Getting To Know Fagin's Gang | An Interview Series | Feature #13 | Max Underwood

We have only three more members of Fagin’s Gang to introduce you to and today’s feature is Max Underwood! Max is no stranger to the Greenville Theatre having performed on stage when he was in his mother’s womb. No longer a baby, at 8 years old this is Max’s first official show he’s been a part of. He has done the summer camps at Greenville Theatre for the past two years, joining the Let’s Put On A Play camp when he was both 6 and 7. Because he really enjoyed the summer camps his mother, Stephanie Underwood, encouraged him to audition for Oliver!. He told me he really likes being a part of the show Oliver! and his favorite song to perform is "Food Glorious Food" because, “It's the one where I get to sing loudly, and I don’t

have to whisper,” he told me. Max also told me one of his favorite moments in the show is the “last point of Oliver.” For any readers not in the show, there is a moment in the final musical bars of the song “Oliver” where the other workhouse orphans point their fingers at young Oliver in the center and this has become a favorite moment for Max. He said “We do something on that beat,” and his mother Stephanie chimed in, "It ads a nice zing to the ending.” Max said that he will be bummed when the show ends because as he put it, “I really like it.” He told me the next show he would like to be a part of is A Christmas Carol. Funnily enough, that was the show he was already a part of in 2009 when Stephanie was in the cast and pregnant with Max. Guess you could call him the cast member not counted in that production!

When Max isn’t on stage performing he told me he loves playing outside with his brother. They have lots of toys including a 16 foot long jump rope that they play with outside. Max and his brother Graham also enjoy

setting up fun different obstacle courses in the backyard to play in. They also enjoy bringing Mario characters to life and playing out Mario stories with each other, Max plays Toad a lot while his younger brother Graham plays an invisible rabbit. Max told me he also enjoys playing video games and sketching things. His favorite video game is the Lego video game Pirates Of The Caribbean. He enjoys sketching stories and pictures. He told me once he drew a “hypnotized eyeball.” His mother chimed in that he has been inspired by the Captain Underpants books and the artwork within that series. This also lends itself to Max’s love of reading. He has read almost all of the Captain Underpants books and also enjoys a book series called American Chillers. This fun series focuses on a different monster for every U.S. State. One of his favorites is, of course, South Carolina Sea Creatures. Max also likes watching TV and some of his favorites shows are King Julian, a series on a character from the movie Madagascar, and Garfield. He also enjoys taking trips places with his family and visiting places. I asked Max how he liked having two younger brothers and he told me he likes it a lot. He also mentioned how, “5 years from now, I can’t wait to see what it will be, when I’m 13 and have a 5 year old brother.”

Max and his brothers are homeschooled so I asked him what that was like. Max responded “Everything is so hard,” he said giggling, and his mother chimed in that he is the only one in his class since he is homeschool so that can be hard on him. He told me his three hardest subjects are math, history, and science, but he really loves geography. One of the reasons he loves geography is because he gets to do a fun puzzle book where he explores different countries of the world. He works out puzzles and maps acting as a secret agent solving a case within each country. He must solve the mystery finding out where the lost item is hidden and whodunit! I could tell he really enjoyed learning this way.

Before I could even ask my favorite final question, Max beat me to the punch and said “If I could describe the show in one word it would be…. Fun!” He told me “It’s fun because I’m getting to act and perform a play for people.” He also told me that he is not as nervous now that an audience has seen the show as he thought he would be. He had gotten a little nervous when performing at the summer camps because the audiences were smaller then but with so many people in the house for shows he isn’t nervous anymore! Well, we can tell that Max has a bright future ahead of him in theatre and we can’t wait to see him on stage again.

Weekend #2 of Oliver! starts tonight so give us a call at 864-233-6238 to secure your seats for this epic musical and cheer on Max and the rest of this amazing cast!