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[0:14] Joe Rosko: Hey, what's going on? Welcome to Built for the Stage Podcast. This is Joe Rosko, founder of Built for the Stage, Broadway's number one fitness platform. If you haven't tried out Built for the Stage or know what it's all about, go to the website, BuiltForTheStage.com, and yeah, we'll get to know one another. Thanks to BPN, Broadway Podcast Network. Check them out at BPN.fm.

[0:34] Joe Rosko: All right. As always, we have an exciting guest for us on Hamilton in Hamilton right now. I'll also was in a movie that I really enjoyed on Netflix, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. So we're gonna talk all things about that, and also just spotlight our guests. So please welcome Johanna Moise. Hi, Johanna.

[0:52] Johanna Moise: Hi.

[0:54] Joe Rosko: Thanks so much for joining us on your day off. How's it feel? Have you done any like, I don't know, napping or stretching or thing or what have you done on your day off so far?

[1:08] Johanna Moise: Um, I had an appointment to get my hair redone for the show, and then I did some cleaning of the apartment, got some groceries, you know, setting myself up for the week.

[1:19] Joe Rosko: So you're even working on that's still kind of working, you know, having to go in for your hair. That's still kind of still working, having to go in for that, you know?

[1:30] Johanna Moise: Yeah, indeed.

[1:32] Joe Rosko: Hopefully you enjoy the people there that are helping you out with it, so it's a good time to hang out.

[1:37] Johanna Moise: Um, hundred percent.

[1:39] Joe Rosko: Let's get into let's rewind to the beginning. I was on your website before we hit record here. I was just saying, like, I really like your website. There's a couple of like grin moments in there where it just makes you smile a bit. So one of them was that when you were growing up, you were born pigeon-toed, and that's what influenced your parents to enroll you into dance class, and you just kept dancing. So tell us about that and just how dance was a part of your life very early.

[2:11] Johanna Moise: Yeah. Um, when we were little, I grew up, I have five siblings, and so it was always like a thing of my parents to try and find what we would be like good at, what we would enjoy on the weekends outside of school. So we did everything. There was we did karate, we did soccer, um, tennis, even. And then um I was born pigeon-toed, as you just said. Um, so my parents really wanted to put me in dance classes alongside everything else, just so they could like straighten out my walk a little bit. And at first I was like, oh no, I'm gonna miss so much soccer. Like soccer was my thing, but I they enrolled me in my first dance class and I loved it, and I never stopped. Everything else sort of fell away except for dancing.

[2:52] Joe Rosko: So okay, and during this time, uh while you were young and you were in dance class, is this when you grew your love for giraffes, or when did this come on and why do you love giraffes?

[3:05] Johanna Moise: Actually, I think it was like I had just turned 14 or something, and it was at a dance competition, and they were um there was a production number being done that was like from Madagascar randomly. This random studio was doing a number from Madagascar, and they had like a big giraffe costume thing that the kids like came out in, and I was like, that's insane. But then also I was like, Oh yeah, giraffes are very cool, and then I just got very like enamored by them and went down like a web rabbit hole of just searching up all the facts about giraffes I can. And I just think that they're like tall, silent, beautiful creatures, and they're so strong, they can kick the head off of a lion. That's a fun fact.

[3:46] Joe Rosko: See, wow. I know that, and I'm gonna sling that random fact everywhere.

[3:55] Johanna Moise: That's hilarious.

[3:56] Joe Rosko: Yes. Uh last one, just as we continue to break the ice here and get our listeners to get to know you. You also put on your website that I believe it's pronounced Garamond is the only font that you will type poetry in. Why is that?

[4:10] Johanna Moise: Well, because in school, they make you write everything in Times New Roman 12 font. And like Times New Roman is cool, I guess, but Garamond is just prettier. And so if I'm going to be writing anything that comes from me in my words, number one, I feel like I have an aversion to Times New Roman just because we've been forced to use it so long in school. And number two, it's just beautiful. And I also like to write and not in capital letters, and it's the only font that I like the way the non-capital letters look.

[4:42] Joe Rosko: You're you're one of I actually have a friend that uh he will only email in all lowercase, like never caps, nothing.

[4:50] Johanna Moise: Yeah.

[4:51] Joe Rosko: Uh what is uh sometimes while he's writing a it's like you're reading a haiku, but it's actually an email from him.

[4:59] Johanna Moise: Yeah.

[4:59] Joe Rosko: Well, because like sometimes caps just feels too abrasive, but I don't know. It might just be me, because I also tend to overthink things like that. Like, I'll put an exclamation point in one sentence and then I'll be like, I can't put it in the next sentence because I seem too excited.

[5:13] Johanna Moise: So we're we're definitely taking this one minute clip from this episode and posting it everywhere because it's so true. We all do this, but no one we have to get this out there. No one talks about it enough.

[5:25] Joe Rosko: Open up.

[5:25] Johanna Moise: No one talks about it enough. Share your issues of anxiety of when to put an exclamation point and when to just put a period.

[5:35] Joe Rosko: But it's because you don't want to come off crazy.

[5:38] Johanna Moise: Yeah, but then if you put the period, you sound like then you seem like you're uptight.

[5:43] Joe Rosko: It's crazy.

[5:44] Johanna Moise: That's too much.

[5:45] Joe Rosko: The world we live in. Can you believe it?

[5:48] Johanna Moise: When did you join the cast of Hamilton?

[5:51] Johanna Moise: Um, I joined the company in January 2019.

[5:54] Joe Rosko: So like a year before the pandemic.

[5:57] Johanna Moise: Yeah.

[5:57] Joe Rosko: Okay. So you were grooving for about a year there, and then the world uh shut down.

[6:04] Johanna Moise: Yes, it did.

[6:05] Joe Rosko: And here we are. Okay, so tell us, let's see, you're almost since like coming coming back, it'll almost have been a year. So I'm what I'm trying to get at is like you're almost at the point where you have this like one-year bookend in between COVID, like a one-year Hamilton, COVID, and now almost one year bookending it. How's that experience been? How was it? And then how's it been since we have resumed shows?

[6:30] Johanna Moise: Um, well, when I first joined the company, it was like my first ever super duper big endeavors, the first time moving away from home. It was the first time for everything, really for me, and all of my family lives in Florida, so like I'm literally the only person here. Um, and also all of my family is like very in the medical field or like very super duper practical, and that was my track for a very long time before I booked the show. Um so when I first joined it, it was a lot of like very anxious and exciting energy, and then the pandemic hit and everyone had to go home. But it was crazy because the day that everything closed, we were like, Oh, yeah, we're gonna have two weeks vacation, like let's rest our bones, rejuvenate, like go to Cancun for a week, tickets are 40. Like, those were the conversations before it all became as harrowing and as serious as it did.

[7:23] Johanna Moise: Um, and then we came back. I think we started rehearsal at New 42 in like August or end of July, and it was just it was the shift was there because it was like 18 or so months of everybody being affected by this thing in such a different way. But every single one of the people in the room and like in the world has been touched by this pandemic.

[7:47] Joe Rosko: So, when you got back after COVID, did you notice any parts of the show and Hamilton lines or uh staging that kind of popped out per se after going through those two rough years during the pandemic?

[8:01] Johanna Moise: Yeah, absolutely. There was a moment at the very end of tech, like the day before our invited dress rehearsal. Sorry, um, that we had run through the show for one of the first times, like all the way through, and we got to the playoff music, and all of a sudden, like all the swings that were like taking notes and stuff, all of us just like burst into tears. It was like the craziest, most cathartic and also just like sad release that I don't think any of us were really expecting. Um, because our show, like as fun and as like rap-heavy that it is, and like it's so iconic and all this stuff, like there's so much that talks about like literally who lives, who dies, and who tells your story, and like the passage of time, and also the mantle you have to take on to respect the people that we have lost and how we move forward through that.

[8:53] Johanna Moise: Um I mean, even before the pandemic, it's quiet uptown always wrecked me. Like, I just, if I was about to come on stage, I could not watch Phillips death. There was just no way of doing that. But post-pandemic, you just pick out the lines that are that just talk so much about like time and lineage and legacy, much, much more.

[9:16] Joe Rosko: Yeah, being on the right side of history and all that kind of stuff as well for sure.

[9:21] Johanna Moise: Yeah.

[9:22] Joe Rosko: Uh was it during the pandemic that Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was filmed, or when was that filmed?

[9:29] Johanna Moise: Um, so Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was something that I filmed in June of 2019.

[9:36] Johanna Moise: So it was about six months since I moved here.

[9:39] Joe Rosko: Okay, so just before 2020 was the filming of it, got it.

[9:42] Johanna Moise: Yeah.

[9:43] Joe Rosko: And you moved you keep saying that. So you're young, I'm assuming, and you were in you were in Florida audition. Like, how did what how did you audition for Hamilton?

[9:53] Johanna Moise: Or how did you audition for the for the Netflix movie?

[9:56] Joe Rosko: Uh how did, yeah, how did this happen?

[9:59] Johanna Moise: Yeah, so I um I graduated high school in 2017, and in the year of 2018, I was doing like a regional production of like Flashdance, where in Florida they had flown down some people from New York, like act professionals, equity members to do the show. And I was like, wow, like it's so cool. You do this for like real life. Like, I'm just like here from like college class, like to fill in. I'm dancing because someone had gotten sick. So um they had to pull out of the production. So I went into it, and that was very much that. But they were like, you know what? Like, you should just fly to the city and audition. And I was like, what do you mean? Like, I'm not union. How am I supposed to just hop on a plane and go to audition like how do I figure this stuff out?

And they're like, no, you're built for Hamilton you just go so for a couple months I was like stalking Playbill to see like when is an ECC going up and then I had to beg my mom because my parents are very Haitian they're from an island and so they were like what is this Broadway? What is this theater? You want to not be a doctor to fly on a plane to maybe not get seen for something random and I was like absolutely um so I I ended up flying there with like my headshot was like a selfie I took against a tree in my backyard and my one resume credit was Flashdance the Musical um and that was in February of 2018 I think um and I got there and then they were not seeing non-union that day so I cried and then I went home the next day like I bought a flight for one day got there and then flew back and then eight months later they sent me an email inviting me to come dance for them because I left my headshot and resume with them and at that time I also like unprivated my Instagram and was like posting dance videos and things 'cause I was like, you know like maybe they'll like look me up maybe um which they ended up doing and then I came back eight months later um sorry to interrupt you was that confirmed that they later told you that they saw your Instagram or how do you think I have no clue. I actually don't know.

[12:03] Johanna Moise: Or what do you think maybe on your reserving on your resume like dance credit wise listen my resume literally said like Johanna Moise my email my phone number, Flashdance the Musical, and then it was like, and I've also been dancing since I was four years old on the back of a selfie that I took against a tree. So yeah, it was very wild, very much kiss me. Like I but I left my headshot in that pile of like 500 other girls, and then they emailed me eight months later. I came and danced for them. Um, I made it through that, like you dance, and then they do some cuts and then you dance again, and then they were like, okay, great. Then I went home, and then two days later, I got another email asking me to come for a callback the following week, and my mom was like, Listen, you live in Florida, they have to know you live in Florida, you can't just keep flying back and forth.

But I didn't want to tell them because I was like, if I tell them, they're not gonna give me the job. But she was like, that's my one condition. Like, you either tell them that this next time you go up is the last time you're going. And I was like, okay, great. I was like, if I get a callback, I'm gonna tell them that I'm literally here for three days and I can't come back. My mom's not gonna buy another ticket. Um, so I did end up getting a callback, and Telsey was amazing. They ended up scheduling for me to sing the morning of my flight. Um, I sang for them with the music director of the show at the time, and then I flew home, and then a month later, that was in November. A month later, I got a call saying that if I was gonna hear anything, it would be the week of my birthday.

Then my birthday came and went, and I was like, Great, guess I'm gonna be a doctor. But then January 1st, they called me, and then I moved here January 7th into a hotel with my mom for a week while we looked for an apartment.

[13:50] Joe Rosko: Wow, you you have lived a movie. Somebody someone needs to contact does Lynn and does Lynn then well know your story? Does he know the story?

[14:01] Johanna Moise: Because I I don't think so. I could see him like, you know, when Hamilton has, you know, been on Broadway for like 20, 25 years or whatever down the road, you could kind of like revive it in a way by telling this untold story of this girl named Johanna Moise and how she was discovered in spite of flight difficulties and her Haitian parents almost saying you have to be a doctor, you can't do that.

[14:30] Joe Rosko: Yes, and then the whole headshot and the pot what a story.

[14:35] Johanna Moise: Yeah, it was crazy. Like, really, really so much. Like every time that I think about it, I'm like, this should not have come to pass.

[14:44] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[14:44] Johanna Moise: So I'm just extremely, extremely lucky.

[14:47] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Good for you. And and it was almost like back to back these things because you also booked the movie. Well, how did you was there an option? Did you submit uh a video, I'm assuming down from Florida, and then what happened there?

[15:00] Johanna Moise: So, with that, um, after I had booked Hamilton in about like a month since I joined, about February was when I first met my managers, Talent Inc. Um, and we like signed with each other, and then they immediately just started like working for and with me. And Camille Um Brown was the choreographer of that movie. So she was holding auditions in New York City, and they got me an audition, and I just went in, auditioned with literally every other girl that looks like me. Got it. And then by the grace of God, yeah.

[15:33] Joe Rosko: What have you not booked? What's gone bad for you? What's gone bad for you in your life?

[15:39] Johanna Moise: I don't I don't think that I I would say anything goes bad. I feel like if you don't get something, then it's not meant to happen at that time.

[15:49] Joe Rosko: There you go.

[15:50] Johanna Moise: Um, because yeah, I mean, that's in in our industry, that's really the only way to think about it. Cause you you're like, oh my gosh, an audition for a series regular, like I have to be great. I have to book this, and then sometimes you don't, and then you're like, Oh, that means I suck, which is not true. Maybe you know, just something happened on the other end where they're like, you remind me of my grandma, and I don't like my grandma, so it's not gonna be you this time.

[16:15] Joe Rosko: That's right, that's right.

[16:16] Johanna Moise: So while you've had this early success and you've been in the show now, uh I mean, it hasn't really been four three years or four years, it's really been like maybe a year or two-ish.

[16:28] Joe Rosko: Yeah, because of two-ish the break. But what have you been doing uh to like try to continue to advance yourself as a performer, or like what have you what do you do besides the show? Because you are so young and you obviously are extremely talented. How do you stay hungry to continue to better yourself when you've had such early success?

[16:51] Johanna Moise: Um I think that like with each and every opportunity that presents itself, like each and every audition, it's like a moment for me to be like, wow, this is like another step that I could be taking and like could be moving forward, and like that everything is not as far out of my grasp as I once thought it was. Like, cause you know, when you're little, you're like watching Disney and you're like, oh, I want to be in a Disney channel movie, but then you're like, oh no, it's never gonna happen. I live in a small town in Florida, like, but if I would have continued to think that way, like in my senior year of high school, I was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna move to New York sometime, and I'm gonna be on Broadway sometime, and I just kept thinking and taking class and like doing that, and then all of a sudden I'm where I wanted to be three or four years ago. So I think just like yeah, like just keeping my head down with that.

[17:43] Joe Rosko: Yeah, I love what you're saying because a lot of people will bring up the whole positive affirmation, like self-talk thing, without without finishing the statement of saying, followed by the action it takes, you know, for for these things to actually come to fruition.

[18:03] Johanna Moise: Yeah.

[18:04] Joe Rosko: I think that our sometimes our culture or our age demographic just thinks you just say the things and it's kind of magically, you know, you have to say the things, believe the things, but then do the things you have to do to make them you had to be willing to be crazy and take those flights, and your your mom had to graciously be willing to allow it to happen one more time, and you know, you had to actually put yourself in that situation.

[18:32] Johanna Moise: Yeah, I I think just like putting yourself out there and also like focusing on like the work and like as cheesy as it sounds, like the journey. Like, I don't think that my journey is by any means complete, or that like Hamilton is the end all be all to like everything, but more so like every single dance class that I put myself in, every voice lesson that I'm taking, every acting class I'm taking, all the work that I'm doing every day to make sure that I'm staying ready so I don't have to get ready when the next opportunity presents itself, is also just very fun and just realigns me with why I'm doing the art that I'm doing.

[19:12] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[19:13] Joe Rosko: All right, I love it. That's that's where we'll end the conversation. Beautifully said. Uh, thank you so much, Johanna, for being on the episode.

[19:20] Johanna Moise: Thank you for having me.

[19:22] Joe Rosko: All right, everyone, you can check out Johanna's Instagram, Johanna.moise on the Insta. You can go to her website, johannamoise.com. That will be in the description of this episode. Make sure you give her a follow. Uh give her some love. And uh yeah, we'll see you on the next one. I'm Joe Rosko, founder of Built for the Stage. Later.