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

[0:16] Martín Acuña: Jonathan Larson asked how can you make someone take off and fly in one of his songs from Tick Tick Boom, and I, for the past two years, have learned one way to do it, through the power of community. Welcome to the Latinx in Musical Theater Special for Season 3 of Backstage Talk, where we will be featuring artists from across all positions in musical theater, from several Latin American countries and different Latin heritages. I am proud to showcase my Latinx family. I hope you enjoy.

[0:51] Martín Acuña: Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Backstage Talk. Today's guest is a great singer and musical theater performer which I had the fortune to work with 10 years ago in my first high school musical. Laura Kalop was my vocal coach in Mamma Mia back in 2011, and since then she has released two full-length albums that truly honor Colombian traditional music and sound, and mixes it with her pop-style voice. She has worked in Colombian adaptations of Dear Evan Hansen, Godspell, and more, and she has also been part of big concerts with the Philharmonic of Bogota, and recently in a David Bowie tribute. Laura, thank you for being here. I am really excited and honored to have you, and welcome to Backstage Talk.

[1:48] Laura Kalop: Oh, thank you so much, Martín, and thank you everyone. This is such a pleasure to be here, and just, you know, sharing my life experiences with you, and thank you. Thank you for your invitation. First thing I want to ask you is what made you choose the thespian and artist path in life?

[2:08] Laura Kalop: Well, it's always been like inside of me, like in my DNA, because I come from a family that is really musical, like all my dad and my cousins and everyone, like my aunts and everyone, they're always involved in music. They were always involved in music, and my mother, she used to be a ballerina, and she used to teach, so both my parents created this music academy, which now is like an organization that we bring music to people and to children that don't have the opportunity to have music, you know, in their lives. But I grew up like in this children's choir that my parents founded, and since then, I actually never realized that I would do anything else. I always thought about music and singing. It was just like in my soul, you know?

[3:08] Laura Kalop: I love it. I love it. That is something that has happened to a lot of us, that it wasn't like a big transformation moment in our lives. We just simply knew we belonged on a stage.

[3:23] Laura Kalop: Yeah, totally, totally, yeah. And actually, my mom was like, you know, conducting the choir while she was pregnant with me, so I was always there, like, you know? From the start.

[3:38] Martín Acuña: I love it. Tell me a little bit about your journey in musical theater, because you started as a singer, and you are now working as a voice teacher, as a performer for different types of plays.

[3:55] Laura Kalop: Yeah, well, I first started singing, like, classical style, since I was like 16 years old, and then I realized, because I was also writing my own songs since I was 10 years old, so I just realized that I wanted to sing my music, and I could not, you know, have, like, the vocal bases, like, in technique, vocal bases. Only with the lyrical style, I knew I had to work my contemporary voice, so then I started having my voice lessons, like, in the contemporary style, and after I graduated from composition at the Havariana University here in Bogota, I decided I wanted to do my master's, but then I was like, okay, there are these masters, like, in classical voice or in jazz, but I'm not. I'm not both of them, like, neither, so I just found out that there was musical theater masters at NYU and BoCo, and then I said, okay, this is nice, because I need to work also in my stage development, you know, dancing, acting, and whatever, so I said, okay, I'm gonna apply and see what happens, and then I got in both universities, so I said, okay, I will do this no matter what, and then I started doing it, and it is just, you know, revealing for me, because it's a world and it's a style where I can work both sides, like, the lyrical and the contemporary style, which I love.

[5:30] Martín Acuña: I love that, because one thing that you've mentioned, and I wanted to ask you about, was your approach to different styles of the use of the voice in musical theater, because you started in this traditional, very strict way of using your voice, and then you discovered how to mix all these different styles with your voice, so I want to know your approach.

[5:52] Laura Kalop: Yeah, sure. I guess that because of my background in classical and both contemporary, I discovered in the technique that I learned at NYU, which is, like, I love that technique, and I learned by the Dr. Gill studies. He's, like, the head of the voice program there at NYU, and he's just clever. This guy is just, wow, so this technique was just amazing, because it helped me to navigate through my register, like, super easy, you know, so I could do the style I would like, and then if I would navigate easily through my register, I could go through other techniques and other styles, like the lyrical or the classical or the contemporary, saying, you know, pop or folk music or whatever I could do, you know, Latin American music, like salsa and everything, I could go there, too, as well.

[6:57] Martín Acuña: I love it. It's all about being flexible with our own instrument, with our own voice.

[7:03] Laura Kalop: Yeah, sure, sure. After that, I started working a lot through that transverse, like, it's cross-training, that's the name. It's the cross-training technique where you can go and navigate through different styles with your voice, like, easily, you know?

[7:19] Martín Acuña: I love it. I love it. What advice would you tell a younger version of yourself?

[7:25] Laura Kalop: Wow, a younger version of me? I would say that just, you know, be true to yourself, and don't let anyone, even if it's, like, people very close to you, like your family or whatever, don't let them doubt about you, you know? Because I used to be, like, very truthful to myself, and I was, like, you know, like this stubborn girl or child that used to, you know, be very clear about my goals, but then when I grew up and I started, like, doubting a lot about myself because I was starting to believe in what people were telling me what to, you know, to arrange about myself as an artist, and then after I had my first kid, because I'm a mom now, I decided that I'm not gonna let that anymore happen, you know? My God, sorry, my English is a little bit weird at this point, but yeah, after I'm a mom, I decided that I, you know, I'm gonna be myself as an artist, and I'm gonna be truthful to that, so I would say that to my younger version.

[8:41] Martín Acuña: I love it. Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about Latins in musical theater. What is visibility and representation for you?

[8:48] Laura Kalop: Okay, visibility for me would be, like, you know, trying to audition to anything you can. Audition is just like an art. It's such as important, it's just as important as being on stage in a production, you know? For me, auditioning is super important because then people will get to know you, and you will be, like, knocking their doors and saying, hey, here I am, you know? And then if you'll get into a production, then it's great, because then you will have visibility not only on stage, but you can do that in your media, you know? How do you say that? On your social media platforms.

[9:30] Laura Kalop: Yeah, on your social media, which is nowadays really important that people, you know, people like to know about your life and what you're doing, you know? And representation, yeah, I would feel, and I resonate with the idea that it represents what you are as an artist, and always be truthful to that. If there's this one show, or there's this group of people, or the cast where you're working with, you don't feel you represent you as an artist or as a human being, because it also happens, then you try to be as truthful as you can with your artist, you know? Because there are times that it's tough, you know? Like, in the environment that we, yeah, in our industry, yeah, it's just that it's very tough. So sometimes people try to make you doubt about yourself as an artist. Don't let that happen. Always be truthful to that.

[10:32] Martín Acuña: Absolutely. So you've had the chance to know how the industry works here in Colombia, but also how it works in New York on Broadway. How do you think we can increase Latin visibility and representation on Broadway?

[10:45] Laura Kalop: On Broadway, okay. Well, I guess it's kind of difficult. I mean, if you want to be on Broadway, you should go to New York. It's a must, you know? And start, like, going through small theaters. Like, I worked with Teatro SEA, which is a theater that works at the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and they make productions for Latin American people. And it's really nice because it's productions for kids or productions for adults or whatever, but they're always doing theater or musical theater, and it's great. And then they're off-Broadway productions, then you can go up, and then you can go on knocking doors and whatever to Broadway. But it's difficult because if you're a Latin, then you will always get, like, you know, how do you say that?

Cataloged as a Latin American character. And it's not always that, you know? A really good example is Bianca Paloma Marroquí, which I love, and I always follow her, and she's, like, a goddess there because she could have made it, and that's not an easy path to follow. And the other stuff that I would say is that we should valorate and we should appreciate a lot the underground productions that are occurring here in Bogota or in Colombia, you know? Because all of this, it's, like, stranding up the, you know, the scene, the musical theater scene here in Colombia. So we should still, like, invest in that.

[12:27] Martín Acuña: I agree. I love it. Laura, thank you so much for coming. I am honored to have you as a guest. I have loved this conversation. If someone wants to contact you to follow you on social media, where can they find you?

[12:39] Laura Kalop: Thank you, Martín, for having me here. It's such a pleasure. And yeah, of course, people can contact me through Instagram. It's at laurakalop. Laura, it's Laura, actually. Laura, K-A-L-O-P. Or through my email. That's laurakalop at gmail.com.

[13:02] Martín Acuña: Awesome. And one last question before we wrap up. Which are your top five favorite musical theater shows?

[13:08] Laura Kalop: Okay. Well, first of all, Les Mis. I love Les Mis. Seen it on Broadway. And, you know, it's amazing. I really loved it. Second, Wicked. I loved it as well. And musically, the story, you know, the vocals that you need to have for that. It's just amazing. Third, I love another one that I saw on Broadway that it's not that famous, but it's Promises Promises, which I love. Another one would be Carousel from Rodgers and Hammerstein. And of course, Phantom of the Opera. Yeah, I love it. I love it.

[13:49] Martín Acuña: Laura, thank you so much again. I have loved your thoughts, this whole conversation. And I cannot wait to see where you go next, what production you go on next. So thank you so much.

[14:02] Laura Kalop: Thank you, Martín, for the invitation. And I can't wait as well to see how everything goes out with your podcast. So thank you so much for your invitation and all the luck for you.

[14:17] 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.