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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:15] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Backstage Talk. Today's guest is Grace Aki.

[0:22] Grace Aki: Grace is a comedian, performer, painter, writer, and marketing strategist.

[0:28] Grace Aki: She does a lot of things, and trust me, she does them very well.

[0:35] Martín Acuña: Following her win for Best Actress Award for her role as Princess Fiona in Shrek at the historic Tivoli Theater, Grace moved to New York. Her show, To Free a Mockingbird, is an emotional rollercoaster that will make you laugh, cry, and question your own family dynamics. At least, that's what happened to me when I saw Grace. So I am really honored to have such an iconic person on the show. So Grace, welcome to Backstage Talk.

[1:07] Grace Aki: What a warm welcome, and also references to before I moved here. What an amazing chat. I'm so excited. We've been wanting to have this conversation forever, so this is really, really special. Thank you so much for having me on your show.

[1:21] Martín Acuña: No, it's truly my honor. So what did I miss on your bio? Because you are truly a multi-hyphenate.

[1:29] Grace Aki: Yeah. It's hard to not sound like a total egomaniacal psychopath, but you're right. I do a lot of stuff, and I chalk that up to trying to be the perfect child growing up of like, I can do everything, I promise. I don't know if that's Asian American upbringing or what, but I'm just saying that it is something, and we all want to do our best, especially for our parents. Yeah, I took up too much shit. Someone asked me the other day, I did an AMA on Instagram, and someone said, what is your favorite hobby? And then I had a really hard time trying to narrow down what my hobbies are, because I do so much that I enjoy that aren't hobbies. I've monetized so many things that I enjoy, which I need to probably dial back on. Do something just for you. And yeah, so I agree, I do a lot of stuff.

[2:25] Martín Acuña: But there you are, like, being groundbreaking things, doing groundbreaking things on everything you do. Like, you are a marketing strategist, you are also a writer, you perform, you sing, you paint. I remember seeing on Twitter, maybe, or Instagram, a friend of mine got your Sondheim drawing, the watercolor drawing, and I was like, I want that for my apartment.

[2:55] Grace Aki: I want one too. I'm going to send you one. It was funny, unfortunately, after his passing, someone commissioned me to do a Stephen Sondheim-like portrait, and I was so honored. Then I did a reprint of it, because they obviously got the original, and I did a reprint for my gallery showing, and then someone bought that original reprint and a really nice frame. And so now I'm like, I've got to add it to my Etsy, because everyone loves it. I just didn't want to be profiting off of his passing. I wanted to give it some time of, I'm honoring his work, hopefully. Yeah, I'm such a big fan. I'm actually literally holding, I just finished this piece for Into the Woods, and so you can see milky white and everything, I know. I haven't even posted about it yet, but I'm literally holding it, because I have to get it to the printer.

[3:40] Grace Aki: Yeah, I love being able to be an artist in 100 different facets, because growing up, I just decided that art didn't have to be limited. It can be any kind of medium that you want, but I always had a business brain, because I don't know, we grew up in a capitalist society, and I just became that kid of wanting to know everything there was to know about selling and buying, and how people are attracted to what things. And so I was a young college student at University of Tennessee, and I was like, I want to learn. I'm an artist, and I love performing, but I don't know if performing pays the bills. So I want to be in an entrepreneurship program, and entrepreneurship was a really strange major under business school and marketing.

But yeah, so I took up with that, and ended up starting to help teach and facilitate in my second semester, and I was like, okay, I think I know what I'm doing, and became the marketing director for a nonprofit theater company, which is a whole other story after that, and then became a choreographer with them, and then started performing with them. It was just this whole thing. So I've always had a business brain, because I think that the arts often are severely lacking in one or the other. It's like creative brain or business brain, and I've tried to always be a person of both disciplines, because I think that they help feed each other. And as you know, the arts, we have to think of that next thing, and I think, especially as performance artists now, we have to know how to market ourselves.

Our social presence is your resume. You cannot have performed in anything regionally, but if you're big on TikTok, you might have more opportunities than other people. And it's not so much for clout or fame or influence, but it's more so just to be understanding of how to navigate this next chapter of especially theater. So I just enjoy it. I don't know.

[5:40] Grace Aki: And I love it. But in everything that you do, and everything that you are, what would be a random fun fact about you?

[5:51] Grace Aki: Okay. A random fun fact about me that a lot of people don't know is that I'm like an award-winning mime. I know it sounds like I made it up, and it kind of is. But basically what happened was that when I was in high school, I got some feedback. I'm not going to name names, because I'm still a teacher. But I got feedback that I wasn't really cut out for the musical at the time, and that if I could just find a different way to perform. And so I was really, I guess, vindictive and said, well, then I'm going to be so good at performing, I'm not even going to have to use words. And so I started taking mime lessons with this literally professional mime. And then we created this four-minute piece that I used some of the music from WALL-E, and I competed at the Georgia Thespian Conference.

And then I won like top 10 in performance all around and beat all the other mimes, if there even were some. And yeah, I got able to like, they said, oh, you can go to like nationals with this. And I was like, I'm graduating, so no. But it's like in many ways, you know, again, that I even tried to excel in a thing that I had never done. It's kind of like a family pattern thing. But yeah, miming, that's a random fun fact about me. So I have a four-minute mime piece if anybody ever wants to watch it.

[7:13] Martín Acuña: I love that. I love that because it was a challenge. They challenged you. And you were like, I'm going to nail this.

[7:18] Grace Aki: Yeah, I'm just that much of a cuckoo person of like, I will find the thing and I will knock it. I will try to knock it out of the park so that you go, oh, okay, well, I can, I, you can, you could try to do anything, you know what I mean? And that's like, always been a fire under me for sure.

[7:39] Martín Acuña: I love that. But let's trace it a little bit back. Which was your aha moment in which you said, I want to perform?

[7:43] Grace Aki: Hmm. I mean, parent validation, geez, you know what I mean? Like, I think that when I was, I think it was like five years old or something. I auditioned quote unquote for my first like little play and I couldn't read fully yet, but my mom like read me the quote sides. And I, I went into the audition. It was for like the three little pigs and they were like, oh, you know, you're, you're really, you're really expressive. We're going to make you quackers the duck. And my mom thought, oh, she's like in the ensemble. Like, you know, I had just been dancing since I was three. I hadn't like performed, you know, with voice or anything like that. And it turned out that quackers was like the lead of the show because she was trying to pay the three little pig or she was paying the wolf to get the three pigs out because they didn't like them.

And it was like this weird adaptation, but it was kind of, and my mom was so excited and impressed that I could take this like dumb character at like five and make it a thing. And I think the validation and the humor of like the audience, it made me so happy. Like I was so excited to bring like joy in that way, especially like through humor. Cause I was such like a comedy nerd, even as a child that I think that that might, that might be the aha moment because I was the first time I remember having an audience and going, oh, I really like this. And granted like, you know, alcoholic dad, like always trying to like be a performer for my family. I'm just like, yeah, this is like in my bones. So that might be it.

[9:17] Martín Acuña: Well, I get you. Like there are a lot of touch points between your story and my personal story that is like, I feel you girl. Yeah. Yeah. Family, either parent validation plus one alcoholic parent trauma mixed in there trying to always be or have a smile on its face. I feel you. So yeah. And what would be the reason why you chose musical theater?

[9:48] Grace Aki: I think cause it's the most, like musical theater is something where you are not only singing, you are acting, you are dancing. And those are all three things. I just was like, wait, hold on. You can roll up all the things I enjoy doing in one. And I really, particularly in musical theater, loved that there were opportunities to like do voices. Like you mentioned earlier, like one quote, best actress for doing Shrek as like princess Fiona. That wasn't my favorite part of that show. One, it was having to learn a tap dance and I wasn't a tapper, but the other was that I also got to voice Jinji. And that was more fun to me than like playing the, you know, the titular like princess Fiona. I was like, that's really cool.

And I love the color green, but getting to like sit in the orchestra pit and voice Jinji from like down low and do my like funny character voices, that, that was like, that's what I love so much. So, um, musical theater is just something that I think like brings us all together. And it's so multifaceted because my favorite shows personally are not always the ones that are like the tent poles of musical theater. Like, um, and I'm not like, Ooh, I'm, I'm different, but I just mean to say that like, not always the, you know, the big Oklahoma's, the big, you know, hello dollies and all that. Like I was the, the girl in middle school that every, that everybody listens to this podcast. I'm sure it was with spring awakening and like, um, even like later once and American idiot, like that's some of my favorite musical theater memories on Broadway or the, the more rock and roll, um, intimate shows. Cause I was like, this is just so different. So yeah.

[11:25] Martín Acuña: I love that. So how would you summarize your whole journey in this industry from moving from Georgia to New York, doing your, um, your, uh, premiere of your show of to free a mockingbird, uh, which I truly hope crossing fingers, you will stream again. You will have another season in any theater in New York. Um, so listeners, if you have the chance, you need to see this show. Um, so yeah. Tell us about that, that whole journey.

[11:58] Grace Aki: Yeah. Uh, thank you for that again. That's so, so kind. Um, I think that my journey can kind of be summarized as the same as most other people that didn't go to like NYU or Nebo baby. Like I moved to New York because my boyfriend at the time was, uh, had his Broadway debut and I was like, Oh my God, my life is going to change forever. And I moved and then that Broadway show closed. And I was like, so I've got to get a job. And so I started taking classes at like UCB for like improv. And I started doing standup. Um, my first standup gig in New York city was the comedy seller. That's crazy. Like if little grace could see, like, I, I always beat myself up and I'm like, great. Like you've gotten to do all these really cool things.

And, um, so yeah, my, my journey was just as avant-garde as everybody else's. And because I didn't go to school here or for theater, like it was definitely different. Cause I didn't have those like school connections or anything like that, but like, you know, my first gig in New York city was dancing on Idina Menzel's float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, because right before I moved to New York, the girl that, the woman that was in, um, Shrek with me that played like the mama bear, her cousin was the casting director for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And they needed a girl that was under five feet and here she was, you know? And, um, so it's, yeah, all, all those important, like, even, even if you're doing things like regionally, you're out of town, like all those things matter how you treat people matters.

And so, um, yeah, my, my journey was strange. And the only reason I started doing my show was honestly, cause I was like, I'm the only one who can write my own story. I'm the only one that can write and perform the way I do. And so even while I'm auditioning, I, I, you can do your own work. Like no one told me how to do this. I just kept applying and kept working on it. And I took classes at the Barrow group and, um, anytime you have the opportunity. And again, like I had to work really like high-end jobs to make sure I could pay for those classes. Right. Cause it's not just as easy as like, Oh, just show up. It's like those classes are four or $500, you know, every like three weeks. So, um, yeah, it's, it's definitely a challenge, but I'm really proud of all of the hard work that went into making that happen.

And, and so I'm just still on that path and I'm so fortunate now I have a great agent and, um, like literally she just texted me and was like, where are these pages? Cause I'm working on this, like adaptation of a, of a thing. And, um, it's great. So I'm just, um, I'm really, uh, fortunate that it's just work. My, my, my journey has just been a lot of work and, um, hopefully continuing to, to, to be the best thing that I can give myself, you know what I mean?

[14:47] Grace Aki: Your piece, let's talk about your solo show, To Free a Mockingbird. How did it come to life?

[14:56] Grace Aki: Yeah, it's silly, but I was living in the Bronx. Thanks to like a Facebook roommate request thing that I answered, and my roommate who I didn't yet really know, his name is Joe Farrelly. He's now one of my best friends. He's about to get married. And Joe sat me down. I had just come back from Georgia. And if you know anything about the show, the end of the show, I had just come back from that, back to New York. And I had just dealt with a family loss and taking care of two family losses back to back that I had to take care of as like a 22-year-old to take care of their arrangements. And so my friend sat me down. I didn't know him at all. And he goes, can you just tell me the story of what happened?

And of course, he's like a theater guy. And he was like, I just want to know the history of it. And I said, sure. I guess I could start at the beginning because we've got nothing else to do tonight. And you're going to get to know me really well because I'm going to overshare. And I don't know if he recorded me, but he sat there for about an hour and a half, two hours while I just gushed like a life story at him and almost verbatim the show that you see to Free Mockingbird. And he was like, OK, well, thank you for sharing that. I think you one day need to share that with everyone and whatever you need from me. I want to be a sounding board because that's a story that needs to be told. And just one person telling me that that is a story worth hearing was what I needed.

And I just always want to encourage people that if you have one person that says that to you, that's it. And hopefully, and even if you don't have the person around you, tell yourself that because like you just said at the top of this, like you immediately identified. I don't think that you have to have lived the same traumas specifically to, you know, to correlate yourself. Right. So I appreciate so much that you saw yourself in that. And I think that the more, you know, descriptive your stories are, the more actually that they are resonating with other audiences. You know what I mean? Like I'm so descriptive. I'm like, this is my Mimi from Japan. This is my mom's immigration story. This is all the things.

And I'm like, not all. Not everybody has a mom named Margaret, but somebody's got a Margaret, you know, and their family or they've got a Bruce. And yeah, it's just that was that was what it was. The guys sat me on the couch in the Bronx and said, tell me the story. And I did.

[17:37] Martín Acuña: And I just have to say thank you for sharing your story, because as I said in the beginning, when I saw it, I was like, well, I know that Grace does comedy, so maybe I'm going to laugh. And he started laughing. And then through half of it, I was like bawling my eyes out and crying so hard. And I was like, Grace, you didn't have to do this to me. And then at the end, it was just like, I have this like warm feeling in me of like this completion journey that you had that most of us, as you said, we can correlate to your story, but we have that completion journey, that healing journey throughout all of it. And it's just I just love that show. And I'm really, really happy that I caught it online. So, yeah, it's a really great show. And thank you for pouring your heart out.

[18:36] Grace Aki: Oh, thank you so much. No, I I've been so fortunate just because you mentioned that like you you've streamed it. I have been so fortunate that the organizations, especially SheNYC and SheATL, were so great about recording that and then putting it out for streaming online. Streaming accessibility is not common. And you would think after the pandemic it would have been. But I am so fortunate that those kinds of organizations that especially cater to women and gender nonconforming playwrights specifically are making theater accessible in that way. So look at that. You would not have had the opportunity to see the show if it weren't for them. So I'm so grateful. But I hope that other, you know, organizations will follow in lockstep with that because it's just it has absolutely made it to where I can pitch my show because there's a recording of it to theater companies for my agent. Like it has done so much for the life of the show that would not exist if I had just done it like I had done for years in a basement. So I'm just throwing that out there.

[19:41] Martín Acuña: What advice would you give someone that wants to be in this industry?

[19:45] Grace Aki: Oh, God. You know, I think that's a great question. I genuinely think that a lot of what I have learned has been through annoying amounts of research. And I genuinely mean research through Instagram, TikTok, Netflix, like watching every single person you admire and not just fangirling. I'm not talking about just like fanning them, you know, like we can watch all day long, like someone's like red carpet shoot and you're like, that's great. But if you watch even people you know, you know what? This is the advice. Watch people you don't like. And I'll specify. Okay. So let's say that there's a director or whatever that you're like, I don't really care for them or whatever. But if they're successful in their field, maybe watch the documentary about how they got there.

Maybe watch, you know, some even an episode of Hot Ones with an actor you don't particularly like because sometimes they've got nuggets of advice. And if you limit yourself to the people that you're obsessed with, you're not going to learn that much because you're just obsessed with them. And that's awesome. Continue to be obsessed. Continue to be gagged. But I think that you can learn a lot from people that you aren't particularly always fond of or particularly invested in because to some degree, they are successful in whatever it is. And so getting to and then sometimes you go, oh, that's not something that I would have done. But oh, who do they study with? And then you can kind of like rabbit hole from there.

For example, I didn't know what the Barrow Group was. This is not a commercial for the Barrow Group, but it also is. I didn't know who the Barrow Group was. But I was a big fan of Mike Rabiglia's solo work. If you saw his latest show, you know, at Lincoln Center, it was excellent. It's no longer there. So I don't I'm not promoting it. Right. But I was like, he's a solo comedian that is not a, quote, stand up comic. He's a storyteller. That's what I am. I'm a storyteller. What does he do? I noticed that he worked with the same director on every show, Seth Barish. I Googled Seth Barish. Seth Barish has a book called An Actor's Companion. I went to the drama bookshop, had thirteen dollars. I bought the book.

Right. I got it home. I was like, I want to study under this guy. He understands storytelling. Right there. I did. I took up his class at the Barrow Group for literally solo storytelling. And that was one of the great it's it's continued to be the greatest thing that I ever did for the solo show life of it, because I understood how to consolidate because I've always been a storyteller. I think I understand that arc pretty well. But learning these little like tricks that he he told everyone to understand. And then I was sitting in a room of other storytellers and I got to watch their process, which was very different than mine. I learned so much. But if I had not Googled this guy who I was like, oh, he does storytelling and then gone down the rabbit hole of like this director and then finding out that he teaches a class like just go down the rabbit holes, educate yourself.

That shit was free. I couldn't afford to have classes at that time, but I kind of, you know, doing your own work in that sense will pay off. Like I didn't go to college for for the arts at all, but through the Internet, I think we're more accessible now than ever to educate ourselves. As long as you're, you know, going about it and in all the ways. But that's that's the advice I would have. Like, don't think that because you aren't a nipple baby or because you aren't already, you know, going to Carnegie Mellon or Michigan that you're fucked. You're not. You're totally not. I just think that you have to get in get in rooms because I also know that it is like a who you know type of thing, but continuing to be a great person and great person to work with. You're a shitty person. Sorry. I don't know what to do. But I think I think, yeah, it's just Google. Google's free. I say this to everybody. I'm like, Google's free. It's out there.

[23:28] Martín Acuña: What's the risk that you've taken that has totally paid off?

[23:36] Grace Aki: Oh, my gosh. That is a really good question. I saw that on. Oh, you know, I thought that especially like now I have my podcast. Tell me on a Sunday. It's a storytelling podcast where I get to do a very similar thing to what you're doing. But you're amazing at this. Is that I kept thinking, oh, I can't have a podcast until I've done blank. Oh, I can't have a solo show until I've done blank. Oh, I can't. And I would just like set myself up for failure all the time. And it like literally didn't make sense. Like, I don't know why I was like being my own barrier. So I think the biggest risk is to say that I am worthy to do all the things I want to do. I think that I can be, you know, Joan Rivers fashion police one day.

I think I can be the the most requested like red carpet correspondent. I think I can be, you know, the premier like new solo artist, like opening up with like Hassan Minhaj or something. I think I can do all these things. And I probably can because I've tricked myself into thinking that I'm worthy of it. So I think that my biggest risk is almost daily, monthly. If I have a dream, I don't tell myself, well, that's that's kind of that's out of the question. No, I I trick myself into believing that it's real and that it's such a risk because it's a risk to your mental health. It's a risk to, you know, the people around you. But like just choosing and it has literally paid off. Like I people always say the thing of like manifesting.

And and I'm like, I think that we've just desensitized ourselves to the word. So I'm kind of reframing it to say that, like, take the risk on yourself, which sounds like it's such a dumb, privileged thing to say. But I genuinely, genuinely believe it, that loving yourself is like step one. And I didn't understand it. I didn't understand until I hit like truly a rock bottom, because I would say that. But it felt like bullshit, like genuinely was like, oh, like, believe in yourself. And you're like, OK, girl, you know, but yeah, and also like surrounding yourself with people that also bright in your days. Oh, my God. Yeah. Brighten your days like people that are showing you the same love you're showing them and like the people that are honest with you.

Like, I don't think that that's a thing. But I think that this thing that you that you're kind of into, you're really good at lean into it, you know. So I think that's a roundabout way of saying, like, that positivity that's honest, not not bullshit honesty or, you know, bullshit positivity. But I think that like, honest, honest earnestness.

[26:17] Martín Acuña: Love that. Last question. What are your top five favorite musical theater shows?

[26:26] Grace Aki: OK, let's count them down. I think that Spring Awakening is forever like in the top, like I would see every version of it if they came out with a Rugrats cartoon version of Spring Awakening, I would be the first one to be like, can I be a Tommy Pickle? Like, I don't care. I'll do it. Spring Awakening, Fun Home changed my life. I think everyone that has ever watched it. I was more invested in Alison Bechdel's work than I've ever been as like a queer person. Yeah, I think Fun Home is like number two. Gosh, I think that the I was trying not to name something that's like on Broadway right now, but Hedwig, I have it tattooed to my rib cage for a reason. It's one of the greatest stories ever told.

John Cameron Mitchell, like, you know, step on me like I think that the greatest thing ever. That's number three. Gosh, let me. I think West Side Story, I'll say four for West Side Story because I think it was very formative to my love of musical theater. Like I think that that right, like I think it's everyone has like this one I have to like always call out. It was my mom's favorite and I became obsessed with Natalie Wood. And then later I was like, maybe Natalie Wood shouldn't have played that part. But we do love her. We do love her. It's not her fault, Bestie, like it's not. But we do. We do love what and also dance. I was, you know, I grew up a dancer. So the dance expression of it was so stunning to me.

I think number five, because there's never a time when I don't press play and listen to it top to bottom and cry a little bit is Once. Like I think that I think I yeah, I could see a production of Once anywhere and be thrilled. Not a lot of funnies in there. I'm sorry to say, you know, girl, sad girl vibes. Sorry, everybody.

[28:24] Martín Acuña: Grace, as you said on your show, there is nothing more valuable that it can give to someone else than your time. And I want to truly deeply thank you for giving us your time on this show. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure and honor. And you know, I love you and sending you all my love from here.

[28:47] Grace Aki: Oh, I love you. And I've never been quoted to me on a podcast. That was beautiful. I'm so honored that you've spent your time with me. And I can't wait to like continue to listen to your amazing podcast and like continue to be like a beacon of your stories. Like please, please, please, like if you're not familiar, like everybody look each other up because like this is how we fall in love and follow each other and artistic journey. So thank you so much for having me on the show.

[29:11] Martín Acuña: Thanks, everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.