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Interview: 'Knoxville' child actor Nick Barrington balances school and scripts

Left-to-Right: Jay Follett (played by Alan Chandler), The Author (Jason Danieley), and Rufus Follett (Nick Barrington) at Knoxville’s Clarence Brown Theatre. The show is the 11-year-old Barrington’s first professional musical. He previously performed in local productions of Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and A Christmas Story.
Ella Marston
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Clarence Brown Theatre
Left-to-Right: Jay Follett (played by Alan Chandler), The Author (Jason Danieley), and Rufus Follett (Nick Barrington) at Knoxville’s Clarence Brown Theatre. The show is the 11-year-old Barrington’s first professional musical. He previously performed in local productions of Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and A Christmas Story.

WUOT's Pierce Gentry sits down with child actor Nick Barrington to get a behind-the-scenes look into the musical Knoxville. This is Barrington's first professional musical.

Knoxville will run through Sunday, September 22nd at the Clarence Brown Theatre. Tickets can be purchased here.

Nick Barrington: Uh, I’m Nicholas Barrington.

Pierce Gentry: Okay, and how old are you, Nick?

Barrington: I’m 11-years-old.

Gentry: What made you want to be an actor, and what do you love about acting?

Barrington: Well, you know the movie The Greatest Showman? Well, my parents turned it on when I was really young, and I really liked it, so they decided to put me in an acting class. And then I just kept doing it until now I’m here. And I like doing acting because … I don’t know, I like being on stage and performing for people, and, you know, telling stories.

Gentry: Can you tell me what other shows you’ve been in, up until now, before Knoxville?

Barrington: Well, in Pennsylvania at Bristol Riverside Theatre, they did A Christmas Story: The Play. I was Ralphie. And at my local theater, they did Mary Poppins and Peter Pan, and I was Michael Banks and Michael Darling. I haven’t done too much other stuff than that.

Gentry: What was your first one, do you remember?

Barrington: It was Mary Poppins? Yeah, it was the Mary Poppins.

Gentry: Is this your first musical? Or did you sing in Mary Poppins and Peter Pan?

Barrington: I sang in Mary Poppins and Peter Pan, but this is my first professional musical, so I’m excited.

Gentry: How does it compare to those other shows that you’ve done? How is Knoxville different in your mind?

Barrington: Well, Mary Poppins and Peter Pan are all, like, Disney and cartoony kind of. A Christmas Story was more like humor. But this is very … I guess not serious, because there’s a lot of funny moments. But it’s very deep and really has a great message, and it’s a really good play.

Gentry: Do you like it better, or worse than the other ones you’ve done?

Barrington: Hm, I’m not sure. I like the other ones because they’re all funny and I get to make the audience laugh, but I also like this one. Hm, I’m not sure about that. They’re different, and good in different – in very different – ways.

Gentry: Do you remember the audition, and sort of how you felt, and what that was like?

Barrington: Uhm, yeah. So, I was very nervous. It was my third in-person audition. It was in New York. And, in my other in-person auditions, there would be, like, two people in the room. But in this one, there were a bunch of different people. Like, everywhere. Someone I read with, someone on the piano, a bunch of people sitting down. So it was very different, and I was very nervous. But I just did it, and, I don’t know, it felt very good. It was very different from my other ones. It was very nerve-wracking, but, I don’t know, I felt good about it. I felt … I had, like, a feeling about it. I had a feeling that this was going to be a very good play, and it is.

Gentry: When did you learn that you’d gotten the part?

Barrington: Oh, well, I think I was just in my room, and my parents called me down. And I have like little bracelets for every role that I have. So, my parents said, ‘I think we’re gonna need to get you a new bracelet.’ I thought that one of mine broke, so when I went down, and I saw their faces, I was like, ‘Wait, did I get it?’ I don’t know, we just had fun, we told my brother and sister, and, yeah, that’s really how I learned.

Gentry: If you had to pick, which part of Knoxville is your favorite? Which is your favorite to be in?

Barrington: It’s definitely going to be hard, because some of them have very different feelings. But my favorite that I’m in might have to be Life is in a Store, because there’s all these moving parts, and the lights, and all the different movements. It’s really up-beat and fun, it’s a great part.

Gentry: You’re from New Jersey, right?

Barrington: Yes.

Gentry: What does it feel like to be in the musical, Knoxville, in Knoxville?

Barrington: Well, it’s definitely cool hearing all the different lines and scenes and, like, seeing all those places in Knoxville. Like, James Agee’s house, we saw James Agee’s house – we drove by it. I don’t know, but there’s lots of different things. Like, there's a set piece of the giant Knoxville, Tennessee sign. So it's cool seeing that in real life and seeing it on the stage. It's cool seeing all these different, like, bits of Knoxville on stage, then seeing them in real life. It's very cool.

Gentry: Yeah so you’ve been to visit the house of James Agee?

Barrington: Yeah.

Gentry: What did you think? Like, what were you feeling at that moment?

Barrington: I was trying to take in the surroundings, and my mom was pointing out different places, like, ‘In this scene, you’d probably be pointing over there or looking over there.’ So it was really cool, because we'd already been acting this out and doing all this for a long time. So it was really cool seeing it in person. It was like, ‘Wow.’ It was very cool.

Gentry: How long have you been in Knoxville for the performance?

Barrington: Almost two months.

Gentry: Did you do all your rehearsing here, or did you start in New Jersey, or sort of?

Barrington: Yeah, all the rehearsals have been in Knoxville. Most of them were in a rehearsal room. And then we went to the real stage for like, tech-week and running the play with, like, costumes and everything. So, yeah, for the most part all of the rehearsals have been in Knoxville.

Gentry: How do you balance, like, homework and school and also being an actor? I imagine that must be hard.

Barrington: So, I started school September 5, so I haven’t had to do it the entire rehearsal process, so that’s good. The Clarence Brown got a tutor to come to our house in Knoxville. So she’s been coming, and she’s really nice. It’s not too hard, because instead of school with like, a long time, this is shorter, and it’s more like, you come and then you go and then I can do a show. And then she comes and she goes. So it’s not like, homework, and everything. So it’s pretty forward.

Gentry: Do you like that better than normal school, or?

Barrington: I mean I am missing my friends and everyone at school, but for the time that I’m doing this I think it’s good. ‘Cause, it’s not like I’m going to have it for two years straight. I’m having it for like a couple more weeks. Yeah, it’s been very good.

Gentry: What’s it been like working with all the grown-ups – all the adults – on the cast? How’s that been?

Barrington: Oh they’ve been so nice and so helpful. They’ve taught me so much. None of them are, like, mean. They’re all very nice. So I’m very lucky that, in all the plays that I’ve done so far, the adults and cast have been super nice. They’ve taught me so much. All the adults are amazing, and it is a little scary to be the only, like, kid on stage in the plays, but it feels good that I’m acting with all of them.

Gentry: I think I know the answer to this question, but I’m going to ask it anyway: What do you wanna be when you grow up?

Barrington: Well, so far, I definitely wanna be an actor. I wanna be on Broadway, I wanna be on movies, I wanna be on anything.

The Clarence Brown Theatre is a financial supporter of WUOT. The WUOT News team is an editorially-independent group of reporters who are devoted to journalism excellence.

Pierce is a Knoxville native and an undergraduate student studying Journalism in the University of Tennessee’s College of Communication and Information. He first came to WUOT as an intern in the Spring of 2024, before transitioning into a part-time role over the Summer. In his free time, Pierce enjoys reading, photography and getting lost in the Great Smoky Mountains.