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[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome, I'm Mo Brady.

[0:14] Mo Brady: Hello everybody, it's Thursday, March 19th, and as you may have noticed in our podcast feed, we are trying to go back and forth between corona and non-corona content. So today I'm going to share an interview that I recently had with Tara Tagliaferro, who is in the Maltz Jupiter Theatre production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. She told us about the unique circumstances of what's going on down at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Florida and how she feels like the theatre has really been taking care of them as artists in unique ways. Here's our conversation.

[0:45] Mo Brady: Would you introduce yourself and tell us where you are right now?

[0:48] Tara Tagliaferro: Yes, hi, I'm Tara Tagliaferro, and I am in Jupiter, Florida at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre doing a now postponed production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, or How to Succeed in Business With Washing Your Hands.

[1:04] Mo Brady: Right, there you go. Art is already being made. So if Instagram tells me correctly, you guys had your postponement kind of later than things were going on in New York, correct?

[1:20] Tara Tagliaferro: A day later, our artistic director, who was beyond transparent and just the definition of good leadership in a time of unpredictable safety measures, was just so open and honest with us in the whole process. So we, on Thursday, had a company meeting that was basically to tell us, hey, this is starting to get more serious. It may be affecting us more. And this was right before Broadway announced that they were going dark. So we had this like tentative meeting, just about tentative options. So we all heard of the plan that was going to be put into place around Thursday. And then on Friday, after Broadway declared the going dark for at least a month, they made the full decision to also based off of the touring house in West Palm Beach was saying that they were closing as well.

And artistic director also like saying like this audience here is primarily people who are at risk to do this disease. So it doesn't make sense making them feel uncomfortable to come see theater anyways, you know. So we found out on Friday morning that which was day two of our tech.

[2:27] Mo Brady: Okay, so you hadn't even opened?

[2:29] Tara Tagliaferro: No. And it's kind of we were all saying like, we're a little bit blessed at where we were in the process. Because if we had just started rehearsals, the whole thing probably just would have been canceled. But because the production was so invested in and we got to kind of see like the fully realized the almost fully realized version of this show, because it's all like the set is already up, the costumes are done, everything's done. That has made us have the postponement rather than like a cancellation, which we are all counting our lucky ducks for because that would have been a little bit more devastating, a tougher pill to swallow if it was just canceled without getting to do it for anybody.

[3:05] Mo Brady: Right. So on Friday, you found out that it was going to be postponed.

[3:10] Tara Tagliaferro: Yes, that when that we were told Thursday that that was the tentative plan that we are going to now tentatively, this is still not officially in concrete, but we are allowed to talk about it. We are going to open their season for them in 2020 fall in a slot that they never have done before, which is the theater is taking a risk for the artists to keep working and to get the story up all the designers. Like it makes me want to cry, like just how cared for we feel. And that didn't need to be the decision, you know, that it could have been just canceled. And our hospitality, like our accommodations are extended to us through the end of our contract, at least. So we're allowed to stay in our housing as of right now, even though today is officially it was supposed to be Friday. We just found out today. Today is officially our last day of work at the theater.

[3:59] Mo Brady: So you've still been going to the theater.

[4:04] Tara Tagliaferro: I'm on a break right now. Yes. So what are you doing when the show is.

[4:09] Tara Tagliaferro: We, um, on, we did on Sunday, we had an invited dress, which we all just like relished. And it was unbelievable to hear laughs. Cause how to succeed is like, you need the laughs. That's like the missing ingredient once you're like running it so many times. So it was just so amazing to have, we had the tiniest little audience of hand sanitized, all sitting miles apart from each other. And they sound at like a million people. It was unbelievable. So we got to have that experience and all of us were just so grateful for that. So we did that on Sunday. This week was meant to be like refining our tech because we're not going to get our designers in the fall. So this was just meant to be like cleaning, brushing up, doing photo calls, doing promotional things for when the show comes back.

Also, this is really cool. We're filming the show this evening for our archival purposes. So when we remount, we're not just coming back in October, like what did we do? But also for the subscribers here, who've already purchased a ticket to give them incentive to not ask for a refund and get to watch like a one-time only streaming thing, kind of like a Broadway HD type of situation with the show where they get to watch it once.

[5:10] Mo Brady: Oh, that's such a smart idea.

[5:10] Tara Tagliaferro: We just had a pep talk for it right now. And I'm so excited because we're obviously not going to have an audience for this. So there's not going to be laughs, but like our choreographer was just like, treat it. And Rami Sandhu is our choreographer. I should be crediting people. Was just like, treat it like you're going into your MGM lot today. We're going to treat it like that, like movie musical day. And we're all like pumped. Like this is such a, there's some like really beautiful light things that have been coming out of like cancel or getting postponed and like not knowing what's next for most of us. Like many of us are in a scrambly place right now, not sure if we're going to stay here, especially people who have partners in New York, trying to get them up here, trying to get back.

So the show has been like the thing that we know right now amidst like all the stuff we don't. So it's been, I've just been so grateful for this theater. Like how we've been cared for literally like I walked in and on my seat today was a roll of toilet paper from company management because she knew we couldn't, she knew we couldn't find any.

[6:06] Mo Brady: So you had mentioned some other ways that you, the theater had been taking care of you as well.

[6:12] Tara Tagliaferro: Yeah. So our official, and we got our post, our closing notice or postponement notice on Friday officially. And from then, from there, they were buying us out two weeks. So we're only working one day of this week, but we're getting paid for this whole week and the next week. This is under, I forget what it's called, like the active God kind of active nature thing. This could have been under that where they didn't need to do that. And they are doing that. And the extending the accommodations to us, they're even figuring out how they can keep a few rental cars for us. So we're not just like stuck at the house. We can get to where we need to get to, but things like it's been a little bit slower here in terms of just like how Jupiter, Florida is responding.

Like the grocery stores are closing early, restaurants are kind of switching over to takeout. People are still kind of milling about, but everyone's putting, I think in place all the six feet rules and all that. That's definitely happening, but it's not as, I think it's just different being isolated in a place where you already don't see so many people to begin with. Like unless you're going to a grocery store, then like New York City. So I can't even fathom New York right now. That feels unreal to me.

[7:21] Mo Brady: Yeah. Are you going to be going back to New York soon?

[7:25] Tara Tagliaferro: Great question. I am taking it day by day. Personally, my husband was scheduled to come down here this weekend to see the show and everything. So he's kept his flights and he's maybe now trying to move it up to come here since it seems to be a little bit more safe and less hectic. So he was going to maybe keep his flight all depending on the rumors that have been going about with ground transportation possibly being affected. So we're just taking it day by day. We've been looking at other options. We all know as a cast too, if the ground transportation stops, we have been talking about renting cars together to drive back from here to the city. I mean, the one thing we don't have to worry about is there's no timeline right now.

For any of us, I feel like nothing is really on a rush. Right now, my plan, if everything was to work out, but obviously things could change, I'm going to need to scramble or make some changes. My plan was to stay through the end of our contract, stay here in Florida and just regroup here and figure out what's going to be next for my own personal self. A lot of us are in the, I don't know, what we're going to be doing. We all have little creative projects. Obviously, there's no dry spell for us there. We all have these videos that we would love to do together if we do stay. I hope to be back in New York top of April, latest, hopefully. I really want to get to my husband. That's priority. It's weird not being with my person during a pandemic that just feels not right.

So that's my one goal is just getting to him if he's coming here or I'm getting to him. I don't want to also just make myself be productive to be productive. This, I think, part of the reason I'm seeing why this is happening is so we can heal and we can rest and slow down and see what life is like without spending a lot of money and just have a quieter, simpler life in a weirder way. Also, I'm taking this opportunity to reach out to my theaters that I love and leaders and people in the community I love just to be like, how can I help? How can I help? What can be done? Because I think there's a lot of learning to be done and listening right now and that's all I kind of want to do. But I'm going to be okay with I don't know as well.

[9:53] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Tara Tagliaferro for sharing her stories with us today. The Ensemblist was produced today by me, Mo Brady. There are two great ways you can be helping The Ensemblist right now. One is by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and the other one is becoming a Patreon member. You can do that at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. Also, if you aren't following us yet, you can follow us on Spotify. You can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts and you can also get all of our podcasts at broadwaypodcastnetwork.fm. And make sure you're following us on Instagram because things are changing all the time and that's where we're sharing our most up-to-date info. Thanks for listening, guys. Until next time.