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As I became an adult, I listened to a lot of jazz, to the ladies of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae and Nina Simone. I loved that they each covered the same songs and interpreted them totally differently. I thought that was so cool. They could each paint their own picture of that moment.
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There was so much emotional response to 'Dogfight.' You just heard the audience: They were so horrified. They were sobbing. They were joyful at times.
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I have a group of fans who pitched in and named a star after me... So. Cool.
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I have a big persona onstage sometimes, but offstage, I'm super shy. Like, I don't want to perform for people - I'd rather die than sing in a room for someone.
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I loved 'The Wizard of Oz,' and I'm a huge Judy Garland fan, too.
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I've always had a big voice, but I'm very aware of when you need to belt or go all out like that - when it's necessary and plot driven - as opposed to just screaming to scream, which I hate.
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I think, going into a room for an audition, the best thing you can do is represent who you are specifically as an individual and what you can bring to a creative process in a room - as opposed to being worried about 'where you fit' - because that's really their job to decide where you fit. Your job is to just present the best 'you' you can.
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Judy Garland, Doris Day, and Gene Kelly were all big influences growing up from all of the films. I'm also a huge folk music fan - Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan have influenced a lot of how music can inspire change in our world.
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When you hear you're going to audition for 'Dogfight,' the show about bringing ugly women to parties, you're like, 'Oh, great, thank you.' Then you read lines where people call you fat, and you call yourself fat or ugly, and it can wear on you. But that's also our dream as actors, to play someone else and give someone else a voice.
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It's nice to be with a male energy as opposed to a female energy. It's very different.
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I feel like I do my best work under fear of being fired.
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It's been a huge honor to collaborate and create new theatre with new writers and to create theatre that will last after my lifetime. It's been in the most truthful way possible. It's my favorite thing to do.
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I think I'm the person who keeps friends from hitting 'send.' I've definitely helped people go through emails before sending them. I'm a good proofreader.
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'Dogfight' was everything wonderful and terrifying about a show, and I feel it 1,000% gave me the knowledge and the confidence that I could do this. I can step up and be present enough to command scenes with amazing actors.
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I'm a Mexican girl from California, and I never grew up thinking I could be in a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. I didn't really see myself in that. Not that I didn't grow up loving Rodgers and Hammerstein, but I don't know - I just never put myself there.
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My parents were big movie-musical fans. And I thought 'Grease' was different from the usual MGM musical. I was intrigued and fell in love with it.
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People learn from their mistakes and move forward.
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Even though acting is my job, I do this because I love it, and when the love is gone, I'm not going to do it anymore.
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I loved working on 'Dogfight,' but when I first read it and wrapped my head around the story, I was a little horrified.
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I was born in Southern California in a city called Norwalk. I grew up there until I moved up to New York when I was 18.
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Getting an agent is hard, and I also think people rush to get an agent too soon.
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I think people feel completely stunted without an agent, but there's a lot of auditions to be had without one and a lot to be learned before you take an agent on.
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I've always been afraid to do a solo show. When I go to see the great solo shows of Liz Callaway or Christine Ebersole, they have so many incredible stories to talk about, and their material and lives are so rich. I've always worried that my life was not rich enough.
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Being called ugly every day is not easy on the psyche.