Tate Russell
Appearances
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
She was a senior, I was a junior, we had been friends since middle school, and I didn't want to get back together with her at this point. In fact, I was with somebody else at the time, but I just couldn't fathom the possibility that she would go off to college and we would be on bad terms and never talk again.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
And it didn't help that now I knew for the next three months I would be seeing her every single day, and every rehearsal I would try and seduce her as part of a long con, and each performance would culminate with a shared on-stage kiss. And so realizing this, standing in front of the cast list, I realized I needed to text her, and I did. I said something like, oof. And...
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
I said, like, we need to work past some things, I guess. And she did not respond. But we started the rehearsal process, and the most amazing thing happened. We actually started getting along. We were hanging out. And by hanging out, I mean rehearsing. And we were talking to one another again. And by talking to one another, I mean running lines.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
And we even choreographed our own dance to the song Marian the Librarian, which turned out really well. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire show. And throughout this whole process, I was just really grateful that we seemed to be getting past this animosity that we once had.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
And so shortly before one of our performances, I went up to her and I said, like, hey, I've been having a really great time working with you on this show, and I really hope that after this we can continue to be on good terms and maybe even be friends. And she basically said, I don't think that's a good idea. And I couldn't handle that.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
I broke down crying minutes before our show was scheduled to go up And I just sort of hunkered down in a corner backstage. And my mom, who was still a director on the show at this time, sees me having a really rough time and she comes over to me. And my mom has always been really kind and supporting of all of my performances. And she sees me crying and she says,
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
You need to pull yourself together, okay? The show goes up in five minutes and you cannot be crying when you are on that stage. And so I heed my mother's advice. I go up on stage. And the curtain is just about to go up. And one of my fellow castmates turns to me and is like, are you OK? And I'm like, no. And the curtain goes up.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
And so begins one of the most surreal experiences I've had performing, because I am fuming and upset on the inside. But on the outside, I've got to sell trombones to the people of River City, Iowa. gotta inspire a barbershop quartet, and I have to seduce the town librarian who just so happens to be my ex-girlfriend. And I struggled through that production. I barely looked her in the eye.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
The irony of this situation isn't lost on me. My character, Harold Hill, was a con man who only survives by deceiving his audience into believing what he has to say. And in that performance, I tricked two groups of Midwesterners, the people of River City, Iowa, standing on stage with me, and the people of Colfax, Wisconsin, sitting in their seats, watching.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
It is the most exciting day for any theater kid. And that's the day when the cast list for the High School Musical comes out. I get out of my first hour class, I rush on over to the music room, I take a look at that cast list and I see that the worst possible scenario has happened. I see my name right at the top of that list.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
The run of our shows ended, and she and I went back to not talking, not hanging out, not running lines, not rehearsing together. And I slowly realized that no matter how well we worked together in that show, we were really never going to be close again after that. We were better actors than we were friends. Thank you.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
I've been cast as the gregarious confidence trickster Harold Hill, the lead in The Music Man. But that's not the bad part. Right underneath my name, next to Marion Peru, the love interest, is the name of my ex-girlfriend. My mother actually knew about this casting decision before I did. She was one of the directors on the show.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: Timeless Love
But she had removed herself from the casting process when it came to my ex and me. And at that point, I kind of wished that she hadn't, because my ex and I were on bad terms. She did not want to interact with me, and she made sure that I knew that. And I was having a really hard time coping with that reality.