Ragtime runs at Virginia Theatre from July 30 to Aug. 2,
Photo: Reginald Hardwick/IPM News
CHAMPAIGN — More than 50 local performers and an orchestra will hit the stage at The Virginia Theatre to perform in Ragtime: The Musical. The production follows three Black, white, and immigrant Jewish families at the beginning of the 20th century.
IPM’s Reginald Hardwick recently spoke with two of the cast members: University of Illinois music professor Alonza Lawrence and local actor and singer Kimberly Schofield, who previously hosted Morning Edition at IPM News before leaving the station in June.
The two actors discussed why these roles resonated with them. The show will run from July 30 to August 2.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
KIMBERLY SCHOFIELD: I play Sarah and Alonza plays…
ALONZA LAWRENCE: Coalhouse.
SCHOFIELD: Coalhouse. And we interact with each other. I guess love interest is a fair call for our descriptors.
LAWRENCE: There’s a child.
SCHOFIELD: A child. Yes. But yes, we, at some point, of course the story will unveil itself as you see it, but we meet, we part, do we come together? It’s about kind of the, at least our relationship is, the development of how we love each other and how we learn to love each other and bring life into the world.
REGINALD HARDWICK: What about this role spoke to you?
LAWRENCE: The role, it covers so many different things, so many different facets, particularly the character of Coalhouse. I always find it strange and I don’t want to give too much away from the story, but hopefully people are kind of familiar with this idea. He works so hard to get Sarah back after making mistakes, and then something happens. And instead of choosing Sarah over the thing that happened, he chooses the thing and chooses to avert his attention there. And I think it speaks to how we can kind of get caught up onto or caught up in things that aren’t as important as we realize they are.
SCHOFIELD: Sarah’s case, you see a pretty big arc in a pretty short amount of time for Sarah from all of the huge emotions and experiences that she goes through, and I find it very captivating.
Reginald Harwick/IPM News Ragtime: The Musical producer Monica Samii-Porter and actors Kimberly Schofield and Alonza Lawrence, who will be performing in the upcoming production at Virginia Theatre
HARDWICK: Well, let’s take a moment to listen to Wheels of a Dream produced by the Broadway cast of Ragtime the Musical, performed on the CBS Late Show with Steven Colbert in late 2025.
LAWRENCE: So, Wheels of a Dream takes place right after reunion. There has been quite a significant amount of time that Cole House and Sarah have been apart. Through banter, they discover that, wow, we really can make a future here. And it’s the first time, well, second time, that Coalhouse has an intimate moment with his child, his son, and sings about the beautiful things that can be probably in relation to the life not too long ago for people that look like him in this country that couldn’t exist.
SCHOFIELD: As part of the duet, one of the moments where Sarah is also seeing how her life is unfolding in the best way possible, it is everything that she dreamed of, even if it was for just a moment, and then she thought she lost, and now she is back. And she is seeing this man who she loved and was devastated by express their future entirely together. And it is just such a hopeful, beautiful song. And like Alonza said, thinking about a life together and also just what it means to be a person living in America. And you see that throughout the show because of course we have the three different sectors of people, but this is them existing in this moment together in one of the happiest times that they will share.
The Virginia Theatre is a financial supporter of Illinois Public Media.
Reginald Hardwick is the News & Public Affairs Director at Illinois Public Media. He oversees daily newscasts and online stories. He also manages The 21st Show, a live, weekday talk show that airs on six NPR stations throughout Illinois. He is the executive producer of IPM's annual environmental TV special "State of Change." And he is the co-creator of Illinois Soul, IPM's Black-focused audio service that launched in February 2024. Before arriving at IPM in 2019, he served as News Director at WKAR in East Lansing and spent 17 years as a TV news producer and manager at KXAS, the NBC-owned station in Dallas/Fort Worth. Reginald is the recipient of three Edward R. Murrow regional awards, seven regional Emmy awards, and multiple honors from the National Association of Black Journalists. Born in Vietnam, Reginald grew up in Colorado and is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado.
Email: rh14@illinois.edu
Twitter: @RNewsIPM
