Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this April 17th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Malaugh here, and welcoming into the studio.
Students from the Lincoln High School Musical, My Fair Lady, we are talking with, uh,
we have Brendan, we have Casey, and we have Austin with us.
I'll let you guys introduce yourselves and go ahead and get your, and we'll get your names right.
Uh, how about that? That sounds like a great place to start, right?
Go ahead and introduce yourselves.
Uh, my name is Brendan Winter.
Um, I'm playing Henry Higgins in the show.
It's good to see you again, Brendan. Thank you for being here.
My name is Austin Franz, and I am playing Freddie Einsford Hill.
Thanks for being here, Austin.
Thank you.
Um, my name is Kasha Yessa, and I'm playing Eliza Dubito.
Kasha, thank you very much.
Kasha, get the right.
Okay.
God, that's a beautiful name.
It's so much cooler than James.
That is a really good name.
That's a great name.
But I gotta get that right.
Thank you all for being here.
Uh, appreciate the time.
So I think that the play, My Fair Lady, is pretty well established, pretty well known.
I think a lot of people know the play pretty well.
Uh, I want to get into the play itself.
And a little bit, does anybody wanted to give a, uh, a quick cliff notes,
a synopsis of what the play is about?
And for those that may not be familiar with it out there, uh, and, and I have a feeling
that you're going to be put on the spot a number of times, man.
So if you want to go ahead and take the lead, Brendan, that'd be great.
Yeah.
Uh, so My Fair Lady is about, um, a professor type person in Henry Higgins,
who studies phonetics.
He finds a flower girl named Eliza Dubito,
and decides to take her on as a bet to see if he can bring her from a crass
to more gentile and fancy by completely changing her accent.
Um, throughout the show, it's, uh, there is nice teaching lessons to Eliza.
And eventually she goes to the embassy ball in order to test her skills and see if she can blend in.
Uh, well done.
Nicely done.
That's a perfect synopsis, man.
That's a really well done.
Um, and, uh, it's, it's a classic.
It is a classic.
It's one of those ones that so many people have seen, have grew up on, uh, I'm curious.
Have you guys watched the, the, the movie itself yet or have any interest?
Oh, you guys have, okay, very cool.
Um, so I, I should journalistically, I should mention to the audience,
not only am I a Lincoln high school grad, but I've been acting since I was seven.
So there's no journalistic integrity with this interview.
I am a big fan of you guys and a big fan of what you're doing.
Um, but with that being said, I do want to get into, uh, why you chose to do this and
and get into your characters a little bit.
And I know, um, uh, that Brenda, we've talked before, but if you don't mind kind of, uh,
giving us, you know, when I, when you first came here and I asked you about why you wanted to
get an acting and all that, you gave us an answer.
What is your answer now?
Has it changed?
Did you still have the same passion and feelings or has something new come about in a short time?
You've been doing this.
Uh, I think that it's mostly, it's, I'd say the same overall.
I think there've maybe been a few little changes.
And that is if I can remember what I said the last time.
Sure.
Right, right, right.
Uh, I got it right here.
No, I didn't know.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.
Oh, but, uh, it's just, I'm so passionate about it.
I love it so much.
It's such a great opportunity for me to get out there,
because I'm also normally a very shy person.
I don't, I don't do anything like this ever in my normal life.
So this is just such a great opportunity to come out and meet with people and make friends
and just be out there and do something that I passionate about that I love.
Yeah.
Austin, what made you want to do this?
For me, I've like, I've always done and loved theater and music ever since I was a little.
Like, I've always like, really enjoyed it.
But I never really started until my sophomore year.
And that was because I always thought I was like kind of missing something.
So I started and I joined during Cinderella and then I fell in love with it since.
And uh, Cinderella's my first show and now my favorite,
maybe it's my tenth show.
And I am having so much fun.
I'm trying to go to Milwaukee to even pursue it some more.
Because it's just, it's something that I'm really passionate about now.
And I just really enjoy it and I'm having fun.
Very cool, very cool.
All right, catch.
I've been in theater since third grade.
And so like they've been saying it's something that I'm very passionate about.
And it just kind of helps me like get out of my comfort zone sometimes.
Because it's just so different.
And yeah.
Nice to meet you.
Any, yeah.
That's perfect.
That is a great way to do that.
Nicely done.
I want to talk to you about your characters now a little bit and get into that.
And again, let you introduce yourselves while also giving us your character name
and a little bio on your character, a little bit about your character.
I will put you on the spot first, Brandon.
So Henry Higgins is affluent.
He's rich.
He studies phonetics, which is the way that people speak.
And he's, he's very, very passionate about that.
He's, he's very high society as well.
To the point where he tends to not think very much about other people.
As he describes, he has the best possible manners because he treats everybody
regardless of their station terribly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Which is great light and great, great park.
How about for you, Austin?
Yeah, I tell us about you.
So Freddie is, he's also a genteel person.
He's very young and very ambitious.
And so like he's not always like very proper.
Like he is, but he has his moments where he's not proper.
And he's also completely like smitten and loved with Eliza.
Like he wants to do anything for her.
He just wants to be with her.
And like even his own song is really how he loves and warships the street that she lives on.
Like and he is just so adamant about like trying to get with her.
And yeah.
And then I catch him.
Um Eliza is very, she's not genteel.
She's cockney and she's very outgoing.
Kind of says like whatever on her mind.
But as we can see that like in the beginning of the show.
But she definitely dreams for something bigger for herself.
So what was, uh, what are some of the things you've enjoyed
about playing these characters?
Is there anything that stands out to you that you've really enjoyed?
Like this has been a fun thing to be able to do.
As far as your characters go.
Well, one thing that was kind of new was doing a British accent.
Doing that for such a for an entire show.
Right.
Could be rough to the point where, uh, not to the point, but we got a, uh,
a dialect coach for helping us through that.
And I think they're just having to do that British accent with putting emotions behind it,
putting like being loud and being quiet with it.
That was, that was really fun.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Awesome.
For me, I love the songs that Freddie does.
Like just being able to bell out that ballad for Anna Shere lived.
And then the song that me and Kasha have, uh, show me, um,
she basically directs me around like a ragdoll.
And it's really fun because I get to just ham it up and just have fun with it.
And then she like throws me on the bench and she just throws me around.
And it's just, it's just really enjoy.
And it's a very physical thing that I like enjoying.
Mm-hmm.
Um, like Brandon said, the accents and just...
All of it?
Yeah, all of it, I guess.
Um, she's in the past I played like more laid back type of like proper characters.
And so like it's fun to get to kind of be like crazy with there or whatever.
And just kind of go for it.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's really cool to hear about the accent coaches.
That's very cool that they were able to do that.
That they thought of that and everything.
Uh, it also teased me up to give a shout out to the directors and the workers
behind the scenes of this show.
I want to send a shout out to them.
Of course, you want to mention your teachers or anything, ma'am?
I will.
This is Danky.
Yeah, it's everything.
Roman Ocker.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, we got Mr. Brittnocker.
We have Mr. Georgetown.
Mr. Georgetown's dad in the pit.
Um, Ms. Stoffel.
And you?
And we also have Ms. Sue, who is our costume.
And then we also had, I forgot the other one, but um, the dance...
I don't know what to begin with.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We have Ms. Cook as well for dance.
Nice, nicely done.
And I've worked very closely with her because I am also one of the dance captains
for the show as well.
Yeah.
So, yes.
It's impressive whenever you see young people doing a show like this with that.
But then there's the added bonus of dancing and singing and those things being thrown
in there and stuff.
So that's something that's a little bit different, I imagine.
And then your average, average show.
How about the rehearsal process?
How is that gone for you guys?
How many times have you rehearsed a week?
How long are the rehearsals?
Well, typically we rehearse like every day.
Yeah, for the weeks.
Except for most weekends.
But typically rehearsals go until like, they used to go until five.
Now they're going until six or six thirty and starting Thursday they go until like nine,
nine thirty.
Yeah.
So they're getting late.
We're working hard at these.
And then we've also had two Saturday rehearsals where we had to be there from 8 a.m.
and to noon and then the one this Saturday is actually 8 a.m. to three.
So, and it's basically going to be all running through the show and then just dancing.
And so it's going to be very, very difficult.
Very much.
Even when we're not like having rehearsals,
we're still practicing like on the weekends to get lines and songs and dances and
blocking and everything like that.
24-7, yeah.
I get a script and it does not leave me until a week or two after the show.
I find myself days after I've done, I'm done with a role still reading my script.
I'm like, what am I doing?
I don't need to go over my lines anymore.
It's a process get used to you're going to be doing your whole lives.
As long as you act, you'll be doing that kind of thing.
I always like to let the audience know about the rehearsal process a little bit
to just give them a little bit of idea, a little bit of empathy.
And what you guys are doing on that stage and how
difficult, hard, whatever verb you want to use, it can be to pull off.
But I also bring it up because I want to encourage other kids to do these things.
I want to encourage you guys to continue on to do these things.
All three of you are very talented.
Will not be surprised to see you on a big or small screen one day.
But there are odds and chances that you may not do that.
You may find another passion or another career to go into.
But one thing that you will do is take these lessons you've learned
and the reps that you've built being on stage speaking in front of people.
Not just this show, but all of those other shows
and be able to take that skill set to whatever you do going forward.
I do not mean to embarrass you, Brandon.
But I do want to embarrass you.
No, but I do want to bring you up as an example if you don't mind
because the first time you joined us, I remember.
And you did a great job.
But I could also tell you we're a little reserved and a little nervous
like anybody would be.
I was when I first started this in my late 20 or early 20s
and everything, man, I wasn't even close to your age.
I see you in here today.
You walked in smooth.
You've been very confident and sounded great on the air.
Like just in that short time, the amount that you have grown.
I admire that.
I think that's awesome and good on you for that.
And you guys, I everybody can do the same.
Everybody else can be that way too.
It's something that I, why I'm such a big believer in theater and acting.
It's fun.
It's an exciting thing to be able to do as a kid.
But it's also got so many things that you can take with you to the next level.
And do you guys feel that?
Do you guys have any of that feeling?
If I hadn't done theater, I would be a completely different person.
I could say the same thing.
I could say that we had some of your fellow Lincoln
Lums with us earlier, our students earlier talking about Deca.
And I was speaking about that.
How much?
Yeah, theater classes certainly helped me a lot.
But I don't think I'm in this chair without speech, debate,
Deca, some of these other programs that exist.
And the importance of having these programs for students.
Sports are great.
I love sports.
And they have their place.
They're only one piece of the pie.
They're only one thing of it.
We need to support the arts.
We need to support these other programs
because they're part of our future.
And also, not for nothing, kids like it.
Just because it's fun.
Can't we just have it because it's a fun thing to have as well?
I wanted to send a shout out to the rest of the cast as well.
My Fair Lady's got a nice size cast to it.
So we send a shout out to all your fellow classmates
and everybody else out there as well.
I wanted to also give you guys an opportunity
to talk on the ticket sales.
Because we got tickets for everybody.
And I want to let people know that you can get tickets
for this amazing show at showticksforu.com.
That's showticksforu.com.
Or you can get them the day of the performance right at the door
at the Performing Arts Center.
Keep that in mind.
Shows kick off April 25th at 630.
You got to show on Friday, that Friday as well.
Saturday and Sunday.
All showtimes 630, 730.
Sunday at matinee at 2 o'clock.
But you guys were nice enough or your teachers were.
Nice enough to not only bring some posters
we can put up here at our studios,
but you have some tickets for us?
To get away.
Nice.
Nice.
I'm looking forward to that.
That'll be very cool.
Encourage everybody to be listening during the morning show.
We'll be giving those away.
We'll give those away on our morning show.
Tickets to see my fair lady.
Looking forward to that.
And do you have something else?
And we also have an online giveaway as well.
On Facebook, we are giving away two free tickets
for Thursday show.
And then on Instagram, we are giving away
two free tickets for Saturday, Friday, and Sunday as well.
I've asked you guys a couple of things
that have been fun about this.
I'm curious.
What did you find the most challenging about this performance
or about these roles in doing something like this?
Maybe it's not even just in this particular player,
this particular role, but about acting in general.
What would you say is one of the more difficult things
you've had to overcome or accomplish with this?
I've kind of got two things.
The first one was memorization because this is a large show
and kind of got to memorize the entire show for me at least.
But a bigger one, it would be singing.
Because I have never in my life sung in public.
And now I have four and a half songs that I need to worry about
and then coordinating with Pitt with that
and then working on that in my own time.
And that's very difficult.
But I'm getting it down and I'm very happy with that.
Right now, awesome.
For me, it's always like just like using my voice
with acting, like figuring out how I want to portray the character
and giving them the voice that isn't me.
I've always had a little difficulty with that.
And then, as Zanking Karl Narker, like to say,
being in our box, which is basically our chest.
We don't move our arms outside of that.
I'm also very like, that's something that I've struggled with.
And I've gotten better over the years.
But I still struggle to get out of that a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, overall, I'm only a freshman.
So this is my first high school play that I'm doing.
And it's just way harder than elementary and middle school plays
and just everything about it.
And then, like Austin said, the singing,
I'm not a perfect singer.
But this has definitely helped me improve 100%.
So yes.
Is it worth it?
100%.
Absolutely.
I love it.
I love it.
God, you guys are awesome.
I love when I asked something that I know the answer.
I love your response, though.
I didn't expect that.
That was fantastic.
And that's the important thing to learn early on too in life.
Most of the things in life worth having take work.
And they're not, and they're not always necessarily easy.
But you feel it afterwards.
And if it had been handed to you,
if you could just have an app and download the lines
and have them all memorized and everything,
yeah, that sounds really nice.
But would it mean as much to you?
Would you play these characters the same?
I truly think that there is something to this.
There's a great quote about football,
but I've always applied it to really acting.
They pay me for Monday through Saturday.
They get Sunday for free.
The acting roles I've had, whether they're for, you know,
just WRCT here in town, or roles I've played
and been paid for on a movie set or a TV show.
Every one of them has been the same thing for me.
I am not good at memorization.
I, the rehearsal process can be long and grueling.
But man, when I get the chance to be on that stage,
when those cameras turn on, that's why I'm doing this.
That's what it's all for.
And it shows how worth it it is too.
How much the payoff can be.
Life is like that.
There's going to be a hundred things you guys do in life
where you got to put the work in.
You got to get your hands in the dirt.
But it's so worth it once you do.
That's a very cool to see that you guys have already picked up
on that already seeing that.
Yes.
And it's got to add to your characters, I would imagine too.
That's another fun part of this.
Is there anything you wanted to touch on before we let you go?
You guys are just about done.
So close to being done.
So close.
I don't think so.
Okay.
I don't have anything specific.
All right.
Well, we do want to thank, of course, again,
all the teachers, all the people behind the scenes
that have made this happen and helping work so hard
on this with you guys.
The rest of your cast, a big shout out to them.
We're encouraging all of you to have a great time
with this wonderful show.
Again, my fairy lady, going to be having performance dates,
a Thursday, April 25th, 630, Friday, April 26th,
and 730 Saturday, April 27th at 730.
And then that Sunday, a two o'clock matinee.
All performances at the Performing Arts Center
right here in Wisconsin Rapids.
It's a side note.
One of the greater places you were going to be able to do a show.
The acoustics in there are perfect.
It's so nice.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm jealous.
I never got to be on that stage.
It's so jealous of you guys.
If you need an understudy, let me know.
Okay.
It might stand out.
It might look a little weird with me out there and everything.
But we'll worry about that.
We'll have to be surprised.
Do you want to send a big shout out, of course,
to Eric and our friends over at the pack
doing such great job with you guys and all these shows
and all the shows we have here come into town.
Again, you can get tickets for this fantastic show at showtix4u.com.
Showtix4u.com.
Otherwise, you can get them at the door the day of the show
where these will be taking place at the Performing Arts Center
Wisconsin Rapids.
Encourage you to buy local support, local support the arts,
support these kids.
Go out, have a great time and join them for this wonderful show.
All three of you.
Thank you so much.
Break a leg.
Have a great run.
Yes, thank you.
Thanks, guys.
We'll be back with our midday magazine for you tomorrow
right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR locally grown radio.
