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Exclusive Interview: Marley Boone and Brandon Ruiter of Meadow Brook Theatre's 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' · The BSB Podcast

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  The Old West gets a fresh theatrical perspective at Meadow Brook Theater with
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  the man who shot Liberty Valance,
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  a gripping story where love, violence,
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  justice, and legend collide. At the center of the production are Marley Boone
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  and Brandon Ruiter who are bringing Hallie Jackson and Ransom Foster to life
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  as two people caught in a world where doing the right thing isn't always
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  as simple as it seems. Thank you both for being here.
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  You're welcome. Thanks for having us.
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  So Marley, what was it about the man who shot Liberty Valance that immediately drew
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  you to wanting to be a part of this production?
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  ~ the fact that it's a Western.
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  I have always wanted to be a part of a Western in some capacity.
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  I think that it's really unique storytelling and it's a really fun era.
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  And they're just not done that much here in Michigan.
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  ~ so just wanting to be a part of a Western in general,
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  to be really honest.
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  For sure. I mean, I feel like I have not seen a single Western having done this
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  for years now, I can't think of a single one that really kind of s that I've seen
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  a production of. So it has to be kind of cool to be part of one that that
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  is bringing this back.
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  Yeah, for sure.
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  Randy, would you say that it was kind of similar vibes for you as to what drew
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  you back to the production?
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  yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's two genres of movies that are my favorite,
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  is like heist movies, Mission Impossible,
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  James Bond, of course, and then Westerns.
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  It's just so iconic. And there's that dream as an actor,
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  it's just like candy to I mean,
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  the masculinity to get to play a cowboy on stage.
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  Like it's it's just a dream come true.
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  It's so fun.
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  So for those of us who are not familiar with the story,
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  and I have to say I am one of those people that is not familiar with the story,
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  ~ what is kind of going on in the man who shot Liberty Valance?
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  ~ so it all kind of starts that ~ Brandon's character
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  ~ gets dragged into a bar and he's been beat up,
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  he was essentially left for dead out on the trail,
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  and he gets dragged into the Prairie Bell,
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  which is a a saloon that's owned by my character Hallie.
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  And as they figure out what happened to him and how he got
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  to this state and all of that,
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  that's kind of where everything unfolds.
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  ~ but it's a really in that way,
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  it's a very simple story of he gets dragged in,
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  almost dead. And as he gets rehabilitated,
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  like he becomes part of the community.
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  And that causes some feathers to be ruffled because he decides to change some things
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  about this western town. And then that's where kind of chaos ensues from there.
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  Brandon, your you know, your character,
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  like as we kinda said, it's starting off in a is a very particular,
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  ~ interesting position. What do you feel like is kind of your starting point
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  to understanding who Ransom is?
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  Well, he's an outsider, right?
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  He's he's from New York City and he was traveling west and these events took
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  place and he's sort of ~ forced to become to to be restored a bit,
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  you know, to heal up and and get back on his feet in this small town called
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  Two Trees. And ~ and and like Marley said,
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  he he kind of enf
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  finds himself ingratiated in this small community.
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  ~ but just the fact being an educated,
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  ~ a bit of a scholar and being an outsider in this wild west,
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  ~ this wasteland, it's oftentimes referred to,
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  yeah, ruffles some feathers. And so yeah,
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  ~ just being that outsider and sort of being a vessel for the audience to ~
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  in some ways be in some ways he is the vessel th through which
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  the audience sees this story, right?
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  ~ and gets to ~ interact with all these other characters,
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  which is a unique challenge sometimes.
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  It's like I've I've once or twice made the comment that it's like,
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  you know, because I'm s I'm like the New York guy surrounded by
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  all these fun cowboys and characters and and everybody's got such strong
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  ~ Western sensibilities.
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  And it's almost like playing the straight man in an SNL sketch.
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  You know, it's like it's like
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  Sure.
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  all these things are happening to him.
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  And so there's a there's a fun ~ liberty,
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  pun intended, that comes that come that is like offered in just playing that
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  character, you know.
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  For sure, that makes a lot of sense.
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  And for you, Marley, you know,
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  Hallie is you know, very strong minded,
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  maybe a little rough talking, surrounded in a world that is very rough,
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  ~ and by a lot of cowboys and dangerous things,
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  you know. So like where do you feel like your story kind of begins with
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  her and like how does it change as the the story unfolds?
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  I mean, I I relate to my character a lot.
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  Like kind of the joke has been that I'm just playing myself on stage.
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  ~ and I think that place of strength
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  and hyperindependence and ~ the whole thing of being a woman
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  in a man's world, it's so relevant.
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  And yes, this show takes place in the 1890s and it is a period piece,
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  but there's so much relevance to
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  to to that and being a strong woman.
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  ~ I think what's the really lovely journey that Hallie goes
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  on is Rance coming from a city and coming from a place that's very open minded
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  and there's art and culture. And he tries to get her into theater.
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  And I think there's this beautiful journey with her of
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  letting her walls come down a little bit and softening around the edges
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  and just being open to new things and also just being open to the idea that like
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  she doesn't have to be fighting all the time.
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  It's okay to not have to be to have to not feel like you have to fight all the time.
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  And that arc is really,
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  really fun and emotionally draining to play,
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  but it's very beautiful and ~ it's a really nice thing to
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  be able to peel back all those layers as the show goes on.
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  Sure. And you know, with that,
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  you know, kind of having this this changing of mindset when it comes
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  to ~ ransom kind of arriving. How do you strike the balance between like
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  the world that Hallie used to know and also the world that he's kind
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  of introducing to her?
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  I think a lot of that comes from a third character,
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  played by Stephen Blackwell,
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  the character of Bert, ~ because he's kind of Hallie's huge anchor into two trees.
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  And I think it's the fact also that the whole show takes place
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  in her saloon, which is where everything happens.
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  And so there's always, always the presence of her past,
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  and there's always the presence of her history because
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  she never actually leaves the saloon like the whole show.
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  We never leave the saloon. And so it is that thing of new things being brought in,
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  but always being surrounded by your past.
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  And that's kind of what gives the whole like straddling both worlds as
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  it goes on feeling.
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  sure. I mean it has to be hard,
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  you know, when you have you kind of have a foot in both of those worlds
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  and you're kind of trying to do that little bit of song and dance and how
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  to for I mean specifically for the character I would say.
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  That's has to be hard to kind of find that that balance of who do you want
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  to be and who are you?
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  Yeah. She makes a big decision not to give too much away,
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  but she makes she has to make a big decision is of if she'll stay or if she'll go.
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  And that that whole scene where she makes that decision,
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  it's you you feel the weight of it.
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  Like you really, really feel the weight of it.
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  And Brandon, with Ransom kind of coming in there,
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  you know, it sounds like he's very much a huge catalyst for what's gonna happen
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  in the story and what's kind of going on in in this world,
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  especially in the relationship with Hallie.
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  when you're kind of the catalyst for all of a happening,
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  what is that kind of like as an actor to have that you're the reason that this world
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  is kind of changing and it's kind of resting on your shoulders that it's moving
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  through this world and and you're causing well deserved,
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  but maybe a little chaotic change,
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  you know?
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  Right. Yeah, no, that's a great question.
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  ~ honestly, not to cop out of the question or answering it,
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  but it is more as an actor, you just stick to what's on the page and
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  you stick with what's in the room.
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  And I mean, that's the joy of of of like like working with Marley,
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  working with Steven, working with his entire cast.
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  It's like you you come, you know,
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  as an actor, you try to come to the room with with ideas.
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  And preparation and all these things,
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  but that's why I love theater so much.
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  Is every day you're working ~ on these scenes and on these characters
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  and you're discovering new things,
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  and you're like, my gosh, I'm such an idiot.
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  I never realized like this connects to this,
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  connects to this, and it's all because of the slight shift in tone that Marley
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  put on that line that she had been saying one thing for a week,
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  and then suddenly we discover and it
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  just creates this beautiful ripple effect.
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  ~ and so I guess to answer your question ~ of like how to it's it's sort
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  of just allow it's like that holding a bird softly in your hands perhaps,
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  right? Like you have to have some control over it.
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  But if you try to hold it too tight,
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  you're not gonna go anywhere and it's no fun,
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  right? So just kind of letting yourself go with the flow is sometimes
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  the easiest way and the most difficult way to approach it.
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  Absolutely. That makes perfect sense.
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  ~ and with your character as well,
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  you know, he's kind of described as educated,
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  idealistic, but maybe a little stubborn,
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  and maybe there sometimes comes with that a little bit of arrogance,
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  you know, or at least to maybe
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  Yeah, I think.
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  some of the other characters. But how do you make those qualities feel human rather
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  than maybe something that could become very unlikable?
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  ~
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  Brian, this is a great question.
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  Can you give me the answer to that actually?
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  ~ right, right. Like when when a s well when
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  You're the professional. I don't know how to act here,
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  so I'm I'm trusting you.
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  a script
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  is so clearly it does say, you know,
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  a and Hallie calls me arrogant.
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  I call him arrogant like many times six times in the show.
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  And so you do you do have to take all of these these are all clues.
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  These are all informational important things that Jethro Compton amaz
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  S his writing, ~ who wrote the the play adaptation of the original short story,
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  ~ is great. And so you have to honor these these things.
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  And yes, it's true. It says, you know,
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  the breakdown of the character says he's stubborn and arrogant.
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  It's like, okay, ~ where can I find places in,
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  you know, this line could be read this way,
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  but knowing that about the character,
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  that ransom has that in him, ~ here's a way to
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  To try reading that. ~ But then of course you you naturally bring yourself
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  to the stage and to the character.
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  So, and nobody wants nobody wants to be disliked,
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  right? Like we all we like in in certain ~ aspects,
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  Sure.
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  right? So Ransom isn't trying to be cocky or arrogant in a way that
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  ~ puts people off, but he does have to be put into his place,
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  right? And so just recognizing those moments where
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  Where is where is the character learning and how does that shift things going
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  forward, whether it's in the the rest of that scene or in the rest of the show?
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  I mean, absolutely. I it makes me think of the music man,
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  which toured here recently and when we did a podcast about I said,
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  you know, Harold Hill should be very unlikable,
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  but he he has developed such a like a charm to him that like it it does like
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  the arrogance and the the cockiness doesn't always seem so ~ and I guess It's more
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  accepted by ~ audiences because
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  Yeah.
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  they about finding that balance of like there's cockiness but also
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  There's a little bit something else to him as well.
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  Absolutely. And there's a part of like you don't want to get too meta when you're
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  as an actor working on it, but you do have to be aware of the fact that like we're
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  telling a story. We don't have a story without the audience and like what's
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  the audience gonna like more, right?
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  And it's true, like these characters who are a little bit arrogant,
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  a little full of themselves, or just like they don't think of themselves
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  as villa villains, but we love watching them.
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  They're fun they're fun to watch,
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  right?
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  For sure, absolutely. ~ and your two characters,
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  as we kind of mentioned and we we specifically Marley you kind mentioned it,
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  ~ have such an interesting dynamic.
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  What do you think it is that ransom and Hallie kind of see in each other?
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  I
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  think, speaking from Halle's point of view,
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  is she just sees a different future that she never imagined.
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  Like her parents ran this saloon until they passed,
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  and then she took it over. And she took it over because her brothers all died.
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  And she's never left two trees.
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  And so I think for Hallie, she's never dreamed.
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  Like she's never thought that she could leave.
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  She's never
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  like thought that she could have a future outside of this town.
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  She probably assumed she was born there.
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  She's gonna die there. And I think for her,
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  she sees ransom and as she starts opening up and as she starts getting
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  to know him and seeing where he comes from,
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  she starts to dream. Like she starts to think,
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  ~ it is possible for me to leave.
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  It is possible for me to want something more.
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  It is possible for me to go somewhere else.
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  And
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  I think that's really where like that's what she really sees in ransom
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  is like there's I can do so much more than just be stuck in this bar for
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  the rest of my life.
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  That makes I mean that makes perfect sense.
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  You know, Brandon, for you, would you say that ~ like what would you
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  say from your perspective is kind of the the what ransom sees in Hallie?
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  Yeah, I mean, it's a similar answer that Marley,
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  it's almost you see the the f that's the fun part of this ~ romance that happens
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  in this particular show is it's almost they're attracted to each other because
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  they're foils of one another, right?
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  There's the Hallie sees something different,
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  something new and fresh, and Ransom sees ~ this like stubborn strength
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  within Halley, right? This this strength of ~
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  Tyric Wiltez Jones plays ~ Hallie's almost like best friend.
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  Best friend, stepbrother, ~ and who we have this gorgeous scene,
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  this fun scene. Well, my one of my favorite scenes together where he kind
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  of gives a great explanation, being her best friend,
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  of like explaining who she is and what she's like.
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  And it's always one of my favorite parts in the show because it's
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  a moment that ransom gets to take in,
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  ~
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  This maybe maybe for the first time.
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  ~ that's why I'm so wildly attracted to her.
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  She's she's stubborn. She has to be,
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  she has to be a fighter. She's like a woman owning a saloon in the wild west,
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  right? Like she has no choice.
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  She was raised a yeah, he compares her to to Mowgli in the jungle book,
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  like being raised among wolves,
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  right? And he's forced to ~ she's forced to to fight.
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  ~ for herself. So that I think that's what attracts ransom to her because he's
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  not a fighter. He's not that guy.
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  He he's maybe arrogant, but he knows at the end of the day that he's
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  not this like gunslinging cowboy.
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  And he's maybe in over his head in this situation.
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  And he sees some strength and and those qualities in Halley.
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  And you know, with a with a show such as this,
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  Western stories often come with certain expectations.
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  You know, I think everybody has a idea of what like a Western story
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  is in their head. Do you find yourselves kind of trying
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  to embrace those conventions, or do you find yourself trying to find something more
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  unexpected in your characters?
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  yeah. ~ I think we have so much fun embracing
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  the wild west in that way. ~ I think and I think it's gonna
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  get even more embraced once we get to the we get on stage on the actual set,
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  which will be tomorrow. ~ our set designer,
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  Mia Irwin, she created the most gorgeous,
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  rusty, dirty, dusty saloon.
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  ~ that's gonna be so much fun.
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  But I think we all have really embraced it.
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  there's you know, there are lots of guns and pistols in this show,
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  and all the guys have gun belts and the cowboy hats and like this the draw
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  and the southern accent, and that's that's been really fun to watch everyone just
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  morph into this genre. And I think for people who love classic westerns,
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  like
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  This is going to absolutely like scratch that itch because it really is it's such
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  a classic Western in that way.
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  Mm-hmm. We almost keep we almost keep joking that like this is one
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  of those shows that you know, stereotypically perhaps the the wife
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  is pulling the husband to come come see this show with me.
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  It's like, ~ no, not another musical or something like that.
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  But this is one of those shows that like you know
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  Hopefully I would think that the husband is saying,
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  No, we're going to see this one.
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  It's a Western like it it's the man who shot Liberty Valance Like we we gotta
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  go see it. And it's and it's so fun because it does have all of those tropes,
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  ~ all those cliches that we love in a Western,
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  a revenge tale, ~ the the the small town,
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  the no rules, and themes of of progress and bringing
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  bureaucracy to the Wild West and government,
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  right? And and so many themes that we keep finding are like so applicable to today,
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  right? ~ it's why it's
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  Sure.
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  sort of these universal themes are are there.
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  So the show has all of that, but there's some awesome twists
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  and turns and subversions of those as well,
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  which is really fun to play with and to kind of like
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  using a Western term, have that ace up our sleeve and ~ you know,
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  get get to play with
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  You know, I love that it y you know,
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  it's kind of like you are embracing con the conventions,
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  but you're also finding the way to kind of twist them just a little
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  bit to give people something a little different than what they maybe would expect
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  from that traditional Western
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  Yeah. And that that is w what one fun thing with Ransom,
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  the character I'm playing, is he he's educated and not from the West.
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  So there's moments in it where he refers to these cliche,
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  you know, he knows about these cliches,
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  he's read about them, and so he kind of,
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  you know, two enemies walk into meet each other along a dusty waiting street
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  of a western town, right? Like he knows these things and how they go.
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  But now that he's experiencing it himself,
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  it's it's very different, right?
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  For sure. And you know, Marley,
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  you're not only just playing Hallie,
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  but you're also designing the costumes,
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  correct?
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  Yes.
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  How did being involved on both sides of the production affect the
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  way maybe you're approaching the show?
• 19:38
  ~ Well,
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  I s yeah. I mean, it's been a blast.
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  Yeah.
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  I, I, I've this is my sixth show designing with Meadowbrook.
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  ~ and I've had a Western be on my design bucket list for a very long time.
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  And when Travis and Cheryl announced the season,
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  I begged them. I begged them. I was like,
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  please, please, please, please,
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  please. Like I've always wanted to design a Western,
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  give this to me. Like I begged them.
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  I begged them. And they said, okay.
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  So
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  They they asked me to design weeks before I was offered the role.
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  So I think that helped actually a lot in my process because I started doing
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  all of the research and initial renderings and having these conversations with
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  Travis before I was even cast.
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  ~ and so
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  Sure.
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  and so I was able to see the show strictly from a designer's point of view first.
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  And fall in love with with the show that way.
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  Then getting cast as Hallie was of course like,
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  can you still do both? I was like,
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  yes, and I will, because I I'm a little bit crazy,
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  but I'll do both. again, that's that Hallie Jackson
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  Ha ha ha.
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  stubbornness with everybody's like,
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  I'm gonna do it. I was like, I'm gonna do both.
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  ~ and but I think it's it's given
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  me such a full, full full.
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  full view of the world. Because I did so much research
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  on why do ~ you know,
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  certain cowboys wear certain things and what are all the little accessories that
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  are needed. And there's so much fullness to my vision of the world because
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  I did so much research on the other side of it,
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  which is really fun. ~ And I really genuinely designed
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  Hallie
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  Weird to design for myself, but I genuinely designed it as if
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  a different actress was playing the character.
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  Okay.
• 21:44
  I was, I really was thinking like,
• 21:47
  think outside of the box and think if I'm not playing this character,
• 21:51
  someone else is playing this character.
• 21:53
  How do you just don't design it for myself?
• 21:55
  ~ which I do I genuinely feel like I did a successful job.
• 22:01
  Of ~ because yeah, I put myself in some stuff Marley would never ever want to wear,
• 22:05
  but that's what it calls for
• 22:06
  Ha.
• 22:07
  for Hallie. ~ and but it's been really,
• 22:11
  it's been really fun. And I think too to be in the room constantly and to
• 22:17
  be able to riff with Travis right in the room and all of these guys,
• 22:20
  like there's been so many times when like Brandon,
• 22:24
  for instance, has a lot of quick changes.
• 22:25
  Poor guy. It's the circumstances of the script.
• 22:29
  but he has a ton of quick changes and for Travis to be in the room and be like,
• 22:32
  how how much time does he need for this change?
• 22:34
  And I can be like, he needs quite a bit for this change,
• 22:36
  or not as much for this change,
• 22:37
  and we're able to add things and take things away.
• 22:41
  And I think it's I don't know,
• 22:44
  I have such a fullness to this world,
• 22:46
  and maybe that's why I just feel so in it because I have complete both sides of it.
• 22:52
  ~ but it's been really fun.
• 22:55
  It's been a challenge, but it's been a really fun
• 22:58
  challenge. ~ and I'm really happy with how it's going on on those as
• 23:04
  far as juggling both.
• 23:06
  It definitely sounds like you're able to almost fully immerse yourself
• 23:09
  in a completely different way,
• 23:10
  like in a a more comprehensive way.
• 23:12
  And it I'm sure that has to and then influence or make Hallie even more
• 23:18
  in depth because you're living this world in so many different facets.
• 23:22
  Yeah, yeah. I mean that's it's a that's a really cool way to put it.
• 23:25
  And that's really true of like I said,
• 23:28
  the whole show takes place in Halle's saloon and the whole show looks like
• 23:33
  how Halle has thought of it in that way.
• 23:35
  ~ if we're looking at it as me.
• 23:37
  So kinda is really Halley's world and you're all just living in it.
• 23:41
  Ha ha ha.
• 23:41
  Yeah,
• 23:41
  it's so cool. Yeah.
• 23:44
  there's a lot going on beneath the surface of the story.
• 23:46
  Love, violence, justice, survival,
• 23:49
  and the question of what it means to be a hero.
• 23:50
  What themes have resonated with you the most?
• 23:53
  Ooh, that's a good one. ~ I mean yeah,
• 23:57
  the f for me it it it's been
• 24:01
  ~ Ransom's character is very
• 24:06
  ~ obsessed with justice, right?
• 24:09
  Justice is a is a big motivating factor for him.
• 24:14
  ~ so that's been fun to
• 24:17
  To kind of look at and and what is it and what and where do you have to,
• 24:21
  you know, we we live by a code and it's fun.
• 24:25
  Like each of us, you could you could list out each character and what what makes
• 24:30
  it this genre fun is like we each kind of have a different code that we work by.
• 24:35
  ~ and Bert so Bert's is different from Rance Ransom's,
• 24:40
  Hallie's is different from Jim's,
• 24:42
  and Liberty's.
• 24:44
  is certainly ~ different from everybody else's,
• 24:47
  right? And so it's been fun to kind of work on what's your what is your code
• 24:52
  and at what point is it okay or necessary to break that code
• 24:58
  ~ and and why what causes that.
• 25:00
  That's been fun to explore. Yeah,
• 25:03
  I think
• 25:03
  Absolutely.
• 25:04
  and this is really cheesy. But I really do think it's the whole thing
• 25:09
  of like it really is the whole thing.
• 25:12
  For me, of love and allowing allowing yourself to feel love,
• 25:18
  allowing others to love you, like allowing others to come into your life
• 25:26
  and to get to know you so that they can love you.
• 25:29
  There's so many different types of love in this show,
• 25:33
  especially for Hallie. Like, yes,
• 25:35
  there's romantic love, but there's platonic love.
• 25:38
  Friendship love, the love that she has for Jim is like a brother.
• 25:42
  And she holds so much anger at the world
• 25:49
  and she holds so much resentment at the world.
• 25:51
  And she's so hard because she's lost a lot of people that she's loved.
• 25:56
  And I think by the end of it,
• 26:00
  you really see like love's worth it.
• 26:02
  And it's worth it.
• 26:04
  to open up and it's worth it to be vulnerable so that you can experience love.
• 26:08
  And it's worth it to love someone because even if you lose someone,
• 26:11
  it feels so much better to have loved them and to like mourn that loss than
• 26:15
  to like keep that wall up and you never get that.
• 26:18
  ~ and I really and even it's and it's the cheesy where it's like,
• 26:22
  even in the most trying times there's love.
• 26:25
  But it's true. ~ it's true. But
• 26:26
  Yeah.
• 26:27
  it's true.
• 26:28
  I mean, those are both fantastic answers.
• 26:30
  and I wanna thank you both for being here and chatting with me today.
• 26:33
  It's been such a pleasure talking with you.
• 26:35
  Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having us.
• 26:37
  Yeah, thank you, Brian.
• 26:38
  So the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance opens at Meadowbrook Theater
• 26:40
  on October seventh and runs through November first.
• 26:42
  So get your tickets now and we'll see you at the show.