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[0:00] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Hi, I'm Ayanna Nicole Thomas. Welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:12] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Theatre Podcast. I'm Alan Seales, and our guest today is Ayanna Nicole Thomas, who's currently making magic eight times a week as Rose Granger-Weasley in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway here in New York City. She got her start performing in art schools out in L.A. and then ironically made her way through L.A. back to New York to study musical theater at the Manhattan School of Music. Then right before her senior year, she left college to make her Broadway debut in How to Dance in Ohio, a show that ended up hitting very close to home for her in the best possible way. And of course, we're going to dive into her neurodivergence and we get into why she left school, what it was like getting diagnosed with both ADHD and autism, and how those things helped her better understand herself both on stage and even off.

We talk about how she keeps her character in the theater and then she just hops on the subway home. You know, it's really good to have that separation. And even what it's like navigating the chaos of a massive production backstage of Cursed Child. She's just insightful, honest, and funny, and so much fun to talk to. So everybody, please head over to Spotify or Patreon and watch the full video version of this episode. But everyone, please enjoy this episode now with Ayanna Nicole Thomas.

[1:36] Alan Seales: Today's guest began her career in the Bronx with early performances in local music school productions, leading her to study musical theater at the Manhattan School of Music. Her impressive career includes her Broadway debut in How to Dance in Ohio and captivating jazz performances across New York City. She is currently enchanting audiences as Rose Granger-Weasley in Broadway's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Ayanna Nicole Thomas, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:04] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: What a setup. Thank you.

[2:08] Alan Seales: Now you get to knock them down.

[2:09] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh, yeah.

[2:10] Alan Seales: So you grew up in the Bronx locally. I'm in Brooklyn here. So did you—

[2:17] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I grew up in multiple places, but yes.

[2:20] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah?

[2:21] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah, Bronx and LA.

[2:23] Alan Seales: Oh, so you split your time between the two?

[2:25] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah, so I left the Bronx as a kid and then moved to LA. Well, moved to Charlotte and then LA, and I would be in New York for about like three, four months out of the year when I was in LA, because I'm not an LA girl. I'm just not.

[2:43] Alan Seales: Was it for acting you went out there? Or did your parents or someone take you out there?

[2:47] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah, yeah. My mom took me out there, and when you're in LA, you kind of get stuck. I don't know. I've never lived in LA. I know tons, of course, tons of people from LA. Actually, my mother grew up in LA, and she keeps saying she's going to go back and still hasn't, but—

[3:04] Alan Seales: Do you know where?

[3:06] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Um, the place with the things?

[3:10] Alan Seales: Got it.

[3:10] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[3:11] Alan Seales: Got it. Yeah, I know. I know that place.

[3:14] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure. There's a lot of people from there, I think.

[3:17] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, why did you go to LA, though? Was it for acting?

[3:22] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: No, not at all. My mom just moved us there. She has previous history there, but no. I mean, I went to an art school there, and that's kind of how I started performing in general.

[3:35] Alan Seales: Oh, really? So even being close to Broadway, you didn't start performing until you went as far away from Broadway as you could?

[3:41] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah. Well, when I was in New York, I took lots of dance classes. I went to Harlem School of the Arts, and I was dancing more and singing at home, and my mom taught me how to sing, but I never was in a production while I was here in New York now, which is funny.

[3:57] Alan Seales: Huh.

[3:58] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Well, so then you started performing out there, but, okay, so was that something you were doing because, or I guess why? Were you like, did you want to pass the time, or did you see something that said, that's what I want to do? Well, I always grew up loving musicals, and being from New York, I was going to lots of musicals on Broadway, and I sang and I danced, so the thing that you do with that is you do musical theater, and I grew up with movie musicals; that's how my love of musical theater started, so I always knew I would do it in some capacity.

[4:35] Alan Seales: Okay, so what was it that really attracted you to do the stage, though, at this point?

[4:42] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I love the stage. I love performing. I always have. I was one of those kids who was, my personality came out during dance recitals and singing, and I was very much that kind of kid, so the first audition was Annie, so I was ready. I was ready.

[5:03] Alan Seales: Did you audition actually for Annie?

[5:06] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: No, I wanted to be NYC Star to Be, and I was. If that doesn't tell you who I am, because I've always wanted to go back to New York, so I was like, there's a character named NYC Star to Be. I remember from the movie, she has the big belty song, so I won that.

[5:25] Alan Seales: Well, your Bronx accent came out a little bit.

[5:27] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh, it will come out a lot.

[5:30] Alan Seales: What do you say? Belty song.

[5:32] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Belty song.

[5:34] Alan Seales: Belty song. Hey, yo, I'm singing here. What's up?

[5:37] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah, exactly.

[5:38] Alan Seales: Was that hard for you to put on the British accent for Harry Potter, then? Are you okay with that sort of accent?

[5:44] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah. To be honest, I feel like the British accent is really similar to the New York accent, because the British accent is so forward, and I feel like the way that I talk is like, I'm going to talk like this all the way to my mouth, and that's kind of how the British accent is. It's all forward, especially the more posh way to speak. And I feel like I've always done a British accent, just messing around as a kid.

[6:09] Alan Seales: Who doesn't? British accent's so much fun to do.

[6:12] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Right? And I love Julie Andrews, so I was always doing it.

[6:15] Alan Seales: Mine always turns into terrible Australian. Sometimes it'll go over into Scottish, depending on how faux Cockney I'm trying to be.

[6:26] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Well, those are really hard accents, so I'm impressed. I can't do Australian, and neither can I do Scotland. That's hard.

[6:34] Alan Seales: Well, I don't think I can either. That's the point.

[6:36] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Okay, okay. Got it.

[6:39] Alan Seales: It's just hard. It's hard to stick to one thing. That's my point. Okay, so then LA, want to do Annie. Always the goal is to come back to New York, and then are you performing all through high school? Do you go to high school in New York here, or are you still in LA? When did you make the shift back?

[6:56] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I was in high school in LA, but I'm 2020 class, so school ended halfway through senior year, and I was like, this is my time to get out of here. So I moved in with my grandma for the rest of COVID, because I got accepted to Manhattan School of Music, so that was my ticket to come back to New York City. But yeah, I did all the musicals in school. I did Guys and Dolls. I did Hairspray. What else did we do? Spring Awakening. I can't remember the other one. I was supposed to do Sister Act, but that got closed with COVID. Yeah.

[7:42] Alan Seales: Oh, right, right, right. Okay. So, all right. So you're doing all the shows out there, getting to Manhattan School of Music. Are you coming in for singing, or coming in for an instrument?

[7:52] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Musical theater.

[7:57] Alan Seales: So, okay. So it is doing musical theater. All right. So this is something that you audition for?

[8:01] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Sorry, audition. You got to say audition. Yeah, you got to say something you audition for.

[8:08] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yes. It's the same all over the country. It's gotten pretty competitive now, but you send in pre-screens, which is just like a video saying that you can audition for the school. So send in a pre-screen, and then you have an in-person audition, and then from that, they deny or accept you. And yeah.

[8:25] Alan Seales: Fair. I've never auditioned for college. I've done... Back when they did the Unified auditions, I don't know if they still do these, like SUTCs and UPDAs. Do they still do those?

[8:37] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yes, but I only wanted to go to New York, so I wasn't going to do a Unified, because I didn't want to do musical theater in Kentucky. So I was like, if I'm going to do musical theater, why would I not be in New York City?

[9:03] Alan Seales: Right. All right. So then high school class of 2020.

[9:07] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[9:08] Alan Seales: Okay. So then it's 2025 now as we're recording this, and How to Dance in Ohio was just last year. So did you go straight out of college into How to Dance?

[9:15] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I actually left right before my senior year. I want to say the week before my senior year, I left school and started rehearsals for How to Dance in Ohio the next month.

[9:22] Alan Seales: Wow.

[9:23] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah. I was supposed to graduate in May, last May.

[9:26] Alan Seales: What are your plans? We can cut this if you don't want to talk about it, but do you have plans to go back?

[9:31] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: No, no reason to cut. No. Simple as that. Institutional learning is not for me. So I was so happy that the universe gave me the opportunity to leave.

[9:48] Alan Seales: Yeah. If I ever were to go back, love it. I love learning. I take acting classes and acting and song classes now and all of that, but not in a school setting. I don't know if I can do that again.

[10:02] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[10:04] Alan Seales: Yeah. I mean, maybe it'd be a different school.

[10:08] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I don't particularly, I mean, I don't advocate one way or the other for school or not for school because everybody's got their own journey and their own path and whatnot, but maybe it would be something, a different school that would give you more credit for hands-on sort of thing, because I agree, institutionalized learning, people's brains just don't all work the same.

[10:29] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: No.

[10:29] Alan Seales: So there's some people that I've talked to on this podcast, right? They got accepted at the dream school and then the week before they leave for their freshman year, they get an offer for Broadway and have never been to school. It just happens how it happened.

[10:45] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[10:45] Alan Seales: Oh, kitty cat, kitty cat video.

[10:47] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: She hears me talking and she just wants to be with me. But yeah, Broadway is a lottery system and everyone hears that. And I feel like the musical theater college program is so new and it's so competitive now. People were getting on Broadway just by auditioning like 15 years ago.

[11:12] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: So it's a recent thing.

[11:15] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. I get that. I mean, there's ways, there's stepping stones, right? That if you don't have an in, or if you're coming from a place where you don't know people or you don't have the experience, like education and classes and whatnot, there are a great way to make the connections. Because I think, I say it all the time and we hear it all the time in these interviews that getting on Broadway is not just showing up for an audition. First, you have to know about the audition, but you have to be prepared before you know about the audition so that you can go there and nail it. So there's all these steps that you got to do ahead of time.

[11:55] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Right. You have to make your own path and you have to figure out how to be prepared for this uncertain type of community that is theater. There's no right way because Broadway is uncertain. We just had a global pandemic where it's shut down. So nothing is for sure.

[12:18] Alan Seales: Right, right. So How to Dance in Ohio, you're making your Broadway debut in such a unique and special show.

[12:23] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[12:29] Alan Seales: What was that like for you to be part of this cast that celebrates such diversity and personalities? It celebrates neurodivergence on stage.

[12:38] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah. It will be one of the most special experiences I think I'll ever have in this industry. And I was a swing. It was my first time being a swing, which is crazy for that to be Broadway for the first time. But it truly was special. Like I said, institutionalized learning is not for me because I am neurodivergent. So leaving school to go do this really special story about not fitting in in school was so healing for me. It was like the perfect therapy for being... I felt so affirmed. I felt like, wow, this is where I'm supposed to be. For the first time, I was like, wow, I feel so confident that I'm in the right place.

[13:35] Alan Seales: That was How to Dance in Ohio for me.

[13:37] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: That's very cool. I loved the show.

[13:40] Alan Seales: Sammy Canald is a friend of mine.

[13:43] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yes.

[13:43] Alan Seales: Love Sammy.

[13:44] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Me too.

[13:46] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I’ve always been diagnosed with ADHD, like very high ADHD. But it made sense that I was autistic. And so it wasn't that far along where I got that diagnosis into going into the show.

[14:35] Alan Seales: But did that feel like a release when you got the diagnosis? I guess late in life relatively, right? You're still very young. And this diagnosis then just came, what, two something years ago. And so you would live your entire younger life being told one thing and not feeling like you fit in maybe. I mean, so when you finally got this diagnosis, was it like, oh my God, I know how to exist or have a better sense of like, much more tools in my toolbox?

[15:07] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah, I think getting the diagnosis and then recently I got like a full breakdown of it all. It was very validating. It just made so much sense because, you know, I've always known that I had ADHD. I was diagnosed pretty early with that. But, you know, certain things and certain times in classrooms and certain, you know, like personal breakdowns and stuff like that, I couldn't really pinpoint what that was. And that comes with frustration because I couldn't understand what was happening with me. So knowing, you know, knowing the name of it, I get less frustrated because I know and I'm not in the unknown. One of the things about autism is, you know, autistic people want to be in the know. Like I have expectations and when my expectation isn't met, I freak out. So now I have an answer because I love answers and I love a why.

[16:11] Alan Seales: That's really interesting. I wonder how many people are misdiagnosed with just ADHD like that.

[16:19] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh, so many and especially, you know, women. A lot of women get diagnosed with autism later in life.

[16:27] Alan Seales: Huh.

[16:28] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[16:28] Alan Seales: The rehearsal space, the actual like, and not the physical, the physical space too, but the emotional space that was created by Sammy and the team for How to Dance in Ohio. I know it was one of incredible safety where everyone was okay to speak up and everyone had, there was like quiet spaces and fidget toys and things like that. It was pretty, pretty non-traditional when it comes to a Broadway rehearsal space, right?

[16:57] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[16:58] Alan Seales: So in your shows since then and even now with Harry Potter, is that something that you try to incorporate or do you, do you, do you need that where you are on the spectrum? I know everyone, every single one is, person is different.

[17:11] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yes. Yes. I definitely incorporate it. I have a whole pack of Play-Doh in my dressing room and fidget toys and my wig person, Nikki, who is phenomenal. She like puts out little fidget toys for me while she's doing my hair. Cause I can't sit still and I want to touch all her things. So she's like, here, here's actual fidget toys for you. Instead of like losing all my nail, like my hair clips, like, okay. And, but it's something that I in, in workspaces now. So I don't touch other things. And I feel like everyone wants fidget toys. They're just scared to play with things. I'm like, everyone wants to play with Play-Doh in my brain. So it's not that different.

[18:06] Alan Seales: I’ve always wondered, I've talked about this. If listeners, if, if they're listening long time to many episodes, I've talked about this a lot that I, I think that I'm, I have ADHD. I've never been formally diagnosed and I need to just go do this. Um, but like literally every now and then while I'm talking, you'll see me swiveling in my chair here. I cannot interview without playing with something in my hand. I'm showing you this pen.

[18:28] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Messing with my rings. Yeah.

[18:29] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I'm twirling a pen under the table right now. I'm always just like twirling a pen and playing with something. And what keeps me focused truly is, you know, this eye connection of look, looking at you in, if we were in person, we're recording digitally right now, but like in person or that's why I like having camera on. It's, it's that connection. It's feeling real and it's being able to tune out the distractions of whatever else may be going on in my world. And that's, that's pretty much why this podcast exists is so I can have a focus.

[19:01] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Right. You have a hyper fixation maybe.

[19:04] Alan Seales: There you go.

[19:07] Alan Seales: Don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick commercial break.

[19:11] Alan Seales: All right, everyone. Now we're back. Uh, what was it? It was about 10 years ago. Now, 10, 11 years ago, I was diagnosed with OCPD, which is not OCD. It's different.

[19:22] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: It is. Yes.

[19:23] Alan Seales: Obsessive compulsive personality disorder. So it's essentially being a, being unable to see the forest through the trees. And what reminded me of that is you said hyper fixation because I used to do that. And now I'm on a very light dose of, of fluoxetine, general Prozac, um, to remove the, just this level of anxiety. It's like, you know, as my therapist says, just take the edge off and I don't feel it. I don't feel like I'm not, I'm not a depressed person, but it's like when I can't step back and calm myself and look at the big picture, it's, it's debilitating. Sometimes it's very distracting.

[19:57] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: It really is. It really is. It's hard to look at life. Like it's really hard. The brain is, I'm annoyed at it sometimes.

[20:09] Alan Seales: Me too. Me too. I get, I can see this in my kids sometimes too. My kids are eight and 10 and both of them have different facets of my brain. And I'm like, Oh God, that's really cool. Oh, that's terrible. Is that how I am? But being hyper-focused or being someone who may be prone to be hyper-focused or just however you are, is it hard for you to focus on your role and not try to, um, I guess pay attention to the whole stage or pay attention to everything that's going on? Or, or is it advantageous that you could hyper-focus on just your lines, just your blocking?

[20:44] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yes. The second one, uh, with, with my hyper-fixation, like once, once I'm on stage, that is what my brain is like tunnel vision on that. The second I'm off stage, I'm like, but on stage, I know what I'm doing. I know my lines. I know everything that's happening because I'm also very observant and I like to know where everything is and what, what's happening in every single corner of life. Um, so I get very hyper-focused.

[21:15] Alan Seales: That's really cool. And with a show like Harry Potter too, where you're, you're stepping into, uh, well, you're stepping into this, it's a whole different world, but you, you joined the cast right when, uh, this is where of course, of course, post COVID post COVID, they shorten it from two shows to one show and then they just condense the one show again. So now it's just, I believe under three hours. And so did you come in pre or post condensing of the show the second time?

[21:43] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I came in right when they condensed it the second time. So November and they had a huge turnaround of like 27 people. And I was part of that 27.

[21:52] Alan Seales: Holy cow. It's like the whole cast.

[21:53] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: It's basically the whole cast. It is. Even though there's like 30 something in the cast, it's a huge cast.

[21:59] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, is that, is that hard for you? Well, I guess it's a fresh show for you, right? You had nothing to unlearn, but in, so coming into the show though, what was your previous experience to the Harry Potter, Perry, Perry Hotter, Harry Potter, the Perry Hotter. Don't say Perry.

[22:20] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I'm laughing because that's how I talk, like backwards. And I'm trying so hard not to right now.

[22:28] Alan Seales: My, my brain gets ahead of my, of my mouth. And that's what, that's what happened. That's why I said the brain's annoying.

[22:35] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh my gosh. It's so annoying. Okay. So Perry Hotter, you go into this world and what was your experience with all of it beforehand with the story, with the books, with the movies?

[22:46] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: So I, I loved the movies growing up. I always watched them on ABC family when they had the marathons on the weekend. That's how I was introduced. I never read the books and I still haven't. I probably will after though. But yeah, I, I love the movies. I'm a big fan of more the beginning movies cause it's still cutesy. The later ones are a little too dark for me, but yeah, I was a big fan of the movies and before I joined, I binge watched all the movies and it was really nostalgic. It felt so nice and good to be a kid and see what's going to happen next. Even though I knew it was going to happen next.

[23:25] Alan Seales: Well, you, I mean, I'm 44 to me, you still are a kid. You are a kid.

[23:30] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: As I'm told, as I'm told.

[23:32] Alan Seales: I know.

[23:33] Alan Seales: But listen, I don't feel like a kid. I feel 65.

[23:35] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I know.

[23:36] Alan Seales: That's, that's how I've always been.

[23:37] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I know. Wait, wait, wait till you get to be 44. You feel, you feel 165. But no, I remember being in my twenties. I was like, I got this shit. I got life on lockdown. I'm, I'm good. I'm going to rule the world in three years and you know, life has other plans. But, um, so I mean, you're, you're coming in right into this world that, that is internationally known, no matter what language you speak, no matter where you're from, you probably have heard, if not seen Harry Potter in some form.

[24:06] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[24:07] Alan Seales: Or another, right. So doing this on stage now eight times a week in a role that doesn't exist until the stage production, you know, how is that different for you, for you, uh, in terms of interaction with the audience and, and like the feedback you've been getting?

[24:26] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah, I think for me, it has allowed me to make the character my own. Um, because I feel like when it's a character that the audience knows there's such a huge expectation and this is like one of the most diehard fans. Yeah. It's Harry Potter. It's the third biggest franchise. So it's, it's these, these are some, you know, they love this franchise. So having, not having expectation is, is kind of freeing in a way. And I think the audience, you know, they, they love, love, love the, the OGs, but I think with this show, they really get to fall in love with the new characters, which, which I don't think anyone expects because, you know, you come in and you're like, I want more of Harry Potter, but then you wind up falling in love with Scorpius who is, uh, Draco's son. Um, and that really being the heart of the whole show. So it's, it's, it's been nice. It's, it's really been nice. I'm usually always scared about after stories, but this one has been heartwarming.

[25:39] Alan Seales: Well, Albus, Albus Potter, Harry's son and Scorpius Malfoy, uh, Draco's son, the two of them in, in this production, right? This story, this they're probably they're in high school, right? So they're, we're 11 to 14. Yeah. Okay. So it's a little bit, yeah. Like freshmen high school. Um, and they too are trying, they're, they're being put in a box and I feel like Ginny to, to an extent as well. Uh, simply because like being the, the offspring of these very famous characters in this world, everyone has an, a preconceived notion of them. Everyone has a, yeah, an expectation that they have of them and they just want to be their own people. Yes. Right. So like, so you is Ayanna, are you bringing yourself into this role every night or, or is, is she coming home with you?

[26:31] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Well, um, I'm very, I mean, there's definitely similarities between Rose and I, but I would say she's way more bubbly than I am. So I, I am able to separate it so well when I come home, I think her voice is about three octaves higher than mine is, but I think there's a certain like intensity that I feel that I bring to Rose. Um, cause yes, she's bubbly, but I feel like she's so planned out everything that comes out of her mouth. She has thought of it cause she has planned out her whole life and that's just like me with expectations. I, I like to know what's going to happen. Um, that's why I like spoilers. Um, so I, I really relate to, um, to that and that is definitely, that's definitely Rose. I feel like with Albus and Scorpius, they just want to separate themselves from their parents, but I'm so proud.

[28:02] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Is this nice for you to have one track that you're doing every show? Or are you swinging for me? So stressful. As someone who needs to know what's happening. I give props to the swings of this show. Every day I think about if I were swinging for this show. Oh my god. Oh, I am so grateful. I'm so grateful that I have one track to think about because this show I feel like is one of the craziest shows on Broadway. There is nothing like it. There is absolutely nothing like it. There is so much going on the whole three hours, and it's done by people. So for the swings to have to know the grid system that we have in the theater, and the backstage traffic, and the onstage traffic, and so much of it is magic. So it's all by safety and by chance. So to know all that safety for each track, no. That's really hard. I can imagine.

[29:36] Alan Seales: Is that part of the rehearsal process, the backstage choreography, the backstage traffic?

[29:42] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: So that's what tech is. Tech is when we learn what the actual show is. So you kind of learn what you do in the rehearsal room, and where you enter, where you exit, and the choreography, and blocking. But once you get in that theater, you're like, oh, so this is the actual show, the backstage. You learn how big the stage is, and that is when you have to solidify. You have to do this eight times a week. You have to improv with these people every single time.

[30:18] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. I just think it's so cool how the whole show is set, like every transition has got choreography.

[30:23] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I was going to say it's set to music. It's like you're watching a movie unfold on stage. Yes. It is definitely like a movie. I mean, I feel like the music to Harry Potter, the movies were so important. People know that theme song very, very well, and the music is so cinematic in a way. And I think Imogen Heap, who did the music for The Cursed Child, captured that so well. I'm in every transition, because I feel like I'm principal dancer in Harry Potter, because it's so heavily dance-based, and the music is so important. There's even musical in the back of all the scenes, and it really fits all the moods.

[31:05] Alan Seales: That's, yeah, that's, it's very, very choreographed, very purposeful. And yeah, it's exactly where everybody needs to be so they don't get hit by a fireball.

[31:15] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yes. Yes. Exactly.

[31:18] Alan Seales: Yeah. It's tough. It's tough. Yeah. So is it easy for you to come home and leave Rose at the theater? Are you able to separate yourself, or do you have like a ritual that you do when the show's over to become yourself again?

[31:31] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I think once I take that costume off, I switch right back to Ayanna from The Bronx in two seconds. And especially going on the train home after you're on Broadway is so humbling. I don't feel like Rose at all. She's the rich daughter of Hermione, and I'm just getting on the train to my small apartment. So yeah, it's pretty easy to separate yourself, for sure.

[32:00] Alan Seales: Is your training more in singing, or acting, or dancing, or sort of just an amalgamation of all three?

[32:06] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I'd say all three, but singing is my, singing is my first love. And dance is definitely like the second love, for sure.

[32:13] Alan Seales: Well, did you train in any of them formally outside of Manhattan School for Music?

[32:21] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Dancing, I would say I trained more formally, because those classes are cheaper. And singing lessons and acting lessons, those sessions are insane. But my mom taught me how to sing, because she's also a singer. And she was background singer for a lot of artists, studio artists. And she also worked in the industry as an agent's assistant and all of that stuff. So she taught me all that.

[32:43] Alan Seales: You're going to be like, she's got Whitney Houston on speed dial, or did, like one of those people?

[32:47] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Well, she worked with a lot of those writers and producers.

[32:51] Alan Seales: Really?

[32:53] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah. Whitney Houston's one of my favorites, just so it's funny you said that.

[32:56] Alan Seales: Of course. Yeah. Wow. Well, I guess that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense why you went to LA then, because that's where that industry has to be.

[33:02] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: At that time, yeah, it had to be there.

[33:08] Alan Seales: Yeah. Is that strange to think about, as a 20-something young person who grew up with the internet in their pocket, I remember the days when I used to drive without a cell phone. Remember?

[33:21] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah.

[33:22] Alan Seales: Right? You would go out and you had to know where you're going. You had to read a map. You had to do all these things. And if you wanted to go TV and film and music, you went to LA. If you want to do theater, you went to New York. And now you can self-tape and you can live anywhere you want and fly in for rehearsals or whatever you want. So have you talked with peers or with people in other generations who have compared and contrasted what your journey has been compared to what it was, what the industry used to be?

[33:50] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I mean, of course. I mean, all the professors at Manhattan School of Music, they told us all the time how different it was. But I feel like I'm at the very end of all that. My mom still printed out MapQuest maps, I want to say, until I was, what, 11 or 12. Because phones weren't like, the iPhone wasn't truly popular. That's when it was just getting popular. So I didn't really know. And self-taping, I feel like is just now becoming the dominant thing. It's still fresh, and we're all still learning how to do it. I'll say it's not my favorite thing to do. I love in-person anything, because I feel like that's where you can show your personality. And they want to know your personality, because they're going to have to work with you for a year.

So yeah, I've definitely heard, like, this is how it was way back then. Even the people who would audition on the Broadway stage, I've talked to, and how different it is. And yeah, I can't even imagine not even seeing an audition on a website first, or getting an email from my agent, like, self-tape request for such and such. Because that's just how it is.

[35:20] Alan Seales: That's how it is. I mean, I was talking with someone the other day, and they were reminding me, like, you used to go to the theater and audition on the stage. I mean, you think about A Chorus Line, the show, right? That's how auditions used to be.

[35:34] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I know. I know. I wonder what the new A Chorus Line would be. If they ever made one, would it just be like, everyone's on their laptop in a line?

[35:42] Alan Seales: Is this going to be called the TikTok musical, or something?

[35:50] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Or everyone's standing in a line in front of a ring light. That's what it's going to be. Everyone's in a line. Everyone's got their own ring light on their phone, or talking into their phones. And they're sitting at the ballet.

[36:02] Alan Seales: Yes. Right. And then the casting director's, like, swiping through a tablet, because I don't even bring... Do people even bring printed headshots to auditions anymore? I mean, I guess you do, but you don't need them.

[36:15] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yeah, but pullbacks, they still ask for the printed headshot and resume.

[36:21] Alan Seales: Yeah, I don't know. I just read something the other day, and it was just, I was like, do you want my headshot? Like, no, we got it. We got it. That's all digital. Really?

[36:29] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: All right. All right. Well, I printed 20 copies.

[36:36] Alan Seales: I used to print 200.

[36:38] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh, my gosh.

[36:40] Alan Seales: I mean, yeah, when I was acting regularly, it was 2002 to 2007, 2008, right?

[36:47] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Mm-hmm.

[36:48] Alan Seales: And yeah, it was just mailing out headshots and dropping them off. And everyone in the room got one when he went into an audition. So you go to a single audition, if there's room with five people across the table, you hand it out five headshots sometimes.

[37:00] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Wow.

[37:01] Alan Seales: So yeah. Get off my lawn.

[37:04] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh, no, you youngin'.

[37:07] Alan Seales: Young whippersnapper. We're going to take a quick break for a few commercials.

[37:13] Alan Seales: All right, everyone. Welcome back to the episode. So speaking of young, it's a terrible transition. We're going to go to Plot in 60 Seconds. Have you listened to any episodes? Do you know what's coming?

[37:26] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh, no, no. What's coming? I'm scared.

[37:29] Alan Seales: So I have a list of 16 popular musicals. You will give me a number that is 1 through 16, which will choose a show off of my list. And then you have 60 seconds to give me the plot to that musical.

[37:42] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: OK. What's the number? 1 to 16?

[37:45] Alan Seales: 1 through 16.

[37:47] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: OK. Go ahead.

[37:48] Alan Seales: 8.

[37:49] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: All right. That is Rent. Go.

[37:52] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: 60 seconds remaining. A bunch of people who complain about not paying rent, even though they come from rich parents. They're friends from the bottom of Manhattan. But then, 8.

[38:08] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: 45 seconds remaining. It's an 8 epidemic. So it's sad. But they're all together, and they love each other. And there's a turned lesbian who was with her nerdy boyfriend, but then she wanted a black girl. And she also had a fundraiser. She had a fundraiser for something where she did a moo something. And then also, one of those people can't write a song because he's so sad about life. There's also a stripper, Mimi. Someone dies. And they sing.

[38:50] Alan Seales: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Good. Good. All right. All right. I'll take it. And, yeah, she put on a concert. She mooed. And then she became frozen and wicked or something.

[39:01] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Right. Wicked and frozen. Yes.

[39:03] Alan Seales: Wicked and frozen. Yeah. OK. Whatever. All right. So the three standard closing questions I use to wrap up every episode. The first one simply is just what motivates you?

[39:13] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: What motivates me? Oh, it sounds so cliche, but what's coming next? Just I have so many things on my brain. Well, I want to do this, and I'm going to do this. And I guess my ideas and my brainstorming personality, that's what motivates me. I think I'm in competition with myself, which is a problem, but that's what motivates me.

[39:38] Alan Seales: Oh, I can relate.

[39:42] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh, great job. It's not good enough.

[39:44] Alan Seales: No, it's not good.

[39:46] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: I feel you. All right. What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[39:50] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Oh, your personality is OK. Don't hide it or don't even try to hide it because that's not you. And it's actually going to work out in your favor because no one wants to work with somebody that's boring.

[40:05] Alan Seales: Oh, that's good. OK.

[40:11] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: So last question. Hardest one. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[40:15] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Funny Girl.

[40:19] Alan Seales: Oh, that was a quick answer.

[40:20] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Hands down, Barbra Streisand is my all time favorite person in the world.

[40:24] Alan Seales: I was going to say Julie Bancroft. OK, Barbra Streisand.

[40:26] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Barbra Streisand.

[40:27] Alan Seales: We'll give you that. Come on, come on.

[40:31] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: So where can we connect with you on social media? Where can we say hi?

[40:35] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yanna Nicole Tomass. That's my Instagram.

[40:39] Alan Seales: Tomass?

[40:40] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yes. Because Thomas was taken up.

[40:44] Alan Seales: So that's like T-O-M-A-S-S?

[40:46] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Yes. All right.

[40:48] Alan Seales: I think that works for me better, though.

[40:50] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: OK. A-N Tomass. All right, we're good.

[40:54] Alan Seales: And you can connect with me on Threads, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all the places. Leave a rating and a review wherever you are listening. You can leave comments now on Spotify, which is very cool. Jukebox the Ghost is giving us the intro and outro music. And Yanna Nicole Tomass.

[41:08] Ayanna Nicole Thomas: Thank you so much for this conversation.

[41:12] Alan Seales: Thank you. I had so much fun.