Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Last week, Look, Listen, and Learn TV (LL+L), a renowned local educational TV program, announced a casting call for Season 5 of its award-winning series. In the search for children ages 6-9 to join the cast, LL+L seeks authentic, passionate, and creative individuals to come out, express themselves, and potentially be a part of the cast.
Created in 2018, the Emmy-nominated early learning television show that supports the emotional well-being of Black, Indigenous, and people of color offers in-home educational learning tools for young children and their families to utilize in ways that make learning fun.
As a child, LL+L Founder, Executive Producer, and Co-Host Val Thomas-Matson faced challenges in Seattle Public Schools. Like many, she found solace and inspiration in the colorful world of PBS programming. Shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company – helped her ignite a passion to create content that empowers young minds and reflects the diversity of our world.
“I launched Look, Listen, and Learn for several different reasons, I have a background in media, I was a Black child in Seattle Public Schools educational system that didn’t have a good start, and I was also really intrigued by brain development research and how it can undergird how our children learn,” says Thomas-Matson. “I wasn’t hearing anything about brain development research in our communities at all, so I became curious about that.”
According to Thomas-Matson, Season 5 of LL+L will consist of the same format as in previous seasons streaming on YouTube, Seattle Channels 21 and 22, and on kweliTV, a black content-only streaming service, and will include 12 brand new books and authors to discuss and cover new social emotional themes.
“Our very first episode for season five, which we will begin filming in June, will be with the Seattle Opera,” says Thomas-Matson. “We only audition once a year, but the selected kids are used for all 12 episodes and can be rotated and switched out from season to season.”
Catering to children ages 6 through 9, LL+L each year seeks new children to join the new season’s cast through an auditioning process. Each child, who must be accompanied by a parent/guardian, will have a 15-second audition slot, and then based on the talent pool the selection committee will determine how many kids will be used during the upcoming season.
“The child’s guardian needs to sign up for the audition, and then during their allotted audition time the child will be asked to share what they like about the show, and why they want to be on the show,” says Thomas-Matson. Thomas-Matson says that kids how audition are not required to have any prior acting experience, and they will be judged solely on authenticity, passion, and creativity.
Creating opportunities for children of color through media and television has been a long-term goal for Thomas-Matson, and through many years of hard-work she was finally able to secure funding to help finance the project in 2018. Fast forward to today, and Thomas-Matson continues to grow the program through the support of people who believe in the mission of the program.
“I graduated from college in the 80s, and I knew this was what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t until 2018 that I was able to secure the funding,” says Thomas-Matson. “We have received some grant funding, but we mainly rely on individual donors, and that is what has made the difference.”
Working with different groups and organizations across the city of Seattle, who have donated to LL+L has been something that Thomas-Matson has been very grateful for, as she has been given the opportunity to have an impact on the educational development of children, and instill a sense of community to the masses.
“The series has been really fun, and now that we are having multiple generations it is even better,” says Thomas-Matson. “Some of the kiddos that were in the first and second season, have siblings that have now appeared in the show.”
Season 5 of LL+L casting auditions will be held from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, on Sat., May 18at a location to be confirmed after registration confirmation. To register to audition, parents and guardians must sign up their children for the casting call on www.looklistenandlearn.org, or by contacting [email protected].