Brook Abella is playing at Sonfest 2025 on September 20th and she talks about how she grew up in Bellefontaine.
She’s a double major in Communication and Media and Visual Art. She also has a minor in Music.
She talks about how she grew up around music, what she is looking forward to at Sonfest, and some of the opportunities she has had in the music industry so far.
Click HERE for more information about Sonfest.
Tyler Maddux is playing at Sonfest 2025 on September 20th and he talks about how he grew up in New Philadelphia.
Click HERE to hear the full conversation!
He’s a worship arts major and has a minor in youth and family ministry; he’s hoping to become a worship pastor when he graduates. He talks about how he got into music in 7th grade and around high school he decided to go all in on music.
Some of Tyler’s biggest influences in music are bands like ‘Colony house’ and ‘Sons of Steven Curtis Chapman’ and it inspires him for when he writes his music. For a long time, his style was acoustic guitar, it wasn’t until he started making his second album that he started to find his style of Rock music. He draws inspiration from his own personal life experiences to come up with his song lyrics, he also likes to write songs about the bible.
Tyler talks about what he’s excited to see at Sonfest, he’s excited to see people who are impacted by the music outside of his regular friends and family, it helps inspire him. Tyler Maddux is opening at 1:35pm at Sonfest on September 20th.
Tyler talks about his new album he released in late January, he’s really proud of it because of how it defined the sound that he like to use. You can stay connected to Tyler Maddux on Instagram, Facebook, and on TikTok. Tyler talks about the purpose behind writing his music, he likes to write about how he feels at the time of his writing; he’s getting married soon and so a lot of his music he’s writing is about how he feels about that. He’s got a few songs he’s been writing recently and a few songs at Sonfest and hopes to record and release them soon.
Tyler goes over some rapid-fire questions, his favorite worship song is ‘tear my house down’ by Chris Renzema. The first concert he ever went to was a ‘Colony house’ concert in college in his freshman year. He’s a night owl, he likes cats, he likes coffee and he normally gets a caramel ice late, his favorite snack is cheez-its and his favorite movie is called ‘about time’.
Click HERE to find out about Sonfest 2025!
Mariya Tatarin is from Ukraine and received a shoebox at the age of 10 and she talks about how she felt from this, the box had hygiene items, school supplies and toys.
Click HERE to hear the full conversation!
Mariya talks about her favorite toy when she got her shoebox growing up as well as some of her story when she grew up and the massive impact receiving the shoebox made on her life. She also talks about the book she received “the greatest story ever told” and she ended up gifting that book to her neighbors and it helped share the gospel to them.
Mariya shares more of her story and because of the shoebox, the kids around her saw that God knew who needed that shoebox and how people all over the world who do his work.
She talks about how she moved to America due to religious persecution and the how the process took a long time. Now she travels to Churches, schools and communities to share her story and get to be a real person to see the impact of Operation Christmas Child. Mariya shares how you can pray for the people of Ukraine struggling with the war, she says to pray for God to intervene and bring and end to the war.
Mariya shares a message for people packing shoeboxes, she’s very grateful and thankful for people taking their time to help pack shoeboxes; so many people who receive the shoeboxes have never even heard of the gospel and it makes a huge impact on the lives of kids. She says 11.5 million shoeboxes are packed each year and she talks about how important it is to see the people who sent the shoebox. She still keeps the picture of the family who packed the shoebox for her in her bible in hopes of meeting them.
She talks about why you should take the step to help support Operation Christmas Child and shares a message to people who haven’t ever packed one before. Its intimidating at first, but Mariya says to just start with the basics and you’ll start coming up with new things to put into your box. It makes an impact and it makes a difference.
Mariya Tatarin is sharing her story this Friday at 7pm at Gilead Friends Church, and she talks about how you can pray for her and how she wants God to speak through her to the people listening. Pray for Operation Christmas Child to have all their volunteer needs filled with people trying to share God’s love and good news.
Click HERE to learn about Operation Christmas Child.
MVNU President Dr. Carson Castleman stops by to give his September update to WNZR’s Marcy Rinehart.
Click HERE to hear the full conversation!
He is excited to start the 2025-26 school year and is happy to see the students back on campus and out in the community.
He says enrollment is growing in both traditional and non-traditional students and they have added 13 new faculty members.
Dr. Castleman talks about the restructure of the university into two schools. CAPS stands for College of Arts and Professional Studies for non-traditional students. CAST which is the College of Arts and Sciences is the traditional 18–22-year-old students. They also restructured the deans and administrative roles of the staff.
Dr. Castleman talks about the 4 C’s which was a focus on the recent Faculty and Staff Awards earlier this month: conviction, conversation, care, and connection.
He explains how the 4 C’s are a centerpiece for the MVNU community.
Dr. Castleman shares a special bible verse as a focus for the university this year from Isaiah 43:19 (NIV), “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
He says that the cabinet helped determined the verse because MVNU is stepping outside the normal doom and gloom at other campuses and that God is doing something new here at MVNU and we are changing the world.
Dr. Castleman gives an update on the construction at the Chapel. He said there was an issue with carpeting over the summer and that put the project behind. He said God provided both in time and financially to help get the campaign finalized.
Dr. Castleman gives an explanation on the opening of the entrance at front of campus that had a security hut. He said that he received some feedback and believed that the entrance needed to be re-opened for several reasons.
He also gives an update with the Hunter Wright hub in downtown Mount Vernon.
Dr. Castleman gives an update on his plans are for the fall and he is planning on staying on campus this fall as some transitions take place and is getting back in the classroom.
Dr. Castleman gives some words of encouragement to the students, faculty and staff.
Dr. Castleman also explains how we can pray for the students, faculty, staff and university this fall.
Click HERE to find out more about Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
MTV Arts presents SpongeBob the Musical tonight!
On the Morning Thing Friday, Marcy Rinehart spoke with Kiarah Smith who is playing Sandy Cheeks!
Kiarah details the big production coming up! She talks about her love of theatre and her preparation for her role. Kiarah’s favorite part of the production and some of her best memories so far are also a highlight!
For more information on the show click HERE!
WNZR spoke to Karma Carpenter about her role as Patrick Star in the performance, she says she watched a lot of the show to play her favorite character.
Click HERE to hear the full conversation!
Karma gives an example of what voice she’s doing for the show.
Karma talks about how her character Is perfect in the way where she’s able to be creative in how she plays it.
Click HERE for information on SpongeBob the Musical!
Vincent Ortel spoke with WNZR about his role in the musical as Perch Perkins who is a news host.
Click HERE to hear the full conversation!
Vincent talks about how he enjoys how his character can easily give bad news.
Vincent talks about that since this is his first performance he didn’t think he was going to get a part, but he was excited to get one.
Vincent goes on explaining how his costume is going to look in the show.
Vincent gives some advice to kids who haven’t done a performance but want to get started.
Vincent says people should come out and see the performance because it will be a memorable show all.
Click HERE for information on SpongeBob the Musical!
WNZR spoke to Sadie Ryals about what she does in her position as costume assistant in SpongeBob the Musical.
Click HERE to hear the full conversation.
She talks about her preparations and what she does for costume changes.
Sadie likes to be around everyone involved.
Sadie goes into detail about how they keep the costumes organized by using spreadsheets.
Sadie says that acting and performing helps build confidence and you’re able to meet amazing people.
Sadie says that you should see the show because the actors have put a lot of effort into the performance and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Click HERE for information on SpongeBob the Musical!
Jack Jenkins is 12 and in 7th grade at Mt. Vernon Middle School and he is part of the ensemble and angry mob.
Click HERE to hear the full interview. with Jack.
He talks about his character and how he’s been preparing for the role. He also talks about some of his favorite traits about the characters he is playing.
His favorite song is “When the Going gets tough” and he explains why.
This is Jack’s first show with MTVarts and he explains how he got started into theatre, he hopes to do more in acting in the future. He shares some of his favorite memories in the show.
Click HERE for information on SpongeBob the Musical!
MTV Arts Presents SpongeBob the Musical this weekend!
At September First Friday, Marcy got to meet the whole cast for MTV Arts production of The SpongeBob Musical! She spoke with cast members, as well as Bruce Jacklin who is directing this wonderful production.
We learn about the production as a whole and some of the basic information behind the musical. We even get to hear the cast preview a song for us!
The SpongeBob Musical open up at the Knox Memorial Theatre this Friday on September 12th!
For more information on the production click HERE!
Rise and Shine 