00:05I'm Abigail Armin, and I play Ali Mills.
00:08I'm Matt Mills, and I play John Kreese in Karate Kid, the new school.
00:11I've seen the film. My parents showed me it when I was younger.
00:15I couldn't really remember it, and then I watched it the night before my final audition.
00:19Ah, okay.
00:20Just to, you know, get a memory refreshed.
00:23I just fell in love with it again. I don't know about you, but it's just so iconic, isn't it?
00:27Absolutely. I grew up with Karate Kid. I wasn't alive when it came out.
00:32I'm not that old, but I'm close to it.
00:35And yeah, it was always in the zeitgeist. You know what I mean?
00:37Sweep the leg, the crane kick, wax on, wax off.
00:41Like, all of those vernacular was, like, kind of floating around at that time when I was a kid.
00:47And then I studied karate for, like, seven years after that.
00:49That was more to do with Power Rangers, though. I'm not going to lie to you.
00:51I wanted to be a Power Ranger, but Karate Kid was definitely a part of that, too.
00:54I think the cast has just bonded. I think you'll fully agree.
00:59Absolutely.
00:59We just all have each other's backs, and I think that's such an important thing, especially a tour, but also
01:06a production like this.
01:07And I hope it reads on stage. I think it does.
01:11But we all just really, there's a lot of care there for each other, and I think it really feeds
01:16back into the work.
01:16It takes a village to do any type of production, especially a production that is as big and as ambitious
01:22as this.
01:23And it takes everybody from crew to stage management to the band to music to Wham, recognize Wham, and to
01:31wardrobe and dresses and front of house team.
01:36And then everybody on stage as well.
01:38It takes a village. Everyone's a part of the machine.
01:41Everyone's an important cog. Without each other, we can't work.
01:43So there has to be a bond. There has to be for the work to come across the way that
01:48it comes across and for the story to be told in the way it needs to be told.
01:52So thankfully, that happened very quickly with this cast and with this company.
01:55I'm very, very proud to be from here. I'm very, very proud to be from Chapel Town.
01:59I'm very, very proud and happy to come back as a professional actor, singer, dancer and perform fantastic shows.
02:07I've been able to perform at the Grand a good few times.
02:10It's amazing to be back. So I grew up in Woodlesford and I just started doing kind of am-dram
02:18just around.
02:20And then I went to Kappa College in Wakefield and then auditioned and moved down to London, moved away.
02:29But Leeds has given me so much.
02:31Leeds has always had a very vibrant, very fruitful, creative atmosphere.
02:38You know, we have absolutely massive theaters that put on huge productions across Leeds.
02:44And it's always good to entertain people of Leeds because they will let you know if something isn't working properly.
02:50But they will also cheer twice as loud when something does.
02:54So that type of honest feedback and that type of community is always fantastic to come back to.
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