This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Eli Tokash: Hello everyone and welcome to episode 168 of Take A Bow.

[0:05] Eli Tokash: I'm your host, Eli Tokash, and oh my goodness, this week we have such another great episode. We have a writer on the podcast today, and we haven't had one in a while, so I'm very excited to chat with him about what it's like to be in the industry as a writer. And not only as a writer, our guest this week, Jaime Lozano, has a very, very unique story into this industry.

[0:30] Eli Tokash: He's not yet been a songwriter or a writer that has done a Broadway show quite yet. He's an up-and-coming writer. He's literally Lin Manuel Miranda is quoted as him being the next best thing that Broadway has to offer. Obviously, he is a mentor to Jaime and to talk about what it's like to break into this industry as an immigrant coming to America. Literally did not speak any English until just 10 years ago.

[1:01] Eli Tokash: And just learning it all and coming to NYU on a full scholarship. It's just his story is incredible, and it's a name that we're gonna be looking out for many, many years. So I'm excited to bring this episode to all of you because he has a very exciting show that he's offering for free at Lincoln Center. He has two stints coming up in the near future, and we're gonna talk all about it, and I'm so excited. Free art, who doesn't want to go see that and support that? So very exciting stuff.

[1:28] Eli Tokash: All right, before we turn it over to Jaime, as always, we gotta talk about some Broadway news, shall we? Lots has happened, y'all, in a week. You know, I went away and I was on a cruise and I was in the middle of the ocean, and I literally felt like nothing was happening because I had no social media, no service, no nothing, wasn't able to receive any texts or whatever. And I come back and it's like, what is going on?

[1:54] Eli Tokash: So much happened, and it's just crazy town. And obviously the biggest piece of news, and not even necessarily in the Broadway world, but like just the biggest news in entertainment this week was obviously the SAG AFTRA strike. So when I caught wind of the SAG strike, you know, there was a lot of conversations, a lot of hesitating in the sense of like, oh, you know, what do I do? I'm a member of SAG AFTRA, I'm a member of Actors Equity Association.

[2:25] Eli Tokash: And so I was just like, hmm, how do I continue moving forward with this? Thankfully, through extensive research and conversations and all the things, I have decided to continue, but it's not gonna be a hundred percent the same as it usually is. I may have to pull back episodes, I may have to, you know, the conversations you hear are gonna be very different because we can't talk about, you know, all of the things that I enjoy talking about.

[2:58] Eli Tokash: And it's just a tricky way to navigate all of this now. So we're gonna figure it out and we're gonna go through this journey together. I do want to continue during this time, especially to continue bringing entertainment to all of you, especially because this is an independent form of entertainment, I'm able to do so. It just is very difficult because, you know, a lot of the performers already, you know, that I had lined up, or even some of the BroadlyCon performers that I had that were gonna come speak with me had to back out because of the writer's strike and now the SAG AFTRA strike, because, you know, it's tricky because they can't promote it, and so we're all kind of in this guessing game.

[3:42] Eli Tokash: And if we do promote it, then we're kicked out of the union and we're in this kind of hard spot here. And so moving forward the podcast until this foreseeable future until they reach an agreement, we are gonna be strictly talking Broadway talk. I will continue bringing the Broadway entertainment straight to you, wherever you may be listening from, whether it's your car, on the subway, on the other side of the ocean, whatever it may be, I promise to give you entertainment as much as I can and at the highest quality, as I always strive to do so.

[4:19] Eli Tokash: So with that being said, we're gonna be talking about Broadway more as it is in the AEA union, and we obviously stand with SAG AFTRA and AEA, but you know, Broadway's not closing down because of this strike, even though a lot of Broadway performers are SAG AFTRA, etc. So that's kind of just like how I'm kind of basing off all of this from. So yeah, so that being said, this we are not done with strikes because now the WGA started first and reaching a fair deal, then SAG AFTRA is on strike so that the WGA can reach the fair agreement, and obviously SAG AFTRA artists are now on strike hoping for a better deal themselves.

[5:05] Eli Tokash: And also we have now the IATSE union, which for those of you who don't know, IATSE is the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. And so basically anyone who is in a theater is under the IATSE union, if you are not a performer. So anywhere from backstage and the carpenters, dressers, whatever it may be, and anyone in charge of flying, the stage management, all of that fun stuff, they are all in the IATSE union.

[5:40] Eli Tokash: And it's a very big union on Broadway, actually. And so there's a lot of people working right now to they were in negotiations and working on a deal with the Broadway League and Disney. But now they are going to be constructing a vote on whether a strike is authorized as they cannot get the fair deal that they want with the Broadway League and Disney because, you know, those companies don't make enough money.

[7:14] Eli Tokash: So yeah, that's what's going on at the moment. So maybe if the IATSE union does go on strike, it'll be interesting to see how Broadway is affected now moving forward, and if Broadway is affected moving forward, well then we may actually have to take a legit hiatus from the podcast. And we will see what comes about that. And I will keep you all updated, obviously. You know, now that we're back to one a week, it does seem like I have an eternity from you guys being seven days now instead of, you know, twice a week or whatever it may have been.

[7:14] Eli Tokash: So with that being said, you know, with all of this news coming out every day, new stuff, new stuff, new information, things can change at the drop of the hat. So make sure you follow us on social media at takeabowpodcast, and you will get the quickest news update there, and you'll find all of that out there first before hearing it from me, probably on a weekly basis.

[7:14] Eli Tokash: So yeah, that's what's going on. Strikes are real, y'all. We're just trying to get fair compensation and fair respect, I guess, really, because they really think that AI can do our jobs, and it's like what? Like, no, it just can happen and it could happen, but it's not the same result. And we could see a very big hit from our industry and the audiences coming from that if these heads of our industry do decide going that route.

[7:51] Eli Tokash: So it's very concerning and it's very something that we all should look out for and try to support during this time. That being said, I also wanted to say something about supporting during this time. Supporting new works and supporting artists are so pivotal right now with everything going on. If you didn't get a chance to listen to it on Tuesday, I dropped a bonus episode. And so what that is is I was basically just dropping a short episode of literally just an interview of a friend of mine who produced Trevor both in Chicago and here off Broadway in New York.

[8:27] Eli Tokash: And now we're working on our own project called Truth, a biofictional choreo poem. And we launched our crowdfunding campaign to support us in making our first ever production of this new work called Truth. I am not a biofictional choreo poem. And basically what that is is if we are able to reach our goal, we will be able to do a workshop reading of our show and then put it into a theater. And we are very, very much hoping to do so because this is a story that I so believe in.

[9:05] Eli Tokash: It's called Truth because it's based on Sojourner Truth and other female abolitionists who kind of led the way for America and people of color and women and all of the things during that time in our world where nothing was fair, quite literally. And yeah, so it's just a really big thing. It's biofictional because it's based on the lives of, you know, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and all these female abolitionists and kind of humanizing them and what they were going through.

[9:37] Eli Tokash: You know, they had to leave their children and then their children had to lie and say that that's not their mother, and like they had to do all of these things to kind of explore what that is like and the relationships involved in all of the things. It's really brilliant. And I'm so excited to share it, and I hope that it reaches more audiences. Because at the end of the day, this is American history. This is our history, and it's history that we need to learn, and it's stories that need to be told because honestly, it's still happening, you know, and it's happening with immigrants and it's happening with all of the things in our world.

[10:08] Eli Tokash: So very important and something that I believe strongly in. So you can visit that at truthplay.org, our crowdfunding campaign, or you can just listen to Tuesday's episode when we launched our campaign that day. You can check that out and learn more about the project there. But obviously the donations and more information can also be found at truthplay.org. And we hope you check that out.

[10:35] Eli Tokash: Okay, moving forward into the real Broadway news and stuff that's going on. We had some casting announcements, which is super exciting. We had Here We Are, which was Sondheim's last ever musical that he wrote. It's crazy to think that we are actually gonna get this, you know. There were talks about this a lot, and it was like, is this finished? Is it not? And I guess we're just getting it, you know, and I'm so excited, and it's a star-studded cast because who wouldn't want to do the greatest composer of all time's last musical?

[11:05] Eli Tokash: It's craziness, and I'm so excited for it. We have an all-star cast starring Francois Batiste, David Hyde Pierce, Amber Gray, Bobby Cannavale, and Take A Bow Fam, Michaela Diamond and Rachel Vay Jones. I am freaking out. So excited. I knew that this is why Parade was closing. I wasn't allowed to say Michaela Diamond did have another project because there was a lot of, you know, wish and desire for Parade to extend.

[11:34] Eli Tokash: You know, they were selling so well, they're doing so well, why aren't they extending and all the things? And it is because Michaela Diamond already had and a few other cast members actually have projects already lined up and they were unable to extend, which is such a bummer, but I can't wait to see this new piece, and it's gonna be so good, y'all. I'm so excited. And that's gonna come out in this season. I'm so excited, and y'all should be too, because that cast, forget it.

[12:00] Eli Tokash: But we also got some more casting announcements out of Hadestown, where Betty Who icon and Philip Boykin will join the cast of Hadestown. So we have Betty Who's making her Broadway debut, and then ooh, I like that rhyme. And then we have like a 16-time Broadway veteran, Philip Boykin, joining the cast of Hadestown. So I can't wait to see how those lovebirds, obviously they're playing Hades and Persephone, you know, are they work together, and I can't wait to see how all that comes out.

[12:33] Eli Tokash: And obviously, I assume very soon we're actually gonna get a Eurydice casting announcement because obviously we know Eva Noblazada is leaving and departing in the beginning of August. So we don't have any word about it yet. There's some speculation, whatever. But once that comes out, I just know I just feel like something's telling me that it's gonna be someone like huge and something that we're gonna be talking about for quite some time.

[13:01] Eli Tokash: So we'll hold our breaths until then, and because I know it's gotta come soon with her leaving in less than like three weeks, I want to say. So crazy times over in Hadestown with all these casting announcements, super fun. And I'll keep you all posted on the next Eurydice. Okay. I also wanted to say before I turn it over to our interview that today, Thursday, July 20th, Here Lies Love opens on Broadway.

[13:30] Eli Tokash: Yes, it opens on time as scheduled. Obviously, Here Lies Love was the one show that we talked a lot about with the sense of doing recorded tracks and not live musicians, but they obviously reached came to a fair deal and they have musicians and live tracks, and it just looks unbelievable. I don't think I'll be able to be at their opening tomorrow, which I'm super bummed about. And usually I don't talk about a show this way when they don't invite me or like don't allow me to cover the carpet and stuff.

[14:03] Eli Tokash: But because I'm just so excited for this show in general because I've heard such good things about it. The pictures from inside the theater are wild. It's like Great Comet 2.0 with how they've like literally redone this theater. It's gonna be crazy town, and I'm so excited. But that comes out today. It opens today on Thursday, July 20th. So very exciting. Congratulations to all involved. And yeah, that's all the Broadway news I have for you folks this week. So without further ado, I'm gonna send it over to our fabulous guest this week, Jaime Lozano.

[14:36] Eli Tokash: Jaime Lozano, curtain up.

[14:42] Eli Tokash: Okay, everyone. So this week's guest is Broadway's next big thing, according to Lin Manuel Miranda. Ever heard of him? He just recently became an awardee of the Jonathan Larson Grant, which is awarded annually to musical theater composers, lyricists, and librettists, or writing teams early in their career to support artistic endeavors and safeguard long-term music writing careers.

[15:08] Jaime Lozano: On August 4th, you can see him at Lincoln Center in his show, his own show, featuring songs from his album, Songs by an Immigrant.

[15:17] Eli Tokash: Everyone, welcome to Take A Bow.

[15:19] Jaime Lozano: Hi.

[15:21] Jaime Lozano: Hola, hello, I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you for that beautiful introduction and thank you for having me. A pleasure to be here.

[15:28] Eli Tokash: Oh my gosh. No, I'm so excited. This is super exciting to talk to, you know, someone who is not a performer, because I had a lot of performers on this show. Um, so to get a new perspective is really cool, and to have someone, you know, kind of fresh and upcoming is just so exciting to me. And I can't wait to continue to follow your journey as we go through this together.

[15:52] Jaime Lozano: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I'm also very excited and grateful for this opportunity.

[15:56] Eli Tokash: Yeah. Happy to talk to you. I love it. So let's start at the beginning. Like how are we here? And how do you fall in love with, you know, writing? Did you fall in love with musical theater first? Did you fall in love with music? And it kind of paved the path into musical theater. How did we get into here?

[16:17] Jaime Lozano: Look, um, to be honest, I started like real late. I mean, I call it late, it wasn't that late, but no one in my family do anything related with art, no one does anything related with music or theater. Actually, I was supposed to study criminology.

[16:34] Jaime Lozano: Wow. Yeah, I actually did like my all the orientation to get into criminology school, and when I was supposed to enroll for real, something I don't know, inside me told me, wait, this is not what you want to do. Just don't enroll in this school and wait. At the same time, I had just started going to a choir, a short choir where I learned I was like 17 and 18 years old, and I was learning to play guitar and I was thinking in a choir. So that was my first like approach to music in a short, play guitar and singing. And because of that was that I enrolled a year later after I passed to criminology school, I enrolled in music school for singing. I wanted, I was studying opera singing originally.

[17:29] Jaime Lozano: Um, I was in the first semester of school, I saw a flyer on the wall for auditions. So, um, before I moved forward with this flyer, when I was a kid, I used to see every Easter in the TV back in Mexico, this Jesus Christ the musical. They used to go catch the musical. But let me tell you something, I used to hate it. It was, I couldn't understand. I couldn't understand why they were like in the middle of the desert singing and dancing and what's going on. I was a kid, I was maybe less than 10 years old, I don't remember. So, uh, it was weird this thing about musical theater. But moving forward, like flash forward, I saw this flyer on my music school about audition for a show. I went to audition for the show, and I got into a part into the ensemble, and the funny thing is that this show was, can you guess which show was it?

[18:36] Eli Tokash: Um, it wasn't Jesus Christ Superstar.

[18:38] Jaime Lozano: It was Jesus Christ Superstar.

[18:40] Eli Tokash: Oh my god.

[18:41] Jaime Lozano: It was Jesus Christ Superstar. And the show that I used to hate, or the show that I couldn't understand when I was a kid, uh, was the show that made me fall in love with musical theater and storytelling. So I auditioned for the show, I got a part of the ensemble, uh, I became close, like a close to the director, and I became like his assistant. And that's when I started being more like, uh, curious about storytelling and musical theater. A few years later, I was studying opera thinking, as I mentioned before. I decided that I wanted to do more than just being on stage and perform. And I changed my major and I changed into composition. So I quit singing, I started studying composition, and I started directing my own musicals and versions of Broadway musicals in my hometown in Monterrey, Mexico. So I directed like Jesus Christ Superstar, The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World, Jekyll and Hyde, all that in Mexico with the Spanish version of those shows.

[20:02] Eli Tokash: Unbelievable. And now it's led you to start writing your own shows.

[20:07] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, at the same time that I was directing, I was kind of, that was like my school, you know. I was really hungry and curious for musical that I started like, like just like, you know, like reading and finding all the information. At that time, I remember that I needed to go and rent a computer because, uh, I'm talking this was like, let's say the year 2000. I didn't have a computer, or I had to go to a cyber, I don't know how to call it, like they call it in Mexico, cyber café, because you can go and drink something and sit in the computer, uh, and you know, so I was renting a computer and Googling about musicals and printing pages because I didn't, I created my own books, printing pages and creating my own books to study about musical theater, and my English wasn't that good, so reading the information was good enough to understand, but I didn't speak any English at the time.

[21:12] Eli Tokash: Wow, and how long ago was this?

[21:14] Jaime Lozano: I mean, it was around the year 2000.

[21:17] Eli Tokash: Yeah.

[21:18] Jaime Lozano: Wow. 20, 23 years ago.

[21:21] Eli Tokash: Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, your drive and motivation and your story of how you got into all of this is just fascinating. But so good for you. I mean, this is truly incredible. And you could tell you got bit by the bug and now you're into it, you know, as we say. Um, but let me ask you, so you know, you obviously started as a performer and auditioning for to perform in like the ensemble or whatever it may be, and now you've kind of enjoyed the other side as a director and a writer and all these things. Do you ever like, would you ever go back to performing? Like if you wrote something, you know, kind of like Lin Manuel Miranda does when he writes, he may star in the show. Would you ever see yourself doing anything like that?

[22:06] Jaime Lozano: Uh, I mean, I know very well Lin and he has been a role model and inspiration. He's my friend. Uh, and I really admire what he does. I mean, he saw an opportunity in creating something for himself. Yeah, back when he did In the Heights, uh, because there wasn't nothing like that out there. I mean, it's sad, like as performers can't see themselves on stage. You know, performers like, like of color, like performers, you know, with a different background. Um, so telling you this, I do my own projects, I have my own concert where I perform on stage. Uh, I'm right now actually recording my new album, Songs by an Immigrant Volume 2.

[22:53] Jaime Lozano: Yeah. That is gonna be released in September. Um, and in this album, I have collaborations with many, many Broadway people like, uh, Iden Espinoza, uh, Mandy Gonzalez, Robin de Jesús, and I'm back at singing and I record a few songs in this album because I say, why not? I mean, if I love singing and I'm writing these stories, I should also tell the story. So I record a couple of songs in this new album. Uh, and yes, I think eventually, you know, something, as I mentioned before, back in the day, I didn't speak English. Actually, the reason I got in this country was because I was, uh, selected. Um, I got into NYU to do a master program. NYU has a very unique master program in musical theater writing.

Uh, and I was the first Mexican ever accepted, and they also granted me a full tuition scholarship. That's why I came to New York because I didn't have the money to come to, I mean, you know, this city is crazy expensive. And they accepted me into the program without speaking English. I mean, I like that was 2007. Back in 2007, I didn't speak English.

[24:07] Jaime Lozano: So, uh, it's been a struggle for me, and this thing about, um, this feeling about belonging, you know, that I'm not, I'm an immigrant in this country, uh, I didn't speak English at the time. Now I speak English, but obviously, as you can hear, I have an accent. Uh, sometimes I don't find the words to say, sometimes even I'm losing my Spanish sometimes because now because I speak English, I forget a word in Spanish, and I go back and forth into English and Spanish and doing this Spanglish thing. And, uh, one of my goals is one day, like I have many collaborators. I write my song with different lyricists.

[24:49] Jaime Lozano: Okay. And a lot of people, like writers, they told me, you should write your own lyrics. I mean, you are also a lyricist, and you shouldn't be afraid to write in English because your English is your English. I mean, you shouldn't be worried. I'm very perfectionist, and something I'm worried about not writing English in that way that not finding a right rhyme, a perfect rhyme, or not writing the right words to say something. And I'm afraid as well with, uh, with, uh, with speaking, you know, like one of the things I hate the most to do even today is speaking, speaking in the phone with someone in English. Because I don't see, like now that I'm seeing your face, your beautiful face, and I see your mouth.

I can see what you're, I mean, even if sometimes I might not understand completely something, I go with your mouth and with your eyes, and I can, so speaking in the phone is, was really hard. It is really hard for me sometimes because sometimes I'm just like guessing what they're saying.

[25:59] Eli Tokash: Uh sure.

[26:01] Jaime Lozano: So I would love when they go back to performing. I kind of do it in my concerts, but it's in a safe space, in a different way. But yeah, I I'm still like fighting against this sense, um, that this sense of belonging. Do I really belong to this community? I'm very grateful with the Broadway community and with all my amazing collaborators and performers that they have been really kind and nice with me and they have opened their arms to and their hearts to my stories. But you know, we have this, how do you call it, the, uh, imposter syndrome that's something sometimes they'll tell us, oh, you're not good enough, you're, you're gonna make this mistake, you go back home. What are you doing here in New York City? Blah blah blah. Uh, but you know, I just, just trying to prove myself that I can do it every single day and learn it.

[27:00] Eli Tokash: Yeah. Absolutely. Did you have more to add there?

[27:03] Jaime Lozano: No, no, no. It's a never-ending learning experience.

[27:07] Eli Tokash: Absolutely, I agree. And I think something that's so beautiful about this theater community, I guess you could call it, um, is that everyone is welcome. You know, everyone in this community is just so kind and welcoming. Um, unfortunately, with that being said, there are some unrepresented communities in this community, uh, of the theater community, which is something that we need to continue working on, which is something that I'm excited about to talk to you about, because I feel like we talk a lot about performers being underrepresented, um, in their own backgrounds and all of that. Um, but we don't often talk about it from the creative team side, and I feel like it kind of starts from that side of the table to then translate to the performers and the performance.

Um, so I'm curious to talk to you, uh, about, you know, we notice that there are communities that are underrepresented in the stories that are being told here in musicals on Broadway and everything like that. So, as a writer, how does that kind of influence your work? Or does it influence your work?

[28:15] Jaime Lozano: No, definitely you just say it. Everything, everything should start with the stories. I mean, we can have that diversity just, uh, in the, you know, in the form. I mean, just what we see. The diversity is not only what we see on stage, and also I mean, I really appreciate and I'm grateful that they are trying to put diverse people on stage, uh, even in stories that usually were told for other kind of people. On this thing about diverse cast now that you see, uh, a character that is supposed, it was supposed to be from one background and now it's more open, it can, and that actor can come from another background, even if it's not related with the character background of the story. I mean, I appreciate that effort. Sometimes it feels a little bit weird depending on the story, but I think that that's a good first step. But definitely, uh, the diversity should come from the top, and the top are the stories. I mean, what is, what are the kind of stories we are telling?

[29:22] Jaime Lozano: Yeah. So, uh, that's why a lot of people ask me, oh, why don't you write only songs about immigrant experience or about Latinx subjects? Can you write another kind of story? Yes, I can. I mean, I can do another kind of Dear Evan Hansen or Phantom or Hamilton or whatever. Uh, but I don't think that that is my mission or my goal. Because I mean, that United States writer, the people from here, they are amazing and they do what they do in a great way. They perfection what is musical theater.

[29:56] Jaime Lozano: So I'm not gonna try to do exactly what they do. That is not what I want to do. So I want to bring myself and who I am and my stories and my background to add what they do to what they do. So we can have Dear Evan Hansen and we can have Next to Normal and we can have Hamilton, but we can have all these other different stories also where we can find this diverse perspective and point of view. And I think like as you said before, it's important the story, but also it's important. We don't have Latinx producers, for example. There's not too many people doing that. I really applaud my brothers and sisters from the Black community that they have grown so much, and they are doing a lot of things, not as a lot as we would like on Broadway, but I think that is a community that has been getting stronger every year, and they have these big producers now, producers from the Hollywood community and producers that are spending on telling their stories.

And we don't have something like that in the Latinx community. We don't have people with the power to see that we have Latin stories that need to be seen on stage on Broadway or beyond Broadway, you know, off-Broadway, regional, whatever. So I think it's a matter of we need to find a way to get into all the different levels and disciplines and categories. Like we need Latinx producers, we need Latinx composers, writers, directors, choreographers, casting directors, arrangers, general managers, stage managers. That diversity needs to be reflected in every single area, not only on stage. And in that way, I think everything's gonna, I mean, we're gonna have a stronger sense of storytelling.

[32:03] Eli Tokash: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's interesting because I feel like we often don't talk about it because I feel like what's talked about most is what we can see, you know, and those are the performers, but very, very not often enough, I suppose, do we hear that from within, you know, and from the top, you know, and I think that that is just equally as important. So I appreciate you kind of sharing that and your thoughts on it all. Can I talk to you and switch gears on the Jonathan Larson grant?

[32:36] Jaime Lozano: Sure, sure. Because I okay, so I think this is like the coolest thing in the world that you were the awardee of this grant. You know, especially when you think about the Jonathan Larson grant and who the recipients in the past have been, you know, you have Pasek and Paul, you have Joe Iconis, you have Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey, Michael R. Jackson, Shana Taub. You have all of these wonderful writers that are doing such incredible work and are still, you know, young in their careers, such as yourself.

[33:10] Jaime Lozano: So, thank you.

[33:12] Eli Tokash: Yeah, of course.

[33:13] Jaime Lozano: Not that young, but yeah, at least give me a break. You I can't wait to see this. It's just the beginning for you. And I can't wait to see what's next. So, but I'm curious to ask you, you know, like what does this grant mean to you and how does it kind of just accelerate your career?

[33:32] Jaime Lozano: Look, it's a whole thing. It's a very unique journey because when I started doing musical theater back in my hometown, one of the first musicals that I learned that sounded different was Rent. Yes, you know, because everything else was like the same, the same, the same. And Rent was something that was a contemporary story, that was a contemporary sound, and made me think that you can tell stories in a different way, not only like in the classic Broadway way. So I fell in love with Jonathan Larson and his work back in 2000 when I started doing all this. Then I got accepted to this master program. I came to NYU, I graduated, and since then I learned about this grant that is a very important and prestigious grant in the musical theater world. And to be honest, I applied for this grant because you have to apply for the grant. You have to send your material, you have to send songs. And before I got it last, like this year, I think I applied like six, seven times.

[34:42] Eli Tokash: Wow.

[34:43] Jaime Lozano: That I never got it. The last year I got, I was a finalist, but I didn't get it. So I was like applying and applying year after year after graduating from school. The funny thing is that two years ago during the pandemic, I got a call from Lin Manuel Miranda, and he told me, I want you to be in a movie that I'm directing. Yes, I have this very special scene that I want you to come. And this movie was tick, tick... Boom! about Jonathan Larson's musical, but at the same time, what they did was kind of a biopic about Jonathan Larson. And in this very special scene, Lin-Manuel called a bunch of musical theater writers like Marc Shaiman, Jason Robert Brown, George Stiles, Heina Top, Joey Contreras, Stum Kidd, Alex Lacamoire, and many, many more, Stephen Schwartz.

And it was like a workshop scene when the character of Jonathan Larson was performing a song to a panel of theater, but one of them was supposed to be Stephen Sondheim. And all the Broadway composers, all these people that Lin-Manuel invited, we were like in the audience, like we were like fellow composers in this classroom. So that was a very, very weird experience because I never expected to be invited by Lin Manuel Miranda and be like next to Stephen Schwartz and Tom Kitt and Jason Robert Brown in a movie about musical theater. And that year I was a finalist of the Jonathan Larson grant. What I'm saying is in some way everything was like building up and with the blessing of Lin and all this group of composers, next year, I mean, this year now, I finally after many, many tries, I got the honor to be awarded with this grant.

And I think it's just joining this list of names that you just mentioned, I mean, all these amazing writers, it just made me feel a great responsibility for keeping telling the stories that I want to tell, you know? Yes, and knowing that things are happening, that if you work hard, if you do what you're supposed to do and you surround yourself with the right people and work in collaboration as a community, you can get places and your stories eventually are gonna be heard and they're gonna find the places to get to the audiences. Absolutely, and you never give up, you know? It took you a few years, but you just stayed persistent and kept applying. That's so wonderful.

[36:53] Jaime Lozano: Well, that's the thing with this industry. I mean, with actors, because this is something that we see a lot in actors, that we know actors are auditioning every single day for two, three shows and they get many, many no's before getting a yes. I mean, it's the same with composers. We have many, many projects, we apply for many, many grants, workshops, residencies, and yes, I mean, it's more no's that we hear than the yeses. And something is, but it's devastating sometimes. It's really, really hard, but you just have to keep going. And I think it's important to find more meaning being an immigrant artist in this city. You have to find your people.

[38:30] Jaime Lozano: You always need to find your people. It's everything's about the people. Even the stories. Everything is always about the people. They say, if you want to get far, go with someone else. Go with more people.

[38:54] Eli Tokash: Absolutely.

[38:55] Jaime Lozano: So you need always the support of this community. You need the support of collaborators. You need the support of most people so you can get to other places. And this is one thing that, as you just mentioned before, that I love about this musical theater community, that we are here for each other. I mean, we have been living some very challenging times. One of the communities now during the pandemic that was hit stronger was this community.

[39:38] Eli Tokash: Yeah, absolutely.

[39:39] Jaime Lozano: And I mean, I think all of musical theater is just one big collaboration. So I feel it's so important to, you know, find your people and create with them even and tell stories together, you know. So many people come together to share a story and to tell a message, you know, share a message. And I think that's the best part of this community.

[40:05] Jaime Lozano: Exactly. And there's very, I mean, inside a community, I mean, because sometimes we know that we are with these diverse stories, this is not about fighting for someone's place. It's not like, oh, we want my Latinx stories to be here and not yours, or it's not about fighting one community against the other one. It's about finding a way to do it together, to know that we are at the same level and that we can do this together. Of course, when I do my shows, I really am looking for the best people to tell those stories. Of course, I'm gonna support my Latinx community, but I'm gonna be open if I find a designer from another community that is the best to tell the story. I'm gonna welcome them. You know, it's not, oh no, you're not Latinx, so you can't be part of this team.

No, it's more about embracing who we are and embracing other communities and finding what is the best way to collaborate together so these stories can be told in a more diverse way, not only focusing on one community but focusing on storytelling and focusing at the end. My stories, even if they're very specific about one Latin community, right? I have received texts or comments from people from Asia, from people from South America, from people from Europe, that they relate to one of my stories. It's not that they are specifically for my community. At the end, my story is gonna move, it's gonna touch someone else. You never know where in somewhere else in the world. And I think we need to find a way to, more than fight against each other, to really, really know that we have our own community, but those communities can inter-collaborate with each other, you know?

[42:14] Eli Tokash: Absolutely, absolutely they can intersect, you know. You want the wide range of the perspectives, I guess, and voices. That's so wonderful, and I love that because you're kind of doing that here at Lincoln Center on August 4th. You have your own show and it's your album Songs by an Immigrant, but this is volume one, volume two is to come. But you have in this show performances by Christina Alabado, you have Shireen Pimentel, you have Mauricio Martinez, you have all of these wonderful and different voices coming to tell your stories and tell the stories that you wrote. Talk to me about this performance and what people can get excited for.

[43:02] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, we called this project Jaime Lozano and the Familia. The family is this group of amazing performers like the ones that you just mentioned, that most of them have some kind of Latina background. They are immigrants like Mauricio Martinez or my wife Larissa Cuenca, that we are immigrants, or they are like sons or daughters of immigrants, third generation, second generation, like Christina Alabado, like Shireen Pimentel. And I am so honored that they are singing and telling my music, my stories. I think that it's something very, very unique. It's a project that we started back even before the pandemic. We did a concert at Two River Theater in New Jersey that was very successful. It's in Red Bank, New Jersey, and Red Bank, New Jersey has a large Mexican Latinx community.

And when I did that concert that it was sold out, I realized that there was a hunger for this music and these stories. So right after that, I started booking other venues like Joe's Pub, Green Room 42, 54 Below, Lincoln Center. And what was my surprise that all those shows were sold out because people really wanted to hear the stories, and I have the honor that they invited me, Lincoln Center invited me last year to be part of the American Songbook series. That is a very prestigious series of concerts. I have seen Jason Robert Brown perform there, Raul Esparza, Hamilton has his very own concert there, Spring Awakening has its very own concert there, and they invited me to be part of this American Songbook series.

[44:54] Jaime Lozano: So it was like a big deal, it was like a dream uh become true. And since then I have this very good relationship with Lincoln Center, and they gave me this uh residency of concert this year. We had a concert last May. Now we're doing August 4th with this project Song by an Immigrant that is our song from my album, for my last album, and we're gonna do a few uh previews of songs from the next album. And then that's August 4, and then in September 15th, the day that Spanish Heritage Month starts, we're having actually uh that release concert for my new album, Songs by a Migrant Immigrant Volume 2. Uh and that same day the album is being released by Concord Records. Uh and we are very excited to be doing this residency, performing at Lincoln Center at the David Rubenstein Atrium for free.

It's all of these are free concerts. Uh it's a beautiful venue in Lincoln Center that is a public space, and anyone can go and see the concert for free because we are trying to get to this audience. We don't want to be selective. We really want the people to come and listen. Uh that they gave us the opportunity to listen to these stories. Uh I always compare uh musical theater and music with food. It's like uh we we love burgers and and uh I I love burgers, but sometimes the only thing that we have out there on Broadway or on New York are burgers, and people only consume burgers and burgers. But sometimes we need a uh a taco, sometimes we need sushi, you know. So I think that we need to, yeah, we need to give us the opportunity to try something different.

So we are having this uh delicious tacos for you. Uh and you just need to try them, and you're gonna see, oh wait, this is yeah, I I also like this. Even uh yeah, I know I I like burgers and I like this kind of musical theater, and I like I like these stories, but I also kind of like this other kind and enjoy it, you know. It's so so I think I I'm very grateful with organizations like Lincoln Center that they have opened their doors uh to our stories, to my stories, uh doing this series of concerts. It's just uh I'm beyond grateful. It's a great experience.

[47:23] Eli Tokash: That's yeah, that's so great. First of all, I love your analogy of food in Broadway. That's that's kind of the best thing I've ever heard. Um but I also brought up a great point in the sense that you these these concerts are free uh and accessible. How important is it in a space that I find not to be very accessible? You know, it's very expensive world, this this Broadway. Um, how important is it for you to kind of make it more accessible and available for everyone?

[47:54] Jaime Lozano: I strongly believe that the model that musical theater has been made for the last decades is getting to a point that is obsolete. I mean, I uh we can we can be doing musical theater today in the same way that it used to be done 20 30 years. And I'm going, I'm talking not only about the prices and the tickets and what we see, but I'm talking also about the process. I can't believe that for a show to get on stage it takes 10 years or more. If you're lucky and you have investors and producers, maybe your show is gonna take four years to get to Broadway. I mean, to get to a stage, to any kind of stage, not Broadway. Um, because not everything is Broadway, that's other other things that we do understand.

I mean, Broadway, I mean, we all dream about Broadway, but there's many other uh stages that that our stories need to be on, you know. Not everything is about Broadway, it's off Broadway, off of Broadway, bring you out, blah blah blah. Uh so I do think that for many, many years we have been doing this process. I mean, that the people here in the States in in a way that it has work for them and it has worked for the industry. But I mean, just right now, we we go to the theaters and people audiences are not back there. We are suffering with that. I mean, all the regional theaters they're suffering even more because they lost all their subscription and their memberships. It's really really hard.

So I do think that we need to find new ways to tell stories, to do theater, to produce theater, to develop theater, to sell theater and to bring audiences to the theaters. I think that these crazy prices of two 300 or more has been uh very um you know hasn't really helped to create a diverse and a bigger audience. Uh I understand that it's a business, that it's an industry, that uh there's a lot of things in in game, but but I do believe that that there might be better ways to sell this and and to do this without getting so crazy uh expensive at the end, you know, so it could be more democratic, you know.

[50:28] Jaime Lozano: Uh, because that the people who can see Broadway are tourists that they have been saving for years to come to New York, or people that they really have the power to buy the tickets. Uh but there are many communities that they don't have the chance to to to see shows. And and to be honest, a few lottery tickets or a few rush tickets. Sometimes I mean it makes a difference, but it's not, we're not really getting to those communities. Right. So I think that there should be a smarter, smarter ways to really bring these audiences to the theater because they need to see themselves on the stage. And it's like it's like a cycle. Once they see those stories, they're gonna want to invest more. I mean, they're gonna come more to the theater.

And they want to actually to be the next generation of performers or writers or producers or investors, but they need to have the chance to get into some of these fancy restaurants, you know. But they don't have the money. I mean we need to find a way that that it could be more democratic. It's like like I I always say that the subway in New York City is one of the most, even it's not the best, but it's one of the most democratic like uh transportation system because you can see all kinds of people in the subway. I think that we can get we need to get to that place in the theater to see all these different people, and not sometimes I I s I sit in a theater and I turn around and all the people look the same. And that's maybe not the right message.

[52:09] Eli Tokash: Absolutely. Well, I appreciate your efforts uh in trying to make theater more accessible with everything that you're doing over at Lincoln Center. I think that that's absolutely wonderful. And I can't wait to to see these concerts. Uh I will be at one of them August 4th or September 15th. I'm so excited. Um, and uh, you know, Jaime, you have so much to to take a bow for, and you have so much that's yet to come. Uh, so I can't wait to continue to follow you along with your journey and and these incredible shows that you're doing uh at Lincoln Center and beyond. So uh thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today uh about this industry and about your writing. It's it's just incredible.

[52:51] Jaime Lozano: No, thank you so much. Gracias, Eli. It's has been really a pleasure, and thank you for helping to amplify our voices. Thank you for for giving us space. I I think that it's important. Uh at the end, we are all part of the same community. I I also believe that everything that happened with with press, with producers, with marketing, I mean, everything should work on the same direction. And having the support of people like you and media, it it helped like people like myself, but we are really like like pursuing the way to to get to more audiences and and and to it, and it's not only about us, it's because we want our communities to to feel represented also, to feel like like uh I I don't want to say I'm the only Mexican doing this. I don't want to say I'm the only deal with that. I mean, I think that that we need to see more people like myself uh in this community and in this industry, and thank you for helping to spread the word.

[53:53] Eli Tokash: Yes, I couldn't agree more. And I'm part of the the belief that we are all in this together, you know. We all have important stories to tell, and we can all help each other like we were talking about earlier. This is a collaboration, and it's easier and better and more fulfilling doing it with more people than just yourself. So I'm happy to share your story uh on here today. So thank you for taking the time.

[54:19] Jaime Lozano: Thank you, and I will see you in on August 4 at Lincoln Center.

[54:22] Eli Tokash: Yay! So excited. Take a bow. Hi, Jaime Lozano. Oh my goodness, I'm so thrilled that I was able to talk with him on the podcast this week. All of these uh episodes that I've had, I've I recorded, I banked a bunch. Uh and so all of this happened before the sag after strike. And um I'm very excited to share these with you now because I've been waiting. Um but Jaime is so phenomenal and so freaking talented. You can go listen to his album that he's actually going to be performing at Lincoln Center currently, right now on all the music streaming platforms. You know, they have it's called Songs from an Immigrant. Uh and you can also just search that up or search his name up. Um, it's it's really, really amazing music.

And it's kind of been in my head uh this entire week. And so with him uh doing a Lincoln Center performance on August 4th, featuring like some of our favorite um, you know, Broadway stars. You have Shereen Pimentel, you have Christina Alabado, you have uh Mauricio Martinez, you have all of these fantastic performers, and then of course, you know, Jaime himself is uh is going to be performing, and it's gonna be a free concert over at Lincoln Center in one of the most uh famous, you know, theaters in New York, uh worldwide, honestly. Everyone knows Lincoln Center. So um very exciting stuff. And hopefully, you if you're around, you can definitely check that out August 4th. And the fact that he's working on songs by an immigrant volume two, I'm so excited uh that he's working on another one.

It's gonna be great. His story is so phenomenal, and the fact that he's got two uh shows right now that he's working on and have been in process for quite some time and uh are really shows that our people are looking forward to, including Frida, the musical, which is the one I think that's closest to coming to Broadway, and then of course, Broadway and Spanglish so Broadway in Spanish and English um is another show of his that he has been in process uh for the past couple years so I'm so excited to see uh the future and uh journey that Jaime it takes us on because if Lynn Manuel Miranda is giving him such high praise we can only assume that uh you know this is gonna be something special someone special and this art is something special so I can't wait for it and uh I hope you enjoyed uh this week's episode his story is phenomenal um and with that being said I appreciate you all listening uh please come back next week we are gonna have our live Broadway con episode on next week's podcast I'm so excited for it it doesn't seem like we're gonna have two guests anymore because of all of the things that's been happening lately.

[57:04] Eli Tokash: Um so we had to pivot a little bit but it's gonna be an amazing episode with the awesome guests and I'm so excited to bring it all to you um as always come check us out at BroadwayCon. Uh we will be there either Saturday or Sunday I will post it on our Instagram as soon as I get the real confirmation and it's gonna be around the one o'clock time slot the noon to one o'clock time slot on Saturday or Sunday. I am so so excited to to share it with you and uh be there live with all of you. Can't wait to see you all there at BroadwayCon, Broadway's most exciting event of the year. And uh yeah we'll we will see you there live at BroadwayCon or if not I will see you all next week with the exact same episode.

If you do come to BroadwayCon though, I will say, if you come to BroadwayCon and you see me or you find me walking around, I have some very, very like good things to give away. It's not like just like a sticker or anything. It's gonna be something very, very fun, exciting, and cool, and something that you're gonna want literally giving it away for free if you come find me or uh attend our live podcast recording. So very exciting stuff. And then of course, if you don't have your BroadwayCon ticket but want to get it, type in TakeAbout Pod at checkout for BroadwayCon, and you can get 5% off your purchase. Um so go do that, go have fun, and I can't wait to see you all there. Alright, until then, bye everyone. See you next week. Or BroadwayCon.

[58:34] Eli Tokash: For this episode's curtain call, I would like to recognize a few people who also deserve to take a bow. This podcast would not be possible without the help from Dory Barenstein, Alan Seals, Kimberly Garrett, and the team at the Broadway Podcast Network. Next in line to take a bow are our fabulous editors, Jessica Warren, who edits the audio of the podcast that you just listened to, and Tessie Tokash, who edits the videos and visuals for this podcast. And how about a bow for our executive producer, Chris Grimer? And our final bow are extra special to the patrons Brian Thompson, Pat McMara, the listeners of PCC, as well as all of the other patrons for their continued support. If you're interested in becoming a patron, go to Patreon.com slash TAB.

If you enjoyed this week's episode, make sure to subscribe on the platform that you are currently listening to this on, or go check out our YouTube where you can watch the episode. You can also subscribe, like, and comment on there as well. If you're more into the regular social media and want to follow us, you can do that at Take About Podcast across all social media platforms. The music of this podcast was made by Nikki Torsha and Cormac Collinon, and the logo was created by Giselle Bustos. And that wraps up this episode's curtain call. Thank you all again for listening to this week's episode, and I can't wait to see you next week. Bye everyone. Have a great week.