunciation of his name. I apologize. But well done.
Well done. We're here with Blake Henri. He is an actor this season.
You've seen him before in many roles at the Shakespeare Festival. But this season he plays Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. Thercides in Troilus and Cressida.
And Laertes in Hamlet. We've been having a great conversation. And this is our last segment where we talk about what's bringing us joy.
But before we do this, I am interested because we've had other people talk about this as well. Very quickly, in each of these three characters, what's the walk-up song? Right?
[Speaker 10]
Sir Toby.
[Ryan Paul]
So Sir Toby, is there a walk-up song that either he has or that you put on as you get ready to play a drunken, grieving man?
[Blake Henri]
So they all have playlists. That's for sure. They're singular songs.
I'm not sure. Toby's playlist is very – it's a lot of Marc Broussard who's just an incredible vocalist who loves doing, like, old school, like, Solomon Burke covers. And he has a lot of Otis Redding covers and things like that.
So it's like whatever you'd imagine – what would you play if you're sitting on the dock of a party and everyone's having a good time? And there's just no care about the outside. You know those moments where everyone has at least one of them.
They look back, whether it's with family, friends, by yourself. I've had many just by myself, which is great. Where it's just like every song when the playlist is hitting, everything – all the vibes are good.
You're hydrated. You're not hungry. Like, it's just everyone's in a good mood.
Nothing could bring it down. So it's a lot of Marc Broussard. It's a lot of – there's some Dawes songs on it, which is another great band.
But honestly, the thing that kind of has to be the walk-up song for Toby is Il Secreto per essere felice, which is the aria that John gave me to sing while I'm coming in. So before my entrance for Toby, just those Italian words over and over and over are the only thing that I'm thinking about, which works because the song is basically the secret to being happy is to have friends, to laugh, to drink, to eat well. Like that's the whole Italian aria.
So that would be his walk-up song.
[Ryan Paul]
Okay. What about Thursites?
[Blake Henri]
Thursites is a lot of Rage Against the Machine. So probably that. Jeremy by Pearl Jam was a song that became one that put me in the mood for his.
Greta Van Fleet is another great band. Black Smoke Rising is a good walk-up song by Greta Van Fleet for him. Safari Song by Greta Van Fleet is a good song for him.
But really, just anything, probably Killing in the Name of is what, I mean, it's just, it perfectly sums up his character, Killing in the Name of. So I'd pick that.
[Ryan Paul]
Okay. And finally, Laertes.
[Blake Henri]
That's hard because he has two. Because the first one is like, I'm going back to France to see my friends and go to school. I love my family.
Everything is awesome. It's the, you know, the song from the Lego movie. And then it's amazing what I am at the beginning of that show.
And then luckily I have the dressing room to myself because it just turns into mania. Because it's just old angsty rock from when I was in high school. So it's like my chemical romance with mama and cancer and teenagers.
And there's Simple Plan and there's Blink-182. And so it's just like, it starts really fun and happy because it's closest what I put to a quote-unquote normal show at the beginning of the show. Because it's just like, hey, I love to be in here.
I came back here for you to get crowned. But I'd like to go back. Is that cool?
He's like, yeah, it's cool. And it's like, great. Sister, I love you.
Write to me as you're gone. And be careful of Hamlet. Very run-of-the-mill like, you know.
So that's actually a lot of like the Western swing songs at the beginning of that. But then for a second act, Laertes, it's a little darker. Yeah, I got to get to a place in the second act.
And so it definitely changes.
[Ryan Paul]
So it's interesting. It's too bad there's not a camera for that hour and 45 minutes. You're pacing the dressing room like a lion in a cage.
[Blake Henri]
Just working out, sweating. Watching all the little boys going on the bars.
[Ryan Paul]
Holding a steak up outside.
[Blake Henri]
Exactly.
[Ryan Paul]
All right. So this is, for those of you who listened to our podcast before, know that this is the segment that we talk about what's bringing us joy. And so we have the wonderful blessing and opportunity to have Lauren's parents here in the studio with us.
Lola Bird, who is an amazing, brilliant human being. Darren Bird, who while brilliant in his own right, may not be there. But he also is a trustee here at Southern University.
[Blake Henri]
Got a great shirt on.
[Ryan Paul]
Yes. And also he is the trustee assigned to the Utah Shakespeare Festival Board. So Lauren's parents are here.
They've been big supporters of the festival. So we're going to invite them as well. So we'll start with you, Blake Henri.
What are you currently watching, reading, listening to, or playing that is bringing you joy?
[Blake Henri]
So real quick, one of the things that brings me joy is you're wearing a Hawaiian shirt. And every opening since my first opening, I've worn a Hawaiian shirt to opening every show. So that brings me a little bit of joy.
So John Harrell, who plays Polonius, Pandrus, and Sir Andrew, who's been at the festival for many years, just, I mean, arguably one of the best verse speakers I've ever had the pleasure of working with. He and I luckily have gotten very close this year because when we were both here for Taming of the Shrew year, we were in the same show, but our characters never interacted. And he turned me on to a show called Widow's Bay, which has now made its way through the festival.
So when it comes to shows on TV, that's probably the answer. The book that's bringing me joy is a book called Empire of the Summer Moon, not to be confused with Killers of the Flower Moon. So Empire of the Summer Moon, which is a beautiful story of Quanah Parker, who was the last chief of the Cherokee Indians.
And it's a beautiful book because it just tells the history, but it tells it in modern day. So a lot of the Cherokees towards the later end of their kind of reign was in Dallas, in and around Dallas and Oklahoma and things like that. And it puts it in perspective.
So it talks about how the Cherokees were almost wiped off the map until they realized how to use horses for more than just trade and travel. They learned to use them for warfare and then basically retook over the country and became the most feared nation in that time. And they talk about like if you were sitting at a campfire in El Paso, Texas, which is like south, south, south Texas, you would have to be afraid, like currently eagerly have fear of you sitting at the campfire of a Cherokee warrior who was around a campfire in basically middle of Oklahoma.
That's how fast and how much ground they can cover. So it talks about things like that or gives an event. And it's like this is where George Bush and the tollway now cross.
And so it makes it very prevalent. It's a beautiful, beautiful book. But the thing currently bringing me most joy, and this is such a cheesy answer, but it's what's currently happening and we're about to talk about is the fact that like – I'm now back in a place that I consider a second home surrounded by family and friends where I wanted to turn off like TV and movies and things like that because I get to go to John's house and play music with him, with John Harrell and just talk about life and get caught up with like, oh my gosh, you got engaged and hear about family and meet new family and new community members.
So I think right now it's actually lack of external stimulus when it comes to movies, books, and things like that and more trying to recenter and focus back to what's around me.
[Ryan Paul]
I think it must be hard for you though because how do you decide which team to play on in the company softball? Are you on the Twelfth Night team? Are you on the Troilus and Cressida team?
[Blake Henri]
I begged this company to have a softball game where that is the case and it has fallen on deaf ears so far.
[Ryan Paul]
That's a risk, man. You guys are the talent. We can't do stuff like that.
Maybe wiffle ball or something like that. That's fine.
[Blake Henri]
Like John D'Antonio came up to me and talked about how his kids are – his two sons are now starting to get into baseball and I'm just like – I'm like, give me – let me play with your kids. Let me play catch with your kids. Let me just get back out there.
I'll do anything.
[Ryan Paul]
Yeah, but actors are like dominoes. Once one falls, the whole thing could fall apart. So you got – we've taped all the – we test the heat on the stair rails to make sure they're not too hot.
So cool. Lola Bird, what are you currently watching, reading, listening to or playing that is bringing you joy?
[Speaker 10]
The thing that we most recently watched, we just finished the mini series of The Other Bennett Sister, which was a delightful series. I enjoyed it so much.
[Ryan Paul]
The episode that Cammie and I just left on last night because I had to go do some stuff was the moment where she's in the drawing room with – what's his name? And she says – Mr. Ryder. Nothing could have prepared me for what happens next.
Fade to black.
[Lauren Bird]
Oh, it's so good.
[Ryan Paul]
So that's where we left off.
[Lauren Bird]
And they're going to do a three-episode Christmas special, so I'm very excited for that.
[Ryan Paul]
I don't know how I feel about that. Have you seen The Other Bennett Sister? I haven't.
It's actually quite – Yeah, about Mary Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Starring the actor who calls me his wife, which is another amazing show. All right. Darren Bird, what are you currently watching, reading, listening to or playing that is bringing you joy?
[Speaker 9]
So, Ryan, this is actually a recommendation from you. Lauren and I binged The Residence, which is that mini series about a murder at the White House, and it was so well-written that we were guessing until almost the last episode. We just kept saying, let's watch one more.
We'll go to bed later. One more episode.
[Lauren Bird]
We didn't have to be anywhere the next day. It was fine.
[Speaker 9]
Yeah, you could sleep in.
[Lauren Bird]
And you learn a lot about birds too. Exactly.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah. Speaking of birds, have you all seen Blackbird? I have not.
[Ryan Paul]
Okay.
[Blake Henri]
This is a mini series that slept on. It was Ray Liotta's last thing he shot before he passed, and it's a true story about – basically, so it's Taron Egerton, Paul Walterhauser, Ray Liotta, a bunch of other people, and Tony Amendola, who's been at the festival before. But it's a true story about – Paul Walterhauser is a Civil War re-enactor who they think is a serial killer of – but he has this defense where he's like, no, no, they're just vivid dreams.
So he'll confess, and then he'll take it back and say, no, I'm just dreaming about it. And so he gets thrown in prison, but they don't have any evidence against him. And so Taron Egerton is a drug guy and gets caught and thrown in, and they're like, we have a deal.
If you go undercover, quote, unquote, and we just put you in the cell next to Paul Walterhauser and you get a confession, then we'll cut down some of your sentence. And he's like, absolutely not. There's no way.
And then, I mean, true to life, Ray Liotta, but also in real life, his father had a stroke and they think he's about to pass. And so he's like, yeah, I'll do anything to get out of here so I can see my pops. But it is some of the best writing and acting I have ever seen.
It's unbelievable. And Paul Walterhauser, one, who's terrifying in it, won an Emmy, and it's arguably the most deserved Emmy I've seen in a long time. But yeah, Blackbird.
Is it a true story? Yeah, true story.
[Ryan Paul]
Apple TV.
[Blake Henri]
Yeah, Blackbird. It's unbelievable.
[Ryan Paul]
I am excited to start Star City on Apple TV, which stars the same guy in Widow's Bay. What's his name, Rhys? It's a Welsh name.
Matthew.
[Blake Henri]
Matthew, I don't want to.
[Ryan Paul]
Matthew Rees. Matthew Rees, who is brilliant. He's so good.
I don't think there's anything bad. Oh, no. Americans.
Yeah, he's phenomenal. He's so good. All right, Lauren Bird, what are you currently watching, reading, listening to, or playing that is bringing you joy?
[Lauren Bird]
So I'm finally reading the book called Dungeon Crawler Carl, and it's like aliens have taken over the earth and they've made a descending level of D&D dungeon sort of, and they're using it as reality TV for all the aliens throughout the universe. And it's a lit RPG, so it has like video game mechanics, and it's just so different from anything I've ever read and really funny and then at times just surprisingly dark. Like characters will do something and be like, oh, my goodness, I never thought I would do something like this.
But then also there's like a talking cat. So it's just, it's really fun and just very different.
[Ryan Paul]
While your parents are here, it's important to note that content advisory warnings, don't hold me responsible for what your daughter is reading or, you know, I need to maintain both relationships. This is the sanctity of the podcast confessional.
[Lauren Bird]
What about you, Ryan? What are you currently watching, reading, listening to, or playing that's bringing you joy?
[Ryan Paul]
I have come, I mean, not come across. I have a playlist that I've created in my life called Kitchen on Amazon Music, and that is the music that I want to listen to when I'm cleaning the kitchen, right? Or driving in the car that I don't want to.
I have another playlist called Dad, which has the stuff that you think would be on it. You know, like Sinatra, Jesse Belvin, Sam Cooke, you know, that kind of stuff. But the kitchen is more raucous and has a lot of my stuff from my youth, Men Without Hats and They Don't Be Giants and those kind of things.
But I also put some songs that I really have not thought about before. I'm a big fan, of course, like many of us, John Williams' music. And this song, it came on the other day and I keep repeating it as it goes, you know, so I don't have, I restart it.
And it's the theme from Superman, which I think, I mean, we could argue Star Wars or Jaws or Raiders of the Lost Ark or Empire Strikes Back, but I think the theme from Superman is by far some of John Williams' best work, because it's got so much in it. And this version has the prelude, which, you know, we think about Superman, it's like da, da, da, da, da, but there's a whole like four minute, three minutes of music with weird little themes in it that lead up to this moment of when those trumpets kick in, right? And that theme, I mean, I was born in 1970.
So that Christopher Reeve Superman was, I mean, that was the, and I could even argue it was probably still one of the definitive Superman, Superman or Superman 2 was probably the best Superman movies ever. And granted, the other ones were kind of stinkers, but the first time that I remember in a theater connecting music to the visual to that, and I hear it now, and the images of, I know I'm taking too much time, but Beth Lopes gave this quote about as you like it, and I've said this before many times, but it's been foundational to me that in the forest of Arden, you go into the forest of Arden and all of a sudden who you are no longer matters.
And who you wish to be or can be becomes a possibility. That is that Superman song to me. That as you listen to it, who I was moments ago, as I'm driving down the road, no longer matters.
And who I want to be, aspirationally becomes a reality. I mean, that is the song that I want to live up to all of what that song means. Yeah, that's awesome.
And that's what's bringing me joy this week. Awesome. And thank you, Lola, for inspiring me to do it because I told her at lunch, I was going to say, the other Bennett, oh, that's what I was going to do.
And of course, you know, she's the talent.
[Lauren Bird]
Yeah, three of us were going to say that.
[Ryan Paul]
So I can't, I can't.
[Blake Henri]
So it's definitely recommended.
[Ryan Paul]
I can't go against the birds. But I thought about that and that really, you know, so thank you. That's good.
[Blake Henri]
My little brother, Chad, who he's, I mean, he does everything. He wrote, he did movies when he was younger. He's written a book.
He's an author. He's, but he's, he's that way with movie scores as well. Like he's introduced me to a lot of scores where it's like, I probably won't ever watch the movie, but the music behind it is great.
He buys records and has a record player. And that side of him is really pertinent and powerful as well. And it's something we've gotten close to over the years, which is awesome.
Nice.
[Ryan Paul]
Well, Blake Henri, thank you for being here, taking the time. I know you're busy and got a lot going on and thank you for making us be better humans by your work and your talent. Although it is considerably less bearded than I am.
[Blake Henri]
It's been six years since, six years since I've not had facial hair on my face.
[Ryan Paul]
This just shows the price one must pay for art.
[Blake Henri]
I know. It's brutal. Shave and become a teenager again.
[Ryan Paul]
There you go. We're going to go out with a song that again, I love by Ray Price called For the Good Times. Can you tell me why you chose this song?
[Blake Henri]
No. So this is, and there's also, there's a incredible country artist named Jamie Johnson who has written, you know, all of the incredible hits, but he came out with a song where it doesn't cover this, but it's incredible, but Ray Price. So the music festival I was talking about, we had, he came for a couple of years and he became best friends with my grandma.
Him and Johnny Bush. So him, Johnny Bush and Willie Nelson were like our best friends to the point where my grandma has a cassette tape that is Willie Nelson and Johnny Bush drunk at his house recording themselves playing music for Gloria, my grandma. And also the three of them got together with, I think the Houston Symphony Orchestra and sang like each other's greatest hits and things like that.
And one of the only copies in the world that my grandma has because they never got to a place where they would release it, mass release it like they were planning to because Ray passed. But Ray Price is just the epitome of class and grace in a man that he didn't have to be. You know what I mean?
Like sat down and had long conversations with me as a young kid just talking about art and his life and his past loves and what he loved about my grandma who he had gotten close with. And it's the first time I've ever really experienced a massive celebrity that took the time for this little teenager that didn't really understand his magnitude until later. But his last year before he passed, he canceled every tour except for our show.
And he was like, I will perform that show come hell or high water. And unfortunately he passed before we got to do it. But he's just one of those artists that I hold dear to my soul because he knew all of us and he talked to us as if he knew all of us.
He was not the like, no, I need to go back to my bus and away from everyone like he could have been. He had a right to be. But his artistry, his music, his lyrics, he's one of the few artists that I've ever seen, if not the only, where he had a career starting in his 20s and then he went until he passed I think like 87.
But his voice only got better and richer as it went on. And he just led with such kindness. He was an example of like, hey, if I'm ever lucky enough to get to that sort of status, how I would want to be in that sort of light.
So I knew I had to have a Ray song in there somewhere. So this was the one that popped out.
[Ryan Paul]
Okay, well, Blake Henri, thank you for being here. Darren and Lola Bird, thank you for being here as well. Lauren, of course, you know, what can I say?
Thank you. And we're gonna go out with For the Good Times by Ray Price. And of course, in the words of the great American poet, Bill Withers, I wish you well.
[Speaker 4]
Don't look so sad I know it's over But life goes on And this old world Will keep on turning Let's just be glad We had some time To spend together There's no need To watch the bridges That we're burning Lay you up On my close to mine Hear the whisper Of the raindrops Blowing soft Against the window And make believe You love me One more time For the good times You should find Don't say a word About tomorrow Or forever There'll be time Enough for sadness When you leave me Lay your cold, your warm And tender body Close to mine Hear the whisper Of the raindrops Blowing soft Against the window And make believe You love me One more time For the good times