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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 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.

[0:50] Martín Acuña: Hello everyone, welcome back to Backstage Talk and this season's episode finale. Today's guest is an internationally renowned theatre choreographer and director. I have here with me Sergio Trujillo. He is the first ever Latinx recipient of the Tony Award for Best Choreography. He is right now choreographing the Jersey Boys streaming event for TV starring Nate Jonas and he also choreographed Annie Life for NBC last year. Sergio was honored with the Tony Award in 2019 for Ain't Too Proud, The Life and Times of the Temptations. He also won an Olivier Award in 2015 for Best Theatre Choreographer for Memphis and was nominated for several awards including a Tony Award for On Your Feet, multiple Drama Desk Awards for Hands on a Hard Body, Leap of Faith, Memphis and Jersey Boys.

In 1999, Sergio made his Broadway debut dancing in Jerome Robbins' Broadway. I think Sergio, you will correct me, but you were the first Colombian performer ever on Broadway, which is super exciting. And then you've performed in other shows like Guys and Dolls, Victor Victoria, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Fosse. Under his belt, he has also have other Broadway shows like Next to Normal, The Addams Family, Summer, The Donna Summer Musical and A Bronx Tale. And he has worked also in the digital concert Viva Broadway, Hear Our Voices. Sergio, you truly cannot imagine what it means to me right now to have you over on the show. So welcome to Backstage Talk.

[2:40] Sergio Trujillo: Thank you, Martín. I'm thrilled to be able to join you today and spend a little time just chatting up, having a great conversation that hopefully will inspire your listeners. That's all I care about.

[2:58] Martín Acuña: I know it will. I know it will. So Sergio, tell us a little bit about what made you choose the thespian path in life.

[3:04] Sergio Trujillo: Oh, wow. Well, you know, I grew up in Cali, Colombia. My family immigrated from Cali to Canada in the mid 70s. Growing up as the son of an immigrant comes with many responsibilities and sort of that are unspoken of. And that is you have to pursue a respectable career, one that will allow you to be able to somehow help the family. And that is it is a you inherit that. So for the most part, while I was in Canada, I was very focused on my academics. I was I wanted to go to university, become a doctor. And that was that. And I knew that if I did that, that I would be able to help my family. The one thing that I wasn't really paying attention was that my true love for life and my true passion was was dance.

And I discovered it. I've always danced even when I was a little boy in Colombia. But growing up in Canada, I put that aside. But I still loved it nonetheless. And it was until I was my first year, my last year of high school that I went and saw a show called The Best of Broadway. And I saw dancing like I'd never seen before. And I looked at that and I thought, oh, my God, that's what I want to do. So I for the for for about so right right after that, I went to university. So while I was in university, I was I was studying biochemistry, but I was also dancing. And being that I started late, you know, I was very focused on making sure that I worked really hard at both. And then I went to chiropractic school.

And it was during my second year of chiropractic school that I really got the, you know, got bitten by the love of dance. And I decided to take a sabbatical to come and dance to dance, actually. And I thought, if I'm going to dance, I have to do it with the best around. And at that time, we lived in Canada. So I came to New York City. And it was I came to New York. I studied intensively for a whole year. First few months in New York were tough because I didn't know anyone. I made so many sacrifices. And I, I then things weren't going well in New York. So I went to LA. Because I also wanted to I don't want it to dance. I wanted to answer everything. You know, you start late, you want it all. And there's no patience.

So I, I decided to go to LA because I also wanted to not only in New York, I want to dance on Broadway. But in LA, I wanted to dance music videos, the movies, commercials, you name it. The you know, I just but I only had a year, I had only given myself a year to do all of this, quite unreasonable, quite unrealistic. But it was one day while I was taking a class in, and with one of my teachers in LA that she mentioned to me that there was an audition for a show called Jerome Robbins Broadway. And I went to the audition, I got kept all the way to the end. I didn't hear from them for about two or three months. By this time, it's June of 1989. I'm supposed to go back to school in September. And I thought that's it.

That's that I am meant to go back to school. You know, I've given it all, you know, a try. And that is not what it's meant to be. And then the end of June, I received a call from from the Broadway producers of Jerome Robbins Broadway asking me if I would interested in being part of the show. And I flew to New York. And, and that was that was my decision to to your question. And that's the answer to your question. You know, it was a path which I took a path of, of sacrifices and of a path full of joy and passion and love for dance.

[6:46] Martín Acuña: And what a wild journey. And also you had that deadline. So it must have been super hard to like getting closer to the deadline, not getting the callback. But fortunately, you did. So let's double click on that moment on to Donna Summer, Next to Normal, The Addams Family, Guys and Dolls, Jersey Boys. So let's double click on your journey in musical theatre.

[7:13] Sergio Trujillo: Well, so the Jerome Robbins gave me an entry point to dance that really was a blessing. Jerome Robbins is one of our master director choreographers who created West Side Story, director and choreographer of West Side Story, who is just iconic and timeless, On the Town, Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof, Peter Pan, you name it, King and I. And so my entry point was that of dancing and studying under one of the masters. And my last show that I did on Broadway was called Fosse, which was a celebration of Bob Fosse's work. So my entry point as a dancer was Jerome Robbins. My exit point as a dancer was Fosse. Two icons. I could not have, that's right, I could not have studied the art of choreography and direction under better masters.

So I knew that, I've known my entire life, even since I was a little boy, that I was going to be somehow a creative force of sorts. And it was just a matter of time for me to be able to make the decision when to make the leap. And it was during Fosse that I decided that was going to be my last dance show. And then again, I took a leap of faith that I was going to choreograph. And if I was going to choreograph, I needed to really make a choice, hang my dance shoes up and not perform, but really commit to choreography. And again, it was a time where I really invested in the art. I worked with assisting other choreographers like Debbie Allen, Rob Marshall, who is the director choreographer of the movie Chicago, Jerry Mitchell, and so many other great, wonderful choreographers, Michael Peters, who was Michael Jackson's choreographer.

So I studied under them. So by the time it came for me to have my first opportunity to choreograph a show, I was ready. I had studied. I was ready. I had worked on the craft. And my first opportunity was in the musical All Show Cup, which was done in 2004, I believe. Yeah. And I came in as, you call it a show doctor, but this is basically a choreographer doctor, because they were having problems with the choreography of the show at that time. I knew that that was my opportunity to really make a mark. I choreographed one. They said choreograph the opening, which was Jailhouse Rock. I knew that that was my chance. I knew that that was my opportunity. And if I could just hit it out of the ballpark, that things would go well.

And I did go very well, because then they asked me to choreograph the entire show. So after All Show Cup came Jersey Boys, and then Jersey Boys sort of opened so many doors for me to have all of these wonderful opportunities. I've had wonderful opportunities along the way, but I've always sort of been incredibly specific and deliberate about the shows that I do and the people that I work with, because ultimately Broadway shows take a long time.

[10:26] Sergio Trujillo: One of my most frequent collaborators is Des McAnuff, who is the director of Jersey Boys. And it is with Des that I did the Donna Summer musical that we did, and we did Ain't Too Proud, and many other shows. But that is, in a nutshell, how I arrived at my choreographic career and double-clicked jumps from dancer to choreographer. I love it.

[10:52] Martín Acuña: So I want to ask you for your approach to choreographing and directing in musical theatre. Where do you start, and what path do you take? What's your process in shows, in musicals?

[11:07] Sergio Trujillo: So as a choreographer, you know, the process is such that I have to really figure out what the, obviously, read the script, figure out what the story's about. And then do research. I like to research the material. I like to really make sure that I understand the world, that I understand the characters. Sometimes I go and learn other dance forms. You know, even like with On Your Feet, even though I was Colombian and I knew how to do Latin dance, you know, it was important for me to understand Cuban culture. So I went to Havana, Cuba for two weeks, and I studied under great Afro dance masters. So, you know, that was part of my preparation for the show. And I believe in that. And I take a great pride in the preparation before I come into rehearsal.

So there's a lot of work done before I get into the rehearsal period. As a director, you know, most of the things that I do, I'm doing as a director choreographer. And I actually, as the director of the show, I don't put on my choreographer's hat until I'm done working on the actual book of the show and music and lyrics, because I don't want to get distracted with movement in a way that, you know, because obviously my heart always goes to dance first. And I think it's important for me to be able to focus on the dramaturgy of the show, of the story, and be able to service and figure out really the world before I even begin to understand. And so that I can also be able to inform my designers, my set designer, my costume designer, my lighting designer, my projectionist. You know, so I stayed very, very insular. You know, I create my own director bubble first. Once I've done that, then I can move on to choreography.

[13:01] Martín Acuña: I love it. So what would be a piece of advice you will tell a younger version of Sergio?

[13:10] Sergio Trujillo: Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. I mean, you know, I look back and I think, you know, I've done pretty okay. I've done pretty good. But I just, I think that a better version of myself would be a version that was fearless. I am still fearless, but I think even more fearless than that.

[13:36] Martín Acuña: Yeah, because you are fearless. I mean, your work speaks for itself. You are fearless. I think that, anyway, yeah. I love it. I love it. I love it.

[13:50] Sergio Trujillo: So you've had the chance to work with the biggest names on Broadway, with the biggest Latin names on Broadway, and you being from Colombia, having your background here in Canada, and the story you just told us of New York, then LA, then New York. What is visibility and representation for you in terms of Latins in musical theatre?

[14:20] Sergio Trujillo: You know, I've always kept my blinders on in terms of colour of my skin. I've never really thought, I mean, even when I, my younger days when I was just starting out, I never for one second thought that I wasn't cast because I was Latin, which I'm sure, listen, I'm sure that that is the reason why. Maybe I didn't get kept all the way to the end, but to me it always came back to I wasn't good enough yet. Like I didn't train hard enough. I didn't work hard enough. That is why I didn't get the job. And so I think that by not using the race card, I think it kept me incredibly realistic about what I needed to do. Listen, I think that there is a lot more work to be done in that aspect. But I'm in a place now in my career where I can have a hand in that and making sure that we are being heard, that Latinos are being seen, that we're being seen, that we're getting an opportunity to step up to bat.

And I can see that there's been a shift, not enough of a shift, but I think that progress takes time, but we have to be proactive. And I'm making sure that I have a hand in being proactive and changing the way that the casting is seen, that even the shows are created. So I'm working on a handful of shows that are all about brown stories and I'm surrounding myself with all Latino writers, composers, lyricists.

[16:12] Martín Acuña: That is amazing. And you actually answered my next question because I was going to ask you, what can we do to increase that Latin visibility and representation on Broadway? And you just said it. It is working on more stories of brown people, of our stories, and having them on a Broadway stage. So I just absolutely love it.

[16:35] Sergio Trujillo: Yeah, you know, and I think, but it's not really about them, the stories just ending up on Broadway, because there's a whole world of theatre that needs to be had everywhere else. And Broadway is the Olympics of the world. It is the place where you want to arrive. But I feel like there is a world where theatre can be anywhere. It's all relative. And I think that as long as we have, that we're proactive in making sure that we're creating theatre, you know, theatre can provide a sanctuary to so many people, and especially right now. And I think that, you know, yes, let's get the stories on Broadway, but ultimately let's get them done. Let's have people like you, younger artists, get a chance to really be able to have a hand in changing the tapestry of what Broadway is and the theatre world is.

[17:46] Martín Acuña: Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for that. So one of my last questions would be, now that you're working on this handful of shows and stories about Latin people, what is the most important part of creating Latin characters in musical theatre?

[18:04] Sergio Trujillo: Well, I think that part of the thing about this change that I'm talking about and having, and by the way, not only Latin people, you know, Black, Asian, all of BIPOC, I think that in the hands of people like us, the characters will be portrayed with the truth that they deserve. Now, that's not to say that my peers that are white or what have you don't, you know, it's not fair to them to write and be passionate about a story that may not be about a white character, that it may be about a Black character. I'm not taking that away from them. I'm just saying what I'm saying is that I think in our hands, I think that we have, we've lived the experience and it'll be seen through a lens that perhaps is even more personal.

[18:58] Martín Acuña: Yeah, that's absolutely on point. Sergio, thank you so much for being here in Backstage Talk. It truly means the world to me. You are someone that I've looked up to since I knew there was a Colombian performer on Broadway, a Colombian director, choreographer on Broadway, and it truly means the whole world to me to have you here. I have one last surprise question for you, and it is which are your top five favorite musical theatre shows?

[19:26] Sergio Trujillo: Oh my goodness. Hmm. Oh boy. Well, I'm going to have to say all of my shows. No. Hmm. They can be in no specific order. No, no, I know. I know. Hmm. Cabaret by Sam Mendes and Ron Marshall. Nine by David Laveau, designed by Scott Pask. Next to Normal, which I did. Ain't Too Proud, which I did. And Jersey Boys, which I did. I love them.

[19:59] Martín Acuña: Sergio, again, thank you so much for being here. This has been a spectacular wrap-up for this whole Latinx in musical theatre special. I'm sending you all my love all the way from Colombia, and hopefully I can go see you or a show of yours sometime soon. Thank you so much for being here.

[20:20] Sergio Trujillo: Of course. It's my pleasure. It's a pleasure to talk to you and to share my story with your listeners.

[20:29] 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.