Jersey Arts Podcast · ArtPride New Jersey

Baseball History Inspires Young Audiences in 'Catching the Moon'

·26 min·1 clip

Tony Stone is mocked even while playing professional baseball in the Negro leagues.

1. Jersey Arts Podcast focuses on Catching the Moon, a musical about Marcinia Lyle and her baseball dream. 2. Host Maddie Orton speaks with actor Naya Anderson, who plays Marcinia Lyle, and Steve Fredericks, Growing Stage founder, executive director, and director. 3. The episode asks what this production is for: a true story that can inspire children and adults. 4. Fredericks says the show is based on Crystal Hubbard’s book and on Marcinia Lyle’s real life. 5. He says Growing Stage was attracted to the piece because it is real rather than fantasy. 6. Anderson describes Marcinia as a girl who says she wants to play baseball no matter who tells her no. 7. The hosts discuss Marcinia arguing with her parents and a scout while trying to keep her goal. 8. Anderson says the character comes in contact with obstacles and keeps returning to her original dream. 9. Fredericks says Tyrone Robinson reached out because Growing Stage has a reputation for taking risks with new material. 10. He says he connected with the father-daughter relationship in the script because he coached his daughter’s softball and other sports. 11. The episode notes that Growing Stage is only the second theater company to produce the show after Children’s Theater of Charlotte. 12. Anderson says the music has a blues element and also feels a little jazz and like musical standards. 13. She says she is singing most of the show, which reflects Marcinia’s connection to family, friends, and community. 14. Anderson says she is looking for humanity in Marcinia’s lines, relationships, pictures, and interviews. 15. She mentions the rumor that Satchel Paige hit a fastball off her, and says stories like that sit in the same lane as the real facts. 16. Fredericks and Anderson discuss Marcinia dropping out of high school to play professionally and later becoming a nurse. 17. The conversation includes a discussion of Tony Stone replacing Hank Aaron at second base in the major Negro leagues. 18. The tone is conversational, reflective, and interview-driven, with back-and-forth detail from Maddie Orton, Anderson, and Fredericks. 19. Parents, teachers, and theater audiences interested in Black sports history. 20. Listeners wanting fast-paced plot summaries without arts or history detail.

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