Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this July 11th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
At 430 today, we're going to speak with Matt Lippert,
UW Extension's Ag Agent, looking forward to talk with Matt.
Right now, y'all, this audience knows me well enough.
You know, I have no journalistic integrity
when it comes to theater, let alone my favorite theater,
Wisconsin Rabbits Community Theater.
We're talking with the gang right now
about Disney's Newsies Junior, which premieres tonight.
We'll be talking about that.
And more, first up, we have with us Gretchen Powers,
the Executive Director over at WRCT
and the Director of Newsies Junior.
Gretchen, thanks for being here.
Hello.
Always good to see you, Gretchen.
You too.
And you've got some friends with us.
I do. I have my co-director Sue Becker with me.
Hello. Good morning.
Thanks for being here, Sue.
And I have my choreographer slash assistant director
Rose Paul with me.
Hey, Rose, nice to meet you.
Hey, nice to meet you.
Thanks for being here.
Appreciate it and appreciate the work you've done on this show.
It's awesome.
I've already heard good things about it.
So I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the work
that you all did together.
We'll talk more with you ladies in a moment.
But Gretchen, if you don't mind, I think I oftentimes
think, well, I'll show like this.
Everybody knows this one.
Just in case anybody may not be that familiar with the show,
do you have a synopsis you can give us?
Yeah.
And I've heard several people ask me,
well, I don't really know what this is about.
And that's OK.
This is what my job is.
So Newsies is actually, so it was done
as a movie and a Broadway musical.
It's about the 1899 strike of the Newsboys,
the little kids that used to go extra extra read all
about it and they'd sell papers.
So Pulitzer, he had rose the price of newspapers
to the point where the newsies had to purchase,
spend more money on them, but couldn't sell them for anymore,
because they couldn't want to raise the price of the papers
so that Pulitzer could make more money.
And they were already going broke by and he's
and then they couldn't sell the papers back
if they didn't sell them all.
And so it was hard on those kids.
I'm not talking like 16, 17, and 18-year-olds.
I'm talking like eight, nine, 10-year-olds.
These were little kids back in the day.
And so they went on strike and changed the world.
And this is actually based on a true story.
And we've done a lot of educating with these kids
to kind of let them know I'm like put it into perspective
or without we even had them do some,
well, if I had to have a job right now,
what would my life be like?
I couldn't sit at home playing video games.
I couldn't do plays.
I'd have to be out there washing dishes.
And so because it went from not just the newsboys
but to the kids working on the sweatshops.
And we probably wouldn't have the laws we have
around the workforce if those kids didn't make that change.
So the moral of the story is that little kids
can do big things too.
Yeah, well done, well said.
Yes, amen.
A couple of good points you bring up there, Gretchen.
One, I do want to say that not only do we love history
and real telling stories,
especially those of becoming more and more popular.
So I think that that part of end of this is kind of cool.
We love history, we're learning about it,
let alone stuff that happened here in the States.
And relatively recent history, all things considered.
So that part is interesting.
The, it can't be said enough about what these children did
to change the work labor laws
and so many other things too.
And that part is very interesting me as well.
This is a condensed version of the show.
It's a 60 minute version.
It's a more like an hour and 30 minutes.
Okay.
But the script says that it's supposed to be only 60 minutes.
But they, I don't know, it just,
it goes a little bit longer.
That's okay.
We also do a 15 minute intermission.
So, but it goes quick and they are doing a fantastic job.
Yeah.
You bring up something else in that that I hadn't thought
about before and you brought me back
to Killamockingbird when I did that.
Well, we have a scene in there where there's a rabbit dog
in the neighborhood and everybody is terrified
in the neighborhood of this dog.
And we had three little kids on there, great actors.
But when this scene came up, oh no, a dog.
Oh no, what do we do?
And we're like, kids, come on, you gotta give us more.
This is a rabbit dog and they just couldn't get it.
In their heads, well, we just call the pets,
you know, human society or somebody like that
and they'll come and pick up the dog.
At the time of Killamockingbird, something like this happens.
It was on the sheriff in the town.
It was on somebody else.
So, we really had to build the kids up
and get them in that mindset.
It sounds like you were able to do that
with these kids and getting them into that mindset
of that era and what it was like to be a kid in that time.
Yeah.
That's great.
It's not easy to do, but it sounds like you guys pulled it off.
And we had Melissa join us on the morning show previewing it.
She was just blown away by everything.
So, that sounds like you really brought it home.
And like I've had people say,
these kids are ready for Broadway.
Like, that's how good they are.
And they're respectable children.
They care about this and they want to do a good job.
And so, they've been given it, they're all so.
Very cool.
Also, keep in mind, this is a Tony award-winning score.
This is a well-celebrated play that we're bringing here to town
and these kids are going to be pulling off.
And also note that this is the very first time
that the Wisconsin Rapids Community Theater
has done a youth musical.
This is not a thing.
Like, this is something that our fundraising from last year
that we did with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory paid for.
Because the royalties for musicals are substantially higher
than a regular play.
And although those plays always are super cool,
this is something I've been wanting to do forever.
So, it's our 50th anniversary for WRCT,
but our first anniversary of doing musicals.
Yeah.
I don't know if every year will be a musical,
but we will definitely be doing more of them.
We have the talent.
So, this is part of the reason why I told you,
when you got this job that you were going to be perfect for,
and we are going to see some really cool things,
the ambitiousness of it, and the hunger that you have
to bring these kind of things to town.
It's already happening.
It's already going on.
And we'll talk more about this later
when we get into the main season,
but even with the Christmas play this year.
I think you've made some like,
oh, she's already doing stuff like, I love it.
I love seeing it.
And it couldn't be a better time.
Like you said, it's celebrating their 50th year.
And Sue's going to be the director for White Christmas.
Yeah.
We'll be talking a lot this year, Sue.
You're so well.
And as I've got you here, Sue, first,
how did you enjoy yourself with this run?
I know you guys are getting towards,
this is getting towards a time where your job is done.
You know, when the play actually is going on
and everything, you guys don't have as much hands
on stuff you can do.
How have you enjoyed yourself?
And what have you inserted into the play?
What have you been doing?
Well, I think that I am grateful
that Gretchen spoke to me and invited me in
to be a part of this and co-direct with her.
Because as you know, I do the children's WRPS,
children's theater, and that's the last 12 years.
So bringing a musical to the community
through the community theater has opened up a lot for me,
because I'm pretty restricted with WRPS
as far as who can and who can't.
So now I have children from Pitsville,
children from the Prokale School.
So I'm not classified as just public.
So a lot more.
Also this year working with the high schoolers.
I got a chance to work with my fair lady
a little bit and get to know a bunch of them
and they're awesome.
And I met Rose as well.
But you know, those kids are amazing
and they followed me over there.
I kind of promoted and all of a sudden
I see these kids at auditions and it's been a match.
Gretchen and I speak each other's words all the time.
It's funny, we'll literally be,
I'll be sitting up in the sound booth
and she'll be down in the front and we both get an idea
and we all of a sudden are both saying the exact same words
and then we just look at each other for like jinks.
Yeah, so it's been a great experience.
I love it.
It's my life.
I retired a year.
It'll be a year in August.
Oh, congratulations.
And this is all I do and my kids are my own children mom,
really.
And I go, yeah, really.
So, you know, doing the show, you know,
like Gretchen had talked about the history of the show
and you know, I'm so into the kids
learning their character and building their personality
of each character.
And that's what I take, take it home,
learn about your care.
What are you gonna be?
What kind of newspaper boy or girl are you gonna be?
What kind of jacket are you gonna be?
We have talented children, talented children
in this community and you're gonna see it,
you're gonna hear it.
Everybody's gonna leave and want to come back for more.
So, that's down the road.
Hopefully we do a more of a longer run, you know,
instead of just three days because we,
what's the size of our theater to be able to enhance
that for our total community, I think we can do it.
It would be cool to do two weekends of it.
Yes.
Because our ticket sales, like they're almost sold out.
We'll get to that real quick.
We currently, and this could change at any moment.
There are only, you know, six tickets left for,
and then this is pre-recorded.
So, like they could be gone by this afternoon.
Six tickets left for tonight and 18 left for Saturday.
So, get it, go in, we're sold out Friday.
But go get those tickets because those kids
are worth listening to.
We've been talking last couple of weeks
about the importance of supporting theater,
especially in Wisconsin where Wisconsin,
for those that did not hear or see
or haven't heard me ramble about it a million times,
Wisconsin finished last in funding the arts this last year.
And that just can't happen.
For one, Wisconsin has too much creative history to be that.
But also, it speaks to supporting local theaters.
We've heard about a lot of local theaters
that are just hanging on by a thread and everything.
It's more important than ever to be supporting theater.
But then, when you talk about a kids show,
a lot of people wanna look at ways
of investing in the future,
looking and impacting the future.
And not many ways you can,
many funner ways you can do that,
then buying a ticket, going and seeing a show.
And yes, it's gonna mean something
for these kids to see family members
out in the audience and everything.
But Gretch, you might remember this like I do
or maybe you guys do as well
about being a young performer on stage
and seeing strangers out there and them cheering for you.
Or I was often a villain,
so being afraid of you or something like that
and the confidence that builds.
We don't know where these kids might go in their lives,
but wherever they go, they could use some confidence.
They could use some people skills,
they could use some cooperation skills,
some of these things.
And building on all of that,
you were investing in that when you buy a ticket
and you go see these shows.
You were helping support these kids,
not only the theater,
but helping support these kids and their journey.
All right, guys, I just really wanna take a second.
We may have finished less in Wisconsin,
but Wisconsin Rapids has been awesome
as far as helping us with sponsoring this show.
We've received funding from the rafters.
They let us come and do a little fundraiser there,
so thank you rafters.
Rocky Rococo's let us do a fundraiser.
We made some money,
encourage and rotary,
all great sponsors for us.
And then last but not least,
Rapid School of Performing Arts,
the dance school here in town,
where our choreographer has danced with,
I was at 16 years that you've been doing dance.
And so yeah, they came and supported us
and they gave us a donation too,
so thank you to all of those
for sponsoring private donors.
And that really has been helpful.
Yeah, and that's why all the more we encourage you
to invest in WRCT and it is an investment.
It's a donation to, I know the word wise to a lot of people,
but this is an investment in your community.
This is an investment that really hits so much
of the community too.
You really spreads it and it's a fun one too.
I don't wanna, I don't wanna escape past that.
I mean, there's fun shows, not only these shows,
but the whole summer we're gonna have some fun ones,
all season long, you're gonna have some great ones.
When you buy a ticket, when you do donate to the theater,
you are making it not only for this year's stronger,
but maybe next year's stronger, as Gretchen touched on.
Yeah, you can really go towards next year's funding too, as well.
Yeah.
And to make an impact on the numbers,
this show is 60 kids and in my history.
I mean, I could say right now I've got like over 200 followers
of children that just keep following and a distributed,
so it's growing.
Our community of theater children is growing, so.
Rose, I wanna put you on the spot.
I mean, talk to you a second.
Thank you so much for being here, Rose, I appreciate it.
You were the choreographer for the show.
I don't know a whole lot about that.
Did you come into the show and have already some dances
that were kind of set that are a part of the show,
or did you have to incorporate some of your own
and kind of put some of your own creativity on it?
So Gretchen asked me back in March, February,
to choreograph for the show,
and this is only the third show I've ever choreographed for.
And it's a full musical.
And when you do the junior show,
they have preset dances that you can use.
So I mean, I watched through them,
I would use bits and pieces of some of it,
but a lot of it's my own,
and some of it's mixtures of both, but yeah.
It's very cool.
Very cool.
And good on you for doing this,
and especially, this is your third one,
do you say you're only your third one?
I've blown away that's your third one, that's impressive.
When it comes to the, okay,
the set choreography that you have,
and then you have kids.
Maybe not all of them can pull up these moves,
some can, some can, I'm sure.
Do you have to adapt that to the talent?
It's definitely a learning process.
It's something that you know,
most of the time when I do it,
I see it in my head,
so I'm like, it's not always gonna work the same way,
especially since there's a lot of kids,
so it's working out.
Do we have everybody in this?
Do we not?
Do we make it a little simpler
to deal with the amount of kids we have?
But also, these kids are very motivated
to learn these dances, and they will practice them,
and they will dedicate themselves to them.
We have three kids in the show that learned tap for the show.
And they committed to it, and they practiced it,
and I'm very proud of them for that,
because that's crazy.
That's really cool.
I think I need to be in a show with you,
because I've always wanted to learn tap,
so maybe this is how I'll do it.
There you go, yeah.
Did you, are there things that you're learning
that you've learned from the process
that will help you going forward?
It's definitely interesting to work with such like,
a wide variety of ages of kids,
because you know, you have some like really little ones
who are gonna learn a lot differently
than some of the high school students we have,
but I at my dance studio would help
assistant teach for some of the younger kids,
so it's definitely something I've done for a while,
but I really enjoy working with them.
They're so great.
It's great to hear.
That's really good to hear, Rose.
A question kind of for all of you,
and I've thought about this before,
but I haven't had many openings to ask about it.
I talk a lot about chemistry on stage or on screen
and how vital and important that could be for even a,
you can have the world's greatest script,
you don't have chemistry, it ain't gonna do much,
but the chemistry behind the scenes
is just as important, if not more important in many ways.
The three of you seem like you really enjoyed working
together along with, I'm sure,
many other helping hands behind the scenes.
How did that go working together?
And is this something, Gretchen, that you,
as Rose mentioned, you reached out to her
or early on in the process?
How did that go working together?
And did you all have a fun doing it?
I had a lot of fun, I hope you guys did too.
Yeah, when I chose these two to be involved with me,
I knew they were people who just,
they were in it for the kids.
They're very talented and creative and they're nice.
And they, I don't know, I want,
I want one thing that we really promote is kindness
and they definitely, they bring that to the table, so.
You guys enjoyed yourself, Sue?
I totally enjoyed myself and we'll continue.
And I just see this as a start to a great relationship
in theater with Gretchen and we can broaden even further.
And I'm totally in it to win it.
Right up, right up.
And I didn't get to tell you before,
but congratulations on retirement.
And thank you for all the years of service.
We appreciate you.
Thank you for that.
Did Rose, you have a good time?
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, this is, I've worked with Gretchen on a few shows,
either as her being my director,
once I was a choreographer before this.
And keep coming back, so I can't not still work.
Oh, I hear you, oh, I can relate.
Well, when it comes to this show,
you mentioned tickets already, Gretchen.
I did want to also just highlight a couple of the songs
that are featured in this that I think people will know.
They're carrying the banner.
They're carrying the banner and...
She's the day.
Yeah, yeah.
She's the day is the one I know.
Once and for all is my favorite song from the show.
Yeah.
That's my sister favorite.
That's cool.
They all are really good.
Santa Fe.
It's really cute to watch the little kids sing the solos
of the older kids.
Like, they'll be on their downtime.
And they'll just start singing it.
Yesterday, they...
Oh, my gosh, yesterday was hilarious.
The little kids are always watching the older kids do
the scene from just a pretty faith.
That's the one that's not in the movie.
It's made for the junior version
because it's a little less risque.
Yeah.
Because it's the show girl scene.
But the dance that they do, it's so good.
And these little kids all...
Like, they did the...
They were standing on the floor while the girls were practicing it.
And they were doing all the same moves.
And I'm like...
I was impressed.
And the goal was awesome.
It's like flash forward to the future.
They're all like seven, eight, nine years old.
And they're all doing it.
At the same time.
And taking on the solos.
Oh, that's awesome.
And they sing them constantly.
Like, the moms will send me videos.
They're like, well, they're just the little kids in the show.
But they know the whole show by heart just so you know.
So cool.
And that's what's cool about them.
Yeah.
It's the impact.
You can watch the movie on Disney Plus.
So go check that out if you don't know what it's about.
And you want to come see the show after it.
You're going to get addicted.
Yeah.
If you...
If you have trouble streaming it, it's my sister's fault.
Because I talked to my sister a little bit about this
over the weekend.
And she just talked my ear off.
She...
I knew she...
I remember her loving the movie.
And as soon as I told her about this,
she's trying to get the town to be able to take him to show.
And I have to tell her that tickets are almost gone.
So she's got to do this quick if she's going to do it.
If she wants to...
I can put one on hold for her.
I will let her know that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Because she really got excited about not only...
But her home...
You know, one of her home towns doing this.
And I think that she's not alone in that.
I think a lot of people that love the movie
may come down and see this.
Just people that love this theater and love this town
will come down to see this show.
And again, get those tickets now.
Because they're going quick,
wrctheter.org.
Gretchen, if you don't mind,
I did want to take a second to talk about the other children's shows
that are coming up,
the Hopo production and mid-Summer-ish.
Yeah.
If you don't mind.
So on...
So I've been directing two shows at once.
Yeah.
That's something I don't know that I'll ever do again.
I'll space travel.
Please don't.
Please don't.
I don't know.
But they're doing amazing.
I've got a show called Mid-Summer-ish.
It's a bridged version of Mid-Summer Night's Dream
meant for children.
And so I've got a wonderful group of kids
and we're performing at lunch by the river.
So it's a free show.
So you get the opportunity to see a show for free
and eat lunch at the same time.
So you all need lunch.
So come to the lunch by the river July 18th at 11.30.
And you get to see this awesome Shakespeare show
without the Shakespeare language.
And you'll actually understand it.
And it's going to be awesome.
So...
That's going to be a lot of fun looking forward to that one too.
And did want to remind everybody,
it's a madhouse, the Hopo production coming up August.
Auditions will be July 15th from 5 to 7.
Keep that in mind.
Those auditions will be at the WRCTA Theatre.
Yep.
So right after we're done, they open up with that one.
So July 15th at 5.
My friend Stephanie Hertha is directing that one.
And then they perform that on August 3rd and 4th.
And it's a really funny...
Is it a children's murder mystery type of thing?
Yeah.
And she's very good at those types of shows.
Yep.
It's going to be a fun summer of these shows.
Take them all in and support these kids and support your local theatre.
And get ready for a jam-packed, amazing main stage season.
We are so excited about that.
And not only the four main shows, but what the silver fox is doing,
what so many of the other groups from there do.
It's going to be a really fun year as we get into this 50th.
It sure will be.
Looking forward to it.
Any of the notes, you guys, because I think we covered everything.
Just that our actors are just tremendous.
I really hope you get a chance to see them.
They, one of our girls, she just went to Knoxville, Tennessee
and came in second place for a nationwide singing competition.
And just got a gorgeous voice.
Little kids who've never done this before are rocking it.
Got some seniors in high school who are great.
They'll be leaving for Milwaukee for cutting roses.
One of those people leaving us forever, never going to come back.
I'm going to kidnap them.
I don't know that yet.
Yeah, they don't know that yet.
I appreciate all of them.
I love all of them.
Even on the hard days, they are just the greatest kids.
I've never been so excited for people to see what we've come up with.
It's going to be a great one.
Get your ticket.
Make sure to take in this show.
Again, you can get tickets at WRC Theatre.org.
Newsy's junior, premiering tonight at seven.
Sorry, at seven.
And then they've got a show Friday that just have tickets available.
No, that's the sold out one.
That's the sold out one.
So six left for Thursday, none for Friday, 18 for Saturday,
and less by the time this show, this radio show gets aired.
Yeah.
That Saturday show is a two o'clock mat name.
Two o'clock mat name.
Keep that in mind, too.
Biolocal support local.
That includes the arts, everybody.
All three of you.
Thank you for everything you've done and all the work that you put into this.
Enjoy the run.
Have fun.
And we'll talk again real soon.
Thank you so much.
Well, at more midday magazine coming up for you right here at 97 5 FM 13 20 AM WF HR locally grown radio.
