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[0:18] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Hello and welcome to The Drama Book Show! My name is Mark-Eugene Garcia.

[0:21] David Rigano: My name's David Rigano.

[0:22] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And this is episode 22.

[0:24] David Rigano: 22 episodes.

[0:26] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes. And we're here today to talk about a wonderful lady of the theater.

[0:30] David Rigano: Oh, what, who's that?

[0:31] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Who is also a novelist?

[0:34] David Rigano: Yes, exactly. Now it's funny, this person came in on the very first day we opened.

[0:39] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh wow, sure.

[0:40] David Rigano: Yeah, and was looking for her book.

[0:43] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And so we, uh, to give you a little bit more context to that, we opened, we were on a reservation system, we were just coming out of a pandemic. Um, we were all masked. It was a very different world.

[0:58] David Rigano: And someone walked up to me and said, "Do you have the book Fearless?" And I said, "I don't know. I'll look it up. Who's it by?"

[1:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: She looked at me clear as day and goes, "Mandy Gonzalez?"

[1:15] David Rigano: And then I looked and went, "Oh my god, that's you." I couldn't tell that was you in there. Let me go find out.

[1:23] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And then we didn't. Oh my god. And we didn't on the very first day we opened. But that was the day I learned how to make a special order.

[1:30] David Rigano: And we had it, but for a little while I was like, "Oh my god, I didn't recognize Mandy Gonzalez, and it's my first day at the Drama Bookshop, and we're just opening, and I hope I still work here tomorrow."

[1:41] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Especially original In the Heights cast member Mandy Gonzalez.

[1:45] David Rigano: Yeah, Manwell's store. A show I saw nine times, but oh my god. Just the sweetest. The sweetest person. And so wonderful.

[1:52] Mark-Eugene Garcia: How many of the books were out at that point?

[1:56] David Rigano: Just the first.

[1:57] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Just the first one over there.

[1:57] David Rigano: Yeah, no, and so we got to watch them progress and come in and watch the story continue.

[2:03] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah. I definitely saw her in In the Heights.

[2:07] David Rigano: Yeah.

[2:08] Mark-Eugene Garcia: When I saw it when it was off-Broadway.

[2:09] David Rigano: Oh wow. Um, it's so interesting. I went to theater school here in the city. I went to Marymount Manhattan College, which is also a really big dance school.

[2:17] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And at the time, my theater friends weren't talking about the show as much as my dance friends.

[2:23] David Rigano: Everyone I knew who was a dancer had seen In the Heights.

[2:26] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[2:26] David Rigano: And they were talking about it. And it was only when it moved to Broadway that I started hearing, like within that circle that I started hearing my theater friends start talking about it.

[2:36] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So I definitely saw Mandy in it without knowing who she was, because that was so earlier in her career.

[2:45] David Rigano: But the next time I saw her in a Lin-Manuel Miranda show, and I definitely knew who she was at that point, was I saw her play Angelica Schuyler.

[2:57] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Wow.

[2:57] David Rigano: She was my first Angelica. And because I know so many people who devoured the cast album and who, and I just said I want to try to ignore as much as I can until I see the whole thing live.

[3:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And obviously some of that was unavoidable.

[3:13] David Rigano: Oh, a hundred. Well, there's plenty that had just permeated the zeitgeist.

[3:18] Mark-Eugene Garcia: But I had never heard or heard anything about "Satisfied."

[3:24] David Rigano: Oh nice.

[3:26] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Which is now my favorite song in the show.

[3:28] David Rigano: Yeah.

[3:29] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And a lot of that might be because Mandy Gonzalez was the first time I ever saw that song.

[3:34] David Rigano: Oh my god, yes. Just the show. That's the best.

[3:36] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes.

[3:37] David Rigano: Yeah.

[3:38] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Anything he writes.

[3:39] David Rigano: Not because he's our boss.

[3:40] Mark-Eugene Garcia: No.

[3:40] David Rigano: But not because we work in the house that Hamilton built.

[3:44] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, no, just because he's so good. I told him once how I was getting ready to leave New York after a string of getting my butt kicked by this city.

[3:54] David Rigano: And then I heard In the Heights and was like, "Oh, this is the sound. This is the sound, and the reason I came here was this."

[4:03] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Like for this creation, you, it sounds like New York. And everything about it just reminded me of why I came to New York.

[4:10] David Rigano: And that kind of turned me around. And here we go. It's been almost 20 years in this city.

[4:14] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So yeah, thank you In the Heights.

[4:16] David Rigano: I remember the thing In the Heights for me was again, all my dancer friends were so, "Oh, it's a hip-hop musical, it's a salsa musical."

[4:23] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[4:23] David Rigano: And they were talking about like the dance styles and the music styles that was in it. And then I sat down and in the opening number, he referenced Cole Porter.

[4:32] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes.

[4:32] David Rigano: And I went, "Oh, this is someone who has one foot so firmly planted in each world."

[4:40] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And then as I was watching, I went, "Yeah, it's a hip-hop musical. Yeah, it's a salsa musical. Yeah, it's about a community that is not very represented in musical theater right now, but structurally," and I was like, "This is a very traditional musical comedy."

[4:58] David Rigano: What's been really great is that like everyone who has done it, you watch all of these actors who have come in and out of In the Heights and in and out of Hamilton, you get to see what immense talent they have because they have that ability to do that, to be have one foot in each side and sing "Satisfied" with that same edge of a pop song, but the same story and acting of a musical theater song.

[5:21] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And it's so wonderful, and it shows what superstars they all are, yeah.

[5:25] David Rigano: Including Mandy Gonzalez.

[5:26] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Including Mandy Gonzalez, who came here to talk about the fourth and final book in the series.

[5:33] David Rigano: So the Fearless Series, I'll talk a little bit about it, but she's gonna talk so much better than I. The Fearless Series is a series of four young adult novels. Starts with a girl, I think she's 12 or 13, and her name is Monica Garcia.

[5:51] David Rigano: Okay.

[5:51] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And when Mandy came, she pointed to the book and she went, "Monica Garcia, MJ, another MJ G."

[5:58] David Rigano: I know it's Same and But she's Monica Garcia, Mandy Gonzalez, get it. But it's about a kind of tweenage girl named Monica Garcia, who is into performing and gets her first professional gig, and it's a Broadway show in the Ethel Merman Theater.

[6:16] David Rigano: And then this series follows because she's in a children's chorus. So there's a group of kids who are in this show, and what I love about the first book is that she comes in, and all of these kids have the professional experience, and she doesn't.

[6:32] Mark-Eugene Garcia: She's coming in brand new, and they bring her into the world, they welcome her in. There's none of the, she does walk in feeling like what a the imposter syndrome.

[6:45] David Rigano: Oh, 100%.

[6:47] Mark-Eugene Garcia: But there is no, the one girl who says, "You're not really," and you know, all of them become this team, they become this gang, and then the four books, each one follows a different kid in that gang that Mandy forms in the first one.

[7:03] David Rigano: And she brought her co-author, Brittany J. Thurman, joined her on book two and book four.

[7:09] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Right.

[7:10] David Rigano: So she joined us for this conversation that was when the fourth book came out. I think what was fun about having another author there is that Mandy is a storyteller, but she's primarily a storyteller of the stage.

[7:24] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And then Brittany joined her to help write this book. And Brittany is an author first. But as you'll see in the interview, Brittany's a Broadway baby.

[7:33] David Rigano: I was just very excited when I first saw the book to see a Latin-led story for young adults. Because that's not something I had growing up.

[7:42] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And so I've jumped into this young adult reread of so many things lately because I didn't have that. And I'm finding all of these stories now that show a place that we can exist and see our stories.

[7:55] David Rigano: For our podcast listeners, as if you're a parent, or if you're a student of the theater and you're a kid and you're getting into this and you're listening to this because we've had Mandy Gonzalez and Kelly O'Hara and Patrick Page, these names that you know from Broadway.

[8:12] Mark-Eugene Garcia: We have such an incredible children and young adult section here that it is such glorious representation of demographics that are when we were growing up were not what you saw in young adult fiction, but also all of this young adult fiction that is centered around kids doing theater.

[8:34] David Rigano: So I really do urge you if you're a parent listening or if you're a kid who's getting into theater. Or if you're an adult who just needs to relive the childhood that they should have had with these books.

[8:44] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Come on over to the store and check out our young adults and children section because it's really glorious.

[8:51] David Rigano: And we do have these books like Fearless. We're gonna have Allie Stroker and Stacey Davidowitz on for their two books, Chance to Fly and Cut Loose, which is also dealing with a demographic that doesn't get talked about enough, which is otherwise abled people, and what they can do in the theater and what they bring to the theater.

[9:12] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And so yeah, I really urge you to come check out it's the children's section here, is a real hidden treasure that even within the store sometimes people don't know we have, and then they find it and realize it goes from all ages from babies and toddlers all the way to young adults, and there's a story there for you because you can find yourself there on the shelves and beautifully some of the books for little kids also be the A is for Audra book series, beautifully illustrated, and The Night Before the Nutcracker, which is about the world of ballet and not just about the nutcracker, but how you put on a ballet, and again, beautifully illustrated, beautifully told.

[9:53] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Let's jump into the conversation with Mandy.

[9:58] Mandy Gonzalez: Good evening. Thanks for being here.

[10:01] Mandy Gonzalez: Thank you. Thank you for that introduction. Thank you guys so much for coming. This is so nice.

[10:06] Mandy Gonzalez: Oh my gosh. We're so excited. Really quickly, I want to hear from y'all who has read any of the Fearless books.

[10:19] Mandy Gonzalez: Who is a complete newcomer to the Fearless series?

[10:25] Mandy Gonzalez: Okay. We got a good mix.

[10:27] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah. So this is book four.

[10:29] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes. And we'll talk a little bit about what the structure of the storytelling in the books is. But can you give us like a really quick and that's what you missed on Glee for the first three books, so we can know where we are when we get to the fourth book?

[10:42] Brittany J. Thurman: Absolutely. So I'll start, I guess. The first book follows the character Monica Garcia, and she is a middle schooler who loves to sing and dreams of a life on Broadway.

[10:53] Brittany J. Thurman: And she sends in a self-tape to a Broadway show, and she gets that call that every actor wants to get. They want to see you in New York.

[11:01] Brittany J. Thurman: And along with her Abuelita, they travel to New York City, and she becomes the understudy to the understudy, which I never really realized was a job until I was that in a new Broadway show called Our Town, and she meets the squad.

[11:15] Brittany J. Thurman: And the squad is with Relly Morton, Hudson Patel, and April Da Silva. And together they star in this new big hit Broadway musical. But along the way, there's some ghost story, there's a little bit of Mexican folklore.

[11:32] Brittany J. Thurman: There's a lot of things that happen where Monica has to face her fears in order to save the theater and to have the show be a big success.

[11:40] Brittany J. Thurman: So that follows Monica. The second story, hi Allie. Hi Kenneth. The second story, sorry, follows Relly Morton.

[11:50] Brittany J. Thurman: And Relly was inspired, is inspired by my best friend Daryl Gren Moultrie, who is a very renowned choreographer. But we started off as friends in the Broadway show Aida, where we shared a dressing room together.

[12:05] Brittany J. Thurman: We actually shared a mirror together. And whenever somebody would say something shady, Darell and I would look at each other, and we instantly became best friends.

[12:14] Brittany J. Thurman: And so this is really inspired, that story has inspired with him, and it's really how I started this whole squad. But Riley, that story goes back in time, and this first story that Brittany joined me on, and it goes back in time to the 1950s.

[12:31] Brittany J. Thurman: They fall through the pothole in Shubert Alley, and when they come out, they're in the 1950s, and they have to make it back to Showtime, so they have to figure out how to get back in order to continue to do the show and not get fired.

[12:46] Brittany J. Thurman: And in the meantime, they travel up to Harlem and they experience a lot of things up there, as well as we pay homage to one of my absolute favorite celebrities, which is Gregory Hines, and there's a lot of tap dancing that happens within that story, and it's really fantastic.

[13:03] Brittany J. Thurman: And you have to read it to find out if they make it back on time. And then the, yeah, go ahead.

[13:15] Brittany J. Thurman: Elders being in my life, but then also children because multi children have an elders within their family. But the fourth, the second book also is inspired by Jimmy Sly, yes, who was an infamous tap dancer way back in the day.

[13:32] Brittany J. Thurman: He danced with the Nicholas Brothers. He was known for his signature slide move, and he was also inspired by, he was also inspired by Wellie's grandmother, grandfather.

[13:44] Brittany J. Thurman: Yes, yeah, absolutely. And if you have ever seen the movie Tap, if you haven't seen it, you must rent it because it's one of my all-time favorite movies.

[13:53] Brittany J. Thurman: And Jimmy Slide is actually in that movie, and it's one of the only times you get to see him do what he does, and how he inspired dance, not just tap dancing.

[14:03] Brittany J. Thurman: And then the third book follows our third squad member, Hudson Patel, and it follows him.

[14:09] Mandy Gonzalez: He loves Broadway, but he also loves to cook. And sometimes when you do things, and I've met a lot of people within my business that love to perform but also love to do this. And they have a hard time deciding what it is that they want to do, so they do both of them. I've worked with somebody who actually had a hot plate downstairs. Management did not know. And he would cook for us sometimes in between shows and things like that. And that was his dream is to be a chef. And that was really Hudson was really inspired by that story, and it follows him through Queens and finding the perfect spice in order to win a cupcake competition. And then we move on to last but not least, but April da Silva, who is the youngest and the smallest only by size member of the squad.

And it really starts with April's obsession with social media. And I think it's my own being an actress, but also now we have to also do this thing, which is social media in order to promote things and things like that. And sometimes you can go a little bit too far, and you forget about what real life is and those kind of things. And to be a kid and to have that kind of power, we get to see, yeah, we get to find out more about April.

[15:32] Brittany J. Thurman: Should we dive in and hear a little bit?

[15:35] Mandy Gonzalez: Sure. From okay. I think glasses. I've only just started. Before we all. So here we go. Start at the beginning, or just do a few pages.

[15:49] Brittany J. Thurman: One. Hashtag birthday for the win. April da Silva stood in the heartbeat of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. She planted her feet directly in the center of the gleaming atrium and breathed in the museum air. April admired all that surrounded her. The arch-stained glass windows and milky marbled statues, wooden benches to sit, observe, and rest, along with a growing line of those who waited for sushi and sandwiches in the nearby cafeteria. Her 13th birthday at the marvelous venue ticked on. April tuned out the hubbub and chatter of the art-admiring crowd. Her eyes became glued to the screen of her phone. One, April da Silva inhaled. Hundred, she exhaled. Thousand followers! April screamed at the notification.

This is the best birthday present ever. She gripped the device tighter, afraid it would slip and break on the tile floor. Sweat built in the palm of her hand from the excitement that buzzed off her phone. April beamed at her screen as the phone chimed. This is legit happening, she thought, remembering the moment she signed up for her Insta account and all the time she spent increasing her number of followers. April had been intentional when it came to connecting with her fans. Reaching her follower goal was one of the best gifts she could receive on this day. Her birthday. The phone buzzed. Bzzz, bzz. A golden Diana with stone hair pulled away from her face, hovered diagonal to April, smack in the middle of the met.

The statue's arrow was pointed, aimed and ready to strike, while one bare foot dangled off an edge upon which she stood. Diana was lifted on the ball of her other foot, poised to take off in search of her next target. Excuse me, coming through, shouted the voice of a young girl in overalls and a Barbie t-shirt. I said move it. She maneuvered through the crowd with her parents following. The kid's hair was cut rough above her shoulders. It was clear the child had accomplished the task all by herself. We want to take a picture, she screamed as she posed herself beside April in a position that matched the towering goddess statue. Of course. Happy to take a picture with you. April smiled and held out her phone, ready to click and snap and post and tag until the kid raised her two unruly eyebrows and mouth into a scowl.

Not you. I was talking to the statue. I've never seen you before in my life, said the kid as she motioned for her parents to snap the pick. Why are you dressed like that? April stepped aside and looked down at her O T D, aka outfit of the day. She tapped her phone and followed back her 100,000th fan, who only had a wink emoji for an insta profile. Everybody knows me, she thought. Right? For April's 13th birthday, her brown hair was styled in loose curls that flowed beneath a bejeweled lime green and lavender crown. This matched the studded earrings hooped into her earlobes. April's skirt glistened as she tilted her face and aimed her phone at a shimmering line of sunlight that found its way through the Met's atrium window. Snap, click. April uploaded the pick.

[19:21] Mandy Gonzalez: Thank you so much. Thank you. I love hearing, I've been listening to the books in preparation.

[19:27] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah.

[19:27] Mandy Gonzalez: And so I love hearing you narrate.

[19:29] Brittany J. Thurman: Oh, thank you.

[19:31] Mandy Gonzalez: So we got our own little my first the first book that I narrated was during the pandemic. And when I was working with the person that was doing the audio, it was like so very secluded and difficult to do, and I was afraid to like talk too much or talk too loud, and then by the third book, it was like once the pandemic was over. It was like, all right, here we go. So it's great to get our little sneak preview of the next audio book.

[19:58] Brittany J. Thurman: Exactly, exactly. So great. I want to hear a little bit. I'd love if you could talk to us about what the history that brought you to this book. I know that you have the hashtag. Yes, you have the album. There's been a lot of fearless in your life.

[20:11] Mandy Gonzalez: A lot of fearless in my life. And I always say that I look at it with in two words to fear less because I have a lot of fear. I was definitely the kind of kid that was, I know Brittany, you probably as well. I was definitely the kind of kid that got homesick. I just was always just a nervous kid, and I had all these big dreams, and so I realized at a very young age that if I wanted to go further, that I have to embrace that fear and keep going. Like when I get out on an airplane, I'm terrified, but I want to go to that destination. So I just have to keep going. And that I think that word has been with me my entire life. And then when I was at Hamilton and 46th Street of the Richard Rogers Theater, I was in my same dressing room that I was in the heights, number eight, and I had a lot of people reaching out to me when it was a different time than in the heights.

People would write letters and write letters to you at Wicked, and it would take time to write letters back, but now people could connect with you right away, and I had a lot of people that were writing me of feelings of loneliness, like they didn't belong. And I feel so blessed in my own life to have such a strong family. And I said, You don't belong, you can be part of my hashtag fearless squad. And I put it out there and I had no idea that like thousands of people would want to be a part of it. And so then it was like, oh, this is like a movement. Like I have to, what do I do now? And so it was like, okay, I came up with squad rules, and the rules are I held your hand in mine, and together we changed the world and held.

I have we help each other when we fall, we embrace differences, we look for the good and we dream big, and together we're fearless. And so I put it out there and I said, anybody can be part of it. And so I had all of these people now. It was like a community, which I really loved. And then my album happened, and I was like, let's call it fearless, because that's where I was at that time. And I had been writing a lot of stories up until that point, a lot of stories about mostly Rally Morton about that character. But a lot of these characters were constantly in my mind and writing stories, and so it was like I want to write stories that I would have wanted to read as a kid, and with characters that I felt looked like me and looked like my friends.

And so I felt like there was a place in this literary world for that, and I was lucky to have an editor say yes, Allie Heller and from Simon and Schuster. And then it just started, and then it was like okay, and it just wouldn't stop. These characters just haven't stopped since. So yeah, that's how it all started.

[22:48] Brittany J. Thurman: Awesome. Yeah. And Brittany, what was when did like how did you two meet?

[22:53] Mandy Gonzalez: Let me back up all of the questions.

[22:54] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah.

[22:55] Brittany J. Thurman: How did you two meet and what brought you into this project?

[22:59] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah. So I remember um so it was around I guess 2020, maybe 2021. Time is kind of really I know those years. I think it was a long time three though. Sorry. Go ahead.

[23:18] Brittany J. Thurman: But I remember looking, so I have a background in theater. I have a background in writing for the stage. I was went to Carnegie Mellon for dramatic writing. At the time I wanted to write for the stage, and I started working with kids and realized I wanted to work with kids and also write. But I remember there being a call or an audition for a series, and the series was frills, but at the time I did not know that. But I submitted my work to that call, and down the line eventually received a phone call that they loved what I wrote. And I talked with Mandy. I remember the first phone call with Mandy, and it felt like we just connected. Like we knew each other forever.

[24:00] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes.

[24:00] Brittany J. Thurman: And we just had so many of the same. I don't know, we're from different places, but we had so many of the same things that were important to us, like family and our grandparents, and everything being about community. And I just and she loved theater and she loved Broadway. And it was the hardest, it wasn't hard because it just was easy when we would talk, and then we talked to Allie, but it was like Kiss met, like we were meant to meet and to collab on these stories because we didn't get to meet in person until the book was finished. And yeah, because of the pandemic, and so we did everything through Zoom, and then when we finally got to meet, it was like so cool because we were moving in Schubert Alley.

I was like, Yeah, let's meet in Shubert Alley. Like we made it very like official. And then we were like, I don't think anything was open. I think the theaters were still closed. Everything, I think everything was closed, nothing was open, but it felt really like magical.

[25:01] Mandy Gonzalez: It was magical.

[25:02] Brittany J. Thurman: We met and she put alley. And I remember like looking for the manhole that is in. But because I like to like visualize things. And so I remember looking for that and just like imagining the characters there. But then there was like we just went around like the city. I remember like we like were like running past traffic. I've been to New York many times, but also I felt uh Beauty has always made me feel like I've blonde. And it was just such a special experience. But yeah, so we met and she put Alley, we talked about the book, but we just had it was just like a friendship.

[25:36] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah, you know, squad. We were our own squad. And that I think you can you'll read that. It's just love and friendship and laughter and lots of coffee and lots of music.

[25:48] Mandy Gonzalez: That sounds like one of those collaborations that for everything that was obviously so awful about the pandemic. One of those collaborations that almost only could have come about in a pandemic.

[25:59] Brittany J. Thurman: Oh absolutely, because people could be anywhere in the world and working with each other.

[26:04] Mandy Gonzalez: Exactly. And it was neat to see, I'm sure all of you did this, but to see like where people live and what their situation is. And some of us are in New York in that little box that I'm in Jersey, she was in Kentucky. It was just like, oh my, but we just connected. And yeah, I just feel so I feel so lucky that Brittany is a part of my life and will continue to just be a part of my life because yeah, she's just awesome.

[26:32] Brittany J. Thurman: And that's also celebrate so much what these books absolutely and to be able to celebrate also her other accomplishments, like at the same time having her book Fly come out and being able to experience that with her and be able to lift her up and be like, wow, that's really amazing. She just doesn't stop.

[26:53] Mandy Gonzalez: Oh, and I would wanted to say is that Britney always writes usually like in the morning, and so I'm always up in the morning too. So that was like our time. And as you can tell, like I'm a really big talker, and so I would be like, and then and then I'd be like, I hope this isn't too much. And she'd be like, no, like Brittany's like very calm and cool, and it's so it was like a good yin and yin for us. I remember those early mornings, but that was so great because it was great to just like to collaborate over Zoom on the books, and just to learn so much from you. I think I've taken so much that I've seen like in person when I'm around you, but then also through social media and theater. And I've taken that with me on my own journey as an author writing for children, and I grew up as a nervous kid, I'm a nervous adult with a lot of things I need, but I feel like I've learned so much from you and stepping forward, filling the fear, but also going for things anyway.

[27:58] Brittany J. Thurman: Absolutely, and you guys have to follow Brittany's page because it's so fantastic, and she's so much better at it than I am. Like she does all the videos and editing and all that kind of stuff, but she does really fantastic school visits as well, and it's very inspiring.

[28:14] Mandy Gonzalez: Awesome. I would like to open this up if any of you here have questions about the book, about the creation of the book, about their collaboration.

[28:23] Mandy Gonzalez: Anyone have any questions?

[28:25] Audience Member: Yes.

[28:26] Audience Member: In your professional opinion, what would Monica's favorite song from In the Heights be? And would it be the favorite song?

[28:35] Mandy Gonzalez: Oh my gosh, that's a great question. Oh my goodness. That's from Monica. But I think that Monica is it's so much about Broadway, and I think that she would definitely relate to "Breathe." I think that would be like her, that would have been her anthem. And I think that, but looking at my daughter when the In the Heights movie came out, she didn't get to see it on stage. She would listen to it on the cast album, but when she saw the movie, it was like that's what it is. And I'd be like, Maribel, like, you know, like let's listen to the cast album. You know, and then she'd be like, no, we're listening to the movie, and Leslie Grace does such a beautiful job. But I was just like, let's move it in there.

So her favorite person in the whole thing, I mean, she loves me, but her favorite person is Olga, and she happens to be in both. So, yes, so I think that probably Monica would feel the same way. I'm also gonna go ahead and say if she was a certain kind of theater kid, yeah, she would have a playlist that had her favorite songs from both the play and the movie put together. I think that's coming.

[29:44] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah, that's definitely coming where it's like a breakdown and you compare and see how it all works. Uh yeah, definitely coming. That was a fantastic question.

[29:53] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah, I wanted to ask, do you have a favorite character series or a favorite book series or I have so many favorite favorites?

[30:06] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah, too. Um, so I agree. I have a lot of favorites, but I honestly think that my favorite is Relly. Um I would love to be able to dance by Pants, but I think Relly is ambitious, he loves his family, he loves his grandfather, he's determined, and I see myself in Relly, and I think as a kid, I wish I was him. What would have happened if I had his confidence and his perseverance and how he interacts with his friends too.

[30:36] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes, and his brother. The relationship with the brother is just so beautiful. But I love I agree, and I love my favorite is probably Aguarita because she is both of my grandparents. My own abuelita in my life because I grew up in two cultures. So my father is Mexican-American and my mom is Jewish, and so I grew up with a Bubby and an abuelita. I and they both were so fantastic, but so different of the way that they grew up. Um my abuelita worked side by side with my grandfather in the fields when picked oranges, and I remember growing up in the orange, going to see them in the orange groves and running through the fields, and I don't think she ever came to one of my shows to see me sing because we lived about five hours away.

But I knew that she was proud of me, and I knew that she loved me and all of those things, but she just had a very it was a very different life. It was very much about survival, and then on my Bubby was like at every show, was the one that gave me my first Judy Garland record and Edie Gourmet and all these people and really influenced me when it came to music. So my dream in writing that first story is that my Aguilita would have that time off, and what would it have been like to come to New York? But then when you have the hat and the feather and the glasses, and that's my Bubby. She was just the they both were just one of a kind.

[32:08] Mandy Gonzalez: One of the things that I'm gonna be right back to one of the things that I love about the structure of the series is that, and I mentioned this. I went into looking at the second book in a okay, what's gonna happen to Monica now? Right in the way I mentioned, like a what happens to Katniss next kind of way, and I loved seeing that each of them is a self-contained story, and you have shifted the focus so that each of your squad gets their own book.

[32:40] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah, yeah. And I had told Allie when we first started that I said it's a series and it's four books, and each one is gonna focus on a member of the squad, and I knew what order it was gonna go in. I knew that the second book was gonna be Relly, and yeah, it was just important to me to give these kids that work in this business of show in Broadway, we get to see their inner lives, and we get to see that there's so much more than just what they're doing on the stage, and so it was important for me to have full for them to have full stories.

[32:52] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah. And Brittany, so you mentioned that your favorite was Relly, who is the focus of the second book, which was the one which was your first book. What was it like coming into a series that had already been started and joining the process to tell these character stories?

[33:35] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah, it was really I think it was a really cool experience for me to look at the first book to the characters within that book, Monica, and then also how Relly, April, and Hudson interact with Monica, but then picking out certain aspects as it related to Relly and really just figuring out like what is Relly's life, what does his everyday look like when it's not on Broadway?

[34:05] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah.

[34:05] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah, so it was really um great to come in. They always say that the second book is the hardest when you're writing the series. I'm also working on another series in the process of writing the second book, and I see that like it is hard, it's difficult, but then also there's so much that you can explore. Um, and there's so many avenues that you can go. So um, so yeah, I loved reading just taking what I could from the first book, researching um tap, dance, theater, Relly. Um I remember when she got a tap book and she was like, yeah, yeah. I also bought at the library.

[34:41] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah, you bought tapes.

[34:42] Brittany J. Thurman: I bought tattoos.

[34:43] Mandy Gonzalez: Um I learned I tried for like you did a couple of YouTube videos.

[34:47] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah, she didn't I kind of gave up. But it's like you had to know all those things.

[34:53] Mandy Gonzalez: Exactly. Because that was Relly. That was his life and what he excelled at. And I mean, he could do everything, but like tap was like such a big thing, and it's well, where does it come from? And he got to find out where that comes from. And then going along with that, so I remember around the first time that we met, I remember going to Harlem. I've been to Harlem before, but seeing it through Relly's eyes and looking at the Lafayette Theater was the first theater in New York City where black people could go and sit in the front row. And but going to where the Lafayette used to be and taking like a picture of how it used to look and just imagining this character back in time in this spot, what that would be like. There's so much like when with writing, where it's not just sitting at your desk writing down word for word, it's going out into the world and exploring and seeing what can be there.

[35:47] Mandy Gonzalez: So really cool things can happen when you when you're writing a book and you step outside of the audience.

[35:53] Brittany J. Thurman: Absolutely.

[35:55] Mandy Gonzalez: I saw we have a question here and then we'll come back.

[35:57] Audience Member: Any chance that any of the books will be useful and more?

[36:06] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes. To all of it, that I would love this to continue to live and in so many different ways. And um I've learned that it doesn't always happen in the time you think it's gonna happen, but patience and patience and faith, and I think that what is meant to happen will happen. And but I do feel that there is a need for these stories to be told in so many different ways. I think a strong vocal fan base helps with that.

[36:39] Brittany J. Thurman: Yeah, right. We had a question over here.

[36:41] Audience Member: Yeah, but the same track. What inspired you to write it? Like, yes, is this is a story worth writing most about?

[36:48] Mandy Gonzalez: Oh, I think that what started it for me was probably in childhood. I was really lucky um to have a great set of parents who are like beyond proud and got the book and took pictures. But um my mom loves to read and she is a huge, she just loves it. And so our one of the best places, best memories I have is going to the library, and the fact that I could have my own library card, and she would drop us off in the children's section and just say, get whatever you want. You gotta give it back, but get whatever you want. And for my brother and I, because we're only one year apart, um, I also had to include him in the book as well, Tony, because he was very jealous that my sister Monica is written about her name isn't appears in the book.

So Tony does also come in the book. But my brother and I are a year apart, and so we would spend all of our time aside from school and singing lessons and things like that at the library, and I constantly I think was looking for stories that and characters I think that looked like me, that told stories that I could relate to, stories about Broadway, stories about a Latina, stories about a Jewish girl, and and I didn't, I tell you, I didn't have a lot of luck uh finding those stories. And so that really stuck with me, I think, and and being somebody that is from two different cultures, I think that it's always been important for me to create my own way and and tell my own stories, and so I think that these stories have been with me since that little girl in the library, because the stories that I continued to write were so much about the outsider and how to find your way. And and then when the it presented itself, it was like yes. When somebody said yes, it was like, okay, this is what I this is how I want to start.

[38:43] Audience Member: What was the biggest challenge in writing this story?

[38:48] Mandy Gonzalez: What was the biggest challenge in writing this?

[38:52] Mandy Gonzalez: I think, gosh, I think getting it all done, but I think the biggest thing that I learned and that I love so much about the process is the collaboration, which I didn't realize was part of it. Because before that, when you're pitching books and pitching stories, it's so much about yourself. But then when you start the process, and you have an incredible editor, and you have people that will guide you and look at things and ask you questions and make you better. I think that's the thing that surprised me the most, and meeting Brittany, and it was that it's so much like theater in a way, where you don't have to, it doesn't have to be just because this person does it this way, it doesn't mean that's how you have to do it, and I think that's how I've lived my life is like there is no path, but the path's made by walking. So I think that has been the biggest surprise and the biggest joy is the collaboration.

[39:57] Brittany J. Thurman: What made you feel after the first book that you wanted to have a collaborator come on board?

[40:03] Mandy Gonzalez: Oh so many things. I knew that I was so close to the story, I was close to Monica too, but it in a different way, and I knew where I wanted to take it, and I didn't think that I think I needed somebody, somebody to help me take it to where I needed to go. And I went through a lot of things personally in my own life, health-wise, that made it very hard for me to do that on my own. And and it's that thing of once you say this is what I really want and yes and that's how I got to meet Brittany and I couldn't have asked for anything better. And I know also I did some writing over the pandemic when we all have nothing else to do. But yeah when you have a collaborator it's like I can decide I'm gonna write today I hope. Yeah but if I know I have to log into Zoom because someone's gonna be waiting for me and then we have to write then you actually have to you have to you're accountable and that's what they're waiting for.

[41:05] Audience Member: The names the use for the characters and children.

[41:12] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes. I'm assuming each first name each one meant something to personally like yes we have Hudson now I know Hudson I don't know if that's the Hudson probably yeah okay yeah because he was first generation American Hudson Patel and my friend was not when she named her son Hudson it was not for those reasons but it was because they lived so close to the Hudson River and I just loved that name and so I felt like that was the right name for Hudson or my Hudson.

[41:47] Brittany J. Thurman: Your Hudson.

[41:48] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes but yeah each of the characters are very rooted in uh people that have touched my life in some way yeah and Britney as well what did you see in Brittany's work that made you say she's the one that I want to report?

[42:07] Mandy Gonzalez: I think the thing that I absolutely loved and love about Brittany and her writing is her curiosity that comes across in she doesn't have all the answers, she's figuring it out. And when I'm reading what she wrote, it's oh it's exciting because it's like we're figuring it out together.

[42:30] Mandy Gonzalez: And I think that that was the thing that I absolutely loved in her, the enthusiasm that came across in her writing, and also the wisdom. I know it's like she's figuring it out, but there was also a very wise way of looking at things where sometimes I'm a person that can be very impulsive. We're doing, my friends can attest, but I'm like, we're doing this, it's jump. Whereas Brittany, even with her writing, sometimes she can sit back and go, okay, but let's look at that, and let's... so I think for me when I read it, it was like, oh, and then we got to meet, and I was like, oh, I love her. Let's do this. How does the collaboration work? Do you have specific roles? Do you have a specific way of writing?

I write this first, and then you kind of... it's really a collaborative process, and I think that it's like we do it together, not together but separate in a lot of different ways. So I remember so with the Zoom meetings, I think during that time also sending like pages or like always like that back and forth and hearing what you think, and then you hearing what I think, which makes it great when it comes to collaboration. Also, writing can be so isolating, it can be a very lonely experience for an author to just sit at your desk and write, and so just having that other person to let you know, yes, this is going in the right direction. Or no, this is off. With me, I struggle with structure and plot.

My mind is not connect. It doesn't. But just like having someone, having Mandy like there to say, what about this? And also having Allie to ask those important questions because you are able to dig within the story and to not just scratch the surface. I think there's always something more there. I think that's also great what a great way to collaborate is getting down to what the story is truly about. Do you outline? Do you... I know you were saying upstairs structure is everything, and then and now you're saying I think we start with an outline, and then it just sometimes it works pretty much this is book one, this is book two, this is what I see, and then we begin, and it's like it can... it goes to a completely different place, and when you'll find a lot of things like that happen within this last book where it's like we thought that this was gonna be where it was gonna go, and it was like, no, this is gonna go to a totally different place.

I don't want to give too much away, but it's... but do we say a little bit? But it's also I knew that this was the final book, so it's also about what happens to kids that are in shows and the costumes don't fit anymore, and they're growing up, and what happens when that... when that's a hard thing to deal with, but we knew there was a point where it was like, oh, we have to deal with this, we have to talk about it and how each of those characters deal with that sort of thing. Some are like, yeah, I'm ready for this, and then some are like, no, this is my whole life and my whole being, and so of course, that's as an adult actor, that's just the business. Your show is absolutely... but as a kid, and it's your first show, or with April, she's like really the veteran amongst the squad because she's done multiple Broadway shows.

But even her, it's okay. This beautiful thing, this beautiful family. What happens when it might come to an end? It's a good thing to deal with. I think also it's also great to loosely outline. So sometimes, especially with my other writing, like I can get caught up in having things too formalized, having everything down that I want that should happen in the story. But when you loosely outline, you're able to explore a little bit more because most of the time when you write that first draft or you outline that first draft, that's not the story that you actually want to tell. There is so much more there. Yeah. But I think that that's also great to collaborate on the outlines because things can be a little too just too structured. And so there's always room to incorporate what you really want to say. Yeah. Awesome. I thought I saw another hand.

[46:51] Audience Member: So you said this is the last in the series.

[46:52] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes.

[46:53] Audience Member: Do you think that you'll write other books?

[46:55] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes.

[46:56] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes, definitely.

[46:58] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah.

[46:58] Mandy Gonzalez: Anything bubbling now?

[47:00] Mandy Gonzalez: Any like little... or just... um, I breathe a little bit. I think I'm gonna breathe as just... no, I think I'm gonna take a minute just because this is one facet of my life, and I think that to take a minute to enjoy the fact that this has happened and this is out there, and I think, especially in my business, the business of the hustle, it's like you can really forget sometimes to enjoy the celebrations and to really take that in and be like, oh, or what is Cody on Peloton? I know I don't have a real Peloton, I have four man's Peloton, but I do the app and I watch this guy Cody, and he always says it's about the wins, and so I think right now I'm just enjoying that, and then once it comes, once they come to me, it'll happen.

[47:51] David Rigano: And then you'll come back here.

[47:53] Mandy Gonzalez: Yes, I would love to.

[47:55] David Rigano: So I want to... my this is my last question because speaking of coming back here, yeah. Your journey, a big part of your journey started one block north of here, yeah, at the old drama bookshop.

[48:07] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah.

[48:08] David Rigano: So can you tell us a little bit about your history with the institution of the drama bookshop?

[48:16] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah, it's full circle, and I know people say that a lot, but it really is to be here because when I first came to New York in August of 2000, I came without an agent, without anything. I was just like, I want to work in theater, and this is what I want to do. And I came here from California, and I knew about the drama bookshop, and I knew that was like a safe place to go. So when I would audition all over here, because this is where a lot of the auditions now, after pandemic, they're starting to happen more again. But this is where you go, and then it was like, and then you stop at the drama bookshop and you pick up a new play, you see what's going on, you meet with other actors, you meet with other writers, and this was the place that was like a safe space.

And then I got a call. I was in this musical that didn't last very long, the second one I was in, and it was called Lennon, and it was based on the life of John Lennon. And I remember getting a call, and the person telling me that there was a new show that was being written by Latinos and it was an all Latino audience. Would I want to go to the basement of the drama bookshop to meet the writer and director? And I was like, I'm from California. Being from California, I didn't go anywhere without my dad. I was in garage bands and all that kind of stuff. And if I went to audition for those things, like Paul Gonzalez was right there. So I didn't have Paul with me here. But I knew that it was in the drama bookshop.

I knew, like, all right, like it's gotta be safe. But I walked down the stairs to the basement of the drama bookshop, which I didn't realize there was a basement, and that's where I met Lynn Manuel and Tommy Cale and Alex Lackamore was there at the piano, and I think Chiara was there. And Lynn had me sing some stuff because they were auditioning for this role of Nina Rosario, and that's where I first sang for them, and it completely changed my life. And I didn't know how cool they were at that time because I realized how cool... I don't know. I realized like they were very cool, but at the same time I had never heard, I didn't hear Lynn's music, or I didn't hear, I didn't know it. And then when they hired me to do the reading of that after this encounter in the basement, we did the first reading, and for a first reading, you're usually around a table and you're reading out of scripts, and that first day nobody knows the music, so everybody's just learning.

And Lynn Manuel was just like, I know none of you know any of the music, so I'm just gonna sing everything. And then it was like, I don't think he pointed to Alex, but I think it was like, Lack hit it, and it was like lights up on Washington Heights up at the break of day. And I was just like, oh, whoa, what is this? Who is this guy? And how can I be a part of this forever? And I feel so lucky and blessed that I am a part of all of their lives and they're a part of mine. And we really created a family. But it all started here.

[51:04] David Rigano: Blessed. Love listening to her stories. Uh and um, what's she doing now? Is she busy?

[51:08] Audience Member: She's uh she's doing this sweet once a week gig, as I hear.

[51:14] David Rigano: She is the... she's the Tuesday night alternate for Nicole Scherzinger in the revival of Sunset Boulevard.

[51:25] Audience Member: Oh my gosh.

[51:25] David Rigano: Only one of the most iconic roles in both musical theater and cinema.

[51:31] Audience Member: 100%.

[51:32] David Rigano: And I've seen some of the photos afterwards. It looks... oh my god.

[51:36] Audience Member: Yeah, I have not been lucky enough to see the show yet.

[51:39] David Rigano: Nor I.

[51:40] David Rigano: I'm... and part of it, I think, is because I have three to five other people who I'm trying to make plans with to specifically go on a Mandy night. We want to hear Mandy sing that score. It's for me, my husband Rodrigo is an acquirer, and they rehearse on Tuesday nights. And so it's so difficult to get him to get to miss a rehearsal. We did it a couple weeks ago and saw Cap when we saw Cabaret. And so I think we have to wait a few more weeks before he can miss a rehearsal again so we can see Sunset because I do want to see Mandy in Sunset so much.

[52:13] Mandy Gonzalez: Yeah.

[52:14] Audience Member: Ugh, what an incredible event.

[52:16] David Rigano: Let's start looking at what we have coming up.

[52:19] Mandy Gonzalez: I... I know this one is personal to you.

[52:21] David Rigano: It is.

[52:22] David Rigano: So next event, I've almost said next week, so I'm gonna... so the next episode that we have coming up is a new play called Terrera, and it's by Monet Hurst Mendoza.

[52:33] Mandy Gonzalez: And Monet and I were playwriting students in college together.

[52:38] David Rigano: Wow.

[52:39] David Rigano: I produced with Amy Holston Schwartz. I produced the first workshops of Monet's first two full-length plays. We were actually in class, and I was just starting to form this reading series with Amy. And Monet was bringing in pages every week of this... that was our final project, it was our first full-length play. And she's bringing in new pages of this beautiful play called Lilia. And I just said to her, you have... when this is finished, you have to bring it to my reading series, and we have to do a workshop of it. And she did, and we had a really great time. The following year when she was writing her next play, she said to me, hey, I'm writing a new play. It's called Veiled, and I want to bring it through your process for your reading series again.

So I got to produce the very first workshops of her first two full-length plays. And now this one, which is not one of those, but it's her first published play. So I was so thrilled as soon as I heard that she was getting published by Samuel French through Concord, which is... all of us, we grew up with the Samuel French script. So to get to see, and obviously that's happened to so much of us working here, but to get to see our friends' names on a Samuel French or a Dramatist script is so special. And speaking of friends' names, as part of it, her two lead actors from it, Jacqueline and Jesse are friends of mine and actors I am obsessed with. They are so good.

[54:09] Mandy Gonzalez: I caught them in a show called Truckers before that in Intar Theater and followed their career.

[54:16] David Rigano: I didn't know you saw them in a show together.

[54:17] Mandy Gonzalez: Oh, yeah.

[54:18] Mandy Gonzalez: And I'd seen them in other shows separately. Like I had was so excited to see them perform. And then because I really love their work, I followed them on Instagram and followed them doing this show in out in Texas doing Torera and not knowing that when it finally showed up here being like, oh my god, that's that show. And I'm obsessed with them now.

[54:38] David Rigano: Yeah, and Monet brought them with her. So it wasn't just... and it was really cool.

[54:44] David Rigano: So that's something that y'all have to look forward to. Not just me and Monet being a mutual admiration society because we've known each other for how many years, but she brought actors with her who had done the play, full out done the play to come and reprise their roles to do a scene that you'll get to hear. And it's also an extra special bonus episode. It might be a little longer than some of our normal ones because we worked with these actors from Intar, and Intar is doing a new show coming up called The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics. And I got a chance to interview Julia and Mestry and the director Kathleen Captecin Sunier and talk about the creation of that show. And so it all comes together. It's all one big family. So you'll get to see... you'll get to listen to both interviews in the next episode.

[55:37] Mandy Gonzalez: As oh, always do it.

[55:38] David Rigano: I always fucking do it.

[55:41] David Rigano: So to know when these new episodes come out, please follow us on Instagram at Drama Book Show Podcast. Follow us on Eventbrite at Drama Book Show Shop. Follow us on Eventbrite... I always do the other one. Follow us on Eventbrite at Drama Bookshop to find out when our next events will be. As always, all of the books that we have talked about in this episode can be found at the store. And so can we. And we will see you at the bookshop.