This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Erik Christopher Peterson: Hey, I'm Erik Christopher Peterson, and welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:11] Alan Seales: Hello there. Welcome to an all-new episode of The Theatre Podcast. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and today is the start of something incredibly fun. This is the first in a seven-episode takeover featuring cast members from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. So this episode, of course, starts out with Erik Christopher Peterson, who brings a beautiful mix of heart, humor, and Shakespearean depth to the role of Scorpius Malfoy. And in this episode, we explore his journey from a baseball-obsessed kid in Denver to making his Broadway debut in one of the most technically demanding shows on stage. And we talk a little bit about imposter syndrome, his love of acting and writing, and how his interpretation of Scorpius has grown through the hundreds of performances he's got under his belt now, or, you know, in his wand.

Plus, we get into the emotional bond between Scorpius and Albus, the magic of live theater, and, you know, why Erik is totally down to write a Shakespearean play about baseball. This one's a total joy. Just the beginning of a magical series ahead. See what I did there? Be sure to follow me on social media and head to Patreon or Spotify to watch the video version of this episode. And of course, this episode is brought to you by welcometotimesquare.com, the billboard where you can be a star for a day. And now, everyone, please enjoy this episode with Erik Christopher Peterson.

[1:42] Alan Seales: Today's guest is a writer, director, and actor whose work has spanned Shakespeare, New Works, and regional theater. As a director, he's held productions like Duck Ass, The Most Lamentable Tragedy of the Peanut Butter King, while his original works include The Tragedy of Clownfias and Eurydice Cream. We'll come back to that. Now he makes his Broadway debut as Scorpius Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Erik Christopher Peterson, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:06] Erik Christopher Peterson: Thank you for having me.

[2:09] Alan Seales: Did I say that right? Eurydice Cream?

[2:11] Erik Christopher Peterson: Eurydice Cream.

[2:12] Alan Seales: Eurydice Cream. That's what it is. Because yeah, all of these names, these Greek names, I always say, I'm like Persephone and Eurydice.

[2:20] Erik Christopher Peterson: The classic Greek name, Eurydice Cream.

[2:22] Alan Seales: Yeah, Eurydice Cream. So you wrote this? Tell me about who you are as a writer because I mean, we're talking about it. I want to dive into this because A, I like your sense of humor and B, C, A.

[2:35] Erik Christopher Peterson: Oh, well, thank you. Yeah. Okay. Wow. Starting with a deep cut.

[2:38] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. We're going. We're going there.

[2:41] Erik Christopher Peterson: Well, I went to college at Webster with a friend named Nathan Shue, who is he's a good friend of mine. And he has got one of the most unique minds of anyone I've ever collaborated with. And I messaged him and I said, hey, let's do something together. Just because. And that meant a lot of time in a studio, not doing anything, staring at the wall, playing with the lights, fiddling our thumbs. And eventually it turned into a play called The Tragedy of Clown Fias and Eurydice Cream, which is about a clown who falls in love with an ice cream cone.

[3:15] Alan Seales: Clown who falls in love. Okay. Okay. I'm picturing this. Go on.

[3:27] Erik Christopher Peterson: And the ice cream cone melts.

[3:29] Alan Seales: Oh, no.

[3:29] Erik Christopher Peterson: As they are want to do. And so then Clown Fias travels through layers of clown hell in order to demand his ice cream cone back from Satan.

[3:41] Alan Seales: So this was the first working version of Hadestown.

[3:45] Erik Christopher Peterson: It came around after Hadestown.

[3:50] Alan Seales: Don't lie. I know. I know. Like, Anais totally skimmed this off of you, didn't she?

[3:55] Erik Christopher Peterson: I guess so. I guess so.

[3:57] Alan Seales: Well, do you like writing versus directing versus acting? Do you have a preference? Because you've kind of like, obviously, you're doing it all.

[4:02] Erik Christopher Peterson: That's the aspiration.

[4:05] Alan Seales: You do it all, really?

[4:08] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. I am obsessed with acting. I love it. I struggle with writing, but I want to do it. And I think directing is the most challenging but gratifying thing I've ever done. I've only done it on a small scale. But I just want to make stuff, cool stuff with cool people. That seems like a great way to spend my life, right?

[4:30] Alan Seales: Well, okay. So tell me about starting your life. Where did you grow up? What was it first? Was it writing? Was it acting? What did you start?

[4:39] Erik Christopher Peterson: So I grew up in the Denver area. My father is a theater teacher. So that's sort of where the seed was planted.

[4:48] Alan Seales: But did he say, go forth and conquer or don't do what I do?

[4:52] Erik Christopher Peterson: I mean, the tools were there for whatever I wanted to do. If I said I want to be in a play, he said, yes, let's make it happen. But I never felt any pressure. It's what I needed to do. My parents are supportive and wonderful and very accepting of whatever it is I kind of found myself drawn to. For most of my childhood, that was baseball. I played baseball every second of every day. I love baseball. And then I sort of hit a point where I was like, okay, maybe the major leagues. I was not in the cards. And so I found myself acting a lot. And then that's definitely where it began, was that the acting. And then I went to school for acting. And while I was there, we had to take directing courses, writing courses. And I sort of fell in love with all of it.

[5:43] Alan Seales: What did you start writing? I mean, was there always this sort of love for Greek mythology or was that just sort of fun because you could play with the name?

[5:52] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah, I mean, yes, I love like Fantastic Worlds, Harry Potter, The Wizarding World.

[5:57] Alan Seales: Sure.

[5:59] Erik Christopher Peterson: And I grew up reading Percy Jackson and all kinds of stuff like that. And Shakespeare like has my heart. I love an epic story as much as I love a tiny little intimate story. I think there's room for all of it.

[6:11] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, okay. So then you're a little kid, seeing your dad, all the tools are there. And at what point, though, did you really I mean, you're doing Little League, I guess, right? Because you were obsessively, obsessively, right. But then at what point you're like, I guess I'm going to try to do this other thing seriously because there to commit to theater. You have to commit to theater. Yeah, you can't be doing Little League on the side while you're still doing Shakespeare at night. Maybe you can. I don't know.

[6:41] Erik Christopher Peterson: I tried. I tried for a little bit and it was really hard. My freshman year of high school, I like did all the plays and tried to play baseball. And I didn't I don't know if I slept or whatever. So then from that point on, it was kind of like, okay, acting's the thing. That's what I want to do. But I was when I was in seventh grade in middle school, the production or the high school that I ended up going to, which is not the high school my dad teaches at, was doing a production of Ragtime and they needed somebody to play Edgar, the little boy. And so they were going to audition from students at the middle school. And I auditioned and I got the part and we took the show to the Colorado State Thespian Festival.

And it was like this explosion of joy, this labor of love to do this thing. And also it was kind of like Ragtime as it's a heavy show. You know, it's a thinker and, you know, really evocative. And I kind of realized, oh, this is not just, you know, a fun thing to do. It's also a powerful, like soul filling, important thing. You can command the audience.

[7:51] Alan Seales: Yeah. And that was kind of the point I cite as the moment where there was no going back.

[7:57] Erik Christopher Peterson: The seventh grade, you said?

[7:57] Alan Seales: Yeah. Wow.

[7:57] Erik Christopher Peterson: That twelve, twelve years old.

[8:01] Alan Seales: Yeah. Twelve. And that's when you start to like really dive into who you are as a as a person, as a kid, I would think like eleven, twelve, thirteen years old. You know, the early the tweens, the early crisis of self against the early crisis of self. And I'll let you know when it stops.

[8:11] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thirty years later, I don't know what I'm doing with my life. I start a podcast. So, yeah, in seventh grade, you're you're there. You're going through ragtime. I mean, a heavy show, obviously, with some heavy some heavy subject matter. But then like at that point in eighth grade, you're like, all right, no more. No more baseball. That's it.

[8:33] Erik Christopher Peterson: I tried to play baseball for another three years after that, I guess. But and now I still I play I get to play in the Broadway Softball League.

[8:40] Alan Seales: There you go. There you go. That's something come true.

[8:46] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. Can you can you narrate a baseball game? And I am Pentameter.

[8:51] Alan Seales: Oh, wow. That would be a task. I don't know. Maybe I could with enough practice. I think you should. You should write a show that's all about baseball, but spoken like Shakespeare.

[8:56] Erik Christopher Peterson: You've laid down the gauntlet.

[9:01] Alan Seales: There you go. Gauntlet has been thrown this time next year. I'm going to be interviewing you.

[9:08] Erik Christopher Peterson: OK, about about Shakespeare. OK, the title, the title might need some work. We're workshopping it. We're workshopping it.

[9:14] Alan Seales: Base Pier.

[9:19] Erik Christopher Peterson: Oh, my gosh. No, no, no. We'll get we'll get there.

[9:25] Alan Seales: All right. All right, audience, you know, you know what titles we got to do right in.

[9:31] Erik Christopher Peterson: So then you're getting into high school and then it and are your parents at this point like hey, you want to take it seriously or, you know, is there anything else that is another alternate universe where you're a history major or something?

[9:41] Erik Christopher Peterson: I don't think I really at that at that point I wasn't given anybody any options. It was kind of like this is what I'm going to do. And I was so fortunate to have a family that was just like, yeah, OK. And they were OK with it, like even even after going through it, knowing it's hard and wow. Yeah, because it could go either way. I think when you have parents or a parent that is like really into it, that they're like, nope, I don't want my kid doing it because it's the hardest thing I've ever done.

[10:05] Alan Seales: Yeah. You know, but that's good. That's really good. OK, so then high school, then what's beyond that?

[10:10] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. So that takes me to Webster University in St. Louis for four years for an acting degree through the pandemic, of course, which was treacherously fun. And I learned a lot in my time there. I learned a lot about myself, learned a lot about how to do Ibsen on Zoom. And that's a joke. I mean, it's true anyway.

[10:39] Alan Seales: I mean, it is unfortunately true.

[10:44] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah, it's unfortunate that it has to be true because I mean, side note, asterisk insert pause here that there were so many people that tried to make theater during the pandemic and do like Zoom performances and whatnot and power to them. It just didn't didn't work. It's like watching posted stamps talk. And I applaud the attempt. And it was great. And we needed something. But live theater needs to be live in the room, feeling the emotion, taking that audience on that journey.

[11:16] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. OK, certainly.

[11:18] Erik Christopher Peterson: So anyway, back to what we're talking about, what are we talking about?

[11:22] Alan Seales: We're talking Webster, Webster University. Go on, go on.

[11:30] Erik Christopher Peterson: And then I graduated from Webster and found myself doing a production of Othello and a production of The Importance of Being Earnest in Flagstaff, Arizona for the summer and also flying to New York to audition for Harry Potter. And the next thing I knew, I was learning magic.

[11:42] Alan Seales: Wait, so how did the audition even come across your desk?

[11:46] Erik Christopher Peterson: I signed with an agent out of my senior showcase. Very traditional in this. I feel like in this profession, there's so much like there's no traditional path at all. And everyone has their own path. And that's that's totally true. Like when I was a senior in college, all I wanted was somebody to say is like, this is how it's going to happen. This is how you will find work. So I guess I say traditional with a grain of salt, but like.

[12:12] Alan Seales: Most commonly followed.

[12:12] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. I signed with an agent out of my showcase. Very lucky to find someone to collaborate with in that way. And then Harry Potter was like the third audition I had.

[12:28] Alan Seales: When you say collaborate, that's interesting. You said you collaborate with your agent, right? Explain or explore that a little bit, because I don't. Well, I guess maybe because I don't have one that an agent is an agent, a collaborator. Are they help? Yeah. Just explain what you mean by that.

[12:45] Erik Christopher Peterson: Aspirationally. Yeah. Two people or a team of people working together to build a career with a shared vision. Yeah. But it's I've never heard an agent referred to as a collaborator before. It's just really cool. I think that you think that way.

[13:04] Erik Christopher Peterson: Oh, yeah. I mean, I guess we're all we're all collaborating in some way. We're collaborating right now.

[13:07] Alan Seales: Sure. Sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, we've already like workshopped two titles for a new baseball Shakespeare thing. So, yeah, we're coming. It's coming, Broadway. It's coming. Broadway 2037.

[13:19] Erik Christopher Peterson: If Broadway is even around in 2037.

[13:26] Alan Seales: Oh, God. All right. So then Harry Potter. Had you seen this version? Like, have you seen Cursed Child before auditioning for it? Did you know anything about this continuation?

[13:30] Erik Christopher Peterson: I had read. I had read the published script when it came out, and I read it obsessively as I was auditioning for it. I hadn't seen it until after I signed my name.

[14:15] Erik Christopher Peterson: When I got the phone call that I was going to do the show. And so he landed and he got to our apartment and I said, you know, your room's through that door, that room's the bathroom, I got the job, and let's go see the show tonight. And he was like, oh my gosh, okay, yeah. So we went to the Harry Potter Experience Store downtown in the Flatiron and we got a butterbeer and then we went to the show with a couple of my friends, joined us as well, and we went out and had a sandwich afterwards. And we were all kind of like, wow, I'm going to do that in a couple of months. And it was mind-blowing. So then when you start the rehearsal process, I know that I just recently learned that you have a rehearsal room in the theatre.

We do. Above the stage, right? But there's some stuff that you have to do on the stage because of the logistics of the illusions and whatnot. So when you started the rehearsals, again, I mean, imposter syndrome, speaking for myself, everywhere I go, it's imposter syndrome. And so when you're there, fresh out of college, in this behemoth of a show, learning these illusions on the stage, what's going through your head? When I joined the show, I joined with another actor named Joel who was joining as Albus. And he's not in the show anymore, but we were joining at the same time and it was kind of both of our first big job out of college. And so we frequently looked at each other like kids in a candy store throughout the rehearsal process.

And that continues to be my experience to this day, I think, with the show. And that perspective hits me as I'm jumping off of the flaming train and the trolley, which is screaming after me. It's like, you know, record scratch. You're probably wondering how I got here. And I'm pinching myself because it's what I do for a living. And it's incredible. But yeah, that first rehearsal process was totally full of imposter syndrome, totally full of existential crisis, but primarily full of joy and love and a great gratitude that this creative team and all of these incredible experienced artists that I'm working with are trusting me with this beautiful character. It was an adventure. It continues to be an adventure two and a half years in.

[16:38] Alan Seales: Wow. Don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick commercial break.

[16:43] Alan Seales: All right, everyone. Now we're back. Okay. So then you've got this character, you know, so Scorpius didn't exist in the books or the movies traditionally. And so now this is new for this iteration. You know, we're picking up after the epilogue of the last movie and this is 19 years later. And now the kids that we watched grow up have their own kids that they're sending to Hogwarts. You are now the kid of Draco, the son of Draco. And that's a complicated relationship. And I was going to ask, and I think they're related, but I was originally about to ask, why do you think the casting team goes after such traditionally serious, like there's a lot of Shakespearean experience in the cast, like very hardcore, serious actors.

And so kind of using that as a framework to answer this question here, how do you think that you're approaching Scorpius, you know, playing his truth and creating this character that on the surface is just, you know, like the complete opposite of his dad or complete opposite of at least what we expect him to be. Right. Yeah. Draco Malfoy's son who idolizes Harry Potter.

[17:58] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, much to Draco's chagrin. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, the play is epic in its scope, much in the way some of those Shakespearean classics are, you know, sweeping with many characters, many perspectives and like the peaks and valleys of the play. It's not just one sort of story arc. There's almost two main plot lines in our play, much like there is in some of those classics. And so I think that it attracts actors interested in that type of work. And it's also like it's rich language, it's action forward language. And so I think it behooves the company to have actors that are accustomed to working with that sort of, you know, language that has a drive to it. So I think there's the Shakespeare connection.

And in rehearsal with John Tiffany, you know, we have I've chatted, we've chatted Shakespeare, you know, on breaks before. So I think it's also just like a shared interest. But then but then Scorpius, like developing your version of Scorpius, right? Like you don't want to be the last person who was on stage. You want to be the Eric version. You want to be your own thing. And so approaching it. So, you know, growing up with whatever you grew up with in the Harry Potter world and creating this character to make it unique and make your own, like, where do you even start with any of this?

[19:22] Erik Christopher Peterson: Certainly. I mean, I think it comes from knowing what is on the page, what exists, because I think of it kind of like a Venn diagram of like, there's Scorpius as he exists in the text, and then there's the Eric as I exist in my life. And then where does it overlap? And where does it not overlap? And what do I need to do to move parts of me over into Scorpius or parts of Scorpius into me so that what is happening on stage is like a cohesive being that exists in the present moment with my scene partner with the audience? And I think that's a messy process that I don't understand fully. And I've, you know, had 865 shows now to try to figure that out. And I'm still trying to figure it out every single night.

But early on in the rehearsal process that was like, asking questions about what who is Scorpius? What's his background? Like, what's his relationship with his parents up until he goes up until the events of the play begin? Who is Astoria? Who's his mother who we never meet on stage, but we hear her talked about? And what is his relationship with Draco? What's his upbringing? Like, it's a lot of those biographical sort of questions that I was asking myself before rehearsal started. And then once we're off to the races, and we're in the rehearsal room, it kind of becomes about, I think, not forgetting that, but not, not letting it weigh you down, like letting whatever games crop up between you and your scene partner happen.

And that's still the game we play every night of, you know, what is Alex Serino is the fantastic actor that plays Albus right now with me? And where, where, where is he at? And what's what buttons is he pushing in me that I can, you know, manipulate and push in him? And, and where does that take us? And that that's because that's where the story exists. It's like in the triangle that is in the space in the theater between us in between the audience.

[21:28] Alan Seales: I enjoy how kind of mirror image mirror images, each of the generations are and then even because, like Draco, Draco and Harry, we obviously know, but Scorpius and Albus are kind of they're flip flopped, even though they're sons of Draco and Harry, but Scorpius is, is the good one. Like I feel this is my interpretation.

[21:46] Erik Christopher Peterson: I'm going to tell Alex, you said that.

[21:48] Alan Seales: Yeah. I feel like Scorpius is the one who's like, I don't, I don't know. I don't think so. Like, oh, we got it. We got to make it right.

[21:54] Erik Christopher Peterson: He has a strong moral compass. I think they both have a very strong moral compass.

[21:58] Alan Seales: Yeah. And I, yeah, Harry's, I think Harry's, I think Albus, Harry's kid, it's kind of taken for like, he's rebelling more from the Potter name in a, in a darker way than Scorpius does from the Draco name or from Malfoy name.

[22:13] Erik Christopher Peterson: Well, I think perhaps what Scorpius is, what the, the shadow, the Malfoy shadow that Scorpius is under, like the way to move away from it or rebel against it or ask who he is in a reflection of who has come before him is to move into a lighter sense. Whereas Albus is dealing with a different shadow, the shadow of perceived perfection. And so how is he moving away from that?

[22:37] Alan Seales: That's got to be frustrating though. I mean, to play that, to play that level. Yeah. Oh gosh. Yeah. I mean, as, as the character, I mean, the character of Albus has got to be such a frustrating thing and it's got to be so much fun for you as, as Scorpius to play against.

[22:50] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a blast because on the page Scorpius reads tragically. Yeah. Like the, I mean, the humor is there and the humor is totally in the text, but what my first impression of reading a script was like, Oh my gosh, this poor child has, you know, he's loses his mother. He's everyone thinks he's the son of the worst person ever in this world. Right. And, um, and that's definitely what sat with me at the beginning. And then I got into the rehearsal process and discovered how much light and joy and frenetic bubbliness exists within him. And part of that is also the parts of me that I wanted to infuse into the character. And, um, where, where did that take us? Because it is, um, I have a mentor who says, uh, acting mentor says subjects of a sensitive nature are typically broached when a relationship is in a good place. And I think that's true because Scorpius is dealing with, um, tremendously difficult, tragic things, but he tries to do it with a smile as much as he possibly can.

[24:00] Alan Seales: I like that a lot actually. And your version of Scorpius, what did you say? Bubbliness. I was going to say nervous energy.

[24:05] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. Same, same thing. Same thing. Was that, was that you bringing this to the character or was that you're sort of directed like, okay, be more frantic, more shaking, more anxiety?

[24:15] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. Connor Wilson is the associate director who I've worked with a ton on the show. Um, because John Tiffany, the original director has like, I don't even know how many productions we have globally now, like seven productions. Um, so I've worked a lot with Connor, um, as well as John and Connor gave me a note early on in the rehearsal process that Scorpius thinks and talks at the same time. He doesn't think and then talk. So I think, uh, there's a lot of that going on. I also think that I am generally a fairly anxious person. And when I'm making my Broadway debut, I'm in my first Broadway rehearsal process. There's a lot of anxiety there. And so however that manifests in me, it becomes part of the character and there it is.

[25:30] Alan Seales: Have you been able to watch yourself? Have you seen the taping or anything? Like, do you see your physicality?

[25:34] Erik Christopher Peterson: I've seen little clips here and there when it's like, um, we're talking about something. Well, like from, uh, from like, uh, the movement team, if it's like we're talking about this shape or whatever, or I, my friends will send me like tick tocks and say, is this you? Is this you? And I'm like, sometimes yes. And sometimes like, no, that is, uh, you know, the wonderful actor playing the role in London. Um, so I've seen little clips, but not much. Does that affect your performance at all? Or are you just like, Oh, I like that. Or do you, are you someone who's just like, Nope, I'm just doing my thing. I don't read reviews. I try to just forget about it. I try to kind of severance brain it.

[26:01] Erik Christopher Peterson: I love severance. It's incredible. I'm listening to the severance podcast now, the recap podcast. Did you know that exists?

[26:06] Alan Seales: I know it exists. I haven't listened to it.

[26:10] Erik Christopher Peterson: Yeah. It was Ben Stiller and Adam Scott. They go through and it's a recap. Oh, okay. Anyway. Um, I could talk about severance for the next three hours. Um, so then you, uh, as Eric, the audience feedback talk about talking about that because your character, I mean, there are, there are Draco stands who just love Draco and there's Harry and there's Hermione, but like, is there a following now for Scorpius? And then also talk about the feedback. I mean, just for like kind of this unspoken, or maybe it is spoken, just the, the, the relationship that may is venturing into this romantic territory with Albus.

[26:29] Erik Christopher Peterson: Certainly. Yeah. I mean, I think, yeah, the show has like, I don't think you get to run for five, six, six plus years on Broadway without like finding your pocket of people that really love the show and connect with the characters and with that as Albus and Scorpius. And I, I, I'm so feel so grateful for the people at the stage door that are like, I love Scorpius. Like I feel so connected to Scorpius. Scorpius is, feels like me because, uh, I, I agree. And I am so happy to provide that and, and get to be a part of that. Like, it's a huge gift. Then Albus and Scorpius relationship is, is I think, I mean, I think at the core, it's like a play that explores father son relationships. But I also think it's that Albus Scorpius relationship is everything in the play.

And I think they, they deeply love each other. And I think that that is felt by the audience. I think it's felt by the return viewers who come again and again. I think that's part of what the draw is.

[27:59] Alan Seales: Welcome back to The Theatre Podcast. Today, I'm excited to have Erik Christopher Peterson with me. Erik is currently starring as Scorpius Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. Erik, it's great to have you here.

[28:17] Erik Christopher Peterson: Thanks for having me, Alan. I'm really excited to be here and talk about everything from theatre to magic.

[28:27] Alan Seales: Absolutely! So, let's dive in. You grew up with a theatre educator dad. How did that influence your journey into the world of theatre?

[28:32] Erik Christopher Peterson: It was huge for me. My dad was always involved in theatre, and I was surrounded by it from a young age. I remember going to his rehearsals and watching him direct. It made me realize how much I loved storytelling and performance.

[28:40] Alan Seales: That's amazing. And at some point, you traded in your baseball glove for the stage. What was that transition like for you?

[28:52] Erik Christopher Peterson: It was a big shift. I loved baseball, but I found myself drawn to the stage more and more. I think it was the thrill of performing and the connection with the audience that really pulled me in.

[29:04] Alan Seales: And then you made your Broadway debut as Scorpius Malfoy. What was that experience like for you?

[29:05] Erik Christopher Peterson: It was surreal. Stepping onto that stage for the first time, knowing the legacy of the character and the production, was both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. I felt a mix of excitement and pressure to do the role justice.

[29:07] Alan Seales: I can only imagine. You mentioned the legacy of Scorpius Malfoy. How do you approach building your version of him, especially in such a technically complex show?

[29:09] Erik Christopher Peterson: It's all about finding the emotional truth in the character. The technical aspects, like the illusions and effects, are incredible, but at the end of the day, it's about the relationships and the story. Scorpius has such a rich emotional journey, especially in his friendship with Albus.

[29:10] Alan Seales: That friendship is a central theme in the show. How do you navigate the father-son dynamics that are also explored?

[29:11] Erik Christopher Peterson: Those dynamics are really poignant. They add depth to the story and to Scorpius's character. I try to bring out the nuances in those relationships, showing both the struggles and the love that exists.

[29:12] Alan Seales: Performance anxiety is something many actors face. How do you manage that, especially in a role like Scorpius?

[29:13] Erik Christopher Peterson: It's definitely a challenge. I focus on self-care and grounding techniques. Before each show, I remind myself why I love performing and try to stay present in the moment.

[29:14] Alan Seales: That's a great approach. I've heard you mention the impact of fan art on you. Can you share a bit about that?

[29:34] Erik Christopher Peterson: Absolutely! The fan art is incredibly moving. It shows how much the story and characters resonate with people. It reminds me of the impact we can have as performers and how art connects us all.