Jaclyn Lechner, Director of the Salt River Community Theatre, called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Monday, November 9 to promote the upcoming performances of Finding Neverland. The production will have a total of eight performances at the Afton Ford Theatre, with opening night on Thursday, November 12. Advance tickets are available at SaltRiverArts.com.

(0:00) Joining me live over the phone right now this morning is Jacqueline Lechner, (0:03) director of the Salt River Community Theater, telling us all about Finding Neverland, (0:08) which opens up this week at the Afton Ford Theater. Jacqueline, good morning. How are you doing today? (0:14) Good morning.

I’m doing well. How are you? (0:17) Hey, hanging in there. Absolutely appreciate your time.

I know it’s a really busy week with (0:21) opening week and a lot of excitement though, of course, as well with Finding Neverland. (0:26) Let’s go back to how you guys selected this play and maybe walk us through the (0:32) casting process for it. Yeah, definitely.

I have really loved this musical for a long time (0:39) and I’ve loved the music and I’ve been keeping an eye out because the rights weren’t available for (0:44) a long time, but it was one I would love to do. Then I found out earlier while I was trying to (0:51) pick which musical I wanted to do, I saw that the rights had come available. I was super excited (0:58) and I looked into the script some more and I decided that this is the one that we were going (1:04) to do and it worked out really well.

It’s been a lot of fun bringing it together. We had auditions (1:12) in July and it was awesome to see people come out and audition. We have some more new people.

(1:19) We’ve got some old faces from the Valley who have performed before and so I think it’s going (1:24) to be really fun. All of the roles kind of just fell into place and so it’s going to be a really (1:29) good show. Well, you’ve been announcing some of the the casting and some of the main roles on (1:34) your Facebook page for the Salt River Community Theater.

I gotta say, I look at some of the (1:39) people that are playing a specific role and I think, well, that was perfectly cast. That fits (1:45) exactly right. So tell us maybe some of those lead roles and who’s going to be playing some (1:50) names that the community might recognize.

Yeah, definitely. So the story, for those who don’t (1:55) know what Finding Neverland is about, it’s the backstory of J.M. Barrie, the author who wrote (2:02) Peter Pan and it’s kind of how he wrote Peter Pan. So J.M. Barrie is played by Daniel Lechner (2:09) and he just has the great voice for it.

The music is really fun and powerful and (2:16) we all know Daniel does a great job with that. Then Sylvia, which is the mom of the four boys (2:23) in the show, is played by Megan Rose and she’s got a great voice and she’s got a fun (2:29) fun acting personality. So she plays that role super well.

We’ve got some other fun ones and (2:35) there’s Eli Henderson, who’s done a few shows with us. He’s playing Mr. Frohman, who is also (2:41) playing Captain Hook. So that’s kind of a fun multi-character that he gets to play and some (2:47) fun characterization there with Captain Hook.

All of them just do so well. We’ve got Ruth Mavy, (2:57) she’s playing Mrs. DeMaurier. She is the grandmother of the boys.

She’s very high (3:02) in the social aspects in that time and just everyone just fits so perfectly. It just really (3:09) fell into place. I’ve loved it.

Absolutely. Now, of course, those are some of the faces we’ll see (3:14) on stage. You as a director of course handle a lot of this, but I know you have a lot of (3:20) help off stage too to put this whole thing together.

Definitely. Yeah, we’ve got Brandon (3:27) is so awesome. He helps us so much with our set and with the sound.

He does a lot for the theater (3:34) and he’s a lot to help bring this together. I also have newer this year, Brooke. She is our (3:41) new stage manager this year and she is a good friend of mine and she’s been awesome to step (3:45) up into this and she’s doing what she can to help me with some things backstage, but also just (3:51) helping put it all together as well because it takes a lot of work to put it all together.

(3:57) Absolutely. Jacqueline Lechner, director of the Salt River Community Theater and Finding Neverland (4:02) opens up this week at the Afton Ford Theater. Jacqueline, eight total performances that the (4:07) community can get to and so there’s no reason to be like, well, I can’t.

I’m busy. I don’t (4:12) have an open night. You can find an open night.

I hope so. That’s the goal. It’s so fun.

I know (4:17) our performers. We used to do four and our performers just were like, oh, we just want (4:22) to do some more and it just opens up more opportunity for the community to come. So I (4:26) really hope everyone takes advantage.

Find the night that works best for you and come out because (4:31) it’s going to be a really fun show. Opening night is this Thursday with shows also on Friday and (4:36) Saturday and then more on the 16th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 23rd. Tickets available right now online (4:42) at saltriverarts.com. Jacqueline, highly recommended to get those tickets in advance (4:48) because you never know when it’s going to be a sellout.

Yes, we have sold out in the past. So (4:54) hopefully, I mean, I would love to have another sellout. So let’s support our community and the (4:59) performers.

It’ll be fun. Absolutely. So again, this upcoming Thursday, Friday and Saturday is (5:05) the opening weekend for Finding Neverland and then multiple performances following that.

You (5:10) can find the full schedule with tickets at saltriverarts.com. That’s saltriverarts.com. (5:15) Jacqueline, anything we missed about this production that you’d like to mention today? (5:20) I just want to thank our amazing sponsors. We’ve had some great businesses in the Valley who have (5:25) supported us and it really helps to create all the things that we do on stage, the costumes, (5:31) the set, everything that we put into it. It really helps to have some amazing sponsors (5:36) from the Valley to put it all together.

Absolutely. It’s a community effort, thus (5:43) the community theater. So Jacqueline Lechner, Director of the Salt River Community Theater, (5:47) presenting Finding Neverland opening week this week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday with (5:52) additional dates to follow.

Tickets and details at saltriverarts.com. Jacqueline, thanks so much (5:57) and good luck with the performances. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

(6:02) It’s all part of the weekday wake up this morning on SVI Radio.