Welcome everybody to WFHR's Rapids Report brought to you probably by Croc
Acceptic for this July 7th, 2025.
Have your host James here and I'm excited I got a bunch of energy in me because we're
going to be talking to some of my favorite people.
Wisconsin's Rapids Community Theatre's teen summer production is here with us right
now.
We've got our director.
We've got a bunch of the cast members.
What we're going to do to start so the audience can put a name to the voice.
We'll kind of go down the line here and let you guys introduce yourselves and you know
I'm going to start with you Sue.
I got to start with you.
Oh, okay.
Hi.
And that's not me trying to brown nose their director.
No, never.
I know you want to part.
I know you want to.
Okay.
Thank you for thinking of me.
My name is Sue Becker.
I'm the director of West Side Story.
This is probably, this is my third show with the community theater did Newsies last year
and then White Christmas in the winter.
And now West Side Story, I've been with the high or the grade school doing children's
theater for the last 11 years.
Wow.
I didn't realize you didn't know that long.
That's awesome Sue.
That's really cool.
Good on you.
I appreciate you doing that too.
Thank you very much for the introduction.
Let you introduce yourselves to next, sir.
Hi.
My name is Ethan Madsen.
I am a part of this play.
I play the character of Riff.
So yeah.
I ran out.
Thank you Ethan.
Appreciate that.
Hello.
My name is Phoebe Logger and I play the part of Maria.
Thank you Phoebe.
All right.
Hello.
My name is Madeline Hando and I play the part of Anita.
Thank you Madeline.
And then hi.
I'm Austin Franz and I play the parts of Tony.
Nice.
Thanks for being here Austin and Austin.
Ethan.
Good to see you guys again.
I appreciate this is old hat for you.
So I don't, as I warn all of you every time you're in here, please do not take
my job.
I need this job.
Okay.
So don't be too good at this.
But I do want to kind of get into the play a little bit first to kick things off to if
you don't mind.
And we are joking a little bit in our pregame.
It's hard to imagine anybody not knowing West Side Story.
But just for those that may not be or maybe even just reminding people about it.
And if there is any, I wouldn't, I don't know if it's significant differences.
But the adult play, the teen play, if there is anything like that, you want to touch
it.
All right.
I mean, it's something I saw when I was a young girl.
It was in the 50s, takes place there.
The adaptation we're doing is the high school version.
A lot of input from obviously Leonard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim, and then Adrom Robbins.
A lot of insight from him.
The difference between the adult version and the high school is how they ease it up a
little bit in the message as well as the musical score is put in vocal range for teens that
are developing their voices.
So it's not as intense.
It's not easy.
They'll tell you that.
But I have a musical director, Cindy Arzell.
She's a bit amazing.
So that's kind of the, the, the just of how you get the high school version.
It is definitely, you know, set in New York City in the 50s, two rival gangs.
I don't feel, I see it as Rachel.
It's more territorial.
Yes.
And, you know, the ups and downs of trying to vie for that one spot or their territory,
the classic good versus evil evil, you know, since the monogues and capitals we've been
doing these stories.
Exactly.
This is a modern day Romeo and Juliet story.
So people come, they know Romeo and Juliet.
If they've seen this, this show, whether it was back in the 61 version or the more newer
version, just recently put on TV.
But you'll love the music.
I mean, who doesn't like somewhere tonight?
Officer Crop, Crop P is like, you'll laugh your Tosh off.
The kids are so fun in that, you know, I sat there, how am I going to choreograph this?
I gave them a couple moves and then they took over and they have just done an amazing
job with it.
It is crazy.
Slapstick.
It's, it's really good.
So Marie and Tony will make you cry.
Their voices are beautiful.
So, you know, it's just, it'll be a good time.
Yeah.
And thank you for that.
So we were talking about this on air off air a little bit with this show.
This show in particular meant a lot to me as a kid and into my family.
I come from a mixed family and, and know a little bit about this, come from the other side
of the tracks, know a little bit about that and territories, what you were saying there
and some of those things.
So seeing any kind of representation, even if it is a little, you know, entertainment
did, you know, and raised up a notch or whatever and everything was meant something as
a kid.
It just didn't have a lot of that and everything.
That was important.
And I think that the essence of the play, the meaning of the play, the message of the
play, you can make an argument as just as relevant now as it was back then when it first
premiered and some of those things.
But there's the other part of this too and I hadn't thought that much about it until recently
and you guys follow me on this one.
But actually, I actually thought about the recent run of the Spider-Man movies.
And those movies have had great actors playing those roles all the time, Tobin McGuire,
Andrew Garfield, great actors, also almost 30.
And they're playing teenagers, you know, and it just never felt right no matter how good
those actors were, they just never felt like I didn't really believe in a Spider-Man.
You know, Tom Holland, not a teenager, but a much younger actor and certainly looks younger
and it just made the character that much more believable.
To me, when I'm watching those movies that you reference and they're great movies,
both of them are really good.
We got, you know, 20-year-olds, almost 30-year-olds playing teenagers and some of these things
and everything and it just isn't believable when you have kids doing this show.
When you have teenagers doing this show, you guys get this better than we can.
You just do.
There's certain things at a certain age that you just feel and can get and you can bring
to life so much better than adults can no matter how great of actors they are.
There's certain things that only real life can incorporate and really bring.
And you guys at the time of life you're in doing this show couldn't be a better match,
couldn't be a better fit.
And I think that when you really do love a play like this or a show like this and you've
seen it many times or something like that, when you have kids actually doing it, teenagers
actually doing it, it's so much different.
It brings so much more to the show and everything and that's why we can't encourage enough
to check this one out.
And that's the thing.
There's so much hard in it from them.
Their emotions are raw.
And you know, in the storyline that the adults in the show I kept as adults.
We give a plug, Saf is Lieutenant Drake.
So and he plays it, wow, so and it was perfect.
So.
Yeah, Seth did have in my notes to mention him, thank you.
We do appreciate everybody involved with this one.
You have such a good team.
You mentioned your choreographer earlier and a music director and in so many other people
that are involved with this one behind the scenes.
We appreciate all of you so much.
All the adults and parents getting these kids to rehearsals and everything really do
appreciate.
I want to go down the line here, ask you guys about your character a little bit and maybe
something you'd like to enjoy about playing that character.
And so we'll just go down the line here with that and start with you, man.
So my character is Riff.
I am the leader of one of the gangs that are going at it.
It's really fun.
Like it's, when you see the movies, what kind of a gang is just dancing in the streets?
Right, right.
We're just going around jumping around doing little like ballerina poses and they're going
at it and they're supposed to be like against this other gang.
And when I first saw the movies, I kind of was like, yeah, this is this is kind of lame.
What kind of gang does that?
Well, I'm doing it.
I'm playing this part and it's so much fun.
I'm doing these little ballerina poses and it's kind of like, wow, this is really nice.
And we added a bit more choreography for like the actual battles in the fighting.
And it adds a bit more, I guess, animosity to it is what I'm looking for.
But it's showing the gang members.
And there's this whole love thing going on.
My character does not know that.
He's just Tony's kind of a bit of an idiot at the moment like, why are you doing this?
And that's smart.
So yeah, I'm really enjoying my part.
It's just fun to work with.
And yeah, it may come to a bit of a drastic ending, but it's fun.
Yeah.
Good to hear.
Really good to hear.
Well, I'll get more from you a little bit later.
I'm going to go down the line here again and let you talk about your character a little
bit.
Hi.
I play Maria.
Maria is, she's very innocent and she's young and she's hopelessly in love with Tony.
And she, well, she sings a lot of duets with Tony in this and her part sings.
It's very, very high for me personally, but I can sing it fairly well, I think.
And me and Austin, I think our voice is match in most of the songs we sing.
It's so much fun.
I love watching scenes that like the Jets and Sharks are in and they're fighting and it's
so much fun to watch.
And yeah.
Good to hear them.
Good to hear them.
Yeah.
So, I play the part of Anita and it just, it's very, I almost want to say nostalgic because
I was about 11, 10 when I first watched the original movie and just the personal connection
I felt towards Anita, she's a kind of like an older sister towards Maria.
She's dating the leader of the Sharks so she just, she's very knowing, she's very, I don't
want to say wise, but like kind of, she, yeah, it's, it's so fun.
I love all my songs with Phoebe, luckily I don't have like a solo song so I do kind of
get to play off of like other people with it and yeah, it's just amazing.
I, it's good to hear, really good to hear.
Okay, then I play Tony, Austin again.
I, I, when I got cast as Tony, I knew I was going to love the songs because I've always
loved singing.
That's always just been one of my passions.
But I think one of my favorite, like things that I've taken from the show is just the acting
that I've been able to do.
Like there's so much emotion in this show and it gets like, it's like a super like,
hi, fun show, super exciting and it just, boom, hits you like a train.
And it's, it's so fun being able to play with those and like the emotional roller coaster
and then like how like those fun scenes, like Officer Kruppki, like in the middle to
break it up because it's just, it's like, it is a heavy hitting show.
It's a very emotional show and I'm sure people that know about the show know that.
But I think we do a really good job at portraying those emotions.
I think all of us do and like we're all, I think we're all so really good in our songs
as well.
It's, I, it's really good.
Yeah.
It's great to hear one of the things that I think you, you learn going through this.
The rehearsal process, you, you, you, you have a, you have an audience right away.
The from, from day one, from the first read through, you have an audience.
It's your fellow cast members.
It's your team.
It's the people around there and when you're able to entertain them, you know, first couple
of nights, that's one thing, but you're talking like your fifth, sixth rehearsal down the
line.
You're two weeks in, three weeks in.
You've been doing this a while and people are still laughing or people are still engaged.
That could be a big part of it to your point.
And the, I think that the script is so well balanced in that regard where there is moments
of seriousness.
Well, also some great light moments in there and the music keeps things, moving and, and
very, the energy really good too.
And you guys, the four of you just sold this well.
Sue and I don't have to say another word.
You guys just really sold this well.
We can just end the interview actually, maybe not real.
Sue, I did want to talk just a little bit about the rehearsal process and how often you
guys rehearsed.
Sure.
Auditions happened just after school was out.
It was before, May 16th.
May 16th.
And then, May 16th.
May 16th.
May go.
They got it.
They got it better than me.
I get a lot of mine.
Exactly.
And then after that, it was working with them.
My normal schedule, when I do any of these productions is a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.
And then we add in a Sunday here and there.
And as we get going, they get longer, four to eight, now we're four to nine, going into
tech week here.
But, you know, I am very workable with them, schedules, I know it's summer, vacations,
but they know that they have a responsibility.
If you're going to take a vacation, you come back knowing your lines, you know your songs.
So, you know, they have to take ownership.
And they all know that.
So, you know, I really, it's never been really a hassle with a lot of my kids to give me
what I need.
It's great to hear.
I like the audience to know the work that you all put into this show and everything.
Well, also anybody out there listening that thinks about maybe their kid being in theater
or themselves, you know, knowing how much of a time committed is, there is a commitment
there, but I don't think anything too crazy, you know, it's about what you'd expect
of, you know, especially if you haven't done this before.
Well, it's no more of a commitment than you've got these little basketball players and
baseball players, parents running all over Wisconsin.
All my brothers doing right now.
Yeah.
And hotel rooms and weekend meals, it, ours is local.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
You can have fun local.
And just one note, I have one that's not local, it's Maddie.
Maddie heard about the show and she lives in some prairie.
And she's like, God, I want that she loves the show and I said, well, you need to audition
to prove yourself.
She did.
It's my granddaughter.
So we brought her into the show.
So it's kind of a need experience for me to experience this with my granddaughter.
I'm really, oh, I'm so excited to hear that.
And I will say right away, what Maddie was saying before, I was going to say off air about
what it means when you get to play, being in something that you've liked since you were
young and those things.
So having that connection right there, it means something, certainly a little bit more,
but then with family and all that, that's really cool to hear.
That's what the community leaders all about.
That's wonderful.
Good to hear for you guys.
And then to bounce off, what Sue said, we have people in rapids, but I think we also have
some people that are like 40 minutes away with 30 minutes away.
It's like, it's central Wisconsin, mostly, and then Maddie coming from Madison.
She's like, I'm going to leave there.
I'm going to leave there.
Which is great.
Like, she's doing amazing.
But yeah, it's like, if you're hearing this and you are anywhere in Wisconsin and you
are willing to make the time and come to it, you can come audition.
It doesn't have to be in just rapids area.
This Wisconsin in general has such a wonderful, healthy theater, a life.
And I mentioned this whenever I can.
And there's been some recent positives happen politically as far as entertainment goes.
But when it comes to the last year, Wisconsin finished dead last in funding the arts in
the union.
And we need to make sure that everybody knows that and understands how important the
arts are.
Not just to the economy of this state, the life of this state, but the youth of this state.
And making sure that we invest in it, we invest in our arts.
We support these kids.
We go to every local theater show that we can wherever you're listening, it's going to be
kids plays going on.
There's going to be high school plays coming up in the fall.
And some of that support these kids support these plays.
We may not know what they're going to do next.
They may not know what they're going to do next, but whatever they're going to do, they're
going to need confidence.
They're going to need some people skills, some abilities to be able to speak in front
of others and stuff.
That's theater.
Theater brings you that.
Why do you think I'm in this chair?
What do you think?
I didn't go to school for radio.
I was doing plays in fifth and sixth grade.
I was doing that.
I was getting reps.
I was getting experience doing these things and being able to speak in front of people.
Not that anybody thinks I could do that that well.
But you just don't know where you may lead you to.
What we do know is we can build their confidence now.
We can believe in them and support them.
While also taking in some really good shows, because I will say this to the end of time.
I can't guarantee that any show you go to that I'm in, that it's going to be good.
I can tell you we're going to give you everything we got, but I don't know if you're going
to like it.
There is no such thing as a bad kids or teen play.
It doesn't exist.
Everyone is amazing.
Everyone is going to be fun this one in particular.
As we're wrapping up, guys, I wanted to know and kind of use this as a moment, a little
bit recruiting.
I'll be honest.
We're recruiting a little bit.
We always like to bring new people to the theater and let people know what it's
like behind the scenes and that.
What have you enjoyed about this experience?
What have you enjoyed?
What is one of your favorite parts of it?
You know, I have to name just one thing, but go down the line here and let us know what
you had fun with this show.
Well, when you join theater, you're up there, you're on stage, you're acting, and it's
fun.
But I think what really is the most enjoyable about theater is the cast.
Because when you're in the theater, you're in the show, you get to know everybody and
it's like your second family.
You know them, you're with them almost all the time.
You see them weekly and you become connected with them.
Which makes like when the place over, it makes it really hard.
But it just also makes it more, makes you more ready to go back and do another one because
you're hoping to see those same people.
You like staying with the same cast because they are close to you after the plays.
You might not know them at first, but they are very important to you afterwards.
So if anything, if you're even thinking about joining theater, please do, you are going
to be finding this big family that's just ready to welcome you.
It's one of the things I love about theater so well set.
It's such a great place for those that may feel like you're out, especially if you were
like me at a hard time making friends or introducing talking to people in that, well, it's also
a great place for social butterflies.
Like it doesn't matter.
Like all kinds of types of introverts, extroverts, or whatever verbs you want to use and
everything.
Everybody's welcome.
And everybody can have a good time.
It was very so.
That's it.
Yeah.
Very similar to what Ethan said.
When I started theater, I am homeschooled so I don't get out very much.
So when I started theater, I knew no one.
And I was really nervous at auditions and I didn't know what I was going to do.
And then I did it and then everyone was so welcoming and it was amazing.
It's like a great big family.
You make so many friends when you go and it's like immediate.
Even if you don't know anyone, they're all going to welcome you in with open arms and
it's just an amazing experience overall.
And it's such a fun.
It's so much fun to be on stage with all these people who you've grown really close close
with the past few months.
And yeah.
So.
Very cool.
Yes.
Very similar to what they said.
Obviously the friends.
That's a big part of it.
You just make so many.
So many.
And like coming from an outside town where I knew literally nobody here, it was great to
come into a cast that just welcomed me so, so much.
But another thing that is very important about theater is the things that it teaches you.
It teaches you teamwork.
It teaches you confidence and public speaking.
And just things that are really good, especially for young people to have.
So again, if you think about joining theater, do it because it will help you make friends.
It will help you open yourself up and it will teach you life skills that you probably
should have.
So yeah.
I was like, I was saying I'm bouncing off kind of on Maddie's side with like different
theater companies and like meeting more different people.
I performed with LHS theater company and performed with the community theater.
I performed with Hopo.
I performed.
I just finished my first year of college at University in Wisconsin, Milwaukee as an acting
and voice major.
So I've been there and performed with those people and it's just like, yeah, I was there
and I was having a good time.
I love it there.
It's like, I love that place and I love my friends.
I've made there.
But I've also like part of me missed a little bit like the little hometown theater because
it's like, it's still, I still really enjoy the theater.
And it's like no matter where you go, you can still have a good time with theater and
you learn some of the life choices.
And if you like it so much, you can make a career out of it.
Like you don't have to go for performance.
You could go for production.
You could go for choreography, for music, for like set design.
There's so much aspects of theater you could go for or it will just help you like learn
so many good skills in whatever future career you have.
I've been obsessed with acting since I was seven years old.
I've been working at it for a very long time.
There are things you guys have touched on and you're getting that took me like 20 years
to get and everything.
I'm also realizing how thankful I am that I don't not have to audition against any of these people.
Let's talk about the show itself.
It'll be premiering this Thursday, July 10th.
It'll be a show on the 10th, the 11th, and the 12th.
Those will be seven o'clock shows on July 13th.
You got a two o'clock matinee to wrap everything up.
So you got four wonderful opportunities to take this.
And I encourage you to take in every show if you can.
There are no reruns in theater.
Every show is as a new experience and a fun experience and you guys are going to have
just that.
A fun, wonderful, memorable experience and you're going to give that to the audience because
it sounds like a great cast.
You got a really good one here.
So this is fun.
I'm really proud.
Last night after a run, I sat down, I went, my stress just went out.
I'm gone.
They've taken over the show and it's awesome.
That's what a director wants to see.
They finally have taken it and they've figured it out and they're doing things that I
want to see and my vision is coming to life.
Not just that, but in the set.
I have parents that have been wonderful, helping put this all together and tech people that
have cut that work for the community that have come in peat and you know, so things are
coming in.
And it wasn't easy.
I wanted a real fence.
Well, the city, Jake, I know him.
He said, okay, I have this pile.
Come check it out.
I got my fence.
Nice.
That's awesome.
There will be a fence.
There will be dancing.
There will be singing.
There will be fun.
There's going to be so much going on with this one.
Bi-local support.
Local.
That includes the arts.
Everybody get your tickets for this and make plans wrctheater.org.
West Side Story.
The 2025 teen summer production being brought on by wrct is going to be premiering this Thursday,
July 10th.
Get your tickets again and find out more at wrctheater.org.
Follow them on social media as well and share their posts on your page.
You just never know who might see it otherwise.
You thank you again to the whole team involved with this, everybody behind the scenes, certainly
all the parents getting you guys to rehearsals and everything.
We appreciate everybody out there.
You guys have fun.
Break a leg.
Say hi to the cast for me and have a great run, y'all.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you.
And a big thank you to all of you out there for joining us for another edition of WFHR's
Rapids Report.
