This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Sarah Killough: Hi, I'm Sarah Killough. Welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:11] Alan Seales: Good afternoon. Good evening. Good generic time of the day, podcast listener. This is The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales, and I am your host, Alan Seales. And today's guest is Sarah Killough, a vibrant, witty performer currently starring in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway as Ginny. She is also a talented musician, a dialect chameleon, and an audition room pro who somehow manages to balance her own on-stage show schedule eight times a week with helping others, because she is still actually doing reading. She will read for auditions still to this day. She opens up about her Minnesota roots, her early start in music, the unexpected path that led her to Broadway. I don't know. At this point, is any path expected anymore?

It's all just kind of whatever works, works. So being an audition reader, actually, as she puts it, kind of became her secret weapon. And we also nerd out a little bit about accents, dive into her love for Harry Potter, of course, and hear what it means to truly become the book Ginny that fans adore. And as we both agree, the Ginny in the books didn't really get enough of a role. So it's nice to expand on Ginny here on stage. And if you haven't already, make sure to follow me on Instagram and TikTok. Check out Patreon and Spotify for the video version of this interview. And also a side note, you've heard me say it in past episodes of this takeover, which were all recorded around the same time.

I had a little shelf-to-the-face construction accident, and this episode with Sarah is like the day after it happened. So I've got this giant bandage on my forehead. So you can see that if you're watching the video. Anyway, we still had a good chat. Enjoy this episode now with Sarah Killough. Today's guest comes to us straight from the stage of Hogwarts after performances in Broadway's Leopoldstadt, The Lehman Trilogy, Travesties, and Long Day's Journey Into Night. She is a talented musician and dancer, proficient in stage combat, and can mimic almost any dialect needed, according to her. We'll test this out. A truly multifaceted, wow, I can't read today. She has two faces, three faces? We'll see. A truly multifaceted artist, she can be found on stage as Ginny Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. Sarah Killough, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:35] Sarah Killough: Thank you. But the proper pronunciation of your last name, of course, Killough, Scottish.

[2:41] Alan Seales: Technically, yeah.

[2:42] Sarah Killough: So give me a Scottish accent then. Tell me about your family.

[2:47] Alan Seales: Great. My family. Well, no, this is not going to be good. I can do great. That's what I got right now. I have had to do it before, but currently I'm not in that world.

[2:59] Sarah Killough: Do you have to warm up every day? I had to do an Irish accent once and I'd always have to just start with like, tar, tar, tar. Okay, now we have to go.

[3:06] Alan Seales: You're like...

[3:07] Sarah Killough: I would do, for Irish, I do like, doity, doity, doity.

[3:11] Alan Seales: Okay, keep going.

[3:12] Sarah Killough: It's so offensive.

[3:13] Alan Seales: We've just lost all of our Irish and Scottish listeners.

[3:16] Sarah Killough: But currently I'm just doing a British accent, so that's what I'm focusing on.

[3:22] Alan Seales: All of you actually can do, the British accents are really incredible, actually. Do you have, in Harry Potter, do you have a dialect coach you work with?

[3:30] Sarah Killough: We do have a dialect coach. Yes, Liz Haynes is our dialect coach. And then there are two Brits in the company. And then I'm also the vocal captain, so I lead a vocal warmup every day after our physical warmup.

[3:45] Alan Seales: And so I am supposed to be in charge of reminding people of sounds, not giving notes or anything like that.

[3:52] Sarah Killough: Reminding people of sounds.

[3:53] Alan Seales: Reminding people of sounds. Yeah.

[3:56] Sarah Killough: Harry, my kids, I don't know, they saw something on YouTube, like bottle of water, they go around saying, bottle of water.

[4:03] Alan Seales: There you go.

[4:04] Sarah Killough: And I'm like, guys, don't say that in front of anybody who actually is British, but at home, it's kind of funny.

[4:10] Alan Seales: I know, but I have to say all my lines to a Brit, so I'm hoping I'm good enough, I don't know.

[4:16] Sarah Killough: Well, so your family lineage seems to be from Scotland, but is that where you grew up? Where did you actually start from?

[4:23] Alan Seales: No, I grew up in northern Minnesota, so my natural accent has a lot of hard O's.

[4:29] Sarah Killough: Well, I'm sorry.

[4:31] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah. Like if I was going to talk to my mom, it would sound more like this.

[4:35] Sarah Killough: Do you slip back into that by accent?

[4:36] Alan Seales: When I talk to my mom, yeah.

[4:39] Sarah Killough: You can't say mom, you have to say ma'am.

[4:42] Alan Seales: Ma'am, yeah, it's flatter, yeah.

[4:44] Sarah Killough: Did she come to, has she come see any of the show?

[4:47] Alan Seales: She has, yeah, she has.

[4:48] Sarah Killough: You're like, oh, Sierra, that's quite impressive there.

[4:51] Alan Seales: Hers isn't as strong as some people that I grew up with, and my dad's not from Minnesota, so I don't know. I feel like I have an ear for different sounds, but hers isn't super strong, but every so often she'll have a word that will just make me giggle because it's the sound of home.

[5:12] Sarah Killough: Did you grow up realizing that she kind of talked different from the status quo?

[5:18] Alan Seales: No, because I did too.

[5:19] Sarah Killough: Did you, yeah?

[5:20] Alan Seales: I had a cousin once who's from Philly, and she was like, why do you say no like that?

[5:24] Sarah Killough: No.

[5:25] Alan Seales: I was like, what do you mean?

[5:26] Sarah Killough: She was like, you say no.

[5:30] Alan Seales: So that's still, it could come out.

[5:32] Sarah Killough: It's still there.

[5:33] Alan Seales: That's fair. I talked to friends in North Carolina where I spent my formidable teenage years, and I still, I'll slip into the has and the bys without realizing it. All of a sudden, I just am talking Southern again.

[5:49] Sarah Killough: So then when you were doing, I guess when you were in Minnesota, where did you start getting into performing? Was it singing, acting, dancing? Which came first?

[5:59] Alan Seales: Singing came first. My parents sang, they're both in, they're in the church choir where they met, and they are in a professional choir together. I grew up singing in church, and then my sister and I were both required to, required to take piano lessons. And then by the time we were in fifth grade, we had to add a second instrument. So I played the oboe.

[6:27] Sarah Killough: Very classic.

[6:28] Alan Seales: Yeah. How do you just all of a sudden, like, how do you choose the oboe?

[6:32] Sarah Killough: That was hard. I was the youngest cousin, and a lot of my cousins all play instruments as well. So I tried to pick an instrument that no one else played. And truthfully, truth story is, my mother once told me that oboe players are good kissers. So that was, that sealed the deal.

[6:52] Alan Seales: And have you had confirmation of said?

[6:55] Sarah Killough: I haven't had a negative confirmation. I haven't, no one's ever said, oh, you're not a real oboe player.

[7:07] Alan Seales: That's how they classify it, like, hmm.

[7:10] Sarah Killough: I can tell you're not very good at oboe.

[7:11] Alan Seales: But you said you played the oboe.

[7:13] Sarah Killough: Yeah, that's never, that's never happened. Not yet.

[7:17] Alan Seales: What, I'm trying to think of instruments that would be definitely bad. Like, let's see, sax, anything, I guess, woodwind, right?

[7:23] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[7:24] Alan Seales: But the trumpet, that's, maybe that's a different experience.

[7:27] Sarah Killough: I mean, but you have such control over your lips. Maybe, I don't know.

[7:30] Alan Seales: I don't know. Anyway, well.

[7:33] Sarah Killough: I never went to band camp, so.

[7:37] Alan Seales: Just took a really weird turn.

[7:40] Sarah Killough: Scientific knowledge of this.

[7:42] Alan Seales: We're talking in code.

[7:43] Sarah Killough: It's fine, it's fine. It's cool, it's cool, it's cool.

[7:46] Alan Seales: So then when you were learning to be a great oboe player, as a young Sarah, you were getting, well, at any point, like you said, you were required to take instruments, which would mean you either, like, hate it, or because, oh, I gotta take this instrument.

[8:01] Sarah Killough: I hated practicing, but I liked playing. So then where did you start to kind of fall into this path of, like, I really kind of want to do this?

[8:10] Alan Seales: Yeah. There were plays that we did in church, but then in middle school, starting in fifth grade, there was a big middle school musical every year. And I auditioned, because I was into it. And I got cast as Ringo Starr in Rock, the musical, The History of Rock and Roll.

[8:31] Sarah Killough: And it was, uh.

[8:33] Alan Seales: Ringo?

[8:34] Sarah Killough: Yeah, it was Ringo. I was, I had to mime drumming. Um, clearly, I typecast. But, um, also.

[8:41] Alan Seales: Red hair?

[8:42] Sarah Killough: Yeah, no, we were wigged. We were wigged. We had big, moppy wigs. But, um, my mom's brother is a professional actor, and his wife. They're both professional actors in Minneapolis. So I grew up seeing them in shows since I was very little. I think the first professional show I saw was Christmas Carol, which I was terrified of. But then we saw him do Midsommar and all sorts of, we saw a lot of theater.

[9:10] Alan Seales: Can you be like a regular professional working actor in that, in Minnesota, in that area?

[9:15] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[9:15] Alan Seales: Yeah? Really?

[9:16] Sarah Killough: That's all they, I mean, they've had side jobs, but they have been working actors my whole life.

[9:21] Alan Seales: That's cool.

[9:22] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[9:23] Alan Seales: There you go. So you don't have to move to New York. Now their daughter is an actor there. She has her own theater company. She produces Shakespeare every summer. And I've seen the shows, and they're really, really good. So.

[9:31] Sarah Killough: Wow.

[9:32] Alan Seales: Kind of cool.

[9:32] Sarah Killough: It's a whole dynasty.

[9:34] Alan Seales: We have a dynasty.

[9:35] Sarah Killough: The dynasty.

[9:36] Alan Seales: The dynasty of theater in Minnesota.

[9:39] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[9:41] Alan Seales: This particular character of mine has a very big Walrath mustache.

[9:49] Sarah Killough: Exactly.

[9:49] Alan Seales: Yes. Which, woo, did I make an oboe joke? Woo.

[9:53] Sarah Killough: Okay.

[9:55] Alan Seales: So then you are seeing Christmas Carol, friends of professional actors. And at any point where you're like, maybe I'll do rocket science. Maybe I'll study astrophysics. Maybe I'll be a gardener.

[10:05] Sarah Killough: I think there was a time when I was really young where I wanted to be a vet because I liked animals. But I think I've wanted to be an actor since like third or fourth grade.

[10:19] Alan Seales: What drew you to it? Like the acting portion.

[10:22] Sarah Killough: I just, well, I wouldn't say I knew how to act back then, but like the performing. I liked performing. So I would sing a lot in church or at school. I liked being, I don't know, who doesn't like being told they're good at something? So that was kind of nice.

[10:37] Alan Seales: That's fair.

[10:40] Sarah Killough: So are you, are you then?

[10:42] Alan Seales: I was loud.

[10:46] Sarah Killough: Okay.

[10:46] Alan Seales: So I'm speaking to myself. Who doesn't like being told they're good at something? Okay. I'm, I want to, like the back of my head said, Alan, you suck. You wouldn't like, like at the front of me, the front of my head, the front portion says great. Yeah. Tell me everything I'm good at. I need to hear it. But the back portion is like, well, it doesn't matter. You're not actually good at it. And that's what requires me to need. That's what requires me to need to continue to hear it. Because I'm always fighting against that.

[11:13] Sarah Killough: I think when I was a child, I didn't have that doubt for some reason. Maybe my parents were just really nice. But I, and I had a grandmother, my grandmother who lived very close to us. She really valued the performing arts. So I had a lot of positive affirmations from the outside.

[11:35] Alan Seales: Good. You can do this.

[11:37] Sarah Killough: Well, okay. So I went to, I was in public school through middle school and my first two years of high school, I played the lead at my, in my high school musical as a sophomore, I played the lead in a community theater production that same year. And there wasn't professional theater in my town. And then a classmate in high school told me about a boarding school in Michigan where you could major in acting as a high school student. And so I then found and applied and was accepted to Interlochen in outside of Traverse City, Michigan. And then the rest is history. That's where I learned how to act. I did not know how to act before that.

[12:20] Alan Seales: No.

[12:20] Sarah Killough: But you thought you did.

[12:21] Alan Seales: You thought you did. Everybody thought you did at that point.

[12:24] Sarah Killough: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[12:26] Alan Seales: But I did it. I remember a scene at Interlochen when I was in an acting class and there was a comic line and I delivered the line and my teacher laughed and I stopped and I went, what? And she was like, it was, it's funny. You just, okay, just keep going. And I was so amazed by it that like, it worked.

[12:45] Sarah Killough: Wait a second.

[12:47] Alan Seales: I am good.

[12:48] Sarah Killough: I am good.

[12:48] Alan Seales: I can do this.

[12:49] Sarah Killough: I can do this.

[12:50] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[12:50] Sarah Killough: That's funny.

[12:51] Alan Seales: Yeah. That's cool. Okay. More people telling me I could, I was okay at it. So.

[12:55] Sarah Killough: Okay. So then you're Interlochen and let's see. So then Duluth Playhouse, let's see, notably performing in Les Mis around 2014, says the internet.

[13:05] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[13:12] Alan Seales: So, Sarah, you're going to leap over to New York because you've already been in some amazing productions. Comedies like Leopoldstadt and Lehman Trilogy and things, right?

[13:19] Sarah Killough: Travesties of the comedy! I went to college at the Hart School at the University of Hartford. So, I decided when I was applying for schools... Well, it came down to two schools. It came down to the Hart School and the Guthrie Program at the University of Minnesota because that was an in-state school. It all comes down to money because college is expensive. So, I could do an in-state program at the Guthrie Program or because my dad was a professor, I had tuition exchange. So, the Hart School was free tuition for me, which was a huge blessing. So, I ended up going to the Hart School because it was a musical theater program. I wanted to learn how to sing and dance correctly and I wanted to be closer to New York. So, I ended up going there and I loved my teachers there and I loved my classmates. We just had a reunion last week, which was so much fun.

[14:12] Alan Seales: Well, what was the first kind of big move you made to get to New York or being in New York to get you on the stage?

[14:18] Sarah Killough: Well, in college, I did summer stock, two summers in Cape Cod. And the summer after I graduated, I finished that summer being like, I want to move to New York. I don't know how. And it was two weeks, the season was ending. What was I doing with my life? So, my best friend and I, we hung out on Cape Cod for a little bit. We did a road trip and then we finally moved to New York in October of that year. And all of our friends moved at the same time. So, we had a support system here. And I knew a casting director who had directed at that summer stock program. And he asked me to be his reader when I came to New York. So, then I became a reader, which I still do to this day. And it's how I've gotten most of my jobs.

[15:06] Alan Seales: Okay. I knew you were an audition reader, but I didn't know you still do it.

[15:14] Sarah Killough: I still do it. Wait. So, because you're reading for the auditions, is that the reason you know about the auditions or is the casting director like, wait a second, I don't care about anybody else across the table. I want this girl who's sitting next to me?

[15:30] Sarah Killough: It's not necessarily casting. I mean, he met me in like 2012, I think. So, I've been his reader for a very long time. This is Jim Carnahan. I've been his reader a very long time. This is a different casting director than the one I worked with in summer stock. But I like to think he trusts me. He knows what I can do. So, he will often call me and say, do you want to audition for this show? Or do you want to be the reader for the show? The vibe in the room is they're looking for good people to work with. So, it might be easier for you to hang out in the room with them for a week and they'll get to know who you are. And then I can subtly mention, she is available. But sometimes I'll just audition.

[16:13] Alan Seales: So, I think he trusts me. So, it's just the director saying, what about her? What's one of the worst, don't name names, but what's one of the first, the worst things that you've seen someone or been in the room to see someone do during an audition?

[16:29] Sarah Killough: I don't remember what the show was. And I don't remember who came in. But an actor came in and sort of mimed a room. Like we were all in the room, but there was clearly furniture in this person's mind and trinkets and things all over the place. And they focused way more on the room that they have created than the scene that was being played. And it was so weird. I remember once he just bent down and did this. And we were like, what is he seeing? Bending down and flicking your finger. Are you turning off a light switch? I don't know. It felt like it was a trinket that spun. I don't know. That's what I saw. Weird.

[17:09] Sarah Killough: But there's that. People do weird things. The casting directors have had to put signs outside the door that say, do not touch the reader. I have a friend who's a reader who's in an audition. The actor auditioning removed the reader's belt. I have reader friends who've been kissed. I've been patted pretty firmly on the head, on the chest. My hand has been kissed. Don't touch the reader. You can do it without touching the reader. Usually, you're just sitting down off to the side. Sort of within the eyeline of the camera.

[17:48] Alan Seales: Yes, we're in the camera. If they're recording it, right?

[17:50] Sarah Killough: Yeah. Not always. The camera's been added in the last six, seven years. But to touch a reader, period. You don't know.

[18:01] Sarah Killough: And who you don't know, who you haven't cleared it with, and to be touched in places that you shouldn't be touching your friends.

[18:10] Alan Seales: Yep. Yep. Actors are weird.

[18:12] Sarah Killough: Actors are weird.

[18:14] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[18:14] Sarah Killough: I'm glad you are one, I guess. Yeah. But there are things. There's exciting things. I've heard very famous actors, Broadway singers, crack in auditions. And what makes them really cool is how they handle that crack. Because they're like, it's 10:30 in the morning.

[18:29] Alan Seales: Yeah, of course.

[18:30] Sarah Killough: And they're so chill about it. They know it's not going to ruin the audition. Because nobody cares. Nobody cares that you crack.

[18:38] Alan Seales: That's probably the best thing I've heard in 10 years.

[18:42] Sarah Killough: Yeah, nobody cares that you forgot your line. Nobody cares. It's how you handle that, that people care.

[18:49] Alan Seales: We're going to take a quick break for a few commercials.

[18:53] Alan Seales: All right, everyone, welcome back to the episode. I auditioned for something recently myself and just was so nervous. First time I ever took a beta blocker. And went in there and I was like, am I going to crack? It's high, but I'm not. What if I forget my lines? I should be off foot. And then after it was all done, going into it, I was like, I got this, I got this. And then after it was all done, I was like, man, I knew I had it. And then during the whole process, just everything out the window.

[19:23] Sarah Killough: Yeah, yeah.

[19:24] Alan Seales: Sucks.

[19:25] Sarah Killough: I know, I know.

[19:26] Alan Seales: Totally sucks. But okay.

[19:27] Sarah Killough: I know.

[19:28] Sarah Killough: I call that like a panic belt. I go into an audition and I have practiced. Not belting. And then I go in and I'm like, I got to be loud. So I'm like, man, I'm not great at it.

[19:39] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[19:39] Sarah Killough: My panic belt.

[19:40] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah, Jesus.

[19:42] Sarah Killough: As long as you don't remove the reader's panic belt, we're okay.

[19:46] Alan Seales: There you go.

[19:50] Alan Seales: So how did you find the audition for Harry Potter? Was that sort of one of these moments?

[19:55] Sarah Killough: Kind of, yeah. Yeah? Uh, way back in 2017, Jim Carnahan called me and said, okay, we're casting Harry Potter. There's kind of parts for you in it, but there aren't really parts for you in it. But like, I think we could, I think there's a track you could audition for. Do you want to audition for that track and do just like a five minute audition? Or do you want to be the reader? And I said, I'll be the reader. So I was the reader for Harry Potter year one.

[20:23] Alan Seales: Yeah, long time ago.

[20:25] Sarah Killough: So you were reading with the original cast?

[20:27] Sarah Killough: Oh, yeah. Wow. 2017.

[20:29] Alan Seales: Yep.

[20:30] Sarah Killough: Then I was the reader for Harry Potter year two.

[20:33] Alan Seales: But wait, well, did they do the audition in two parts over two days?

[20:36] Sarah Killough: Oh, that process took months.

[20:39] Sarah Killough: So...

[20:40] Sarah Killough: They just give you two different sides.

[20:41] Sarah Killough: Yeah, so many sides. There were so many sides. I have, like, coming to this process now, I, because we have a different version of the script. And so I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember that line. I remember that line. So sometimes when an actor who's been in the show for a while accidentally says an old line, I'll be like, yeah, I know that line. It's from one of those audition sides.

[20:59] Alan Seales: Well, they still do the two part version in London.

[21:01] Sarah Killough: Yeah, they do.

[21:02] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah.

[21:02] Sarah Killough: And here on Broadway, they've shortened it.

[21:04] Alan Seales: Yes.

[21:05] Sarah Killough: And now it's just under three hours.

[21:07] Alan Seales: Yes, it is.

[21:08] Sarah Killough: Which is incredible.

[21:09] Alan Seales: Were you part of that, the shortening process?

[21:12] Sarah Killough: The shortening? Well, it was first shortened post pandemic.

[21:16] Sarah Killough: Right. So when they came back, they shortened it to about three and a half hours. And then they shortened it to just under three for the tour production.

[21:26] Alan Seales: Just under three.

[21:27] Sarah Killough: Oh, OK. That makes sense.

[21:29] Alan Seales: Because if you're OK, OK.

[21:31] Sarah Killough: And so in 2018, I was brought in to audition for a different role on the tour.

[21:38] Alan Seales: No, for San Francisco.

[21:41] Sarah Killough: And I didn't get it. I did get down to finals. I saw the girl who got it. I was her reader at one point. I was like, oh, she's great. I get it. Which is kind of nice to be in the room and see other people audition and be like, oh, I get why I didn't get it.

[21:54] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[21:54] Sarah Killough: And Jim wrote me a really nice email that said, you're a too young Ginny. So post pandemic, I was like, I've lived. My soul is ancient. I think I'm old enough to play a mom now. So and here we are.

[22:10] Alan Seales: Well, OK, OK. And so you were auditioning part of the first bit. And between shows, then like I wouldn't call it a survival job. I guess maybe it is a survival job.

[22:19] Sarah Killough: Yes, but it's a fun survival job. It's not going to pay for my life, but it gives me connection.

[22:28] Alan Seales: Sure.

[22:29] Sarah Killough: That I survive off of.

[22:30] Alan Seales: Sure. I just think that's really cool to be able to stay connected to the industry in a way where you're seeing the production side and the onstage side. So you're interfacing with these actors. You're seeing what works. I think it would be a just this incredible opportunity, learning opportunity because you get to work with or you get to see all these different choices, all these bold moves that people are making, some great, some not so great if they're miming Little Trinket.

[23:02] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[23:03] Sarah Killough: And then you don't even have to ask why or why not, because you can see the finished result of what gets chosen.

[23:11] Sarah Killough: Well, also, I'm in the room for often when we're in auditions, the director sometimes isn't really focused on that show yet because they might be working on another production. So sometimes they don't know what they want when the auditions are happening. So they're figuring it out while auditions are happening. I'm sure sometimes directors are really prepared and they know what they want, but not always. But also what I like is that I'm in the room hearing the direction. So I don't get directed as a reader. Usually every once in a while they'll give me something. But I have learned how to help the actor auditioning by hearing the direction that they've been given.

[23:52] Alan Seales: Yes.

[23:53] Sarah Killough: So it is a it's an acting exercise every time.

[23:57] Alan Seales: What is your background ultimately with the Harry Potter lore outside of just starting to read with the 2017 production?

[24:02] Sarah Killough: I believe I was gifted the first three books for Christmas, I think, in like '99. And I was around the same age as Harry at that time. I loved them. Well, I loved them. And then I went to every book release party at Barnes and Noble. Even in college, the last one came out.

[24:27] Alan Seales: I know.

[24:27] Sarah Killough: Well, Barnes and Noble is still around, isn't it? The Supporters is gone.

[24:29] Alan Seales: They're dying.

[24:32] Sarah Killough: I know.

[24:32] Alan Seales: Virgin Records?

[24:33] Sarah Killough: I know.

[24:34] Alan Seales: Blockbuster?

[24:35] Sarah Killough: I know.

[24:36] Alan Seales: There's one in Alaska.

[24:39] Sarah Killough: So like I went to the last one in college, the last book release. Then I went to the midnight movie releases. I'm more of a fan of the book. I think the movies are great. They're limited. You can't put everything in there. So it's just a different form. So yeah, I have been a fan for a very long time. I knit. One year I knit all my best friends a Weasley sweater because I'm a Weasley.

[25:06] Alan Seales: Like what about the scarf? The big...

[25:07] Sarah Killough: No, I haven't done the scarf.

[25:08] Alan Seales: I could.

[25:09] Sarah Killough: That's easy. Scarves. I could do a scarf.

[25:11] Alan Seales: Well, you need to add that to your resume.

[25:14] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[25:15] Alan Seales: You know, so like also knitting Weasley scarves.

[25:18] Sarah Killough: I can do that.

[25:19] Alan Seales: Knitting Weasley scarves.

[25:20] Sarah Killough: Yeah, right, right. I've had a little bit.

[25:22] Alan Seales: So, okay. And then the audition comes, all of a sudden you're freaking out because like, oh my God, one of my favorite things ever is now the words are in my mouth.

[25:32] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[25:33] Alan Seales: And then when you, I guess when you see the finished product though, this is, you know, 2017, 2018, you see the finished product. And what was sort of, I guess, seeing this prequel, right? This is a prequel to the books and the story.

[25:48] Sarah Killough: This is a sequel.

[25:52] Alan Seales: Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sequel, sequel.

[25:53] Sarah Killough: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[25:54] Alan Seales: Sorry.

[25:54] Sarah Killough: This is a sequel to the story that we know. This is like 16...

[25:59] Sarah Killough: How many years after the last movie does this take place?

[26:01] Sarah Killough: I think it's 19-ish.

[26:06] Sarah Killough: Yes, because the, Albus is... Harry is 37 in the first scene. I mean, Albus is old enough to be, I guess they're in high school. Albus is 11 in the first scene, but the majority of the play, Harry is 40 and Albus is 14.

[26:24] Alan Seales: What kind of feedback are you getting from the fans?

[26:54] Sarah Killough: That's a really nice thing to hear. A lot of people have come and they're like, I don't know anything about Harry Potter, but this was a really good show and I want to come back. Some people come and I'm like, Who's your favorite character? And they're like, Oh, I love Myrtle. Scorpius is my favorite. There's just so many fans are lovely. We get artwork, people give us artwork of our characters. It feels really nice to have a fan base for this product that we just get to be a part of. It's not something we've created. I feel very supported.

[27:28] Alan Seales: Well, there's the characters that everybody knows like Ginny and Harry and Ron. So there are expectations that you have that are had of you. And I think that is a really, really good that people are like, You're the book Ginny. They are exactly coming in with a picture in their mind and you paint, you are that picture they've already painted.

[27:48] Sarah Killough: Right. And I think the movies did Ginny wrong. I don't blame the actors. I don't think they gave her enough to do. It wasn't written well for Ginny. But they had a lot to do. So I understand that they had to make some choice of what they were going to. But so I feel very honored to be told that I'm the book Ginny.

[28:09] Alan Seales: And then there's now new characters like Albus and Scorpius. You know, there's this next generation of people that are continuing the lore. And I've talked with some of the actors, your fellow actors that are playing these characters already. And it's just, it's so cool to me how everybody, they've got their own following, their own kind of fan base. Like every character has a little set of people that just latch on to them. Right? So like for you then, what type of person latches on to the Ginny? Who is a Ginny Stan?

[28:46] Sarah Killough: I mean, I would say like a young me, like young women who maybe they desired something from a very young age, and they worked for it really hard and they got it. Or they keep trying. I mean, someone at the stage door said, my dog is named after you. And I was like, Sarah? You named your dog Sarah? It's a common name. But yeah.

[29:17] Alan Seales: So there are a lot. Just trying to make jokes.

[29:21] Sarah Killough: But they, it's typically young women, or even women my age and old. I mean, it's typically women.

[29:29] Alan Seales: And do you have, I mean, you're very like, you feel like you have a light personality and you're fun to talk to and you're very smiley.

[29:38] Sarah Killough: I work really hard at that.

[29:40] Alan Seales: And so the, but the Ginny is, like this role in the show is heavy and the subject matter is heavy. And like, it's very emotionally taxing. So what are you doing as Sarah to come back, like switch into Ginny during the show and then come back and be Sarah when it's all done? Because even when it was longer, it's still long now, but it used to be longer, right?

[30:02] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[30:03] Alan Seales: So you're diving into this for so long.

[30:05] Sarah Killough: There are, I mean, okay, in the final scene, Harry says to Albus, he describes Ginny and he says, Ginny is bold, fierce and funny. So that's my guide throughout the whole show is to be bold, fierce and funny. Now the show starts happy. So I pretty much can just enter the show as me. I don't feel like I have to drop into like an emotional character to start the show. And then as the show happens, I just, I know acting one on one, I just try to live truthfully in the given circumstances. So it is, because I'm experiencing the scenes as they happen, it does feel just kind of natural to act the way that she is.

[30:51] Alan Seales: Is it draining? Like at the end of the day, do you have, do you have fuel left in the tank?

[30:56] Sarah Killough: Not anymore. I would say in rehearsal, it's draining because you're like trying to find the truth of it over and over and over again. You're doing these scenes over and over, just like crying. And you're like, yeah, we can do it again. No, it's fine. I can start over from crying. Rehearsal is harder now that we do it all the time. It's less draining, because I know how the show ends. And we get to do the ending every time. And no, I don't really get a release. Like Ginny doesn't really get a release at the end. But like Harry and Albus do. But I can believe that it's there.

[31:31] Alan Seales: And you get to like, make fire and shoot shit.

[31:34] Sarah Killough: I do. I do. Yeah. A lot of magic tricks.

[31:38] Alan Seales: I know there's a lot of tons of illusions.

[31:40] Sarah Killough: I have so many illusions.

[31:41] Alan Seales: I'm impressed with it. And how many, let's see, your stuff, how many like levels deep in redundancy, contingency plans are there for some of these things?

[31:49] Sarah Killough: There's so many.

[31:49] Alan Seales: Yeah?

[31:50] Sarah Killough: There are so many. And like, I don't think I know all of them. I'm just gonna have to wait until a stage manager is like, this is what you're gonna do. Do it right now. Okay. Okay.

[31:59] Alan Seales: Be like, take away your wand. Here's a rock.

[32:02] Sarah Killough: Yeah. Okay.

[32:04] Alan Seales: Yeah, good. Good. This is now the world we live in because wands, the wands are all broken. Wands are broken, throw a rock and it's gonna shoot fire. Good, good, good, good. Yeah.

[32:14] Sarah Killough: It's not I mean, luckily, we haven't had to do too many contingencies. But I've heard stories.

[32:21] Alan Seales: Yeah?

[32:23] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[32:24] Alan Seales: I mean, let's see. So you've been in the role since November 24, right? Is that right?

[32:29] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[32:29] Alan Seales: So how many let's see, you've done probably 100 something shows.

[32:32] Sarah Killough: I've done about 160 shows.

[32:34] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's that's a good number of shows for things to go wrong. And if things haven't, then I think testament to the crew and the stage and like everybody back there that's making it all happen.

[32:44] Sarah Killough: It's a well oiled magical machine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of people working on this show.

[32:50] Alan Seales: How?

[32:51] Sarah Killough: Most of them backstage have been there since the beginning.

[32:54] Alan Seales: Really?

[32:55] Sarah Killough: Yeah, a lot of them have.

[32:56] Alan Seales: Wow.

[32:57] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[32:58] Alan Seales: How ironclad is your NDA?

[32:59] Sarah Killough: So tight.

[33:00] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[33:01] Sarah Killough: I signed one. I'm not gonna say it. I signed one back in 2017.

[33:08] Alan Seales: Really?

[33:09] Sarah Killough: Because I heard secrets. Well, that's when the party line was keep the secrets.

[33:13] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[33:14] Sarah Killough: So we kept all the secrets.

[33:16] Alan Seales: Well, I mean, I can guess how some things work, but I still don't know specifically how things work.

[33:23] Sarah Killough: A story that Eric Peterson likes to say is he was leaving the theater. I'm gonna butcher this. He tells it funnier than I do. But he was leaving the theater and he was walking behind this kid and her presumable dad. And the kid was asking like, how did they do all that? And the dad said, gotta be drones. So there's that option.

[33:46] Alan Seales: I'll go with drones. The Polyjuice transformation, definitely drones.

[33:51] Sarah Killough: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[33:52] Alan Seales: That's gotta be drones.

[33:53] Sarah Killough: Or they take Polyjuice. And so they do turn into the other actor.

[33:57] Alan Seales: That's more reasonable than drones.

[34:00] Sarah Killough: It happens. I mean, of course, it's magic. They taught us how to do it.

[34:03] Alan Seales: Fair.

[34:04] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[34:04] Alan Seales: You actually, yeah.

[34:05] Sarah Killough: We went to Hogwarts. My like company management email to like welcome me to the first rehearsal said welcome to Hogwarts. It's a little different than an owl letter, but I'll take it.

[34:15] Alan Seales: Well, that's how you got the audition notice, right?

[34:18] Sarah Killough: Yeah, well, kind of. Well, for this time around, I know the casting director so well. So Alexander, who's also a casting director on this, emailed me. And I was out of town. I was on a big trip. And he emailed me and said, when are you back in New York? And I was like, I think I'll be blah, blah, blah, blah. And he goes, we're holding auditions for a new Ginny for Broadway. And I was like, okay, I'll be there. I'm coming. I'm coming. So my mom bought me a flight. I came. I did it. Weeks later, I had a call back. And they tell me in the room that I got it.

[34:46] Alan Seales: So cool.

[34:47] Sarah Killough: Yeah, that was really cool.

[34:49] Alan Seales: And then they threw an owl at you.

[34:50] Sarah Killough: Yeah.

[34:51] Alan Seales: Yeah, here.

[34:52] Sarah Killough: Exactly.

[34:53] Alan Seales: And then you go, who did that?

[34:55] Sarah Killough: Yes, exactly.

[34:56] Alan Seales: Hey, Blaine. All right. So we'll be right back after this.

[35:01] Alan Seales: Hey there, welcome back to the episode. A little game now as we wind down to the end of the episode is called Plot in 60 Seconds. You're going to give me a number that is 1 through 16. I have a list of 16 popular musicals. And then depending on what you pick, you give me the plot to that musical in 60 seconds or less.

[35:24] Sarah Killough: Okay, I feel like my degree is going to be challenged. I have a degree in musical theater.

[35:29] Alan Seales: 1 through 16, what you got?

[35:31] Sarah Killough: 1 through 16, 15.

[35:34] Alan Seales: 15 is Avenue Q, go.

[35:36] Sarah Killough: Avenue Q is a parody on Sesame Street. It has lots of humans and lots of puppets. And it's kind of dirty. There's some funny songs, like everyone's a little bit racist, which I agree with. And there's Purpose, that's a beautiful song. And it's monsters and humans. And aren't we all a little bit of a monster and a little bit of a human? I'm not doing 60 seconds. That's all I got.

[36:03] Alan Seales: I just don't, you're not doing plot either, if I'm being honest.

[36:06] Sarah Killough: I mean, the plot. There's a puppet. They're in love with another puppet. There's neighbors.

[36:15] Alan Seales: Give me your safety belt. Safety belt.

[36:19] Sarah Killough: I don't know.

[36:19] Alan Seales: I've seen it.

[36:21] Sarah Killough: We'll pause it there. We'll pause it. Yeah.

[36:24] Alan Seales: So let's see where the premise is to figure out who you are. And maybe there's some oboe kissing in there. I don't know. There's some things. There's some things in there. That's fine.

[36:36] Sarah Killough: I'm a reader. That's what I do. I read for a job. I can read.

[36:41] Alan Seales: All right. The three standard closing questions I use to wrap up every episode. The first one simply is what motivates you?

[36:48] Sarah Killough: My first, the first thing that came to mind is joy.

[36:52] Alan Seales: The musical?

[36:53] Sarah Killough: No, not about a mop. It's just to find joy.

[37:00] Alan Seales: I like that.

[37:02] Sarah Killough: Yeah, in anything. And even like being an actor and like feeling feelings can be joyful.

[37:08] Alan Seales: Even if they're bad feelings. I agree with that.

[37:10] Sarah Killough: Even if they're bad feelings. It feels like you're like washing yourself when you'd have a when you have like a deep cry. But that can be joyful later. It feels good. Yeah.

[37:18] Alan Seales: What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[37:26] Sarah Killough: I mean, I want to say something like don't judge yourself too harshly. But also, if you're an actor, figure out why the words are what they are, that you're saying, and make them sound like yours.

[37:42] Alan Seales: I like that. All right. Now, if you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you could see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[37:49] Sarah Killough: Oh, I mean, I want to cheat and do like an improv show, because it would be different every time.

[37:58] Alan Seales: That's fair. Freestyle Love Supreme. We'll go with that one.

[38:01] Sarah Killough: Oh, yeah, that was a good show.

[38:03] Alan Seales: Yeah, right. Yeah, very good. I like I went back several times for that exact reason.

[38:08] Sarah Killough: Just because I want variety.

[38:09] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[38:10] Sarah Killough: Because life is variety.

[38:12] Alan Seales: Exactly. The spice of life is variety and feeling feelings. Okay, where can we connect with you online? Where do you play social media games?

[38:17] Sarah Killough: I am on Instagram at rhymeswithpillow. That's my last name. I mean, I'm on TikTok, but I don't do anything. I just, you know, creep on things. I don't post anything. Same thing. I think it's at rhymeswithpillow. I'm mainly just on Instagram.

[38:35] Alan Seales: Same, but I'm there. I'm everywhere. I'm on Threads, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. I really own well, I'm trying to get a lot better about posting, but okay.

[38:45] Sarah Killough: Oh, I guess I'm on Facebook, but I've set up too many security things on there that I can't access it. I think I'm getting a little old for that.

[38:56] Alan Seales: Yeah, or you're too young still.

[39:00] Sarah Killough: It's in the middle.

[39:01] Alan Seales: Mostly my parents generation.

[39:02] Sarah Killough: Yeah, they're still on there.

[39:03] Alan Seales: Yeah. Oh, they're definitely still on there. That's part of why I stopped checking notifications on Facebook regularly.

[39:10] Sarah Killough: Yeah, I don't do that.

[39:11] Alan Seales: Okay, so leave a rating and a review wherever you're listening now. It helps the podcast grow. You can actually leave comments now on Spotify. Guess what? Didn't know if you knew that. Thanks to Jukebox the Ghost for the intro and outro music and Sarah Killough, rhymeswithpillow, thanks so much for this lovely conversation.

[39:28] Sarah Killough: This was a great conversation. Thank you.