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[0:00] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's The Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon. Welcome to The Roundtable, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to us on Broadway World over here on the Broadway Podcast Network, iHeartSpotify. You know, as this year winds down, everyone wants to know what do you want for Christmas? What do you give people for the holidays? What do you do when your kids are driving you crazy because they're off from school for two weeks? Well, I have the pick for you. I've seen the show twice. Now I'm going to have to go back. It's a very special time over there at Harry Potter on Broadway. And I'm really excited that someone is making their Broadway debut. And with making their Broadway debut, they're making their Roundtable debut with me.

And what an honor and what a joy. Now, see, I'm not, my brother is the Harry Potter Nista. Like he wears the clothes and the socks. And he's seen the show and he read the books and he watched the movies. So Ginny is Harry's sister. Trish is here. And Trish is going to school me on how and what is going on on stage. And I'm getting the full breakdown for you. You're welcome, America. Trish Lindstrom is here. Welcome to the show. Happy Broadway debut.

[1:09] Trish Lindstrom: Thank you. Thank you. I have to do one little correction. I'm sorry. Ginny is Harry's wife. I mean, if she was his sister, that would be another story altogether. But we're good. It actually, it makes for good comedy. Is Ginny Ron's sister?

[1:30] Robert Bannon: Yes. Bingo. So sister is... I don't want someone's sister. I'm somebody's sister. I'm somebody's daughter. I am my own grandpa. Do not marry... I am my uncle. Yeah. I am an uncle to the cast. Yeah. So let's just go through the lineage. Let's spend the entire time just going through who is everybody's. How are we related? And I'm related to you in some way. But you are, I think you're not from New York.

[1:54] Trish Lindstrom: No, I'm from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

[1:59] Robert Bannon: Are you from Canada? I am. I get made fun of for my Canadian pride. I get made fun of.

[2:03] Trish Lindstrom: No, I love it. Come on. I can sing the... I know the first two words of your national anthem. I think that's it. But it's clever. I love the melody of it. You are from Canada. You have a lot of... your training was in Canada. I read your bio. You've done a lot of work in Canada. And then you toured with Harry Potter around North America and the kind of the world. So what has your artistic... when did you want to be an actor?

[2:31] Trish Lindstrom: Oh, I started as a kid. I started when I was eight. I went to an art school where we did half the day academics, half the day arts, dance, music, drama. I played the violin when I was a kid. I played piano, ballet, all the business. And then I went to an art high school. And then I went to theater school, did a job at Stratford. I reached the glass ceiling a little bit in Canada. I mean, that's an expression that... I still obviously love working there. But I was like, well, at 38, I just went, oh, let's move to New York. And so I got a green card and moved here and did some things. And yeah.

[3:05] Robert Bannon: What age?

[3:06] Trish Lindstrom: At 38. I just said, yeah, it was quite late.

[3:10] Robert Bannon: Look, I'm not judging. I went to acting school. I dropped out of acting school for college and went back in my 30s. I went to conservatory. There is no timeframe on any of this. You could be 38 and move to New York.

[3:21] Trish Lindstrom: Yeah, no. I did that and I had the green card and then the pandemic hit. And then I was on a tour. I was on a Donna Summer tour. And then we actually were in Toronto on March 13th, 2020. So I stayed with my mom and my stepdad in Canada. And then a year later, my mom passed quite suddenly.

[3:42] Trish Lindstrom: There she is. We were going to do... I just put her behind my shoulder there. So I stayed. I stayed in Canada. And then I knew about the Harry Potter job pre-pandemic in Toronto. I did it in Toronto for a year, 2022. And then I had a year away from it. And then they called me to do the tour. And I was like, yeah, I love touring. I love those cities. We had shortened the show. So we worked with John Tiffany that summer to condense it into a three-hour version versus three and a half. And that was astonishing. All the original design team came back to rework the thing because we had different... The stage is different. The construction is different. We have just different moments on the tour. Then I did the tour year one. And then I started year two. And two months in, I got the call, just come over here. So I'm over here now in New York.

[4:27] Robert Bannon: Was it a moment? Did you think that this was something that eluded you when you were waiting for your Broadway moment?

[4:30] Trish Lindstrom: Well, they kind of asked me a couple years ago when I was like, no, I want to do the tour. And so I chose to do the tour. And then this came around again. I'm like, no, let's do this. And I love this city. And actually, I was looking at a journal entry the other day. I don't usually do that, look back, because it's chicken scratch. You can't usually read, right? And it just makes me feel ashamed and things looking at like, who was that person yesterday who wrote that? They're so naive. They're so young. But I was reading it. And when I was deciding whether to do year two of the tour, one of the cons was, well, I won't get to be in New York. I read that. I was like, yeah. I mean, I love this city so much.

I have my mojo here. I feel like anything's possible, even on a budget. I know how to do this city so cheaply. I know how to do this city without a Broadway job. I babysat my way through my rent. I live in rooming houses. I still am for another couple months. I have roommates. I know how to do anything on the cheap. So I say that just as people often use money as an excuse not to kind of do the things that they love. And I think that it can be done. You just have to be resourceful and creative and readjust your priorities. So I just, yeah, I'm just enamored of this town.

[5:47] Robert Bannon: I love that answer. That was so not American. That was so Canadian. We don't do that well here. But you just did it so well. We're so materialistic here. And you just taught us, don't make excuses for your dreams not coming true. You can do it. If there's a will, there's a way.

[6:02] Trish Lindstrom: Yeah. Buy groceries. Make your lunch. Get a Tupperware. You don't even need a big kitchen. You don't even need a kitchen. You can do it in your bathroom. Trish, I haven't even talked really about this show yet because now I'm so fascinated by this journey. So wait, did you move here without a job?

[6:15] Trish Lindstrom: Oh, yeah. In 38, yeah. I just went, oh, I'll move here. And I babysat. And I went into all these open calls. I have connections. I've worked with some very incredible people in Canada, American and international. And so I thought, oh, yeah, that's on my resume. I got here, nothing. I went to all these open calls. And an agent that I signed with at the time in the US, I still maintain my Canadian agent. And she's who I use now exclusively. But I signed with an agent here. And after a while, they said to me wisely, they said, it's chipping your dignity. So I think you should stop going to those open calls. It's not about ego because dignity is different than ego. There's something deeper happening that's actually lower, like fundamentally reducing your confidence.

And those open calls like I, yeah, 38, I'm in the room with people half my age. I'm hearing them, you know, you're standing in the lineup with your little binder. And I do musicals. So I was singing my 16 bars. And I'm like, I don't know what they're they don't know what to do with me. Also, like, I'm kind of I'm this weird, you know, even like, I just I just light my hair. And I had blonde hair at the time in my headshot. And the agent wisely, again, it's superficially, but wisely was like, you're not a blonde. Like, no, no, like, your whole vibe. It's not, it's not blonde. So I literally photoshopped because I'm like, I'm not gonna pay for new headshots. I photoshopped my hair like, like with an auburn like, because I've got red undertones, like auburn, like, spunky, like, I've played so much Irish, like, I played Pippi Longstock, I picked played all the kind of like, rebels.

So it was so it's associated. Yeah, it's like a package. And I don't, yes, I still don't really fit into a package, which is, I've come to accept it. But when you first move here, and you're told that, you know, okay, okay, I'll make myself easily castable. I will say one more thing about the casting process years, because I'm assuming that there are actors that watch this a lot, young actors, that here in this country in the city, casting for theaters a lot more like TV and film in my country, it gets so specific, because there's every single person for every single role, whereas in Canada, I will be stretched, I will be hired for a role that they think, ah, she could do that. But here, no, no, they want to bank on somebody that is the role, with the exception of celebrities, you know, when you get to a certain level, then they'll go, Oh, no, no, I think she could do this.

And you see somebody stretch. But that is why we're seeing people in the same role is because it's kind of, that's how they're cast, a good casting director will be able to see the many, the prism of a human being. But often, it's on a first glance, it's like, but it's so it's so it's so they're so quick to kind of go, you're that you're that you're not that you're that you're so.

[9:03] Robert Bannon: What an incredible, inspiring conversation and story that you can and what what you know, when I when I left acting school, sorry for my rant. But when I went back to school, my acting, I went to I was Meisner trained, I went to William Esper in the city. And I did my two and a half years there. And I left acting school. And I said, I don't representation is hard for me. I don't know what roles to play. And my, my teacher said to me, maybe you're gonna have to make your own type. And it's going to be harder, but you're not going to follow in someone else's footsteps. And I think that we all have to take that advice, like you're not going to just automatically get picked up and replace somebody, because we're not we're all different. So you've got to find who Trish is and find the role that's for her. And all of you out here, that's what finds your your vibe and your tribe and your people and your parts.

[9:41] Trish Lindstrom: Well, we can sniff it. I mean, I it's no different than life. We can sniff it when somebody is trying to be something they're not. We sniff it. We're human. We're animals. We go like, Oh, there's something I don't trust. Who are they? Who are they trying to be? And often, like, that's a process that takes years and decades. Like, I'm at an age now where I'm like, I don't have the energy to try. But I still I still find myself Why am I? Why do I behave that way? So you know, around certain people around, you know, I go, Oh, I don't have to do that. But that takes that takes some, some deep consideration, because everything in the culture is telling us we should be something else. And social media, even on social media, how we present, we are curating our live, we're curating our image.

And I just posted something yesterday. And I rarely post photos of myself. I photograph as well. So I love I will I live to take pictures of take pictures, but take pictures of people. Come on in. This is dressing. Let's have a look. Hi. Just bringing in the costumes for the day. Are you are they allowed? It's a zoom interview? Oh, are they allowed to if I pan over? Look at this, everybody. This is real Broadway. See, this is real. They've just deemed Yes, this is a dresser's name. What's your name? This is a lessee.

[11:03] Robert Bannon: Welcome back to The Roundtable! I am so excited to have Trish Lindstrom here with us today. Trish, you are stepping into the iconic role of Ginny Potter in Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. What does it mean to you to embody such a beloved character?

[11:33] Trish Lindstrom: Thank you for having me, Robert! It’s honestly such an honor. Ginny is such a strong character, and stepping into her shoes feels like a huge responsibility. I want to do justice to the legacy of the Potter universe and to the fans who love her. It’s a character that has so much depth and emotion, and I’m excited to explore that every night on stage.

[12:03] Robert Bannon: Absolutely! The Potter legacy is so rich. How do you feel the story continues to resonate with audiences, especially in a live theater setting?

[12:33] Trish Lindstrom: I think the themes of love, friendship, and bravery are universal. People connect with those messages, and the magic of live theater brings it to life in a way that’s truly special. Each performance feels like a new experience, and I love seeing how the audience reacts to different moments in the show.

[13:03] Robert Bannon: That’s so true! The emotional depth of Ginny is incredible. Can you share a bit about what it’s like to perform in such a technically demanding production?

[13:33] Trish Lindstrom: It’s definitely a challenge! The show has so many moving parts, from the special effects to the choreography. But it’s also incredibly rewarding. The ensemble spirit is what keeps the magic alive. We all support each other, and that camaraderie makes the experience even more special.

[14:03] Robert Bannon: I love that! It sounds like a true team effort. What’s it like performing in a show where every moment feels larger than life?

[14:33] Trish Lindstrom: It’s exhilarating! There’s a sense of adrenaline that comes with performing in such a grand production. Every moment is heightened, and I think that energy translates to the audience. It’s a beautiful cycle of giving and receiving that makes the experience unforgettable.

[15:03] Robert Bannon: That’s such a great perspective. You mentioned the ensemble spirit—how important is that to you in your journey as an artist?

[15:33] Trish Lindstrom: It’s everything! The ensemble is like a family. We all have each other’s backs, and that support system is crucial, especially in a show like this where the stakes are high. It’s a collaborative effort, and I feel so lucky to be part of such a talented group of people.

[16:03] Robert Bannon: It sounds like a wonderful environment to work in. What has been one of your favorite moments so far in the production?

[16:33] Trish Lindstrom: Oh, there are so many! But I think one of my favorite moments is when Ginny stands up for her family and friends. It’s such a powerful scene, and I love being able to convey that strength and vulnerability. It really resonates with me personally, and I hope it does with the audience too.

[17:03] Robert Bannon: That’s beautiful. It’s amazing how theater can connect us all. As you continue your journey in this role, what do you hope to bring to Ginny that might be unique to your interpretation?

[17:33] Trish Lindstrom: I want to bring a sense of authenticity to her character. I think it’s important to show her as a real person with flaws and strengths. I hope to highlight her growth throughout the story and make her relatable to the audience. At the end of the day, we all have our battles to fight, and I want to reflect that in my performance.

[17:43] Robert Bannon: That’s such a thoughtful approach. I’m sure the audience appreciates that depth. What advice would you give to aspiring performers who look up to you and dream of being on Broadway?

[17:53] Trish Lindstrom: I would say to stay true to yourself and keep working hard. The journey can be tough, but every experience is a learning opportunity. Surround yourself with supportive people, and don’t be afraid to take risks. Believe in your talent and keep pushing forward!

[18:23] Robert Bannon: Wise words! Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us today, Trish. It’s been a pleasure having you on The Roundtable.

[18:53] Trish Lindstrom: Thank you for having me, Robert! I’ve loved our conversation.

[19:23] Robert Bannon: And to our listeners, make sure to catch Trish as Ginny Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. You won’t want to miss it!