The two faces of Gage Howell

Gage Howell is a sophomore majoring in education who plays Marky Layman in "West Bancroft Side Story." I had a chance to sit down and talk with him yesterday about his involvement in the show.

Gage is the new kid on the block: "I have never been in a [theatre department] show at UT. I've never actually done a show ever before, so this is my first time being in one. It's exciting."

He's new to the musical scene as well: "I haven't seen too many musicals. When we watched ‘West Side Story,' I really liked that one, if I could hear it – we had the whole cast over and they were talking about it, and there were only a couple of people who hadn't seen it yet. We kind of got to see what was going on, but I'd like to see it again sometime."

Marky's pretty cool: "Marky is my favorite character. [laughter] I really do like Marky, though. He's just – he's a tool, and probably because I like playing him too. I like being Marky sometimes. He usually holds the reins during fights, but he never really throws a punch ever."

But he's nothing like Marky: "It is completely different. I've described it as like turning on a switch, and when I'm in the mode of Marky, it takes a little while to get back out. In between takes, I will kind of be tool-ish in ways, just kind of as a joke to keep me in character, but it's kind of fun because everybody understands. I think."

Gage loves WBSS: "‘West Bancroft' has been incredibly fun. Everybody loves each other. We're all really good friends. We have all this crazy chemistry. I think we've gotten a lot better working with each other. It's less awkward and more fun."

Even if that means staying in Toledo: "It takes a lot – filming some of the dance scenes lasts all weekend, so sometimes I don't have free weekends to go home, but that's okay because it's just as much fun up here hanging out with everybody. It's not always work. It's a lot of hanging out with friends. And gas is expensive."

His hardest scene was in the Field House: "The most involved scene I had to shoot was when I was yelling down at Greg from the balcony because there are a lot of ‘your momma' jokes – really, really bad – I mean, they're really bad in themselves, but I had to make it sound like I thought they were kind of funny, but they're really not at all. That was kind of tough."

So was his most embarrassing scene: "The one moment when we were in the Field House and we were filming, Nick [Bellmyer as Greg Long] wasn't there because he had to leave, and I was yelling down at nobody in particular, and there was just somebody – some freelancer walking around down there, and straight-up it looks like I'm yelling about their mother. Right after the scene is over, I'm yelling apologies down to him. That was pretty fun. I almost wanted us to stop, but I was already halfway into the scene."

He's the WBSS signature rapper: "My favorite is the ‘Down' [parody of ‘Down' by Jay Sean] song because I get to rap. My rapping song. It's the most fun I've had at recording because I'm not completely comfortable with my voice, so the fact that I can just get up there and rap and sound okay – I think – that's pretty cool."

Gage co-stars in the preview with male lead Nick Kneer: "‘Party in the Glass City' [parody of ‘Party in the USA' by Miley Cyrus] is basically about new kids coming to campus, and they are nervous and not really sure what to expect, but they're also excited because it's something completely new. That was the first thing we filmed."

The music video actually IS about a party: "Marky, Joey and Ben riding the elevator – that part's pretty funny. We're going to a party. That filming day was really extensive. I remember my legs seizing up from cramps and stuff. Yeah. I should've drank more water. Being in there was – it was hot. Not hot as in "soo hot," the temperature was extremely high and us dancing around to techno music or whatever it was we danced to really didn't help matters. But I think my favorite part that I got to do was grabbing Munich's Snuggie that he had on and trying to cover my – uh – my problem that I had at the party from seeing all the good-looking girls. That was my favorite part in that one."