This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Nella Vera: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the fabulous 54 Below.

[0:03] Nella Vera: Before we get started this evening, just a polite reminder, please take this moment to silence your cell phones and also there is no flash photography, please.

[0:14] Nella Vera: Welcome to the 54 Below podcast.

[0:17] Nella Vera: I'm Nella Vera, the club's director of marketing.

[0:20] Nella Vera: Our guest today caught the attention of theater fans all over with her recent starring role as the Princess of Wales in the Broadway production of Diana the Musical, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

[0:33] Nella Vera: The show was also recorded for Netflix, garnering fans worldwide.

[0:37] Nella Vera: She starred as Lauren in Kinky Boots and as Heather in American Idiot on Broadway, as well as originating the role of Dawn in the ART production of Waitress and the role of Mary Barry in the ART production of Finding Neverland.

[0:51] Nella Vera: Other notable credits include Glinda in the National Tour of Wicked and Janet in the Rocky Horror Show at The Old Globe.

[0:58] Nella Vera: On October 28th and 29th, she returns to 54 Below with another solo show.

[0:58] Nella Vera: Jeanna de Waal, welcome to our podcast.

[1:07] Jeanna de Waal: Hello.

[1:08] Jeanna de Waal: Thank you for having me.

[1:10] Nella Vera: Oh, I'm so excited to be talking to you.

[1:13] Nella Vera: I can definitely count myself as a huge fan.

[1:17] Nella Vera: So it's a particularly exciting day on the podcast today.

[1:21] Nella Vera: Um let me ask you, um, Diana came to Broadway and found a really, really passionate fan base, the Defanas, of course.

[1:29] Nella Vera: Uh, why do you think so many people embraced the show and felt so strongly about it?

[1:36] Jeanna de Waal: People love to root for an underdog, and I think when it got the bad vibes on Twitter and people felt they connected to it, that almost gives you more pride in liking something that's disliked.

[1:49] Jeanna de Waal: So I think that's why it sort of has that slight um culty sense to the fans.

[1:55] Jeanna de Waal: And because uh because it's not normal, because not everybody liked it.

[2:01] Nella Vera: Hmm.

[2:02] Nella Vera: Well I can tell you that as a Gen Xer I first of all always had a fascination with Diana you know being the H I am but also the show was kind of brilliant in the structure and how it was so 80s in what it was doing.

[2:23] Nella Vera: And it just when I saw it I just thought wow this is crazy and wild but also brilliant and it killed me that people or some critics didn't get it.

[2:35] Jeanna de Waal: Well I don't I mean it's like so what who cares but when it comes to uh uh nominations I mean it's mind-blowing that it wasn't nominated for choreography it's mind that the school wasn't nominated you know it gets to a point where you're like okay so what are the reasons behind who's judging because this is clearly original work that is really good in every sort of judging standard that we normally have so you know whatever back to be honest I couldn't really care less.

[3:09] Nella Vera: Yeah but I just was I was so infuriated when I went back and saw it again after Roartchamp's show you know at 54 Below it saw the Netflix I just realized wow it's so perfectly 80s you know just in and it it kind of the structure of the show and the way it was created was for that time frame.

[3:31] Nella Vera: And I just thought, you know, it it wasn't going to be a contemporary musical the way you know we would do one for a a story set in today's time.

[3:41] Nella Vera: And it just everything about it, you know, spoke to me as somebody who was of that era so strongly.

[3:47] Nella Vera: And I just thought this choreography is insane, but it's so perfect.

[4:03] Jeanna de Waal: I have never been involved with one.

[4:05] Jeanna de Waal: And I've done so many readings and workshops.

[4:07] Jeanna de Waal: It's a development, it's a morphing.

[4:11] Jeanna de Waal: And at some point the show takes on a life of its own.

[4:16] Jeanna de Waal: And it sort of grows with everybody just supporting it.

[4:19] Jeanna de Waal: And sometimes that goes right and it meets an audience and it becomes this mega hit.

[4:23] Jeanna de Waal: And sometimes it goes weird and it or it develops a quirk.

[4:26] Jeanna de Waal: But you know, um, I think musicals are so collaborative that there's there's there's not really those thought out.

[4:33] Jeanna de Waal: You're talking almost about marketing when you're getting to like the meaning behind it, you know, the tagline.

[4:38] Jeanna de Waal: Do you know what I mean?

[4:39] Jeanna de Waal: That's like so far down the line of how shows are made in many ways.

[4:43] Nella Vera: Yeah, absolutely.

[4:44] Nella Vera: And you were with the show every step of the way, correct?

[4:48] Jeanna de Waal: Yes, from well, David Bryan's daughter did do the first thing through.

[4:53] Jeanna de Waal: So I've got to share.

[4:56] Jeanna de Waal: Um but after that there was a reading, and that's when I joined.

[5:00] Nella Vera: Oh, wonderful.

[5:01] Nella Vera: And how did you know what was it like to watch it kind of grow and change?

[5:06] Jeanna de Waal: Do you like doing you know, shows like that that are in development?

[5:10] Jeanna de Waal: So I for a long time in my 20s, that was all I mean from a teenager, and I did it throughout my 20s.

[5:10] Jeanna de Waal: That was all I wanted to do, just like develop new work, and I did.

[5:20] Jeanna de Waal: I was in every ensemble of everything.

[5:23] Jeanna de Waal: Like just you know, yes, yes, yes.

[5:25] Jeanna de Waal: Now, because it's so weird how like the industry of the business works, I can't just be in like the ensemble of a re I don't know, people just don't even offer it to me.

[5:32] Jeanna de Waal: Do you know what I mean?

[5:33] Jeanna de Waal: Plus, yeah, you know, time time as well.

[5:36] Jeanna de Waal: But so you it's like a more they happen less frequently now, which is a shame.

[5:40] Jeanna de Waal: But when they do happen, I love them.

[5:43] Jeanna de Waal: It is literally the reason I became an actor.

[5:46] Jeanna de Waal: It is my favorite part of the process.

[5:49] Jeanna de Waal: It brings me so much joy, and especially when it's uh a nice working environment or it's supported, you know, with time and resources and all those things.

[6:01] Jeanna de Waal: It can just be the most amazing experience, and it has been several times in my life.

[6:07] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[6:07] Nella Vera: Um so you mentioned, you know, you've been acting for you know, since you were a teenager.

[6:13] Nella Vera: How did you start with performing?

[6:15] Jeanna de Waal: You from a family of performers or well, I normally would say no, but having spent a lot of time with my family in the pandemic, I realized that my great-grandad was in the was a sailor who used to come home and do soft shuffle tat while my great-grandma played the piano and she used to have a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and the smoke used to go off her hair and cause a white streak.

[6:39] Jeanna de Waal: No, maybe I am from a family performers.

[6:42] Jeanna de Waal: Um granddad was an amateur theatre, and my mom has recently found amateur theater, and I saw her in her a production on Saturday night.

[6:51] Jeanna de Waal: It was fundraising.

[6:53] Jeanna de Waal: What was it?

[6:54] Jeanna de Waal: She lives like in a community, and one of the people on the community wrote the play.

[7:00] Jeanna de Waal: And she was in it, and she had the same two solos.

[7:03] Jeanna de Waal: And Mr.

[7:04] Jeanna de Waal: was one of the actresses for a long time.

[7:07] Jeanna de Waal: She's now a software engineer at Google, but she was an actress.

[7:10] Jeanna de Waal: A couple of shows on Broadway, a couple of shows on the West End.

[7:14] Jeanna de Waal: But um, so yeah, I do come from a creative family.

[7:17] Jeanna de Waal: Uh, but I I mean, I went to performing arts boarding school at 11.

[7:23] Jeanna de Waal: So it was full on every day for 11 that for a long time.

[7:28] Jeanna de Waal: I, you know, people say, when did you decide you wanted to become an actor?

[7:32] Jeanna de Waal: And I've been like, hmm, well, I don't remember how this happened.

[7:35] Jeanna de Waal: This has just happened because this is a path I've been, you know.

[7:39] Jeanna de Waal: Um, so uh, and obviously now I'm a like a grown adult and I've had to choose it for myself, and I tr I choose it every day with purpose.

[7:47] Jeanna de Waal: Um, but yeah, so it's just kind of like the life journey that I was on kind of took me to all this stuff.

[7:54] Nella Vera: Fantastic.

[7:56] Nella Vera: Um so let me ask you about what it was like playing a real person that existed.

[8:04] Nella Vera: You know, did you feel that was particularly challenging or you know, was it was just easier to research rather than you know I mean, you still made her your own, obviously, but I just I'm always curious when people have to approach somebody who was actually real and not historically real, you know, not the queens in six, but like somebody that is still living in the memory and you know, in the public's mind.

[8:33] Jeanna de Waal: We did so many reincarnate like we did workshop, then we did workshop, and we did out of town, then we did workshop, then we did, you know, so that I had so many chances to leave the project, go live life or whatever's happening in my life and return and be like, oh, and dig a little deeper.

[8:50] Jeanna de Waal: Um, so I think it started off very like just like energy work, you know, where does she live from?

[8:56] Jeanna de Waal: And I bought myself some t-shirts that said like great slogans on, and I thought like um and then and then it got really specific.

[9:04] Jeanna de Waal: Then it was the voice and and exploring that, and also exploring how that goes into singing.

[9:09] Jeanna de Waal: I wanted it to feel seamless in that way, and then the final step was physicality.

[9:14] Jeanna de Waal: My the producers were the most supportive producers, and had me um work on this exercise called gyrotonics, and then she went twice a month twice a week for like five months, and it's basically Pilates, but more dance-based, and it's basically to work on alignment and deportment so that in the show I could just relax, and my posture would be there rather than either thinking standups, because I'm kind of slovenly in real life.

[9:43] Jeanna de Waal: Like my shows before that were like American Idiot, kinky boots.

[9:47] Jeanna de Waal: There was always this kind of like slovenly energy, yeah.

[9:50] Jeanna de Waal: Um, especially when you're singing to suddenly have like, you know, but I wanted to be elegant.

[9:54] Jeanna de Waal: Well, everybody wanted me to be very elegant, even belting at the top of my voice, you know what I mean?

[9:59] Jeanna de Waal: And like relaxing, you know, like as if regal.

[10:03] Jeanna de Waal: Um, so that was the final piece, but it got really, yeah.

[10:06] Jeanna de Waal: I mean, but by the time we shot Netflix, I I mean I couldn't have been more prepared to be honest.

[10:11] Nella Vera: Yeah, well, you nailed it.

[10:13] Nella Vera: I mean, the the whole I can't believe it's forevermore.

[10:13] Nella Vera: I can't believe it's captured forevermore.

[10:18] Jeanna de Waal: The only thing, no, I never want to say that.

[10:21] Jeanna de Waal: I was just I was in when we started previews in March 2020, I was in the best shape of my life.

[10:30] Jeanna de Waal: Like, as I said, I had two of these classes, and I also had two private um uh trainer sessions a week for four months.

[10:39] Jeanna de Waal: I was in the best shape of my life, and then the pandemic hit, and I did what everybody else gave up and eat and drink and everything.

[10:53] Jeanna de Waal: That's you know, that was the classic story, right?

[10:56] Jeanna de Waal: That even the New York Times was writing stories about of all things to write about were performers and the shape they were in after two years.

[11:06] Jeanna de Waal: Like really, we couldn't find other things to write about, like you know, then remind everybody.

[11:11] Nella Vera: Plus, we're all human and change our bodies change over time. But um it is, you know, doing a Broadway show, I don't think people realize well, you know, when I that was one thing that I loved about your performance was the posture and the regalness, and that you were just able to belt these songs out, but not you know, there was no effort. You know, so with some performers, you see them like people who are in Les Mis, you see that they're giving that full effort, and with you it was wonderful because it was what you would think of, you know, somebody who's gonna be the future cool queen has to kind of have that compartment and that stature, but you were still able to get the emotion and the song out. And I think that's one of the things that fascinated people, to be honest, because it was just so different, you know, as a leading lady, like that look and that kind of style of performance.

[12:08] Jeanna de Waal: Um, that's hilarious. But you know, I don't think people realize how much Broadway performers have to do eight shows a week, you know, that they're almost athletes in a way.

[12:20] Nella Vera: Oh, not almost. I mean, it's a lifestyle. Like you it's a wonderful lifestyle, it's a very healthy lifestyle. I mean, I know I understand some people aren't healthy, but you can really embrace it as a really healthy lifestyle. Like it's all about ritual, it's all about sleep, it's all about eating right, it's all about looking after your body. Um so yeah, it's uh it you can't go from zero to sixty. You have to like psych yourself up, like, okay, I'm going into this experience, and but um, but yeah.

[12:51] Jeanna de Waal: Yeah. So you know, as the star of a show based on Princess Diana, you were at the center of a pop culture moment. What was it like? You know, did people think uh you know, they just associate you with her now forever. But even in that moment, what was that like? Did you realize how the impact that the show is having on fans and the worldwide fans who were also watching the stream?

[13:21] Jeanna de Waal: Gosh, um not really. I mean, you know, I mean, I was really calm and focused. Like I really was just like I just was like one day at a time, and then it kind of, you know, it only lasted like seven weeks. Do you know what I mean? It was like press and then the show. Um, but those times when you're doing the press circuit and the previews and all of that, um, they are wildly intensive. So there's just it it it was hard to even like hold com you know, hold conversations with family members. You know, you're just like in the zone, and you're just like and calm and like um so no, not at all. And it's only it in um I mean it's oh it Broadway's so weird because it feels so small here, like it's such a small little piece of land, and you know everybody, and you've been in all these theaters, and the people who are sort of champing loudest are usually your friends, all the or the fans who come repeatedly to stage doors, so you get to know them very quickly.

Then it just feels like very intimate and small. Um, and I appreciate that from a distance it's not because I was a fan from the UK, so I truly appreciate that from a distance it seems like whoa, Broadway, like these cost albums, and it has this like massive, but actually when you're in it and living in the life, it feels really low-key and kind of like a very small community, so it doesn't feel that intense in a way.

[15:02] Nella Vera: Yeah, I know you're right, you're right. Being in the business, it's you know, you just see all these amazing performers day in, day out, and don't think twice about it. But then I'll talk to somebody who's not in the business, and they'll say, Oh my god, you know, you got to meet so-and-so, and I'm like, Yeah, like I've worked I did a show with them. We just wish it correlated to our bank accounts.

[15:24] Jeanna de Waal: So we're like, absolutely I would think people think, oh Broadway stars. I'm like, yeah, everyone's catering in between gigs, and like exactly, they don't realize what was and to me, it's even funnier when they you know, we have people, you know, theater actors who do a lot of off-Broadway, and people don't realize like just how little off-Broadway pays, and you know, that you know, they're they're like doing other gigs in between, like you said, um, because you know, they're getting paid six hundred dollars a week to do that show, and and you know, it lasted for six weeks, and but they had to commit to it four months in advance so they couldn't do anything else, you know. So it's really um it's really interesting uh you know, to people's outside perceptions are that you know actors who are somewhat well known are living that high life, and it's just you know not true.

[16:17] Nella Vera: Um did you let me ask you a question. Did you follow the royals and the royal family at all before you were cast in the show?

[16:24] Jeanna de Waal: Yeah, I mean I'm literally English, so um she has a you can't avoid it.

[16:31] Nella Vera: Totally. We yeah, she the royal family is something that we grew up with and spoke about and you know watched in our house, live events and uh uh markers in our life.

[16:43] Jeanna de Waal: So yeah, definitely.

[16:45] Nella Vera: Yeah. It's interesting here because I you know, I obviously have always watched them. Part of it, you know, the fascination with Diana. Uh, but there's Americans that don't follow them at all and don't understand like what it's like to not have the queen anymore when that's all you've ever known for you know, years and years, and you know, your whole lifetime there was a queen and now there isn't.

[17:09] Jeanna de Waal: So interesting.

[17:11] Nella Vera: Yeah. Yeah, it's a it's a very different uh, you know, cultural phenomenon. Um and and when everything happened with the queen in my office, we were like, we just want to call Ro and Gina and find out how what they think. I mean, you know, it's she it's it's it's the the the country she took on to where she it left she left it and the challenges that she had to navigate and um so I just think it's a marker in time that we can respect and and appreciate and um and just just you know no notice.

[17:54] Jeanna de Waal: Yeah, yeah. It's uh also amazing that the two longest reigning monarchs who were you know, by all like accounts of history, the ones who reigned over times of change and prosperity, and you know, the Renaissance were two women both named Elizabeth, which is incre it's incredible to me.

[18:16] Nella Vera: Yeah, you know, we have plays about all the men, and you know, some of them lasted like three years, and then we have these two women who reigned for a long time, and you know, over historic time is yet to be explored.

[18:32] Jeanna de Waal: I'll be exactly too much.

[18:36] Nella Vera: Exactly. You've been super busy since you were last at 54 Below.

[18:41] Jeanna de Waal: Um, thank goodness. It's been such a fun year, and um I honestly can't believe it's only September. It feels like I'm doing the Cartons Up concert this week, and last year I did it singing a song for Diana, and it was the first press event of like the press run-up to previews, and I can't believe it's only been a year. It's it feels so much longer.

[19:09] Nella Vera: Yeah, that's amazing. You um you just did Mary Poppins at the Muni, right?

[19:15] Jeanna de Waal: Yes, the Muni was an incredible experience. If for people who don't know, it's huge, it's 10,000 seats. The temperatures are over a hundred degrees, like 105 degrees. We're wearing like it's Victorian England, it's Mary Poppins. So I'm wearing like wool underskirt, wool coat, jacket, you know, to wig, microphone, hat, tights. Um, so it was wildly warm. And um it was just a blast. Like you you learn the whole show in 10 days.

[19:47] Nella Vera: Oh my gosh.

[19:48] Jeanna de Waal: And then um, and me thinking, oh, I'll be fine. I like looked over it and then I was like, holy smokes, this is quick to learn all this. And then the tech is even pre-text, so there's not even the slow time of thinking like where do I come in? It's just you step in it and suddenly you're off, you're flying over the audience, it's all moving. Just pushing it on wheels, and then you're open, and then you're open, and then you do it 10 times, and that's it. Then you're closed.

[20:18] Nella Vera: What? Wait a minute. They were you flying outside?

[20:23] Jeanna de Waal: I was like yes, yes. They have it strung up across the audience.

[20:28] Nella Vera: What?

[20:29] Jeanna de Waal: And the middle at night, you literally watch the sunset in your show, and then you know, there were times we're singing on the rooftops, you know, Chim Chiminy and stuff, and the moon is literally like glaring at us huge.

[20:42] Nella Vera: It's crazy.

[20:44] Jeanna de Waal: Amazing, amazing.

[20:47] Nella Vera: That's crazy. I that's like a very enormous Shakespeare in the park in a way.

[20:52] Jeanna de Waal: Yeah.

[20:53] Nella Vera: But it sounds like even Shakespeare in the Park, I I used to work at the public has more time to prepare because they really do do a full tech. And and if it's Shakespeare, you know, with every Shakespeare, you get it here in the States. This is probably not true in the UK, but in the States, most Shakespeare shows you get an extra week of rehearsal because of the language and trying to get this, you know, timings right and everything.

[21:16] Jeanna de Waal: So speaking of dresses, um, from Glinda's bubble dress to Diana's revenge dress, you've worn a lot of uh iconic costumes and now Mary Poppins. Uh which one was your favorite and why.

[21:33] Jeanna de Waal: Ooh. Um, I mean, I think the Diana dresses were my favorite because they were so iconic and they uh were so part of the storytelling as well in terms of aging maybe. Yeah, and they they got it so right. I mean, they're so wonderful. The costume designer really wigs everything. It's it's pretty amazing what you know for an actor, what's it like when you first get that costume? Like it really does takes to get into character.

[22:01] Nella Vera: Oh yes.

[22:02] Jeanna de Waal: Well, also it takes, I mean, I think I stood for fittings. I mean, maybe a hundred hours.

[22:10] Nella Vera: Wow.

[22:22] Jeanna de Waal: Like, you know, in their mind they're thinking, okay, we're down the line we'll replicate this with all the tools, you know. So like those first build builds are like really important. Um but oh my gosh, fittings, oh if I never have to do another fitting in my life, hilarious. Yeah, it's amazing how iconic her wardrobe became, you know, that revenge dress. Like anytime you see anybody with that dress used fashion as her way of marketing and promoting herself. Yeah, it was uh she was like the first social media star like building a brand using clothes and using her image.

[22:56] Jeanna de Waal: You made your professional debut on the West End it says here in my notes uh in We Will Rock You is that right? Yes, that is correct. Oh amazing I love that show so much I love that was my first show out of college. Oh my gosh and how you know how how would you say uh well first of all tell us about the show but also tell us about how West End is different from Broadway.

[23:33] Jeanna de Waal: Um so as a performer even as a performer I mean I really only did one it's not it's the same gig it's the same gig anywhere in there in in the world you know you um it was a replacement experience so obviously that's very different to a creation experience um it was also an ensemble cover experience um actually the only time I've ever covered it in my life and I will and it found I found it so challenging I really grew into the role but the first few times I went on I was so nervous and it was absolutely terrifying but it was it it really pushed me from like college training to professional world what you have to be and the ability you have to be at you know in a very sort of like painful quick learning growth that I was then very grateful for.

[24:30] Nella Vera: Yeah yeah.

[24:32] Jeanna de Waal: It's amazing that skill set to be a cover and understudy swing. I don't think I could ever do it. It's like just to be able to go on in a moment's notice. Well, especially, I mean, as a singer, um you you know, everyone develops at different times. Like some people are eight years old and they have that confidence in their voice. But singers aren't just born, it's developed and it's training, and a lot of it is like learning how to manipulate your voice by listening and stuff. And when you're 21, 22, 23, that's not the finished product of your voice. So there's like a real whereas the lead who you know is has is the lead for a reason, sounds a certain way, but you're on the learning growth card.

You're not you you're you're not ex unless you're gonna um blow everyone out of the water and be the next, you know, sudden foster replacement. Why isn't she the lead? You're not gonna be as equipped, you know, and there is there's a learning growth to um to using your voice. And I'm really pleased and grateful that the uh the director and the associate directors kept putting me on, you know, that they kept allowing me to navigate my nerves on stage and and sing with an uh with a band and use a microphone and hold a show and uh and allowed me to keep going because it's really important to cultivate talent.

[25:52] Jeanna de Waal: I mean, we've just seen people go on so much since we reopened because of COVID. That's absolutely it's it's amazing to see people step it up and you know, get the opportunities and um and also realize, oh yeah. I mean that this has always been true on Broadway that uh we do use our understudies and our swings and our covers 100%, but even more so now, like, you know, it seems like you've gotta be so ready to go on because you just don't know who's gonna end up sick tonight in a show. Did you have a lot of um COVID absences during Diana?

[26:30] Jeanna de Waal: So this is a crazy story. On the final day of our show, a lot of people had COVID but were undetected. And then the next day, everybody started not everybody, like nine, ten people including myself. So we closed with a full cast. No one was sick, and then the next day we were so gosh. One more week, our show would have been like half a half a cast anyway. Oh no, and that would have been so sad for the fans who all bought the last performance. Oh gosh, that's so lucky.

[27:08] Jeanna de Waal: Um in addition to your work on stage, you're the founder of Broadway Weekends. Which tell us about that. It's so fascinating, and I love, love, love the concept.

[27:19] Jeanna de Waal: Thank you. So I've running it since 2017, and we run theater camps for adults in New York City, taught by Broadway performers, and it's basically a fantasy camp. And I ran it because it brings me so much joy. I was inspired by my friend who runs yoga retreats, and I thought, well, hey, theater, you know, there's a lot of alignment there. Why is there no one that's sort of that way themed? Um so we s we ran them for two or three years and we had many people return multiple times. Then the pandemic happened and we went virtual and for 18 months we hosted over a hundred virtual theater classes every single month to st thousands of students across forty six countries.

[28:07] Nella Vera: Wow.

[28:07] Jeanna de Waal: Then in January, right after Diana, we closed, we're not closed, we scaled down our, I'll say that again. Then in January, right after the close of Diana, we scale down our virtual offerings, and now we just offer four virtual classes a month. And obviously, we've relaunched our in-person theater camps for adults, which now have the added extra focus of facilitating theater teachers professional development. So we help teachers find funding to come to the professional development experience. And then during the during the workshops, we also give aid to help teachers sort of document what they're learning and dissect what they're learning to take back to their theater classes.

[28:54] Nella Vera: Amazing, amazing.

[28:56] Jeanna de Waal: I love the idea of theater camp. Yeah. It's just also, you know, aside from being fun, it really does empower people. It's so silly, but being on a stage, like I'm not an actress, but I remember, you know, I was a costume designer in school and being thrown on stage a couple of times because they needed more fairies or something. It's like you have to go on. And it just, there's just nothing like it. Even if you're like me who is not interested or too shy to be honest. There's just something so empowering and fun and the collaborative aspect of doing a show. It's an adrenaline rush for sure. Performing in front of people, exposing your voice, you know, is is an adrenaline rush that can feel scary and weird or can feel endorphin driven and super powerful.

And the whole week is really structured and uh facilitated so that it feels like a safe and supportive environment and that people feel comfortable enough to relieve the pressure off themselves and just enjoy you know their voice, their body, their their communication ability, and all those things.

[30:07] Nella Vera: And do you take people of all skill levels?

[30:10] Jeanna de Waal: Oh, yes, absolutely. You just have to be over 18. Mainly because I don't want to deal with children.

[30:16] Nella Vera: That's hard, yeah.

[30:17] Jeanna de Waal: People from 18 to we've had people up to 70 years old, all walks of life.

[30:21] Nella Vera: Oh, wonderful.

[30:22] Jeanna de Waal: Accountants, doctors, stay-at-home moms, nurses, you and now obviously lots of theater educators. Um, but yeah, we've had people from all walks of life.

[30:31] Nella Vera: That's so fun. I love the idea. That's so genius because they have that for sports. You know, I have friends who go to baseball fantasy camp, and they're not baseball players, but you know, they get to like hit a ball and maybe get a ball signed by a star, you know, a star player. So why not for the theater? That's so brilliant. So it's called Broadway Weekends. And what's the website for anybody who's listening?

[30:56] Jeanna de Waal: W.broadwayweekends.com.

[30:59] Nella Vera: Oh, perfect. Okay, yeah.

[31:01] Jeanna de Waal: That's awesome. Um, so this is your second time at 54 Below with a solo show. Um, how what tell us about how this show is different than the first one and what's what to expect.

[31:13] Jeanna de Waal: The first one was very much a comment of what just happened? Um, I don't know, that's sort of a hello, let's meet again. We were just at the Lawmaker a month ago. Let's meet again here and dissect what just happened. Um, whereas this one is it's really the the songs that I over the years have loved to sing that I've sung for years in my shower, that I've sung in the car. I mean, many of them are beyond when I set this goal of this concert in the spring, actually, um, of doing this set list. Many of the songs were beyond my capability list. So it's been a lovely sort of practicing these songs that I find really hard and and saying, hey, we're gonna sing these in public and give it a go. Um, and then obviously I'm gonna tell stories and about theater, and um it's just gonna be a wonderful night. Musical theater night.

[32:08] Nella Vera: Amazing. Well, having seen you already perform some you know musical theater songs. Uh I don't believe there's anything beyond your capability. I saw you sing being alive, and I'm just waiting for you to star in a production of Company so I can fly out to wherever it is. Um, so it I think this show is gonna be fantastic. Are are some of the songs that you're singing like from roles that maybe you know are roles that are dream roles?

[32:38] Jeanna de Waal: Say, well, actually, no, not many are ones from roles I've done, because I'll do some Diana ones and one or two Diana's, but most of those songs no are not roles I've played, uh not roles I played. They're truly like dream roles of mine. Do you know what I mean?

[32:52] Nella Vera: Fantastic.

[32:53] Jeanna de Waal: Love to sing that song, you know. Oh, that's so great. And we'd love to have you do all those dream roles one day. Uh Jeanna, thanks so much for joining us today. We're so looking forward to your show.

[33:06] Jeanna de Waal: Thank you so much.