Wisconsin Rapids Community Theatre Presents – The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon – July ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, proudly brought to you by Cracket Sceptic

for this July 29th, 2025.

Have your host James, and we are going to have some fun in the next a bit in time here

because we have the WRCT Youth Theatre production of the Brothers Grimm, Spectacular Thorn

with us today, got some of the cast, got the director with us, I want to let you guys

introduce yourselves so we can have the audience put a voice to the name and all that and

I'll start at the end here.

Hello, I am Stephanie, I am the director.

It is always good to see you Steph, thanks for being here.

Hi, I'm Elizabeth and I'm narrated number one.

Alright, good to see you Elizabeth, thanks for being here.

Hi, I'm Kaden's and I am Enchantress.

Kaden's great to meet you, thank you so much for being here, appreciate the time you guys.

I'm going to put you both to work in a little bit but I want to bug Steph for a moment first

because with these plays and for people that may not know some of the youth production

and some of the things that they do at WRCT, you have been at this for quite some time.

This is actually my 20th show I've directed.

I'm going to ask, congratulations.

You're about 21 years, so yeah.

Congrats, thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

That is really, really cool and very impressive and I, you know, as much as how much I love history

and I love rambling about theatre and this theatre in particular and the history of this

and your history tied to it and with hope and particular and everything you ingratch and stuff.

Just before we dive too far into things, I was going to ask the number but I didn't think about this.

What's it feel like to be part of like 20 of these?

18 Hope Well Children's Theatre because I started directing Children's Theatre before Hope Well was created.

I've done two main stage shows as a director as well but this is my 20th overall production.

But Gretchen and I co-founded Hope Well back in 2009.

So this is actually the 15th year of Hope Well as well.

It's awesome, it's got to feel really good to be here.

Oh absolutely.

Every single year except for 2020, we did an online thing because of COVID but otherwise it's been going strong every year.

More and more because this year we had a record number of people auditioned too.

That is fantastic.

When it comes to this though, especially in the early days of Hope Well, don't exactly have the budget to be able to go by Oklahoma or something like that.

So like a little bit like the theatre group I was in in high school, we had a similar situation where we're like,

okay well we're going to write the scripts, we're just going to come up with these ourselves.

And that sounds great.

Like in the first minute, when you first think about it, they're like, oh yeah, then I got to write a script still.

Like all of that.

You've written a lot of these over the years.

I've actually never written one.

I should say I've been a part of that process and everything.

But when it comes to, are you a part of the ideas for the scripts or anything?

Oh yeah, I find them.

That's what I thought.

Yeah, I look online for them.

And typically I've gone to the same website quite often, but this script is by an author I've used once before.

I'm actually friends with him on Facebook.

He writes crazy.

Like fantastically ridiculous scripts.

We did a game of tiaras back in 2020 at the middle school.

And that was like a game of thrones with Disney characters basically.

That's all you need to know.

And fantastic, beautiful, lovely.

This is the same thing.

I love the way that this has been broken down this year for the kids where it's really set up by age ranges.

Absolutely.

I mean, we have our foreign narrators.

And they kind of have talking.

They talk with an interact with the audience.

There's audience participation.

And then the story is unfold.

And the stories happen.

So the little groups and the little stories.

Like there's four or five people in one story.

So they all have their moments to shine.

So that's what I'm trying to say.

I'm trying to say that.

I'm trying to say that.

I'm trying to say that.

I'm trying to say that.

I'm trying to say that.

And so that's just to choosing what play.

I'm curious is a big part of it about some of the fun you described there.

But just as much a big cast.

I know that you really want to catch a lot.

I have to look for a larger cast.

Back in the day when we first started I had to look for part for myself because I used to be in the plays.

No more than I do that.

Easy rehearsal.

We do the show in a week and a half.

So I also have to find something that's not terribly complicated.

I mean, there are a little mini monologues in this show.

Yeah.

And some of the cheating that we can do for this specifically of the narrators they're referring in reading stories.

So if we have to put little things for them to actually read that it makes it natural.

Works, works, works.

With the play.

Absolutely.

So choosing this one seems like a no brainer in many ways.

I mean, I feel like because I've been doing this for so long I can figure out in the first five pages

if I'm going to like it and want to even continue reading it.

This one I was like I was sold in the first page.

So absolutely.

When it came to the audition and I'm not asking this because I'm going to be a part of this process very soon.

And I don't know what I'm doing yet.

I imagine if for one it's got to be a fun part of things.

I know as much as it can be challenging and nerve wracking in some ways.

It's fun.

I imagine just be able to take all this in.

Yeah.

But how did the audition process go?

Well, we got through maybe a third of what I wanted to because I had 68 people auditioned.

And I got as many as I could in that short amount of time.

My biggest thing when I'm picking scenes or parts to have them audition is if I want a very specific characterization,

if I want a specific accent, if I want a specific, I want to see the chemistry between these two people.

Accents, voices, laughs, cackles, any of that stuff.

I will put into the audition as much as I can because I need to know if they can give that to me.

And especially doing it in a week and a half.

I mean, they obviously all grow.

They all have, you know, from start to finish, there's phenomenal growth in that short amount of time.

But also, I have very short amount of time.

If they're not there at auditions, they're probably not going to be 100% there at performances either, you know?

So, yeah.

So it's combination of chemistry, of a set like voices and accents or laughter or if there's ever singing,

any things like that, absolutely.

There's some stuff there I wouldn't have thought of.

Thank you for sharing that.

I got pointers all over the place.

You need it.

I'll be bugging you again.

Yeah.

Especially like a month before the rehearsal.

Yep.

I don't know.

That is cool to hear and thank you for sharing that with us.

And as some of the people that were auditioning for that, we have with us Elizabeth and Cadence.

I want to take some time to talk with you to a little bit about those characters.

And first, let's start with the audition process.

You show up. There's that many people.

I get that.

I've dealt with that a lot.

But I'm also, it's a professional setting.

So you expect that.

You guys are walking in as kids into this and everything.

I imagine that there's some nurse but also some excitement, right?

Yeah, it's a little, it's, yeah.

It's obviously a little like nerve-wracking because like you're in a room full of a bunch of people.

But it's, most of them you know and it's just like you get to mess around with your friends for like an hour.

And then you get to be in a play with them.

So it's like not that bad once you get in it to it.

Right, right.

Cadence, did you see it the same way?

Yeah, I feel the same way.

Right on, right on.

That's great.

And thank you for sharing that you guys.

Now part of the purpose of this, that Steph and I and many of the people from WRCT, when we're doing this,

we want to celebrate these shows, make sure you guys get a good turn out.

We also want to encourage other people to come on down in the audition for these things.

And I put a lot of focus on adults and getting grumpy people like me to come down in the audition and stuff.

But kids are very important part of this as well.

And we want them to have the fun.

They're hearing it from you guys first hand.

That helps a lot.

Appreciate you sharing that.

When it comes to the characters you're playing, let's go ahead and introduce those a little bit.

Go ahead and tell me the name of your character and a little bit about them.

So I'm one of the narrators.

I'm narrated number one.

And basically I get to like not dictate.

What's the word?

Mmm.

Kind of.

Like Nav, like help.

Navigate.

Is that word you were looking to say?

I think that's a good one.

Also, it would be a four narrators.

I split them from two to four because they're two hundred some lines per narrator.

I mean, that's a lot to learn in their short amount of time.

Yeah.

So she's almost kind of like the mother of the four.

They should kind of have to reign them all in because they're very chaotic.

All of them are chaotic.

Yeah.

One of them likes to talk about flames and like death all the time.

I'm like, you've got to chill out a little bit.

Yeah.

You also get to interact with the audience.

I do.

I'm doing all the crowd work out to do.

That's one of my favorite things to do.

One of my all-time favorite things to do is anything to do.

Any time you get to break that fourth one.

Yeah.

It's like a taboo that it's like, ooh, I'm allowed to do this.

Yeah.

That's so cool.

And a pretty cool too.

You know, oftentimes a narrator is just a voice or just not really a lot of character put into it.

It's really cool to have it.

It's forward.

Yeah.

They have a lot of character and personality.

Very cool.

Thank you for that, Elizabeth.

Thank you.

And cadence, can you tell us about yours?

So I'm the enchantress and I'm basically like mother golf.

I take away Rapunzel from her mother.

It's very fun.

I mean, part of a trio too, which is super fun.

Oh, yeah.

Her and Rumpelstill skin and the devil.

Oh, that is a tag.

That is a trick too.

The girl sells her soul to all three of them and then they fight over them.

There's a lot of tie ins from like the girl that prints become Rapunzel's mother.

Rapunzel becomes the mother of a different like Cinderella.

I think they're all tied in somehow together.

Yeah.

It's very weird but interesting and good.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah, that's a fun idea.

Yeah.

It's super.

Oh, well, yeah.

That is very cool.

Yeah.

Was that one of the reasons why you guys wanted to come down to the audition?

Was the type of show that it was?

Yeah.

For the most part.

Yeah.

I mean, I have a bunch of friends who wanted to do it too.

But like it seems like a very chaotic and fun show.

Very cool.

Very cool.

And there's no wrong answers.

You know, really.

It's just cool to hear that.

That's great.

What about the rehearsal process?

Stephanie was telling us you guys did not have a lot of time.

We used to call this back in the Degree Lithиator when you do that.

You know, you have a week or two to prepare for a show or something.

That's a little chaotic, a little crazy, but also kind of exciting, kind of fun.

Did you guys enjoy it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a little different from like normal rehearsals.

Like you have like a month to like learn everything.

So like everything's more fast-paced.

But it's still fun.

Stephanie, how often during the week did you guys rehearse and for how long?

So we had auditions on the 14th.

And then last week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, we had our blocking rehearsal.

So I blocked the entire show.

And nine hours, basically three, three hour blocks.

And then this week, so yesterday and today, our reviews of last week's blocking.

Tomorrow, lines are memorized.

We do act one, act two.

Thursday is the first time we do a full run.

Dress rehearsal Friday and then Saturday, Sunday performances.

So we're literally halfway through right now.

Yeah.

Eight rehearsals were on the fifth day.

So.

Wow.

You guys are incredible.

That's awesome.

This has been going on for 15 years.

It's worked every year.

So something's bright.

I don't know if it's the script.

It's the, I mean, the dedication of the actors as well.

Obviously they have.

And yeah, it's, again, it works.

And I don't know how.

And, you know, to her point, what she's saying there, you guys.

I don't know how many productions, Stephanie, I have been a part of.

If you took both of our careers and everything.

And one thing I think we can both agree on.

No matter what the show, no matter what the chaos or anything,

they always work out.

They always work out.

The show goes on.

The show goes on.

Yeah.

It has to.

I mean, this is your deadline.

This is when it's due.

And we got it.

Yeah.

We're going to do it.

And there is such a fun part of that as far as performing goes.

The energy and the adrenaline it gives you for it.

You guys are going to have a blast out there with this one.

What do you, I have to ask a tough question as a journalist.

That's what I do.

So I have to ask, do you have a favorite part?

Or was there a favorite part of the show that you guys enjoyed?

Maybe something you did or maybe something you get to see.

And we don't want to spoil anything, of course.

But anything in particular that you guys really stood out to you.

My favorite part is the crowd work I get to do during the Hansel and Gretel.

Because it's like a horror.

That's like the more horror movie one.

So I get to help them.

I make the crowd make sound effects.

I get to randomly jump out and start pointing and yelling.

Wow.

And it's really fun.

You get a fright of the 13th ties.

Oh.

That's incredible.

I've never got to do anything like that.

That is pretty cool.

That is awesome.

Another.

If that doesn't entice you to come and see our show.

Yes.

We just cut this up.

A little snippet here and everything.

I can't just hop up for you.

I think I just like the whole show.

It's just really funny.

And there's not like a specific part.

That's my favorite because it's just all my favorite.

It's a fantastic answer.

That's a great answer.

And it really does speak to you.

I haven't gotten to read it full hand and everything.

But doing some prep this week.

And I like you.

Stephanie got a couple of pages.

I'm like, oh, this is fantastic.

I don't want to have anything spoiled for me.

I want to see the show.

I want to see it.

This author has written so many different.

And he likes to combine like famous stories together.

And yeah, his writing is fantastic.

A lot of this show feels kind of improv.

And it kind of feels thrown together.

And like that's how it's supposed to feel.

Like there's certain things where it almost feels like it's a rehearsal.

Like, oh, shoot.

We forgot the lamp.

Someone runs her grabs and sets down.

That's what this whole show is.

Like, oh, we did a baby.

It's thrown on stage.

We catch it.

You know, we bring on.

We have a kitty pool for our pond for the fraud thing.

Oh, cool.

Like we just have things all over the place constantly being brought on.

And yeah, it's great.

I thought of something else with this, too, where it's a play where you may not know the play.

But you do.

You know these characters.

You know so much of it.

There's so much.

Very much fracture fairy tale.

Yeah.

And I find that part is cool.

Also, you're going to be seeing some of these things in these characters.

Like you haven't seen them before in a new way.

So that part is really cool.

And what's really fun.

And I think a lot of people are interested in this grim brothers.

It's the original stories.

It's not the most version.

That's what we refer to multiple times.

But before the most took these stories over, this is what the original stories.

Like in Cinderella, the steps just chop off their toes and their heels to try to fit into the shoes.

We have that.

We have things that were like.

And a couple of times the narrators specifically would be like, seriously, that's the actual story.

Like read it.

Google any of these stories.

You will find the actual story.

And that's what we're going to be telling.

They're really intense.

The originals.

Yeah.

And their classics.

The classics are really.

Oh, yeah.

The majority of these characters, you said everyone's pretty familiar with.

There's a few thrown in that are brand new that you've never heard of.

And a group that are actually not part of it.

It's kind of a running joke throughout the show, too.

And they're my favorite characters in the whole play.

They're our crowd people.

Oh, awesome.

Before we let you go, let's talk about them.

Let's go ahead and touch on the rest of the cast.

Yeah.

So we have four narrators.

So we have Elizabeth.

Here is one.

Ashton Brandt is number two.

Cohen Swanson is number three.

Phoebe Logger is four.

We have our actor.

He's Matthew Breyer.

He is.

He ends up playing multiple parts.

He is a one-man show at one point.

So that's going to be a highlight.

I'm just fantastic.

That's awesome.

Abrietta Harches is a girl who becomes a Rundle's mother.

We have Nigel Schultz, who is our dirt merchant.

Kate and Sergeant Chantris.

The devil is played by Peter Swanson.

Rumpel Stiltskin is TJ Mortensen.

And again, the devil and Chantris.

And Rumpel Stiltskin is beautiful.

Our first prince is Weston Swanson, who marries the girl.

It becomes Rapunzel's father.

Rapunzel is played by Kaelin Wettren.

Charlie Shaw is prince number two, who is with Rapunzel.

The mother is Marilyn Gildon's off.

The girl without hands.

Hey, actual character, Julia Mlepski.

Father is Roland Keane.

We have Hansel and Gradle.

Hansel is Carter Bloyd.

And Gradle is Quinn Goodness.

We have a secret character who is played by Adelina Harches.

We have our witch in that scene, which is Kylie Michaels.

And then we have a scene with water and fish.

And we have a Fisher girl, Julia Dobre Reiner.

Chet Dobre is Ellery Shaw.

Talking fish is Ellie Rikert.

Two crab people, and oh my gosh, I'm not even kidding.

These are my favorite characters.

Brindley Brooks and Isha Gjabi.

And then we have extra crab people, because I just love them.

Isaac Logger, Bear Logger, and John Dusterdeck.

We have our frog prince, which is Harry Roosh.

Our princess is Mia Dine.

And our king in that scene is Jiren Fowler,

which is Kate and his brother, and his first play ever.

We have a lot of first timers in this tote show, which is great.

We have two dwarves, Nolan, Ludwazak, and Corbin Candler.

And that scene, one of the dwarves becomes Snow White.

He gets to do a runway walk, chassis.

Oh my gosh.

Fantastic.

And Snow White is Emmy McEvin, which two in that scene is Cameron Wade.

We have Prince 3, Zoe Dine.

There's a reason for that, because Snow White is a male,

and she is a female.

Louis Mulepski is our Walt, which ties in the later on.

King number two is Jason Dobre Reiner.

With Johan the Faithful, Johanis, that is an evil, holy crap scene.

Read that story, because oh my goodness.

That's Zoe Candler playing Johanis.

And we have the Raven, which is Trinity Peckham.

Our plinky ply, precious adorable little pony, Kenzie Dine.

And extra ponies, we have Mia Sievers and Nora Tom.

And then our queen in that scene is Imaging Shelts.

We have Little Red Riding Hood, who is Natalie Kleckner,

and Holy Cow, she's just hilarious.

I don't want to give anything much away, but Little Red Riding Hood.

We'll just go with that.

The wolf is Everett Swanson.

Grandma is Jojo Sabaki.

Woodcutter.

Tiny little adorable boy, Jeremiah Cohen.

And then our Cinderella is Catherine Doerr.

Oh, a fantastic cat.

49 people.

Yes.

And an impressive work, handling all that as well, Stephanie.

And let me throw out two.

I have Kasia Landowski, and she's my assistant,

and my stage manager, and literally my savior.

And we have Laney Kraus, or Ross, who is doing our costuming

and helping with stuff.

Rose Paul is choreographing our pony dance number,

and doing some lights.

We have Austin, and Emerson is Spotlights.

We're going to do a lot of spotlight work on the show.

We just have tons of people.

I feel like I'm not doing anything at this point.

I know I'm the director, and I told people what to do.

But now I'm kind of like sitting back and just letting it's weird feeling.

Because I used to do the beginning, do all of it myself.

And now I'm just like, it's okay.

I can delegate.

It's why you got good people.

Yes.

I got good people around.

It brings in so many fun ideas and imaginations into the whole process.

It makes it a lot of fun.

And I cannot wait for this show.

It is coming up.

Everybody.

Production dates are August 2nd and 3rd.

We have a 7 o'clock show on the 2nd and a 3 o'clock.

2 o'clock.

I'm sorry.

It's a 2 o'clock matinee on August 3rd.

Be sure to get your tickets at WRC Theatre.org.

And you can find out more about the show as well.

And find out how maybe you can get your kids and your people involved in this.

I do want to send a big shout out to all the parents, all the guardians,

everybody getting kids the rehearsals, getting them down there for auditions

and rehearsals.

You need a lot of kids from the point area and stuff too.

And people that have to drive a little further.

Yeah.

Thank you to all of them.

A big thank you.

And a big thank you to all of you guys for joining us.

Thanks so much for celebrating Theatre in this area.

Another great summer of youth productions and fun over at WRC Theatre.

You guys break a leg.

Have a great show.

Have a good time.

Who is in this?

Come away.

And a last second entry here is where we're just getting the red wrap up and everything.

Hey bud, you want to go ahead and introduce yourself real quick and your character?

I'm Cohen Swanson and I'm the third narrator for Brothers Grimm.

Awesome.

Thanks for being here, man.

Appreciate it.

Can you tell us a little bit about your character?

He's kind of the more announcer type narrator.

Kind of like if you've seen the aquabats like someone who introduces each episode.

Sure, sure.

What was it about this that made you want to come down in the audition and be a part of things?

I've done hope before.

It's always like a blast to do a hope all.

All of them are like hilarious.

So even just participating in it is like a really good time.

Really?

Good, good.

And good on you for doing it, man.

And everything.

And was there anything about the show in particular like a favorite part or something like that or anything?

There's no wrong answers.

It's a tough one.

Yeah.

The show is like really good.

Probably the funny show we've done yet, honestly.

It's a great answer.

That's it.

Kaden's had a very similar answer.

That's a very good answer.

Nicely done.

And I do appreciate you being here.

Thanks a lot for coming by.

Bye.

Bye.

He may have handled this the smartest of all of you.

Yeah, man.

Got it in and out.

Yeah.

All of you guys.

Thank you so much for being here for entertaining us.

We appreciate you.

Break a leg.

Have a great run.

And we'll see you on that stage.

Okay?

Beautiful.

Thank you, everybody.

And thank you for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapid Support here at WFHR.com.