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[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to The Ensemblist, Broadway's original podcast. On this episode, we're sharing the stories of how five actors came to make their Broadway debuts last year. Welcome. I'm Mo Brady.

[0:31] Mo Brady: Hey there, listeners. Today we have some really fantastic stories to share from five actors who made their Broadway debuts in 2018. This quintet of triple threats sat down with us in front of a live audience at BroadwayCon in January to share what it's like to have their dreams fulfilled by performing on Broadway. Each shared with the audience both the audition process they went through as well as their favorite experience from being a part of an original Broadway company thus far. So here, in their own words, are Kimberly Dodson, Tiana Okoye, Nikhil Saboo, Jack Sippel, and Khadija Tariyan. Enjoy.

[1:31] Nikhil Saboo: I'm Nikhil Saboo and I made my debut in Mean Girls. So I auditioned in sort of January, February of 2017 for The Lab and coming up in April I'll have been doing Mean Girls for two years. So it's like, it's interesting to think about that because you have these checkpoints of like The Lab and then DC and then Broadway and it feels like, oh no, we've only been on Broadway since April. But truly this show has been in my body for the past two years. Auditioning, I mean I auditioned for The Lab and there was a thing called a no right of first refusal, meaning you're in The Lab but that doesn't mean you're going to continue on to the next process. So like you always want to put your best foot forward and obviously everyone's there to like have fun and stuff like that.

But yeah, but I went through six to eight rounds of auditions for it. You know, Kevin G and then also this and for the ensemble so they had to like, you know, kind of make sure both of them were the fit for the person that was going to be doing the job. I mean I didn't do theatre at all growing up. I started my junior year of high school and my parents were so just not about it. And it was just because of lack of knowledge. And then I went to college for it and still they're kind of like iffy about it. A mushy cool moment for me was when my mom, we would go to Broadway shows when I was here at NYU and my mom just said to me, it's like it's crazy to see you on the other side of the fence. And she's talking about the stage door line fence.

And I remember I gave her a hug and I went back into the just this like you walk into the into Mean Girls and it's just a little small room for you. And I just remember breathing and I just started crying because I was like, for me that's my mushiest coolest moment of this entire thing was that moment of my mom being just like you're on the other side. My mom is super loving and stuff like that. But sometimes she doesn't have the right words to say like, I'm proud of you or something like that. But like that was her saying all that. That's part one. The cool moments. There are so many. The Tony Awards, perform on SNL, the Today Show, Thanksgiving Parade. The parade was probably the freezing but it was the most thrilling thing I've probably ever done.

Sitting at a bar and having wine with Tina and just like and talking to her. And she's like, Mom, and just like, we'll just like hug her and hold her. But it's like, it's stupid cool. And the thing is that like, it never stops this past year. The coolness and sexiness of all that's even a word. But but about all of this just never stops. It's just one highlight over the next highlight, over the next, over the next. And I'm just stupid grateful for all of it.

[4:40] Kimberly Dodson: My name is Kimberly Dodson and I made my debut in Summer, the Donna Summer musical. My experience with Summer, I knew the people on the other side of the table from, I did the regional version of A Bronx Tale and it's the same production company that did Summer. And mine was much shorter, I think, because of that. First of all, they invited me in to dance. So I did a dance audition and then sang after. But they played us all and it was like a month until we heard anything after that. So it was kind of like, OK, you know, Summer's off the table. I'm going to go and live my life. Then all of a sudden, when you're busy, right, they call you in. And so it was really like four intense days of them bringing me in for Summer and for other things that they were working on.

So it was like I had an audition for Summer. I had an audition for a lab and another workshop. And it was all like they were just kind of flooding in all the people that they could at the same time. And I remember at the end of my audition for the lab of something, they went, Kim, can you just do you have your song that you sang for Summer? Do you have that here? And I went, yeah, I have it. Can you just sing it? Because we just didn't quite get it on tape. They gave it to me the night before this audition. It was five songs and like seven scenes that had to be in an accent. Right. And so I came in and I was like, here are the songs that I prepared here, all the other things. And they go, Kim, can you sing your disco song that you sang two days ago?

And I was like, so then maybe two days later, you know, usually when you hear back, it's either like you'll hear the week after or maybe it'll be like the next hour. Right. So maybe two days later, they were like, Kim, you're going to La Jolla for Donna Summer. I was like, cool. One thing that I think a lot of people don't know is that if you do the out of town, it's not always guaranteed that one, it's going to move to Broadway or that you are going to move with it. So one thing is that for La Jolla for Summer, we finally got the announcement via the Internet that the show was moving to Broadway. Right. And we go, cool. Summer's moving to Broadway. And so we're like looking around at each other like, you know, anything, girl?

No. Did you anybody's agent call anybody? And then, you know, it could be that only the leads go or one of us goes. And then, you know, but luckily for us, for Summer, they took all of us. But that can be very rare. I mean, I feel like if any of you are parents to a child who wants to do this, just know that whatever energy you give to that child to be able to do this work is meaningful. I've had like two busloads of family come to see Donna Summer. And just the fact that my family was able to come and see something that they really enjoyed and really had fun seeing. And my grandparents are 80 in their 80s or 86. And they were the ones who drove me to dance class every day. And so for them to be able to see me on Broadway just means like way more than I anticipated.

Just because it's it's a win for for them in in way more than me. You know, it's like when people give their time and energy and money and money and money into a child, and you just kind of hope that that kid like gets to the place where they want to go. Seeing it through like seeing this experience through other people's eyes has made it so much more meaningful. Also, I think just with our cast, we were a cast full of women, 16 women, 11 of them were black. And to see so many people from where I'm from, from Baltimore, you know, bring busloads of people from church, you know, and see like full brown audience, you know, came to see Donna Summer, like came to see us. Girls who would message me on Instagram saying, you know, I'm so glad I found you, I want to do this.

When I saw Aida and Lion King when I was six, like, I thought Heather Hedley was the only black woman on Broadway. Like, I thought that was it. I thought and I was like, well, maybe she will age out one day, I will one day be her. And then I got older and I saw like the one black girl in the ensemble. And then I was like, I could do that. I could be the one black girl in the ensemble, you know. And so for me to have my first role in this show where it was just all of us together, you know, talking about hair, talking about life right now, talking about all of it, was so meaningful.

[10:18] Khadija Tariyan: My name is Khadija Tariyan and I made my debut in King Kong. Mine's a bit of a blur, because I sort of went in with my eyes just like that. I think it was two or three times that I auditioned. So first I heard about this audition through a friend in a group text. My agents didn't send me out on this, which is how I've booked most of my jobs. I did The Wiz live as well. Heard about it through the grapevine and friends that were going. And I was like, well, I'm going to do it.

[10:44] Khadija Tariyan: You know, maybe I could, why not me? You know, so I just went in and I walked into this audition as well. And I auditioned as a puppeteer first for Kong, because that's part of my background. I was in a show called Fuerza Bruta before. First we took a yoga class. It was very different than anything that I expected. Then we did a lot of, we ran around, gave a lot of high fives and I was like, what's going on? And they wanted to see how we would react to things just thrown at us. Then we did a lot of strength testing, carrying people. I had, and then we did tumbling. I don't tumble. I did somersaults off the mat, kind of like taking, like, yep. Man, I went in with this, why not me? And this sense of play and let's try it and just put your best foot forward.

And that's ultimately what they were looking for. They were looking for someone to be like, okay, I don't have that skill set yet, but how do I continue to stay in the game? How do I continue to play? Because working with Kong is unlike anything anybody has ever done before. There's no way to prepare for that. So then after that, then we sung and then they brought us back in and I'm not sure if it's the same day or not, but we continued with our strength training, with our tumbling, with our, and then we sang again. And then at a later date, they called us in to partner, to dance, to see if we were eligible to dance with the ensemble. And then we sang once again. We had 900 children come that are homeless and they provided lunch for them.

They were so excited for this show. And when Kong came out, if you've seen King Kong's entrance, they were screaming their little faces off. It was incredible. It felt like you could almost feel the wind coming back. And we were just, we have like our hoods on, we're darkly lit, but we're all just laughing. And we're all so energized because of them. They were with us every step of the way. And just to have children in the audience that are so excited to be with you, we were so thankful to have them. I've never been more moved or more thankful to have certain people in the audience. Yeah, that was my top.

[13:23] Jack Sipple: My name is Jack Sipple and I am the swing and dance captain at The Prom. Mine was very quick. So with The Prom, I auditioned over a year ago and they had already had a company because they had done an out-of-town trial in Atlanta. They had done previous labs. So they were looking for very specific people and very limited people. So we auditioned, we walked in one day, we danced the combination, we sang our song. I think I was in the room for maybe 30 minutes that day. Left, got the call back for the following week, went in, did the same thing. But I think we were in the room for maybe like 10 minutes. We reviewed it once and then they're like, okay, let's do it. And there's no like, let's refresh and learn it again.

You just go and you do it and then sang my song, left, and then I got the job that night. And then, yeah, it was a very quick turnaround. But then we did the lab about a year ago. So it was for the lab production and then I already knew I had both contracts moving forward through September. So things that really stood out to me was, one was in the rehearsal when we were doing one of our final runs. And this is coming from the standpoint of being someone who's on the younger end of being on Broadway. Walking into the room, it was all those chairs are set up because you're doing your little presentation before you move to tech. And seeing all the smaller chairs and then there were five taller chairs in the back and it said Casey Nicholaw, Casey Hushen, John McGinnis, Jack Sipple, Mary Mitchell Campbell.

Then sitting and watching and kind of looking side to side and be like, wow, these are the people who make it happen. You know what I mean? Of all the shows that are out there, they have just a few hits. So that was a really cool moment. And then it was first getting a playbill and opening it up to the page where it has the producer. It's almost, I don't know what, not the cover page. What is that called when it has everyone's name really small and it has just who is on it and then it has the dance captain line and then my name was there in its own line. Because the whole point of the younger end, what I was meaning was growing up, you're always like, yes, I would love to do Broadway. But in my perspective, I always kind of felt like it was for people who had fully graduated college and have made it happen for themselves already and then made it to Broadway.

I always felt like it was for, I don't want to say the older crowd. That sounds terrible. But do you know what I mean? The more mature, older human being. I don't know how to put that nicely. Yeah, more experienced, sure. So then coming in and starting my whole journey at 16 was a whole, I'm not 16, but starting my whole journey at 16 was just a different phase. So then that's why these moments really stood out because I was like, wow, we're making it happen. We're doing it. So that was really cool.

[16:51] Tiana Okoye: My name is Tiana Koye and I made my debut in The Cher Show. So I'm from LA originally and the team came out to LA to audition. So it was just, I think I had two days of auditions and that was it. First was a dance call and the only person I knew was Bernie Telsey that was in the room. I didn't know anyone else. I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't really see, I was like, oh, The Cher Show, who knows what it's going to be like. So I went in with zero expectations and just sort of to like have fun and cheer my friends on and that's what I did. And so I did that. We danced and then I got asked to stay and sing. So I did that. And then they had a day of callbacks where we danced again and sang again.

And then that was it. And the following week I booked the job and that was just for the out of town tryout. But I think that that was guaranteed the Broadway spot as well. But I think they already had the lab. So they already had a secure cast in place. There were just a few tracks that they were looking for. So I happened to fit one of those tracks and here I am. Cher. Oh my God. Opening night, you guys. Cher. So we had like a rehearsal the day of opening that we all were just so mad about because they're like, of course, opening day, we have rehearsal. So we got called into rehearsal and we had some like opening, you know, the gypsy robe and or the, sorry, what is it called now? Legacy robe.

Legacy robe. Um, things like that. And that I had never been a part of were really exciting. Um, but then we did a rehearsal for a sing through of turn back time with Cher and Cher wasn't there yet, but we're like, hopefully this is going to happen. Hopefully Cher is going to come on stage at the end of the show. As Stephanie is thinking all of these people who have made this happen and she's going to come on stage and sing with us. And it happened. Um, she, she walked right past me and I'm, and she's been to rehearsal several times. She's seen the show. She came to Chicago, um, for out of town and she came a few times during tech and things like that. Um, but to perform with her on stage was just incredible.

Um, so that was for sure one for me. Um, another would be to, uh, for me, was walking into the theater for the first time and seeing the set there, walking up to the marquee, seeing the lights and walking into the dressing room. It was just that day was, was a lot to take in. Like this is my Broadway dressing room. I get to share. It was, it was insane. And I just felt so, so lucky and so blessed in that moment. And then my last highlight, there are three that were just so important to me. We're having my parents there opening night. I would have, I wouldn't have had anyone else there with me. There was no question. Um, you know, who's going to get the tickets for opening night. It was my parents. Like, um, like Kim said, they're the, they're the ones that made it happen. And without them, I wouldn't be where I am today. So it was really, really, really special to have them there with me.

[20:30] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Kimberly Dodson, Tiana Okoye, Nikhil Saboo, Jack Sipple, and Khadijah Tariyan for sharing their stories with us this week. You can learn more about them and how to connect with them online by visiting our website, theensemblist.com. The Ensemblist was produced today by me, Mo Brady. You can help others find out about The Ensemblist by leaving us a rating and review on Apple podcasts. Seriously, it's super easy to do. And it really does help our exposure. If you like these stories that we've been bringing you the last few months, you can also download episodes wherever you get your podcasts or at theensemblist.com. Also follow us on Instagram to see the latest posts from our website, where we are sharing the stories of talented artists working on Broadway, national tours, regional theaters, the West End. Really, there's a lot of great content there. So be sure to check that out. And thanks for listening, guys. Until next time.