This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jessica Rush: As our beloved Broadway community approaches a return, we are following four working artist mothers from both sides of the table and across diverse worlds as they emerge from this time of togetherness with their children.

[0:13] Cara Cooper: Two became pregnant and gave birth in the 17 months since the shutdown, while the other two paused the eight show a week mom life juggle and are having to readjust to time away from their sweet babes, knowing now just how precious the moments with them are.

[0:28] Jessica Rush: Tony nominee Elizabeth Stanley, Moulin Rouge's Corey Petinod, choreographer Lauren Lataro, and Come From Away's Pearl Sun share their stories in our special four-part miniseries, Returning Reborn, the Rebirth of the Broadway Mom.

[0:44] Cara Cooper: Hi everyone, thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of Mamas Talkin' Loud.

[0:48] Jessica Rush: I'm Jessica Rush.

[0:50] Cara Cooper: And I'm Cara Cooper.

[0:51] Jessica Rush: One of our very first guests on Mamas Talkin' Loud joins us today to talk about her unexpected return to Broadway.

[0:58] Cara Cooper: From resuming eight shows a week after spending more time than she ever has with her son Max to her anxiety about moving through the city as an Asian American, her emotions run the gamut.

[1:09] Jessica Rush: However, she is looking toward the reopening of Come From Away with more hope than hesitation.

[1:14] Cara Cooper: And most importantly, compassion for herself and others.

[1:18] Jessica Rush: Here's our first check-in with Pearl's son.

[1:22] ♪ Musical number: "Mama's Talking Loud" — performed by Pearl's son ♪

[1:46] Cara Cooper: Hi, Pearl.

[1:49] Pearl Sun: Hi, guys.

[1:50] Cara Cooper: Go ahead.

[1:51] Pearl Sun: We'll jump in.

[1:52] Cara Cooper: There's a little, uh, it's 10 o'clock at night, like we said, 10:15.

[1:56] Pearl Sun: Fit in a little bit.

[1:57] Cara Cooper: Yes.

[1:58] Pearl Sun: So less.

[1:59] Cara Cooper: The children are asleep though.

[2:01] Pearl Sun: They are.

[2:02] Cara Cooper: Yes.

[2:02] Pearl Sun: Yes, for sure.

[2:03] Cara Cooper: Um, for anyone who's just joining us now in season three, or maybe you weren't here for season one.

[2:10] Cara Cooper: Um, Pearl was one of our first guests, along with Jennifer Denoia.

[2:15] Jessica Rush: Jenny Denoia.

[2:15] Cara Cooper: And you actually joined us so long ago, Pearl, that we were recording in an actual studio.

[2:22] Pearl Sun: I know.

[2:23] Cara Cooper: Not remotely, not staring at each other on the screen, not having to be our own editors and mixers.

[2:31] Pearl Sun: My God, and walking me, talking me through what settings and how to do this.

[2:40] Cara Cooper: We've learned during this year and a half.

[2:43] Pearl Sun: I really, like, if you had told me I would know how to do all the things I know how to do now, I would be like, I'm a little disappointed.

[2:48] Cara Cooper: I'm a little disappointed in myself that I don't know more, but you know, here we are.

[2:58] Pearl Sun: You know what? At the end of the day, we survived a pandemic.

[3:01] Cara Cooper: I mean, it's ongoing and we're here.

[3:04] Pearl Sun: Yes, and our kids are here.

[3:07] Cara Cooper: Yes, yes.

[3:09] Jessica Rush: How is Max? How is he?

[3:11] Pearl Sun: He's good. He's almost gonna be five.

[3:17] Jessica Rush: I know, so similar in age.

[3:20] Pearl Sun: Uh, yeah, he'll be five on the 12th of September.

[3:23] Jessica Rush: Oh my gosh.

[3:25] Pearl Sun: Um, and so that's kind of mind-boggling that he's already there.

[3:30] Pearl Sun: It's crazy, and he's just such a human, such a formed human.

[3:38] Pearl Sun: It's a little astonishing, uh, slash a lot astonishing, but he's managed okay.

[3:45] Pearl Sun: You know, we were very fortunate. We have a place in Connecticut outside of the city that we, um, quarantined to, and um, we spent the majority of the shutdown um, here.

[4:01] Pearl Sun: Um, I'm kind of, I'm bouncing back and forth between here and the city um, these days until we get started again in the fall.

[4:10] Pearl Sun: But um, but yeah, you know, we were, this is a gated community we live in, and we were able to set up our own summer camp on the grounds here, and we had a pod of like four or five other kids his age, and so they had uh some sense of normalcy um over the summer, so they had each other to play with Monday through Friday for all the summer months, which was such an incredible gift to have.

[4:43] Pearl Sun: Um, and I, it's not lost on me that we were very privileged and fortunate to have that for him.

[4:51] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[4:52] Pearl Sun: Um, yeah.

[4:54] Pearl Sun: I feel like our boys were so similar and the marking of time from the pandemic.

[4:59] Pearl Sun: I see very specifically with him, like he started it very much a toddler.

[5:04] Pearl Sun: He was three, he was still in a crib, even though he didn't have to be in. He is just a changed, he went from like part baby to now like full-blown kid, and it's a real big shift.

[5:18] Pearl Sun: We were watching videos because my husband just returned to work today, and so we were watching videos the other night of the beginning, and we were looking at him, we're like, he has this little tiny baby voice, and you know, he's just so little, and now he's just so mature.

[5:33] Pearl Sun: It's wild to think of the growth that has happened during this specific time.

[5:38] Jessica Rush: Exactly.

[5:39] Jessica Rush: I mean, that's exactly correct.

[5:41] Pearl Sun: That's, it's, but the, uh, the truth is that we've been in this for a while, guys.

[5:49] Jessica Rush: Yeah, you know, it's not, um, and you know, kid years, baby toddler years, those are like dog years.

[5:58] Cara Cooper: Well, and it's really lots of change, yeah, particularly that age range that you guys are just talking about with Finn and with Max.

[6:06] Cara Cooper: Like that three and a half to five-ish is a massive jump.

[6:11] Pearl Sun: I remember that. It's just like an epic jump.

[6:14] Cara Cooper: So crazy.

[6:15] Pearl Sun: And the thing is also, it's like what I'm realizing is y'all, we've turned the corner past a year and a half, right?

[6:21] Pearl Sun: Like, we've turned the corner to coming up on two years it almost.

[6:25] Pearl Sun: You know, it's like by the time a lot of us go back to work, it will have been almost two years since we were on stage and since the shutdown.

[6:34] Pearl Sun: So I for on some level, you know, I keep thinking, oh, 2020, it was 2020, like it was a year, so you think, oh, it's not that long, and then you realize, oh wait, it's almost September of 2021, and this is still our reality, right?

[6:47] Cara Cooper: I mean, you know, I traveled abroad um on vacation recently, and I just, I've come to realize that the rest of the world has accepted that this is our new normal, and that it's actually not going away, and that we just have to kind of function and maneuver and work through this and with this.

[7:15] Pearl Sun: Um, and I find that our country's not there yet.

[7:21] Pearl Sun: Uh, you know, the acceptance of that and the receipt of it is not there.

[7:28] Cara Cooper: Um, but uh, but you know, we just kind of gotta take it day by day, right?

[7:36] Pearl Sun: For sure.

[7:37] Cara Cooper: For sure.

[7:38] Jessica Rush: Um, I mean that's the thing is like here we are and we're moving through it.

[7:42] Jessica Rush: And I think that a lot of us have felt like we got to this point.

[7:45] Jessica Rush: I know I did where I said, you know what, I don't think, I don't think there's gonna be another lockdown, right?

[7:50] Jessica Rush: I don't think they're gonna shut down Broadway, they're not gonna shut down the economy, they're not gonna do all these things.

[7:56] Jessica Rush: We all have to learn to live and walk through this moment, you know.

[8:01] Pearl Sun: And yes, it is the normal for now, it is the new normal for now.

[8:04] Pearl Sun: Hopefully, in you know, three years.

[8:08] Pearl Sun: Yeah, it won't be, you know what I mean?

[8:10] Jessica Rush: Like I keep thinking, like, will the day come when it's not?

[8:12] Pearl Sun: But for now, it's here.

[8:14] Cara Cooper: And um, well, and here, and this is the thing is that you know, I actually am not trying to put it out there that I want this to happen, but I, I also have seen what other, what have happened, what has happened to other countries in regards to uh what our business has been doing.

[8:33] Pearl Sun: So in places like Korea and the UK and Australia, you know, they've reopened and they've also had to take pauses.

[8:42] Pearl Sun: Um, you know, thankfully not long drawn out 17 month-long pauses.

[8:50] Pearl Sun: But, but you know, they will have, you know, if things turn up, then that is a reality that we have to face, that that might exist and happen for us is that we might reopen, we're going to reopen.

[9:02] Pearl Sun: And some of some shows have already reopened.

[9:07] Pearl Sun: And there might be a pause.

[9:09] Cara Cooper: There just might be a pause.

[9:11] Pearl Sun: Yeah.

[9:11] Cara Cooper: Yeah.

[9:11] Pearl Sun: Eric and I keep, sorry, one more thing, and then I, and then we'll move on.

[9:15] Pearl Sun: But I wanted to keep this end.

[9:16] Pearl Sun: It's like Eric and I keep talking about the holidays and then the winter work-wise.

[9:23] Pearl Sun: And I was like, yes, but you're working under the assumption that this is all just gonna go normal.

[9:28] Pearl Sun: Do you know what I mean?

[9:29] Pearl Sun: Like you're working under the assumption that come January we will have had a normal, quote unquote, normal fall and shows and we'll still be running and things will still be happening and people will be coming.

[9:42] Jessica Rush: We don't know.

[9:43] Cara Cooper: Which is so funny because I feel like during the height of the pandemic, we got so used to not being able to make plans, like literally not knowing what our given circumstances were gonna be from day to day.

[10:18] Pearl Sun: Yeah.

[10:19] Pearl Sun: And I find, I find that it first I'm gonna say this, it feels harder now.

[10:32] Pearl Sun: And I think, uh, my a lot of my friends have been um, responding in similar ways that that it, that this moment and this point has been the most difficult, uh, emotionally and mentally uh, than it has been throughout the 17 months and I think it's a combination of fatigue, you know, we've just been in this for so long and not being able to, as you say, plan, um, because I think that's human nature is that we have these ideas of what's to come and how to tackle and, and, and uh, how to address things and when you're constantly fight or flight that takes a toll that coupled with anxiety because there is reopening happening and what does that look like, it's so unknown, uh, how are we going to function and are we going to, uh, perform well like quote unquote perform literally and figuratively, um, so I think that there's just a lot coming at all of us and I just am hopeful and I just want to send out to everybody that um, let's all be gentle with ourselves and, and um, and patient and kind to each other because we're, we're doing it so speaking of that how are you personally feeling about returning what are your apprehensions excitements what it where are you at?

[10:32] Pearl Sun: I am mostly just so excited to be a part of reopening Broadway.

[12:23] Pearl Sun: It was an unexpected gift. Um, so I started as a standby for those of you who are with us um season one, and um I was covering five of the six female roles, and then I left the show after a year and a half, and then they brought me back to play one role, and I was playing uh the role of Janice and others, um, the reporter, uh, when shutdown happened. And my contract, you know, ended only a few weeks after shutdown. Um so I didn't I was kind of sad because I felt like I didn't have the kind of closure that I would have liked to have had. And just a few weeks ago, I got a call that um one of our on stage actors got um a job that she couldn't refuse, but that she was, you know, it's temporary. So they asked me to come in and play the role in her stead.

So I'm gonna be rehearsing for three weeks, and then I'll be doing about two and a half weeks of performances, and they said that they're leaving it open because they're not quite sure what her schedule will be. So I may be there longer, we're not sure, but pretty sure I'm done. My final performance will be October 7th, which is crazy because it's like full circle that I had two and a half weeks left of my contract when shutdown happened, and now I'm being gifted the two and a half weeks crazily.

[14:03] Jessica Rush: Well, and also for that to be such a short amount of time, right? Like, I mean, you're gonna rehearse longer than you're planning to be performing it, you know what I mean? It's like to think, like you said, it's full circle, it's the exact same amount of time, and the universe is giving you this opportunity to have that closure, perhaps.

[14:20] Pearl Sun: Yeah, and and you know, and the reality is this show is such a beautiful show, and I love it so much. Um, for me and my and where my headspace is is that I couldn't continue as a standby any longer for myself and my sanity because it's a lot, and uh you know, God bless swings and standbys, God bless, because it's the hardest job in in our business. Yeah, so um, but um, you know, they've been so wonderful to me there, and when there is an opportunity for me to play one role at a time, they this is now the second time they brought me back to do so, which is you know, very I'm very grateful. Um, so I I feel like at some point maybe it'll just kind of roll this way, and I'll kind of pivot in and out depending on what's going on work-wise, otherwise.

[15:18] Cara Cooper: I feel like that's the best, like as a mom, as a Broadway mom, that is like the best gig, I feel like, because I mean Kara can speak exactly to this.

[15:28] Pearl Sun: Yeah, because of prom.

[15:29] Cara Cooper: You were you were that really prom I went in as like a temporary replacement, which was great too, because I like had an end date, and then they hired me as a vacation swing, and it was so great because I would go in for like a couple weeks, and then I I mean I was there more than I wasn't. There was a medical leave, so I actually ended up being in the building a lot, but I did have pockets of time where I wasn't there, where I could take my kid to gymnastics or be home for dinner and put them to bed. And it really was a nice um it was a nice balance of things to know that it wasn't, you know, that's the we always told it called it like the golden handcuffs. It's like you've got this great job if you're in a long-running show, but you don't ever have that end date where you know I'm gonna have time with my family, although we did just have a lot of time, yeah, so much time.

[16:19] Pearl Sun: So much time. Well, but but here's the other part of it is that as excited as I am to go back, you know, having that eight show week schedule, you know, now that Max is like you said, a fully formed, you know, very aware human, he's had me 247 for 17 months. So that's his new normal. And now I'm gonna have to pull myself out again. And you know, it's gonna be, you know, and thankfully it's it's not that long term, but um, it's a transition that we're all going to be making together.

[17:05] Cara Cooper: For real.

[17:05] Pearl Sun: Yeah, we're feeling that in our end too in our yeah.

[17:10] Cara Cooper: Every day Finn says to Graham, he's like, I don't want you to go back to work there.

[17:14] Pearl Sun: No, I don't want you know, it's heartbreaking to hear that. Um we kind of touched on this before we started, but and I don't know personally what you're doing, but are you preparing in any way, like physically, mentally? You know, we talked to Cory Petinod and she's a dancer, so she's really trying, and she gave birth during the pandemic, so she's really trying to get her body back in shape and you know, feeling what this new version of herself is um in that space.

[17:43] Pearl Sun: So, what have you or have you been doing anything to prepare singing and well I'm I'm hitting the books again. I'm getting back in because there's just there's so many intricacies with the show. I I have to say, uh I think uh a couple weeks ago I I turned on the soundtrack just to get it in my ear again. And the second the second that the beginning um Balon starts drum drumming I just started to go, oh because I I all of a sudden had a flash of and remembering all the things that we're responsible for.

[18:19] Cara Cooper: If I had to move chairs that many times in that many different shapes, I would also have that response.

[18:26] Pearl Sun: And you know, it's it's gonna be fine, but you know, the reality is so you know um the good majority of the cast that will be reopening the show had just come off of um recording the film. So they did a film version that will be um released on Apple TV on September 10th, but they filmed that in July, the and finished, I think finished up at the end of July. So those cast members at least had that process. I have literally not touched the show in 17 months. And when I was in the show 17 months ago, I was playing a different role. So it's like, you know, getting my brain back in that space um is gonna be something, and I have definitely been going on hikes and trying to get my my joints moving again.

I've been playing tennis, you know, throughout this period, so um, but you know, I've gained weight over this period. Oh, I don't know. You know, I just and I'm embracing that. And um my wardrobe supervisor is lovely. Um, and she's embracing me, so she's like, whatever, we've got this. You know what? Like, good. It's like we got an email from our wardrobe from our designer, and they were like, So we're gonna have fittings so that we can just see like if anything needs to be improved upon.

[19:57] Cara Cooper: I love that they put it that way. That's such a nice way of saying it.

[19:59] Pearl Sun: But didn't be improved. Didn't you say that Hamilton is like not having them try on their old costumes?

[20:07] Cara Cooper: Hamilton didn't even have them try on their costumes.

[20:10] Pearl Sun: They just got they just measured them, and then they're gonna have them change.

[20:14] Cara Cooper: They didn't I'm so clear.

[20:16] Pearl Sun: So they didn't have to acknowledge, you know. I mean, we all know, do you know what I mean? We know our bodies are different. We know whether it's weight gain or lack of muscle tone or whatever. Like we've said nothing replicates an eight-show a week schedule and life. So, like, you know, we weren't walking the New York City streets. We weren't hustling through the subway, we weren't climbing the stairs to our dressing rooms. And so Hamilton staying up till midnight every night.

[20:40] Cara Cooper: Like right.

[20:41] Pearl Sun: I mean, I'm you know, I'm without even brief thinking about it. I was clocking 15 to 20,000 steps a day.

[20:48] Cara Cooper: Right.

[20:48] Pearl Sun: And I went, and my average really was a couple thousand here.

[20:53] Cara Cooper: Yes, where I was.

[20:54] Pearl Sun: Isn't that wild?

[20:56] Cara Cooper: Crazy.

[20:57] Pearl Sun: It's it was crazy.

[20:59] Cara Cooper: Yeah, it's crazy.

[21:00] Pearl Sun: I and that's you know, obviously, without hiking and stuff like that, just normal day to day, but you like have to had to actively seek out getting yourself out there and moving. There's also something to be said for, and I said I I'm a personal trainer too, and I said this to my clients. You cannot underestimate the effect of the stress that has been on our bodies and the lack of dopamine and epinephrine just naturally occurring that's not happening. You can't replicate that and like cortisol that ha the release of cortisol that happens in really stressful situations affects your body, whether you want it to or not. Some people it makes them really thin. Some people get like that the stress makes them very um uh lose a lot, where others it's it's the opposite, you know. So you c we can't underestimate and we have to give ourselves grace, like every second of every day.

[21:59] Pearl Sun: Well, and and the reality is is that we are athletes. We are athletes in what we do. Um, and and you know, with come from away, it's a really deceptive show because you don't think that it's a physical show, but it is so physical and we have a lot of repetitive motion and um it doesn't we don't stop, we're on stage the entire time and so you know injuries happen in this show in in ways that people would not think it would happen. Um because it's like not considered a dancey or a dancer type show, but it it there's there's a lot of movement going on there and so I I'm I'm hopeful that all of us are gonna do what we need to do to take care of ourselves and um nurture our bodies and our our souls because you know, getting back in to this eight show a week schedule is no joke.

Um and I've already heard from some friends who who are working in other states that um are already suffering with injuries and it it's just we're being asked to perform as if we hadn't stopped for 17 months.

[23:27] Cara Cooper: And so I think you know, as long as we're just really cognizant of that and take care of ourselves through this, we'll be okay.

[23:37] Pearl Sun: Yeah, and take care of each other, I think.

[23:40] Cara Cooper: And take care of each other, like let's look at out for each other because um we're gonna need as much help as we can get.

[23:48] Pearl Sun: Yeah, yeah. But you know, but also the on the positive end, like how glorious, how glorious to be able to, you know, um there was a a recording that was out there that you know was floating around in our in our group of the opening performance of Come From Away on the West End.

[24:12] Pearl Sun: And um they had a backstage recording of the PA and the end of the opening number and the applause was like six minutes or seven minutes long and the cheering and it just was non-stop.

[24:26] So and it brought me to tears. Like that kind of um we've we've yearned for that, right?

[24:35] Yeah, that return. So I'm really looking forward to that.

[24:41] We're gonna take a quick break. Don't go anywhere, we'll be right back.

[24:50] What is as we start to wrap up, we've been talking and asking about um sort of like a mantra for this time. As you move through this moment, what what is what could be your mantra or what are you carrying with you to maneuver this?

[25:08] You know, leaving having to separate from Max now and and go back into rehearsal and you know, the grace for giving our bodies, all the things that particularly as mothers, we have to carry, you know, just the logistical, as my daughter says, lifing, you know, adulting, but all of it on top of, you know, returning to our artistic homes and spirits.

[25:39] I you know, there's a lot. I mean, I I'll be honest with you, part of my return is um, you know, I I reached out to um a company member to ask her, she's a neighbor of mine, she um she lives near me, and I asked her, you know, what are our plans for transport transportation?

[26:03] Because I personally don't feel safe traveling. Um I'm like opening, I know we're trying to wrap it up, but I'm just opening this up. But yeah, but um wanting to find somebody to ride home with at night because through this period, um the Asian hate crimes that are still prevalent and you know happening even just last Sunday, this past Sunday, there was another one.

[26:39] Um I have to consider that the city is no longer the city that I have lived in for decades, feeling safe walking around at all hours, and you know, um I'm very fortunate that our show is only a hundred hundred minutes long, so I'm not that late in coming out, but you know, I still have to consider am I taking car rides home now?

[27:07] Am I um or if I'm getting on the subway, I don't want to do that alone, um, which is something that I didn't have to think about pre-pandemic, um, quite frankly. Um so it's there's just a lot.

[27:23] There's a lot that has happened over this period. Um and I I just feel like I think my mantra will just be gentle and not quick to anger, because that's something that I've kind of earned over this period too, is um, I'm just very quick to anger these days if I see something that doesn't feel right or that there's an injustice happening, that's where I am right now.

[28:10] I know.

[28:11] Jessica Rush: That's because of your heart.

[28:14] Pearl Sun: Oh, so much of it, Pearl. It's like we we see this injustice and we're quick to ang you're quick to anger because you care so much, because you are a good person, because you are a loving human and very empathetic.

[28:27] And we all should be more so, right? I mean, that's you're you're a very empathetic person living in this world right now, and it's so heavy on top of the horrible actions that are being taken to people in the Asian community, Asian American community, AAPI.

[28:46] It's um it's it's horrify it's horrifying and horrible, and that is definitely an adjustment that to be honest before talking to you.

[28:57] I I mean I've I know these things and I know it, but it didn't cross my mind to talk about it specifically with regard to the return.

[29:05] Do you know what I mean? But of course you have to get to work, you have to go home from work, you have to feel safe when you leave the theater at night.

[29:13] And um, yeah, that's no friend. But how Pearl, that you are you you're trying I mean, your emotional reaction, you're saying you've been quick to anger, rightfully so.

[29:28] Right.

[29:29] And you are cognizant enough that that's something you want to not temp down, but but check, because I obviously it also is taking a toll on you, right?

[29:42] That that emotional response I'm sure is has really uh taken its toll on you this past 17 uh months.

[29:51] And I feel like our country is in a place that is quick to anger on all sides, unfortunately, um, and and is part of what has gotten us to this place that we are in right now, um, with our former administration and the the hate that was spewed.

[30:11] So knowing that your empathetic, loving response to injustice um is something that you are so self-aware of.

[30:23] I mean, I feel like we can all take a lesson from that, right?

[30:26] Jessica Rush: Yeah, is that this as this move as we're moving forward, if anything, if we have learned anything from that from this time, is that sure we've all been in a pandemic, but what's the thing that we've seen?

[30:37] We may all be in the same storm, but we're not in the same boat, right?

[30:41] Our ex our experiences through this have been so different. Jessica and I have not experienced what it has been like to be an Asian American during this time, and I can't begin to imagine what that feels like.

[30:52] So as we move forward, is to have that broader viewpoint of what every single person around us, how they are experiencing this moment, you know, and how we can move forward through it in a more compassionate, empathetic way.

[31:09] Um it's a it's a lesson for all of us.

[31:14] Pearl Sun: I I wanted to um I had talked to Jessica about this, but I wanted to also bring up um Tom and I collaborated on a song that actually has to do with this very subject and um and the hate crimes and what has been happening um and it it was such a gift to be able to creatively speak on everything that's been happening.

[31:44] Um and so Tom Kitt and I, you know, Tom Kitt has created this incredible album that just recently got released, and each track is a different um story.

[31:56] So we um a bunch of us co-collaborated with him, and we were asked to give him a statement, and he then um composed a song based on what we wrote, and so um I know you guys had mentioned that you were talking to Elizabeth Stanley, who's a friend of mine, um, and she's on the album as well, and Mandy Gonzalez, who's also um a Broadway mom, she's on the album as well, and um, and each track is different, and I call it a time capsule of this last 17 months, and um, and so I I'm grateful that I had that um opportunity to channel what I was thinking and feeling over this period into into art and to be able to collaborate with him was was really uh a gift.

[32:53] Um again, I I'm I'm grateful for the space that you guys provide for all of us to be able to talk these things out.

[33:06] Um and I feel like we all need that. Everybody needs a space and and ears and hearts to receive um because what we've all been through, this entire world has been through, is um is unfathomable actually even though we've we're living through it it's it's a a crazy um crazy period of time yeah yeah i still feel like it's a horrible dream i still say this are this is happening this happened this is happening you know i mean i lived it but i it's wild it's wild yeah i love you friend i wish i could reach through the screen and give you a hug right now oh thank you i just love seeing your faces and thanks for checking in i mean it's i th I think it's gonna be just so healing to be in that space and with those people and telling this story at this time um absolutely that is uh come from a way it makes you feel so good about humanity and about people and just it lifts you up I love that show it's it's beautiful we could all use a a do a healthy dose of faith in humanity right now I think so yes yes you're looking for that come from away is is definitely the answer for sure for sure well Pearl thank you for joining us we'll come we're gonna talk to you again once you start rehearsals oh my goodness that's next week I start next week oh my gosh so soon what's crazy is your last show you said is October 7th, you think?

[35:03] Pearl Sun: Yeah.

[35:03] Jessica Rush: My show reopens on the 8th.

[35:05] Pearl Sun: Like you're gonna have rehearsed and done your show.

[35:10] Jessica Rush: Well, and then that I can come see you.

[35:12] Pearl Sun: Yes.

[35:13] Jessica Rush: Yes, please.

[35:13] Pearl Sun: Because I haven't seen the show yet.

[35:15] Jessica Rush: Oh, I still have to go.

[35:17] Pearl Sun: Because we were supposed to go the weekend of the shutdown.

[35:19] Jessica Rush: They were.

[35:20] Pearl Sun: Let's go together.

[35:21] Jessica Rush: Let's go together.

[35:22] Pearl Sun: I want to go.

[35:22] Jessica Rush: Let's do it.

[35:23] Pearl Sun: I love that idea.

[35:24] Jessica Rush: I love it.

[35:25] Pearl Sun: Awesome.

[35:25] Jessica Rush: Well, Pearl, we will talk to you soon.

[35:27] Pearl Sun: And um, I'll see you in the neighborhood soon, maybe.

[35:30] Jessica Rush: Yes, neighbor.

[35:32] Pearl Sun: Yes, neighbor.

[35:33] Jessica Rush: Okay, have a good night.

[35:34] Pearl Sun: Thank you.

[35:35] Jessica Rush: Good night.

[35:41] Jessica Rush: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Mamas Talkin' Loud. Special shout outs to Justin Squiggs Robertson for our fabulous new graphic.

[35:50] Kristen Lopez, Bobby Lopez, and Justin Wardweber for our awesome theme song, and of course, the Broadway Podcast Network for bringing us to you.