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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. The second musical to announce postponement in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic was Roundabout Theatre Company's Caroline, or Change. Along with their production of the straight play Birthday Candles, they announced that Caroline, or Change would be postponed to the fall for dates to be announced. I was wondering what this would feel like for an artist to be in the creative process of a show and then all of a sudden stopped midway. So I spoke to Nasia Thomas. She is the dance captain and plays Radio 1 in this Broadway revival of Caroline, or Change. Her previous Broadway credits include Ain't Too Proud, The Life and Times of the Temptations, and Beautiful, the Carole King musical.

She spoke to me over the phone about how she learned about the Broadway shutdown and that the show would be postponed. Here's our conversation. Hi, would you introduce yourself and tell me where you're calling from today?

[1:06] Nasia Thomas: Okay, my name is Nasia Thomas and I am calling from Chesapeake, Virginia.

[1:11] Mo Brady: And what was your job until a couple of weeks ago, I guess?

[1:16] Nasia Thomas: Um, I played Radio 1 in the revival of Caroline, or Change.

[1:23] Mo Brady: Right. The silver lining is that they've announced that it's coming back in the fall, and that is great news. But let's talk about sort of how we got to this point. So where were you in the show's process when Broadway shut down on gosh, Thursday, March 13, I think?

[1:41] Nasia Thomas: So we were actually in tech. And we were going over all of the notes from the previous run because that night was going to be our invited dress. Actually, it was maybe about four hours out from the invited dress. And we were all kind of sitting around the theater, we weren't being used and our phones were going crazy. I'm saying the Broadway's going to shut down and you know, everyone from different shows have these group chats in there. You know, everyone's trying to figure out what's going on because we were all in different stages. You know, some people were at home getting ready to go to the show to do their show. And I remember our company manager kind of went on the God mic and said, don't please don't look at any of the articles that are coming out because we don't know anything for sure.

We're still trying to figure it out. But we could tell we could tell that things were kind of a little odd. And then you know, another hour goes by. And we're all sitting in the hallway, we're on a break. And we saw that actual article saying that Broadway was going to shut down, but we hadn't heard anything officially from our people. Next thing you know, we're in a meeting, they were like trying to figure out we have to postpone the show. But do we still want to do the dress rehearsal, we can't have the invited dress rehearsal because they said 50 people can't gather. So you know, then we voted on whether or not we wanted to do the dress rehearsal without any audience members. But then we all decided that it was better to just go ahead and head home and try to prepare as much as we could.

And that we were very grateful for those few hours because it started to become crazy at the grocery stores. Yeah, and I remember the little kids were in the meeting with us. And one of the little kids started to cry and said, Do we really want to leave our show in this moment? Don't we want to leave on a high note, we should do the dress rehearsal. And they were like, it's like sobbing these little kids. This is how you want to remember, you know, our last, you know, the adults are like, we're feeling for them. But it's also like we have to go. But it's just, we expected the two weeks. So some of us were like, Okay, you know, a break, you know, vocally tired, or Oh, sure. You're at the end of tech.

You're like, I could take a moment. Me personally. I was like, Okay, well, I'm going to go. Now here we are. I don't think anybody kind of knew we were all kind of sitting in limbo up until, you know, a couple of days ago, we got an email saying that we were postponed because we're like, well, we know this is not going to come back mid-April, like we all thought it would. When are we gonna come back? You know, we also got an email saying, you know, Carolina change, it's important that Roundabout does Carolina change. So we're not not going to do Carolina change. So it's like, are we gonna go back in May or June? You know, I was expecting maybe May, the fall. I'm super grateful because a lot of my friends have had their jobs terminated altogether. And I'm really grateful that we have been pushed back. This is it's just, it's, this is wild.

[4:44] Mo Brady: Are you talking about friends on Broadway or friends working regionally?

[4:50] Nasia Thomas: Friends working regionally, you know, friends, our friend in the Bronx Tale, you know, tour, they canceled their the rest of the tour. Beautiful. I'm hearing their sit down productions that are ending early. It's, it's just, it's, it's so unfortunate. And I really don't know how we are going, how we're going to bounce back. I know we will. But I'm just wondering how this is going to go like the Tonys. This is, yeah, you sort of thought that you were on the beginning of a fast moving train, right? You were like, Alright, we're gonna get previews, we're gonna open and it's gonna be award season, and I'm gonna be exhausted, but I'm gonna be like living, living the dream, right? And then there's just a big pause button put on it. Now, I want to go back and ask you about this time between you leaving the theater on the 13th. And this email, had you been receiving any communication from Roundabout?

[5:45] Nasia Thomas: So grateful to Roundabout because they're also, they're making sure that they're taking care of us. So we're really, you know, really grateful. We knew when we left that theater that day that they were going to do their best. We had a big old meeting on the stage. Tony Kushner, Janine Tesori was FaceTimed and everybody in the theater, the people who owned Roundabout, you know, everyone was there and they were like, we are going to make sure that we take care of you guys. So we kind of like, knew that we would be taken care of. But we didn't get, our first email maybe came like a few days later, solidifying the fact, you know, that we would be getting like paid and we would get health weeks up and, you know, to a certain time.

That was the first email. And then the next email that we got was that we were going to be postponed. And that was just, it was the day before the article came out saying that we were postponed. So, you know, we had some communication. I know of some shows that didn't have any.

[6:45] Mo Brady: They say they're bringing the show back. Is there any sort of like official word on that? Is that, or is it just like, we're going to bring you back? We, you have a job, don't worry. Like what's the conversation that's going on?

[6:54] Nasia Thomas: We just knew that the show was going to be postponed until the fall. And then I thought, and I thought it was just us, but I didn't, I don't know how they're doing that. I don't know how it saves money. I guess I do understand how it saves money, but, um, us and Birthday Candles, which was a show that was supposed to be right after us. Um, we're both being pushed back. Um, I don't know when in the fall that's going to be, isn't the fall like a four month stretch?

[7:27] Mo Brady: Right. Fall really could be from Labor Day until November.

[7:35] Nasia Thomas: Yeah, exactly. And people who are in your company may have other gigs or they may book other gigs between now and then.

[7:40] Mo Brady: Right. You know, we're all kind of auditioning for things and that may conflict. And it's like, what do you, what do you do? What do you do? And I guess that's kind of like a lot of shows. Like when I was doing Ain't Too Proud, we knew that we were going to go to Broadway, but we didn't have like a word. So it's like all of the other jobs that we could, you know, that we potentially had lined up. Like, how do you, how do you pick and choose from the uncertain?

[8:01] Nasia Thomas: Yeah. And you haven't heard anything I would assume about what starting back up would mean. Is it a full rehearsal process? Do you just jump right back into tech? Do you like, what does that even look like? Thinking about that?

[8:12] Nasia Thomas: I mean, we were in pretty good shape, you know, as the dance captain, you know, I have my notes and my things to, you know, look back on, but you know, some people may not have that. I don't know if we're gonna go back. I'm thinking like, it might be smart to go back in the room for like, a few days or a week. I mean, it just depends on if people are refreshing themselves while we're on this break. But also, who knows, you know, we could get an email saying it's postponed, but who knows? We, who knows, you know, and Sharon's back in the UK.

[8:50] Mo Brady: And I guess my last question is really, how are you feeling? Like, you just sort of didn't get to do this thing that was going to be wildly creative.

[8:57] Nasia Thomas: Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to look at it in a very positive way, because I feel like the world goes so fast. And we need breaks. It's nice to have moments of refreshing and moments of clarity and to really think. Like I said, when they first told us we were going to be gone for, you know, three weeks, I was like, okay, that's a perfect amount of time to rest. And I was okay with that. But you know, it's a touch stressful, especially because the whole rent situation, what are we going to do about rent? Are people going to, are the landlords going to let up? You know, my building is not really even addressing the fact that people have gotten, you know, laid off. And no, I just, I just hope that everyone stays healthy and happy and try to find as much joy as you can during this time and to reach out and to cover their mouths when they cough.

[9:58] Mo Brady: You said it.

[10:06] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Nasia Thomas 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 by becoming a Patreon member. You can do that at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. Please follow The Ensemblist wherever you listen to podcasts, whether that be on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, or at our home of Broadway Podcast Network at bpn.fm. And follow us on Instagram where we are sharing our newest episodes and stories of creativity amidst the coronavirus pandemic every day. Thanks for listening. Until next time.