FEATURE

WC theatre alumnus finds success at Medieval Times 

by Misty Browning

Twenty-seven-year-old WC alumnus Tyelaken Gage knew at a young age that he wanted to be an actor. 

Gage was born in Odessa but moved around a lot as a child due to his father’s occupation as a pastor. Homeschooled his entire academic career, he caught the acting bug while attending summer camp as a young adult.  

“Growing up, I attended summer camps as a teen counselor, and one of the things that we would do is perform skits for the kids,” Gage said. “I fell in love with performing and bringing joy to the people in the audience. Those small skits started it, and I enjoy bringing happiness through performing.”  

Gage furthered his love of performing by studying theatre and acting at Weatherford College. As a matter of fact, WC’s theatre program was the main reason he decided to become a Coyote, with the location being a close second. 

“We lived all over Texas before we settled first in Palo Pinto and then Mineral Wells,” he said. “I wanted to be an actor my whole life and saw this as a great stepping stone to fulfill that dream.” 

Gage loved his time at WC, especially working with James Brownlee, theatre director. He said he’s used the skills learned from Brownlee to navigate through some unique obstacles in his acting career, including being a dyslexic actor. 

“James Brownlee is an awesome teacher and theater instructor,” he said. “James brought out a confidence in my acting. Him being patient and working with me to learn my lines was really encouraging.” 

After Weatherford College, Gage was cast as Satan in “The Promise” in Glen Rose. He was then cast in a few background roles in “Washington’s Armor,” Taylor Sheridan’s “1883” and “1883: Bass Reeves.” While working in “Washington’s Armor”, he would scroll the internet looking for casting calls, and in 2021, he came across a casting call for Medieval Times in Dallas. 

“I remembered going to Medieval Times as a kid and thinking how cool it would be to work there,” Gage said. “I looked up their careers and saw a call for the Lord Chancellor position and applied. Unfortunately, they had already found someone for that role, but they wanted to keep me, so they sent me over to the knights and squires department, and the rest is history.” 

New hires at Medieval Times begin their journey as a squire, first learning how to work with the horses. After mastering that, Gage moved on to arming his knight and setting up the arena. After a couple of months, Gage started training as a knight. 

The first step of knight training is passing a timed combat evaluation test. Once he passed that, Gage became an apprentice knight and was taught how to ride the horses and fight in the show. He rose through the different levels of knighthood to his current position as the “senior knight speaking role,” the highest one can go in the show. 

“Senior knight speaking role means that I am qualified to do every knight spot in the show and most recently the speaking role as the Lord Marshall,” Gage said. “There is a difference between the actors and the knights. The acting department deals with the speaking roles, and the knights are considered stuntmen.” 

He added that playing a knight over the past four years has been a blast. As a self-proclaimed nerd and lover of history, dressing up and pretending to be a knight in the show has been the perfect job for him. But his favorite part to play is the villain. 

“Everyone loves a villain, and that is the part I do the most,” Gage said. “The bad guy is the only knight with a speaking part in the show. When you come to the show, there is an 85 percent chance that I’m doing the bad guy. I think that is because my bosses learned that I love to be on the mic more than the other knights.” 

In addition to helping him overcome dyslexia to learn his lines, Gage also credits Brownlee with helping him develop the skills needed for his role at Medieval Times. 

“He taught me to trust my instincts whenever it comes to stage presence,” he said. “I’m a large guy standing at 6’4 and 240 pounds. It’s normal to be that size at Medieval Times, it is not normal to be that size on the stage.  

“While I was at Weatherford College, I was shown how to use my presence and size to my advantage, which is helpful at Medieval Times. Also, one time during a matinee at Medieval Times, they needed someone to fill a role that no one knew the lines to. I was able to memorize them in an hour.” 

Gage encourages people considering a career in acting to check out WC’s theatre arts program. He said the environment created for the actors by Brownlee was nothing less than immaculate. 

As for Brownlee, he is ecstatic that his former student has done well after graduation. 

“Mr. Tye was one of my most hardworking and dedicated students in the time that he was here,” Brownlee said. “As an actor, he was willing to take risks and try a variety of different roles, all of which pointed to his dedication to his craft. I am very proud of him in his current endeavor as an actor for Medieval Times. He is a WC drama success story!”  

 

* This article originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of The Hilltop: A Magazine for Alumni and Friends of Weatherford College and can be viewed online here.