Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly program designed to win form and enlighten on
a wide range of public policy issues, as well as
news and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Town.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Once again, we are connecting with our friends in beautiful Grant, Michigan,
home of Lionheart Productions, a great local theater company for
around twenty plus years, and they have a brand new
production that we want our iHeartRadio listeners to know about,
and that is Matilda, the very popular musical and play
(00:40):
based on a book by British author Rhode Doll And
that is playing November seventh through fourteenth. Excuse me November
seventh through fifteenth at the Grant Public School's Fine Arts Center,
put on again by Lionheart Productions. We are fortunate to
have on our liveline Jamie Evans, the director for Tilda
and the character Miss Honey, which is played by Rosie Tomlinson.
(01:05):
So both Rosie and Jamie are on the phone through
the magic of broadcast technology. How are you, guys, Good morning.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I was great, you're great. Well, that's good Jamie.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I'm going to start with you are director, and I've
spoken with several directors through Lionheart Production's history. Why did
you choose Matilda? It's a wonderful story. But why Matilda?
Why was this something you wanted to do?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Well? I think it's a it's a great story. It
was the right time to do it. We have done
a lot of older shows, like Disney shows and things
like that, and I felt like it was the time
to maybe veer off that a little bit and introduce
something new to Lionheart's The story is a very powerful
(02:01):
story about empowerment and knowing who you are, and I
just think that's a good methods for today. And the
cast that we have is just amazing. So, I mean,
it was the right time to do the show because
of the amount of talent that we had available to us.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah, that's always a good thing.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
You've got some great talent locally in the Grant area
in West Michigan. This is, by the way, for our listeners.
Matilda is based on We was mentioned earlier. The book
by Roald Dahl came out in nineteen eighty eight. It
was made into a musical I believe in twenty ten,
and of course has been very very successful. There was
(02:40):
a multi million dollar box office smash a film called Matilda.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
But it's a story about a young girl.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Hopefully, you guys, I'll get most of this right, and
please jump in, Rosie. It's a young girl with psychokinetic
powers who has terrible parents, cruel parents, and a horrible
headmastress at her school, missus trunch Bull with a name
like trunch Bull. She's just got to be a wicked person,
and she finds solace in her books and wonderful teacher
(03:12):
who is Miss Honey. And that's you, Rosie, right, that's correct. Yeah,
what do you love about this character, Rosie?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
The thing that I liked us about Miss Honey is
that at the beginning she starts out sort of anxious, scared,
and in her own words, a bit pathetic, But she
signs something in Matilda and in her class worth being
brave for. And I think that that's just a really
good character growth art to be able to perform.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, it's what I love about the story. It's adults
becoming inspired by a young girl who is inspired and
who really dreams of better things. And I think that
is a pretty wonderful, timeless story. I'll go back to you, Jamie,
you said, there's a lot of talent in this cast.
(04:07):
Talk about the process of casting. That's got to be
a little bit difficult. Difficult. It's almost like parents, you know,
choosing their favorite kids, which of course no parent ever
wants to admit or to talk about the casting process
if you would.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
For Matilda, well, we we actually cast the show a
little bit early, so we have time to prepare over
the summer. But yeah, it wasn't wasn't exactly easy. We
probably had probably at least twenty girls that wanted to
be Matilda, and so we had to kind of dwindle
(04:42):
that down, and but we were able to find the
right people. They came in and auditioned, and we felt
like we casted it pretty well. But I said, like
like I said, the big problem was is we had
to kind of break the hearts of twenty girls that's
(05:05):
not of her easy. But the right people came in
and filled all the right spaces. You know, we don't
you don't ever pre cast a show. But there was
a few people that I was hoping would show off
and they did. So we're pretty we're pretty fortunate for that.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Let's do that. She's probably in school right now. But
who is playing the lead character in this presentation by
Lionheart Productions.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
Her name is Aria Alonso and she is playing Matilda,
and yeah, she's great. And incidentally, her dad, Bob, is
playing mister Wormwood, so he gets to be mean to
his daughter on stage for the role. So I think
he enjoys that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I'll bet he does. I'll bet he does.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Jamie and Rosie Rosie plays Miss Honey in the new
production of Matilda from Lionheart Productions in Grant, Michigan. I
want to talk to you guys about local community theater
doing musical like this. It is it is a we
hear the word of the phrase community building a lot.
(06:14):
It's a wonderful community building thing. The cast, I'm sure
has already become very close. You guys have been what
doing rehearsals on this for at least a couple of months.
I'm going to guess six eight weeks, right y, Yeah, you've.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Got to close.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
They started the day after Labor Day, okay.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
And I was just going to ask you Rosie this experience.
Have you done other shows before?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I have, I've done a few other shows. I've done
a couple others through Lion Heart. Most recently, I was
in The Wizard of Oz as Tree number one, which
is a lot of fun to branch.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Out into well done.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
And before that I played Margot, Oh thank You. Before that,
I played Margot and Bright Star.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
So how about your cast?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
What would you like our listeners to know about your
cast for Matilda?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, the entire cast is extremely talented, and I've just
been completely blown away by the level of commitment and
passion that they all have for this, especially the children.
I was nervous coming in. It's always nerve wrecking to
be working with a lot of children because you're hoping
that they're going to be able to step up and
(07:30):
learn these really challenging parts, and they have. They just
they blow me away and they really feel like I'm
their teacher and they're my class. The way that we're
on stage together just having a really good rapport and
a lot of fun, and the way I can see
them all kind of coming out of their shelves and
experiencing this, some of them for the first time, some
(07:50):
of them are old pros already, and they're just all
very very talented.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, there's something really wonderful albeit challenging, you know, with
working with young children on stage, but it's also a
great way for kids to build their self confidence, to
find themselves. And I know so many kids who really
grew up in the theater that it's really ended up
(08:18):
making some wonderfully talented adults and confident adults. So that's
a great thing. We're speaking, by the way, with Jamie Evans,
the director and Miss Honey, the character played by in
real life Rosie Tomlinson. They are both cast members for
the new presentation from Lionheart Productions Matilda. We need to
(08:38):
remind you of the dates. It opens just a few
days from now, Friday, November seventh, three performances next weekend
November seventh, November eighth, and Sunday November ninth, and tickets
at Lionheart Productions dot org. That's Lionheartproductions dot org. And
you will see it at the Beautiful Grant Public Schools
(09:00):
Fine Arts Center. There's also performance on Friday, November fourteenth
and on Saturday, November fifteenth.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Here's the deal.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Local Theater, which is great Lineheart Productions has a long
time history of presenting wonderful productions. Local Theater fifteen bucks
for adults. Seniors are ten dollars and students are ten dollars.
I don't know about you, Jamie and Rosie, but it's
hard to find anything that you can enjoy for fifteen
dollars these days, so that's a pretty darn good deal. Tickets.
(09:34):
People can buy tickets. It's Sunday, November two. They can
already buy tickets for Matilda right now.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Correct, Yes, if they go to Lioneheart Productions, or they
can get tickets.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
There performances, lots of options this coming weekend. Rosie and Jamie,
I'll let you both chime in on us anything else
our listeners should know about Matilda. We don't want to
give away any surprises in the present day, but any
final thoughts from you, and I'll start with you.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Rosie, just that it's going to be an amazing show.
We've been watching the rehearsals really come along and it's
coming together. It's going to be really exciting. So everyone
should definitely come out and support these kids and the
whole cast because it's going to be a very entertaining show.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
And you, Jamie as as director. We're like five or
so days away from opening night. First and foremost is
your cast ready, and then any other thoughts you have.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
I think the cast has been ready for a couple
of months. Most of them came in with most of
their lines at least all the songs were memorized, like
the kids sing everybody else's songs too, So I love it.
They're super excited, very talented, and we have the age
range for the kids that are from like eight years
old to like fourteen, and then we have the big
kids that range even higher than that, so it is
(10:55):
quite a diverse cast and it's been really fun to
be with them and to see the maturation that they
have gone through in the process of doing the show.
And I'm just excited for people to see it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Well, I'm excited for people to know about it as well.
That's the voice of Jamie Evans. He is the director
of Matilda, a brand new presentation from Lionheart Productions in Grant,
Michigan at the Grant Public Schools Fine Arts Center. Also
Rosie Tomlinson with us. She plays the important role of
Miss Honey, the a little bit nervous but eventually inspiring
(11:30):
teacher for the young girl Matilda, who is the star
of the show. The new musical from Lionheart Productions. Tickets
on sale. As you heard Jamie mentioned earlier at Lionheartproductions
dot org. Lionheartproductions dot org and Jamie and Rosie, I
want to celebrate you both. There's nothing better than local
(11:52):
theater and I know you guys pour your heart and
soul into this production. So congratulations. And is it okay
for me to say brick a leg? Is that still
a thing?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
It is okay?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well great, I've really enjoyed speaking with you, and we
hope to send a lot of people up to the
Grant School's Fine Arts Center this coming weekend the seventh
through ninth, and the fourteenth and fifteenth for the wonderful
production of Matilda. Jamie and Rosie have been our guest
on this segment of iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. And that
(12:24):
is folks, that's our program for this week. We appreciate
you tuning in. Don't forget you can get this as
a podcast on iHeartRadio and wherever you listen to your
favorite podcast, just search and subscribe to West Michigan Weekend.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
And for iHeartRadio across West Michigan and the world, I'm
Phil Tower.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio