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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 Theatre special for Season 3 of Backstage Talk, where we will be featuring artists from across all positions in musical theatre, 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 was born, raised and educated in Mexico. I have here with me Fernando Cárdenas. He moved to New York over 15 years ago. And by combining his professional career in media and his vocation of being a university professor, he has worked in every medium including print, digital, radio and TV. During his tenure in the United States, he launched VMI, Spanish Public Television, collaborated with Nielsen Studies to create Hispanic Television and became a digital producer at NY1 Noticias. It was in this New York local channel where he created the segment Escenario, dedicated to cover Latin presence on Broadway. Due to its success, Escenario soon extended to cover all the Hispanic theatre and culture in the Big Apple.

After devoting over a decade covering stage stories, Fernando is now the editor-in-chief of the Spanish website La Guía Cultural, or The Cultural Guide, and is part of the award committee of the Hispanic Organization of Hispanic Actors. Fernando, it is truly a pleasure and an honor to have you here. Welcome to Backstage Talk.

[2:09] Fernando Cárdenas: No, thank you very much for the invite, Martín. I am so excited when I get the chance to talk about our same passion with a colleague like you, because you usually have the big stars. So when you asked me to be there, I said, oh my god, this is such an honor. I wouldn't ever dare to dream of being a star, but I said, oh, I'm going to be in that podcast. Oh my god, someone's paying attention to what I do. Of course. So thank you, thank you.

[2:39] Martín Acuña: No, it's my pleasure. So, Fernando, you're a journalist, you are also a digital producer, but how did you end up working in theater? How did you end up choosing the thespian path in life?

[2:54] Fernando Cárdenas: Well, it's very funny that you ask this, and I'm pretty sure everyone will say or will provide the same answer. It all started when I was a kid, but yes, it is. I know it sounds cliché, but it is. Now, when it comes to a path, a professional path, like taking this as a career, I would say that my journey in musical theater started as a producer back in Mexico. We, the theater company, I founded with my best friend. We shared the passion for theater, and the company was called Misteria De Adro. So we produce several plays, you know, local authors, Mexican authors, and of course, we also provide, I mean, we also produce several musicals. Some of them are Notre Dame de Paris, the Luc Plamodan and Ricardo Cochiente version, and we also did a production of Kiss of the Spider Woman, you know, by Kendrick.

So that's where it all started. Then I moved to New York, and that's when I became a journalist in musical theater. By the mid-2000s, there was already a buzz about Bianca Marroquín starting in Chicago. So that's how it all started. I decided to interview her, and at that time, I was writing as a correspondent for Mexican magazines. I worked in several magazines. You know, you know, you know how the life of a freelancer is. So you attend and expect, well, you go and watch a show, and then you write, I wouldn't say the same piece, but you write similar pieces that you sell to different newspapers. Back then, we're talking about magazines. Imagine how old that is. That was like 20 years ago or something like that.

Anyway, so that's how I started covering the theater industry here in New York, the Broadway industry, because it is an industry. I think you and I have mentioned it. It is considered an industry because it generates jobs, money, positions, like it is a huge amount of money that moves this industry. That's why it is so important for the city and even for the country, I would say, because every musical will eventually, I mean, not all of them, but some of them will eventually become a movie, and they're going to reach the whole world. So we're talking about a global phenomenon, and it all originates in Broadway, in a workshop room, you know, in a rehearsal room where they are doing just lectures and everything.

I mean, readings and everything. So after that, I started working for New York One Noticias, and when I started there, I started as a writer before I became a producer. Then our New York One Noticias is the local Spanish channel that it's been here for like forever. Our sister station is New York One. If any of our listeners are from New York, and I think a lot of them are, they are familiar with New York One. Now, if any from another country are listening, you just have to watch a Marvel superhero movie, and all the reporters are there. They're all from New York One. There is even a series that it's called How I Met Your Mother. I don't know if you've seen it. One of the protagonists works in New York One.

Well, she says that works in New York One. But anyway, so they have a huge, a very important program. It's called On Stage, and it's just devoted to cover Broadway. All the theaters, the plays, the people in there, it's a very huge, huge success. We share all the content between New York One and New York One Noticias. So I said, well, why isn't anybody reporting on Broadway? We already have the interviews. We just need to dub them. We already have the takes, the B-roll, all the images. So why don't we do that? So I talked to my news director, and he approved it. I had already seen those plays, so I started writing reviews. Now, at the beginning, it was considered to be a little elitist. Like, oh my God, who will have a lot of money to pay for a Broadway ticket?

Which is true. It is true. We cannot deny that. But I also wanted to appeal to a different audience. We know that a lot of the immigrant audience is very modest. They live in a very modest way, and they really struggle with their jobs. Some of them keep, like, three jobs, and they have to send money home and the things. But there are also some other type of immigrants, and we're talking about the Hispanic market only. There is also a lot of people who are more wealthy and who can't afford a Broadway ticket without any problem, and that they like that. Now, of course, it's very funny that you're reporting about something in Spanish when the play is entirely in English. But I said, well, we have to do it no matter what.

Maybe some people will see us some other place. You know, no, really. Like, we have a lot of followers from Mexico and Spain and Colombia and Argentina. You know, there's educated people in all these Latin American countries. I mean, we all are as a society. We have all types of categories and all type of people everywhere. Anyway, so that's when I started or when I decided to extend my coverage to Off-Broadway. Because, you know, Off-Broadway is, like, the place where everything is born. All the creative and really alternative plays are there in the Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway. And then they start moving up, like it happened to In the Heights or Hamilton. It all started in an Off-Broadway theater with an Off-Broadway production. And then the producers came to see it. It was a huge success. And then they moved it up to Broadway. And then, well, you know, history is made.

[9:36] Martín Acuña: I love it. So, Fernando, what is your approach to journalism writing or to journalism in and for musical theater?

[9:44] Fernando Cárdenas: Well, first of all, it has to be honest and it has to be responsible. Because, you know, the power of media here on Broadway, it's so powerful. Like, you cannot imagine how bad a review can hurt, how badly it can hurt. If it is a good review, then you cannot imagine what a magnificent thing it is for a play. So, basically, what I'm telling you is, and we all know this, the press plays a very important role when it comes to a new musical. If all the reviews are in favor of the play, the play will leave. If they are against it, the play most likely will be, you know, moved or let go or removed from the Broadway theater. It doesn't mean it's going to be a flop. No, I'm not saying that. Because, you know, once they open on Broadway, the company or the play can go, or the musical in this case, can go and tour the U.S. And then they will be translated to another language and they will be, you know, a stage in a different country.

So, it doesn't really kill or it doesn't really die if they leave Broadway. The play or the musical will continue living in some other stages. However, a Broadway run will represent financially a really

[12:25] Fernando Cárdenas: I need to invest time in things or hobbies that are not related to my passion. So, if I am a journalist and I cover musical theater or theater in The Big Apple, then I need to do or I need to invest my time in things related to this, like producing a podcast, like editing a video, like shooting video, you know, how to operate cameras, how to operate mics. Because, you know, when you do it as a journalist nowadays, you basically have to do everything. You have to shoot your own piece. You have to do the voiceover. You have to edit a version, you know, a longer version that we leave in the website and then a shorter version for the online or the, not the online, the on-air piece. So, it is all these things. So, I would definitely recommend myself to start thinking practical and do things that will be in my benefit.

[13:31] Martín Acuña: So, Fernando, let's go back to the Latinx community in musical theater. What is visibility and representation for you?

[13:41] Fernando Cárdenas: Well, I do have to tell you one thing. New York has an impressive cultural theatrical scene in Spanish. Now, there is a lot of theater companies staging their plays or musicals in Spanish. And this is a whole industry as well. It's not as powerful as the Broadway industry. However, it is here. And the difference between the Spaniards or the Spanish community or the Chinese community or the Russian community, these other communities will bring their companies from their own countries. And they will spend here, you know, a season. Like, they will be here a month or two. Russian musicals or Chinese plays, whatever. But the difference is that the Spanish community, we have here all the people working from New York.

So, we have directors, we have playwrights, we have actors, we have stage managers, we have everything in here. And there is, I can tell you, a dozen of Spanish-speaking companies that will produce plays in Spanish and, you know, with English subtitles. But that's one thing. The other thing is when it comes to Broadway, because Broadway is the big leagues. I don't want to diminish anyone, but Broadway is the moneymaker, right? If you're on Broadway, you're making money. And somehow that money is getting to you. Even if you're an actor, they will pay you better if you're a Broadway actor than an off-Broadway actor. That we know. But that's not for us to change. It will change. I hope it does.

I don't know. That's why there are unions and everything. But anyway, so what we need to do to create that representation, that visibility, is we need to have not only actors, because actors and dancers are, you know, the people you see on stage, but how about a writer? How about a playwright? How about a director? How about a stage manager? A lighting designer? A costume designer? We need to have the people work in all these positions in order to create a whole vision of how the Latinos should be seen. So it's not, I mean, it is great to have one huge actress like Thelma Hyatt in Hollywood, but we're talking about individualities yet. We do not see a Latino crew there. You have to pay attention. So that's what it is.

[16:29] Fernando Cárdenas: I was just recently checking the last issue of Vanity Fair, and it was devoted to, it was dedicated to Star Wars and the afterlife of Star Wars. You know, the new shows and everything. And there were four people in that cover. It was Rosario Dawson, Pedro Pascal, Diego Luna, and Ewan McGregor. Out of those four protagonists, three of them were Latinos. And the most important thing here is when you want visibility, you basically need to erase that difference between being Latino or Black or white or yellow, whatever color you want, purple, any color. So I know it sounds like a total logic, but the more visibility you have is when you're invisible. So no one notices you as a Latino. Oh, they say, oh, it's this huge actor.

It's Diego Luna. We don't care. Oh, is he Mexican? Oh, well, yeah, it doesn't really matter. That's when you obtain that invisibility. That's when you gain it. And I know it sounds like a paradox, but it's not. But it actually makes a little bit of sense, and it would be a good way to increase Latin visibility and representation on Broadway and not just be like the diversity quote or the, yeah, whatever. That's the thing.

[18:12] Fernando Cárdenas: Oh, we're going to include these, and then with these we cover, and basically what they're doing now is they try to include a Black Latina actress. So they cover the Black, the Hispanic, and the woman quote. And that's somehow cheating. You don't have to do that. You give the role to someone who can play it or who will play it the best. And that's the thing. I don't know. It's hard. It's a very sensitive topic. And when it comes to our Latin community, because we're not a monolithic thing, like there is Afro Latinos. There is Asian Latinos. There is all different types of skin color, that colorism that they want now. And the more we emphasize that difference, the more we're somehow keep perpetuating it. So you know what I mean is when we forget about it, that's when it becomes invisible, and that's when we're all going to be the same.

[19:27] Martín Acuña: Yes. Yes. Fernando, thank you so much for coming over, for sharing your thoughts around this sensitive topic, as you said, and our industry. If someone wants to contact you or follow you on social media, to see what are you doing with New York One, with the cultural guide, where can people find you?

[19:46] Fernando Cárdenas: Well, they can find me in Instagram and Twitter as Fercarpenyc. That's F-E-R-C-A-R-P-E-N-Y-C. Facebook, you have me as Fres, F-E-R-E-S, Cardenas. Cardenas is C-A-R-D-E-N-A-S. Or you can also look me up in my YouTube channel, Fernando Cardenas Peña. And all the interviews that I do, they're usually like 30 minutes, 40 minutes long. And then I have to create a shorter version for our website, in New York One Noticias, which should not exceed 10 minutes. And then I make another even shorter version for the on-air part of it, which is like two minutes. So if you want to see the whole interview, look me up in my YouTube channel.

[21:38] Martín Acuña: Love it. And before we close, which are your top five favorite musical theater shows?

[21:44] Fernando Cárdenas: Does that include the latest Broadway season?

[21:48] Martín Acuña: If you want it.

[21:50] Fernando Cárdenas: Like all time favorites. Okay. All time favorites. I would go by authors, but Rogers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. The Sound of Music will be one. Like The Sound of Music is one of my favorite ones. I like Kiss of the Spider Woman by Kendra and Ev. I also like Miss Saigon. I like Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights. And definitely Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. So those five. They're not in any particular order. I like them all. I can listen to those soundtracks over and over. I own every single version of Sunset Boulevard, you know, in English, Spanish, Dutch, German, whatever language it is. So, so all of them. And well, I particularly love the Sound of Music version song by Julie Andrews. That's my favorite.

[22:04] Martín Acuña: Yeah, it's perfect. Fernando, thank you so much for coming over. This has been an honor. And I am so happy we could set this interview.

[22:15] Fernando Cárdenas: Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me and keep up the good work. We also need your voice, especially a bilingual voice like yours, Martín. So thank you so much for having me. And to all your audience, keep this man happy because he's doing great things.

[22:30] Martín Acuña: Thank you so much. Bye bye, Martín. Thanks everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.