Dear friend,
Last weekend Biola’s Conservatory of Music presented the musical “She Loves Me.” In the story two lovers who correspond through anonymous letters become coworkers at a perfumery without realizing it. The musical follows their path to realizing each other’s identity as “dear friend” and the assumptions and distrust that each must conquer along the way. The show's production ran for four nights from Thursday to Sunday evening, double-casting a few of the lead characters. In a crossover with our sister podcast Biola Backstage, Thomas Rahkola interviews a few of the lead actors from “She Loves Me,” including senior Jessica Moses, junior Luke Bona, and sophomore Zion Viana. For the full version of the interview or for similar behind-the-scenes of Biola theatre and CMA productions, check out the Biola Backstage podcast.
With Biola’s housing forms opening on Monday, February 17th, students can find their application at the housing page on Biola’s website.
For more details about this week's headlines: Trump’s steel tariffs, Israel–Hamas ceasefire tensions, egg prices skyrocket, Valentine’s Day rose imports
Creators & Guests
Producer
Reagan Glidewell
Producer of The Chimes Weekly podcast
Producer
Thomas Rahkola
Producer of The Chimes Weekly podcast
What is The Chimes Weekly?
Bite-sized podcast episodes with your top news stories from The Chimes, Los Angeles County, the nation and the world, with an interview with a Chimes writer to close out your week.
By Biola University students, for Biola University students. Previously known as Chimes Rundown and KBR Daily News Updates by KBR The Torch.
>> Reagan Glidewell: From the Torch Podcast Network, this is the Chimes Weekly. I'm Reagan Glidewell reporting from Biola University. It's Friday, February 14th.
>> Luke Bona: Well, I think what's such an interesting part about the show is the audience figures out so soon that they're writing to each other and none of the characters know.
>> Jessica Moses: But I mean, if that's not an allegory for real life. Everyone's so wrapped up in their own issues and problems that it's like, we're too busy to see what other people are going through.
>> Reagan Glidewell: Coming up, my colleague Thomas Rahkola talks with a few of the actors from the recent Biola musical production titled "She Loves Me." But before we get there, here's a look at this week's headlines. This week, Biola's Student Government Association held its annual elections for the new student body president, vice president and members of the senate. The governing body, also known as SGA, will announce the results of the election this coming weekend. Last week I interviewed the SGA candidate for president, Faith Ising, and her running mate and candidate for vice president, Hillary Ramirez. On the following Sunday, Hillary announced on her Instagram that she would be withdrawing from the election for personal reasons. She added that she was grateful for all the support she had received so far and expressed her support for Faith and her new VP candidate, Josiah McCracken. This Monday, February 17th, marks the opening of housing applications for Biola students returning next fall. To complete your application, visit the housing application page on Biola's website. You can also see the show notes for more information. President Trump signed two more executive orders on Monday placing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. Canada and Mexico, who have already been targeted by recent tariffs, are expected to be further affected by these metal tariffs as they rank among the US's largest importers of steel. The ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that was reached last month now appears in danger of collapsing. After Hamas threatened to postpone the release of more hostages this Saturday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that he is prepared to put an end to the deal. Hamas has claimed that Israel violated the terms of the deal, like blocking certain humanitarian aid attempts With a drastic rise in cases of bird influenza, farmers have been forced to slaughter millions of chickens in recent months to prevent its spread. This has caused the prices of eggs to soar to a nationwide average of $5.53 per dozen as of January, a 22% increase from December. These prices are expected to continue to grow as the year progresses. For those celebrating Valentine's Day, the rose has become a go-to gift for their significant other. But the flowers you see shelved in the supermarket have likely traveled thousands of miles to get to you. According to a statement made earlier this month, US Customs has already processed over 1.1 billion cut flowers shipped into the country, most of which are coming from Colombia and Ecuador. That's all for this week's headlines. Next up is Thomas's conversation with actors from the Biola musical "She Loves Me." This episode is a preview of a longer conversation recorded for our Biola Backstage podcast. If you would like to listen to the full version of this interview, check out a link to that podcast in our show notes. We'll be right back.
>> Thomas Rahkola: I'm joined today by a few of the leads from Biola's recent musical, "She Loves Me." Can I start with you guys introducing yourselves?
>> Zion Viana: My name is Zion Vianna. I'm a sophomore musical theater student and I played Steven Kodaly, who is the villain, in a sense. He's not really a villain-- I think he's justified everything he does, but that's just my opinion. Um, he's just like a sleezeball from the 40s who's just very flirty and gets into a lot of issues because of that.
>> Jessica Moses: I'm Jess Moses. I am a senior vocal performance major, and I played Amalia Balash in the musical. She is the romantic lead, so she's very bookish and she loves romance. So she has a lot of hope for just, um, for finding the right person. So very sweet.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, my name is Luke Bona. I am a junior musical theater major. I played Ladislav Sipos. He's your stereotypical bumbly comedic best friend side character to one of our other leads, Andrew Ambrose. So I got to follow him around and crack jokes and be funny and be a little bumbly fool on stage. So that was fun. I enjoyed it.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Sweet. So, I made it to the show on Saturday and loved it. The humor was awesome and I thought the vocal performance was super impressive from everyone. Like, it just kind of blew me away. I heard, too, that the orchestra only got the music like two weeks before?
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, that was very...
>> Thomas Rahkola: That's crazy.
>> Zion Viana: Yeah, they're crazy.
>> Jessica Moses: They're all very talented.
>> Luke Bona: Insane.
>> Thomas Rahkola: But then there's also this super engaging love story, um, that made you kind of think about it and how it was going, and you didn't know how it was going to end, per se. I was wondering if one of you could give a little summary of the story. This will be spoilers, but since the musical is over...
>> Zion Viana: The play's been out for like 100 years though, so's too late. You should know it at this point.
>> Jessica Moses: Yeah.
>> Zion Viana: Do you wanna explain the story as Amalia?
>> Jessica Moses: Sure I can. Um, so it's basically a story of two people who absolutely hate each other in real life, but they're pen pals in secret. And so they actually fall in love with who they are as people without any prior context of face to face. So they've been writing these wonderful love letters to each other.
>> Zion Viana: Anonymous.
>> Jessica Moses: Anonymous, yes. They have no idea who it is. But then they arrange to meet. But then Georg finds out it's Amalia and then does not want anything to do with her, but then realizes-- he's like, "Oh, I actually love this girl." Um, and so it's kind of the slow burn type of story, where he continues to get to know her and then they realize they love each other and find out at the end.
>> Thomas Rahkola: And when were you guys casted for this?
>> Luke Bona: Oh, gosh.
>> Zion Viana: I mean, auditions were like, the second week of school.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah it was around September.
>> Jessica Moses: September, October.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, because most of the Biola shows all get cast around the exact same time. It's like the first or second week of the semester.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Okay. So you're casted, but you don't start working on it right away?
>> Zion Viana: Uh, we did. Like, the cast list came out over the weekend and then we, like...
>> Jessica Moses: We started music rehearsal.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, we started vocal rehearsals for a couple months while another Biola show was going on. And then once they ended, we went straight into it
>> Zion Viana: Because we have a musical director and an artistic director.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah.
>> Zion Viana: So our artistic director was working on the other show, and so then we were just having our music rehearsals with our musical director: working on the numbers, working on, like, the big ensemble stuff. And then when the other show was finished, then she came back and then we started the actual rehearsals, like, on the stage and blocking and everything.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah.
>> Thomas Rahkola: What is blocking?
>> Zion Viana: It's like... what you're doing on stage while you're saying your line.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Okay.
>> Zion Viana: So, you know, movement. Going here, doing this, using this prop, whatever.
>> Luke Bona: Pretty much the whole logistics to make sure no one crashes into each other when they're on stage.
>> Zion Viana: Also whenever there's interesting visual things happening.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, yeah.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Ok, like choreography, but not for a dance.
>> Zion Viana: Yeah, basically.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Ok, interesting. So I know that a couple of the characters were double casted.
>> Luke Bona: Yes.
>> Thomas Rahkola: And I'm curious about how that works. First of all, why double casting happens? Like, what's the motive behind that? And then also how does that work in rehearsal?
>> Luke Bona: Oh, gosh.
>> Jessica Moses: Well, I was one of the people who was double cast. Um, so I believe the motive behind that is they have... It's a show with very few female leads. And so they wanted to make sure that the musical theater people like Jessenya and Caitlyn, they're both musical theater majors and they're both seniors-- they wanted to make sure they had their final senior performance on stage. And they also wanted to make sure people like me and Mary Beth, who are also seniors, got a chance to be in the show too.
>> Zion Viana: Because they're still, like Jess and Mary Beth, they're music majors, but they're not musical theater majors.
>> Jessica Moses: Mhm.
>> Zion Viana: So the cast is made up out of theater majors, and then also others.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, there was a musical theater cast and there was, like, a vocal performance cast as well.
>> Zion Viana: But yeah, the double cast characters were the two female leads and then the waiters who were a lead but like, a supporting lead. But then there were five male leads.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah. Yeah.
>> Zion Viana: So, uh, we weren't double cast. Me and Luke were part of the five male leads.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah.
>> Zion Viana: And we weren't double cast because there were enough male leads.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, so that kind of touched on the second part. And you could probably talk to this more., but most scenes that had Jess or our two Ilona's, which Jess could probably talk more to, we had to do twice every day. Every rehearsal we'd go in with one person and they'd be like, "Okay, switch."
>> Zion Viana: Yeah. So basically with the double cast we would be just be switching back and forth in between scenes.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah.
>> Zion Viana: So yeah, my character, as I said, is a flirty sleazeball. And so my romantic interest is this girl, her name is Ilona. And she's, like, a little bit of an airhead. She doesn't really know what's happening. And so basically I'm taking advantage of her. It's great... And so, yeah, there's a song that's one of my main solos. It's like this song where we had a big fight, a big falling out. And I'm trying to woo her back basically, and be like, "No, let's go out. Like, I'll take you out to dinner. It's gonna be nice." And so for that song-- the song had quite a bit of dancing and blocking and choreography...
>> Luke Bona: Which he did amazing by the way.
>> Zion Viana: Yeah, it was hard because there's two Ilona's we had to keep doing it and flip flop back and forth between the two actresses, and I'm needing to make sure that I'm able to adapt what I'm doing to each actress. And then both actresses also need to know their blocking and what they're doing. So it's interesting. For me it was fun though, because
>> Zion Viana: with both of them we had the same moves, but there's going to be slight differences because it's two different actresses. And so it was very fun because between the different performances, each performance is going to be a little different. Which is just the nature of live theater. But also, because there's two different actresses it was kind of fun to be able to play with that and all the little mannerisms that they're bringing to the role.
>> Jessica Moses: Yeah, like chemistry is different between different people. And so with the different casts, there's different dynamics between everybody. So it kind of creates a very different show.
>> Zion Viana: Mhm.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, because I mean, there's acting and there's also reacting. So based on what a character is giving you, you're gonna react in a different way. And so, like they were saying, they're giving you different things... so you react in different ways. But also they're playing the same character so it's not that outlandishly different.
>> Zion Viana: Mhm. Yeah, I think it was actually quite funny because I feel like I personally notice more of a difference with Jess and Jessenya because they're both playing Amalia. But she's kind of, as Jess was saying, a bookish, ingénue kind of character. And it's funny because the way that Jess was playing her was more leaning into like, the sweetness, the bookishness, the shyness. And then the way that our other lead, Jessenya... Jessenya's personality is just more fiery, in general. And so then it's funny because the way that she's playing it, it was more strong willed. And there's a lot of lines between the two leads, Georg and Amalia, when they're, quite getting in each other's faces, like, "Well, you did this to me!" as they're arguing. So it was just kind of funny to see the difference that both of them were bringing, because both are great interpretations.
>> Zion Viana: But it's just fun to see how one character can be taken in two directions and still be really good in both of them.
>> Luke Bona: Well, I mean, that's the beauty of live theater. There's really no, unless you're saying the wrong lines, there's really no wrong way to do it.
>> Thomas Rahkola: So what I'm hearing is I should have gone twice.
>> Zion Viana: Yes, you should have. We kept telling our friends, like, make sure that you come twice. Because both casts are different.
>> Jessica Moses: One of my favorite things was when they would be like, "Oh my gosh, it's such a different show." But they loved both versions, so they were like, "It's soo different, but it's a good difference."
>> Thomas Rahkola: So I want to hear a little bit more about the production weekend. Zion, you alluded to, like, it's live theater. Anything can happen. And you can't, it just goes like that. So was there anything unexpected during any the performances? Or did all of them just go perfectly?
>> Luke Bona: Where do we start? Well, I mean, yeah, it was mostly smooth. I really, I'm very pleased with how the run of this show went. I mean it was very fulfilling. Especially since I'm a junior. Biola does a musical one year and opera the next year. So even though I'm a junior, this is the last musical I get to do. So doing my last musical here was very, very fulfilling. And yeah, we had beautiful cast, a beautiful crew that knew exactly what they were doing. Everyone was on their marks every single night. But I mean, with the nature of live theater, you can't always expect everything. So you're gonna have your tech problems, you're gonna have your wardrobe malfunctions. But I don't think we had any wardrobe malfunctions.
>> Zion Viana: I don't think so.
>> Luke Bona: Other than maybe like a hat or two that wasn't pinned onto a wig correctly and so would fall off in the middle of the scene. But I'm no one really cares about that. Yeah, for the most part it was smooth. I mean, we had a couple mic troubles. I personally, during an intermission, had a mic guy run up to me and he's like, "We're changing your mic right now." So you have to take off your top layers so they can get in the mic pack underneath you and switch your mic around. A couple mics died on stage. Yeah, that was a big rigmarole for a little bit. But, you know, the show goes on. I mean, you're not gonna be like, "Hold, everyone wait in their seats while we fix something." No, you chug on through. You just keep on going and I think the audience almost enjoys it in a way. I don't think they're just like, "Oh, dang it. I didn't get my money's worth." They're like, "Oh, this is live theater. This happens." And so it's fun. It's kind of, like, part of their story.
>> Zion Viana: And I like watching actors have to improvise.
>> Zion Viana: I think it's kind of fun.
>> Zion Viana: It's like, you see that something is, like, not going according to plan, and you can see the wheels turning in someone's head as they're doing something.
>> Thomas Rahkola: It kind of humanizes them.
>> Luke Bona: 100%
>> Jessica Moses: It is also fun when your scene partner, like; something happens, and then you know something is about to happen, and you're trying to predict what they're gonna do so you can help them. It's very much collaboration. You're not like, "I'm gonna let you fail." It's like, "No, I'm trying to figure out how to help you get back on track."
>> Zion Viana: Yeah.
>> Luke Bona: And that can sometimes lead to the most beautiful moments. Improvising a little line here and there. Like, "Oh, that wasn't supposed to happen. Let's do something here." And, nine times out of ten, whatever you just did, the audience finds hilarious.
>> Zion Viana: And I feel like there's so much... This cast is just really good in the fact that, I mean vocally, such a strong cast, which was amazing, but also like, people just getting comfortable in just making choices and making decisions. I was remembering, it was in the middle of our show weekend on Saturday. We had two shows with Jess's cast and my scene partner, Mary Beth, came up to me and she was like, "Hey, during this part, I want you to react differently in this way, because I'm gonna try something with my own reaction." And I was like, "Okay, go for it." And so we had never rehearsed it. We never rehearsed it on stage. We just kind of changed up something, and it got a huge laugh from the audience. So I just love doing stuff like that because, as the show is progressing and as you're experiencing it with the audience, you can adapt to that. And it's always really different with a live audience. It was actually really fun on our opening night to finally perform in front of a live audience because oftentimes you forget what parts of the show are even funny, especially in a comedic show because you're doing it so much and there's no audience laughing. So you're delivering these lines and it's like, okay, these are just the lines. And then all of a sudden you have an audience and the audience is laughing and you have to like, hold for laughter, hold for applause and stuff. So it's really fun to also be able to start adapting to that and like feed off of that energy from the audience.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, that's really good. Well, I mean, the audiences crave that authenticity. I mean, if you're being authentic with your stage partner and letting the words that are being said feel new every night, even though you've rehearsed them five million times, letting them feel authentic, they'll feel that authenticity. And I think night after night we did really, really well with that. You were able to tell that everyone was engaged in the story and for the most part it seemed like the audience was engaged in the story as well. I mean, yeah, it's beautiful stuff. Beautiful stuff.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Yeah. I know the weekend is pretty busy. Production weekend is always busy. But during rehearsal or since you've had some time after the show's ended to sleep and rest a little bit, do you feel like you guys learned anything from the show? Or from what the show had to say about like, people connecting with each other? Or how people, you know, push past their initial biases against each other?
>> Jessica Moses: That's a really good...
>> Luke Bona: That's a really good question. You stumped me. Um...
>> Zion Viana: Well, I think that one of my favorite messages from the show is like, first impressions. Because basically we're all working in the store and then Jess's character, Amalia, comes in and she's like, "Oh, I want a job." And then everyone's like, "No, you can't just come in and get a job, we're not hiring. Etc..." And then she ends up pulling this stunt of selling this thing that no one thought that anyone was gonna be able to sell. She sells this thing to a customer, and so they hire her. And then Georg, the main lead character, is salty about that. And then they start this whole rivalry. And I think it's really interesting because at the end of the show, Jess can probably remember the lines better, but she says something like, or Georg is like, "Oh, I remember the first day you came and you were trying to sell this thing." And then she says something like, "Yeah, I was so scared and you were so terrible to me." And it's funny because as you're watching it, Amalia seems like a very confident character coming in. Being like, "I'm gonna get a job and I'm gonna do something." And then later, she's looking back on it, and she's like, "No, I was really scared in that moment. And you were mean to me, and I didn't think I was going to get this." And so I like that kind of message of the first impression going awry, and both of them still coming from a good place, but then just going wrong. And then they start this, like, contentious relationship. But yeah, I really, really like the love story of Georgia and Amia. I think it's very, very well written.
>> Jessica Moses: It's very sweet. From playing Amalia, it was kind of startling, I found so much of myself in her character.
>> Zion Viana: I just want to say I did not find any of myself in my character. I want to go on record.
>> Jessica Moses: But yeah, I connected so strongly with the character. Like, I'm not exactly the same, but there were a lot of commonalities. And so I was able to kind of, I don't know, find a lot of myself in that. But it's very much, a lot of the ideas and the thought of being scared of... Like, the song "Will He Like Me," it's very much about opening yourself up to vulnerability To be vulnerable with somebody else is scary, and so the fact that she was brave enough to do that and had the courage to step up and say, "No, I'm gonna meet this person I don't know, but I'm really in love with." And just the bravery through the fear, um, I don't know, it inspires me and it taught me a lot of stuff about inner courage and opening yourself up to be vulnerable.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Yeah.
>> Luke Bona: I think there is, in this show, commonly, even not just the two leads, there's just a lot of assuming people's character and who they truly are, and people being like, "Oh yeah, I know you as this person, or I know you as this, or I perceive myself as this." And I think it's very easy, especially in this day and age, to be like, "Oh, you're that kind of person, or I'm this kind of person or et cetera, et cetera." And I think finding that place where we can, back to what Zion said about first impressions, get to know somebody before you actually make an opinion. Cause most of the problems in this show came from (like problems in the show itself that's written, not with the people or the actors), like when anything goes wrong in the show it's because someone assumed something about somebody else.
>> Thomas Rahkola: And it's interesting because I feel like Georg and Amalia have so much in common.
>> Zion Viana: Mhm.
>> Jessica Moses: Yeah.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Right. So it's kind of interesting that they butt heads so much at the beginning?
>> Zion Viana: Mhm.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Almost confusing, like how people who are so similar, who have such, like we know that they're similar when they meet each other, that have all this discord.
>> Jessica Moses: Yeah, because he's projecting onto her.
>> Luke Bona: Well, I think that's such an interesting part about the show is the audience figures out so soon that they're writing to each other and none of the characters know.
>> Zion Viana: Yeah.
>> Luke Bona: No one figures it out in the show. Everyone's too busy wrapped up in their own world.
>> Zion Viana: Yeah.
>> Luke Bona: And yeah, the audience sees right from the beginning. Oh, these people are the exact same. And they love the exact same things. They do the exact same things. And it's not until like the end of act one
>> Luke Bona: that they're like, "Ohh."
>> Jessica Moses: But I mean, if that's not an allegory for real life.
>> Luke Bona: Oh yeah.
>> Jessica Moses: Everyone's so wrapped up in their own like personal issues and problems that it's like, we're too busy to see what other people are going through and to care.
>> Zion Viana: Mmmm. Mhm.
>> Luke Bona: Wow, that's good.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Luke, I'm curious. You had what seemed like a crowd favorite number.
>> Jessica Moses: Every night. Every night.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Yeah, people were... it was hilarious. I'm curious what you think about your character and the perspective he shares with Georg.
>> Luke Bona: Oh, gosh.
>> Zion Viana: His song is called "Perspective," by the way.
>> Luke Bona: It is, it is. Oh, gosh. No, I love Ladislav. I mean, anytime I have the chance to embody a comedic role I'll take it. I uh, love comedy work. Anything comedy, give it to me, I'll eat it up. Him specifically, he's just so relatable. I mean he's your typical family man. He cares about everybody, he truly wants to listen to everyone's problem. But he also has a lot of good insight. And I think the big pivotal point for me in making this character who he was is to not lean too much into the corniness. Cause I think it's very easy, especially for comedic actors, to be like, "I'm gonna go hunting for these laughs and I want everyone to laugh at me." But I think what I try to do is, and I think this plays into the humor, is to find the humanity in him. And he himself is your stereotypical dad cracking dad jokes, thinking he is the most hilarious person, but in reality is really not. So finding that balance of, I think he knows he's a little bit funny, but also finding that balance of humanity, people will relate with that humanity more and be like, "Oh that's funny. Cause he's just being serious." And so finding that balance is really, really fun. And I'm glad that people enjoyed it. And the audience's reactions every night were very rewarding and fulfilling. I'm very glad that the interpretation that I put across meant something to somebody. Yeah.
>> Thomas Rahkola: Well, thank you all for joining me today.
>> Jessica Moses: Mhm, yeah.
>> Thomas Rahkola: I look forward to talk to you all again soon.
>> Luke Bona: Yeah, heck yeah. Oh my gosh. Thank you.
>> Reagan Glidewell: Thanks for listening. If you want to hear Thomas's follow up conversation with the "She Loves Me" crew, you can find the link to our Biola Backstage podcast in the show notes. As always, if you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and share it with a friend or roommate. For more stories from the Chimes, head over to our website at chimesnewspaper.com. This episode was produced by Thomas Rahkola and co-hosted by him and myself. It was engineered by Jason Lee, with music from Warner Chappelle Productions. Hope Li is our executive producer. I'm Reagan Glidewell. We'll see you next week.