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[0:01] Justin Mock: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. I'm Justin Mock.

[0:20] Mo Brady: Today, Mo Brady talks with Aiko Nakasone, one of the 15 original cast members of Rent.

[0:26] Mo Brady: In the conversation, Aiko shares how her experience creating theater families has influenced her work as both a yoga instructor and financial educator.

[0:36] Mo Brady: Rent is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and a virtual celebration is streaming now through Friday, March 6, 8 p.m. EST as a part of New York Theatre Workshop's 2021 Gala. Enjoy!

[0:57] Mo Brady: You are perhaps, in my esteem, maybe one of the people who had the most professional theater experience going into Rent, and then 25 years later have sort of gotten the furthest away from the industry. You had done the national tours of Starlight Express and Tommy, and you had done How to Succeed on Broadway. You were sort of like one of the Broadway stalwarts of this very young, very new cast. And so many of those people have gone on to careers in the arts while you have gone on to pursue other things, yoga and financial literacy. I'm wondering how much does Rent come up in your post-performer life? Do people mention it casually or do people, I don't know, does it come up at all?

[1:48] Aiko Nakasone: It comes up all the time with my castmates because all 15 of us are on this chat. Today, we just got a text from Rodney. He said, hey, my new play is being read, you know, doing a reading tonight and da-da-da-da. And so we're all just chiming in, you know, we all tell each other, you know, Happy New Year, Merry Christmas. We just kind of chat back and forth throughout the years. And, you know, yes, it's been a wonderful thing that we keep in touch. You know, in financial literacy, when I talk to people, my journey that brought me to financial literacy, funny because Rent is all about like struggling artists or struggling, just struggling New Yorkers and struggling people in life, trying to make it in life.

And anyway, so when I tell my story, then most of the time the question comes up, oh, what have you done? Or, you know, as I tell my story, I came from my performance background and stuff like that and why it led me into learning about financial education and why I teach it. Because, you know, everybody deserves it and everybody deserves to be, you know, financially free anyway.

[3:12] Mo Brady: Yeah. So is it is it something you said you talked about the text thread? What a beautiful expression of kind of the community of the show. I mean, 25 years later to still be supporting each other in that way feels like such a gift.

[3:31] Aiko Nakasone: We cry, we crack up, we and it's so it's just so wonderful to to go through the years and the evolution of everybody. And when we first started out in Broadway and everybody started to to inquire about, you know, the Rent cast and stuff like that. Yes. A lot of the people were new, up and coming, just kind of, you know, appeared on the scene. And, yeah, there were there's me and I think maybe one other person, you know, maybe Toby has done other stuff. Yeah, probably me. I'm the old guy, old, old lady.

[4:11] Mo Brady: And yet I can imagine I can imagine that this was different than your experiences being on national tours or being, you know, even that How to Succeed revival that had happened just a few years beforehand. This must have been like a whole other ballgame.

[4:25] Aiko Nakasone: Different collaboratively, the environment that they wanted, New York Theatre Workshop, you know, Jonathan, Michael, all of them, Jeffrey Sellers, you know, Kevin McCullum, Alan Gordon, all of the producers, how everybody wanted to make the environment feel like a family. And it really did. It did. It felt like a family. And the family still continues. Rent is, yeah, has it was life changing for me. That's what was different about this production as opposed to the other previous ones. I loved all my experiences with all the other. It taught me a lot. But it was I think it was just more about it was about putting a show together and and there was there were people had their places and and their jobs that they needed to do.

We also same thing. But there was this underlying feeling of just family. We're in this together and let's let's and we're here for a purpose. Our purpose is a little bit. I felt just a little bit greater about because it and it had to do with, I think, Jonathan's journey as an artist, as a person who wanted to spread messages of these universal messages of love and and and community and support and and non-judgment and inclusiveness and equality. And you know what I mean? That that that yeah, that we're all gosh, we're all in this together on this in New York, in this planet in, you know, yeah.

[6:19] Mo Brady: Is there a moment in the show that really specifies that to you? I mean, I can think about the end at the table, I can think about the top of Act Two, it just that feeling of unity that connects to your work now with yoga, like, is there is there a moment in the show that specifically exemplifies that?

[6:40] Aiko Nakasone: Mark always videotaping it things because I think he wants it. He wants the moment to last. You know, he wants to have meaning. Roger trying to sing this, create this one song. It represents a lot of things. But for me, it also represents his purpose. I think everyone wants to leave a legacy, live a life of purpose. He's faced with, you know, a life-threatening situation. He wants his life to have meaning. And then there's the and then there's la vie boheme, which is, you know, all about saying, hey, it doesn't matter who you are, you know, you you may be over there with money and and all of that stuff. But you know what, there's this freedom, freedom to be who we are and to be respected as who we are. And, you know, so I mean, I could go on and on and on. It's just everything throughout the whole play is has all of these things in it. The unity goes throughout.

[7:48] Mo Brady: Now, you're a mom, yes?

[7:52] Aiko Nakasone: Crazy boys. I'm showing a picture of them. They're five and three now. They're going to be six and four very soon.

[8:05] Mo Brady: I'm, I'm half as tired as you are. Because I only have one. I'm wondering if there are things that you think about as a parent that are related to the messages of Rent? You know, are there are there are there lessons, I guess, to impart to young people?

[8:25] Aiko Nakasone: We have, you know, five year old and three year old, and I'm getting into all of this research on neuroscience. And, you know, because actually, science is actually now catching up to yoga and actually explaining what yoga yogis have known for intuitively for thousands and thousands of years, and now in science is being able to explain it. There's unlimited potential in all of us. As creative beings, we all want to express that and explore that. And so you see that in kids, they're just, you know, their imagination is just unbelievable. You see it in Rent, you know, these people who want to be free to show their creativity to live life to the fullest to, but then you have this other force of that there's needs to be some kind of structure and, and there's this economic system going on as well that they have to battle.

But I want to teach my children that, that to maintain their creativity, their motivation to to have grander visions and keep their imagination going, while still also being aware that the best way to live in life, you know, and make life work is to live with community. And, and to contribute to a community, because you are a part of life, you actually have to contribute to life. So this is how we thrive is if we all uplift each other, as opposed to battling with each other. You know, and I think that with, with financial education too, there comes equality, you can, it's a great equalizer. If you, if you have, if you control your, you know, time, your paycheck, your, your, your, you, you, you can contribute more to life. That's what I think.

[10:43] Mo Brady: A special thanks to Aiko Nakasone for sharing her story with us today. The Ensemblist was produced today by Mo Brady, Jackson Klein, and me, Justin Mock. Please rate and review The Ensemblist wherever you listen to your podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or bpn.fm, the home of Broadway Podcast Network.

[11:00] Mo Brady: Our Patreon members have on-demand access to our archive, including full conversations with our guests and early access to episodes. You can support us for between $5 to $20 a month at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. Thanks for listening. Until next time.