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It doesn't matter where you are: theater brings people together.
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My grandmother was a classical pianist, so I grew up with Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven. I studied piano as a kid. My musical background and upbringing was very much a mix.
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I went through a phase when I was watching a lot of foreign films, just itching to get out of the suburbs and explore.
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All I wanted to do was create theater for us, for our generation, for the people of this planet. And it's so rare that the art that you are making is reaching a huge mass of people.
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I love the collaborative process. Getting to meet new people and really building something with them is such a wonderful way to get to know someone.
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Exposing yourself to many kinds of art can only lead to amazing things. It helps you learn about your own art, your own taste, what kind of art you want to create for yourself.
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I hope they're reminded that joy is very easy to access if you just put down your phone, look at another person, and make a human connection. You'll find a new experience that you wouldn't have had otherwise.
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My mother took my brother and I to a production of 'The Tempest', and it was in this very small - it could have been the basement of a church or a black box. The space was vast, but there were maybe 15 seats in the middle. Ariel came out wearing a nude sparkly thong and spike heels, and the muses had these gossamer see-through gowns on.
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There's a huge shift in the way we connect with people as humans in the technology age versus right before that, when we still had a little bit of mystery.
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There is a certain vulnerability to creating art and putting it out in the world for the first time, but again, there's a kind of thrill to that as well.
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There was a saying going around the theatre: It's a train, and you can jump on at any point whether you're a lover of musical theatre or a lover of theatre or a lover of hip-hop or a lover of history - there was a way to jump on the train.
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'Hamilton' just asks us all to go a little bit deeper: whether you're a hip-hop fan seeing musical theater for the first time, or if you were thinking you were gonna see some reprise of 1776, and now it's this? And you're thinking, 'Wait a minute, these people aren't white!' It asks you just take a step and go a little deeper.
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When I go into a theater, I'm very excited to turn off my phone. But then, of course, I get anxiety.
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I didn't know anything about Eliza when I first got the call about 'Hamilton.' Tommy Kail, the director, asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. I knew what he was talking about because I'd seen the video of Lin performing it at the White House for Barack and Michelle Obama.
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I'm definitely not as good as people who consider themselves beatboxers.
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You can't avoid the conversation of diversity and remembering that diversity goes beyond race and culture. It goes into gender and sexual orientation and all sorts of things.
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It wasn't until 'Hamilton' that I began to be considered an actor of color, and I really don't know what to make of it.
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When you're on a show schedule, everything is heightened. You're always aware of what works and what doesn't so you can be at your best.
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There's no map for you to follow and take your journey. You are Lewis and Clark. You are the mapmaker.
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The way theater can bring people together is so powerful.