Hi, I'm Kyla Stone.
I play Anya. I'm here at Playbill to give you a sneak peek of Anastasia
for the upcoming North American tour.
Finding out that I was Anya was such a whirlwind of a day,
I was it was actually our opening night for Sweeney
Todd, and my manager came afterwards after the show.
She basically was like, so do you want to know some news?
And I was so eager. I was like, what, what, what?
And she said, You booked Anastasia. And I sort of fell to the ground.
That's all I remember. I remember like just thinking.
And I was just it was so unreal.
The entire audition process was so lovely.
And even my final callback, everyone was so warm and excited and just so lovely.
And I was sort of that palpable energy where it felt like
something special was happening in the Zoom room.
And so that was just it was amazing to find out.
I was super familiar with the movie.
My my sister introduced me to the film, which was so great.
And so I was super familiar with that.
And then with the show,
I actually worked at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in the box office.
So when it toured, I happened to be working most tonight.
So I just got to sit by the monitor and listen to it every night.
But then in terms of like
actually booking it, it was like, OK, let's dove into this material
just because there are so many new songs and they've really grounded it in
sort of the reality of what was going on during the time, which I love.
It adds this like whole other level of
of honesty to all of these characters that are so beloved.
My, I guess, version or iteration of Anya I'm really carrying that
that sense of strength, I think, as black women
were obviously taught to be strong all the time.
And so it's dialing that back and finding the vulnerability
and the honesty and allowing ourselves
to be vulnerable in moments when we're usually told
to be really strong, that I love finding an Anya
And I think also just all of my all of my experiences up until now,
I think sort of coincide with Anya because she has gone through so much
and she's also been told no a lot that I don't think we get to see.
And so to to have that sort of line up with her journey is so great.
And also discovering yourself. I'm young, she's young.
And so getting to discover myself as a young woman in this show is is crazy.
I mean, getting to sing Journey to the Past is probably where we
to our two lives match up and we sort of become one.
I hope audiences experience with Anastasia
this sense that you can be an Anya
you can be a Dimetri, you can be a flawed, you can be a Galab.
You basically can be anyone in this show, because it is such a universal story
in terms of all of these different like
points that you can enter into our story
, as well as realized that there are so many different forms of love.
I think in this there's obviously the relationship
between Onen, her grandmother, but there's Anya and the
and then I think the most crucial type of love, which is that self-love
and finding yourself and really owning who you are
and realizing that that you can survive and you can thrive on your own.
And now your "Journey to the Past" from Anastasia.
Heart, don't fail me now.
Courage don't is certainly don't turn back
now that we're here.
People always say life is full of choices.
No one ever mentions fear
or how the world can seem so vast.
On a journey,
to the past
Somewhere down this road, I know someone's waiting,
years of dreams just can't be wrong
arms will open wide.
I'll be safe and wanted.
Finally, home where I belong.
Well, starting now I'm learning fast.
On this journey,
to the past.
Home, love. family, there was once a time
I must have had them too
Home, love, family.
I will. Never be complete until I find you.
One step at a time.
One hope, then another.
Who knows where this road may go.
Back to who I was on
to find to my future things my heart still needs to know.
Yes. Let this be a sign.
Let this road be mine.
Let it lead me to my past,
and bring me home,
at last.
Thanks so much for watching.
Thank you so much to Playbill.
For more information, visit Anastasiathemusical.com.