This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to The Theatre Podcast, intimate, personal conversations with theatre's biggest names.

[0:19] Alan Seales: And welcome back to the Quarren Queen Takeover. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and we are continuing our SIX the Musical takeover on the podcast with an episode with Andrea Macasaet, who is Anne Boleyn in the Broadway cast. And this is now her fifth incarnation of the musical, and she is another one who was merely hours away from making her Broadway debut the night that Broadway went dark. So I'm going to leave this episode to speak for itself. This is another great one. I love all these six queens. They are incredible. We've got a lot more queens coming up the rest of the month, so make sure to continue to listen and leave your ratings, leave your reviews. And don't forget, you can watch the full video versions of these interviews at ttp.fm slash patreon. That's p-a-t-r-e-o-n. Follow me on social media as always, theatre underscore podcast. Visit me online at bpn.fm slash ttp. And now everybody, please enjoy this episode with Andrea Macasaet.

[1:36] Alan Seales: Today's guest appeared in the sixth tour at the American Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Ordway Theatre, and Citadel Theatre. In Canada, she's appeared in productions of Heathers: The Musical, Avenue Q, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Miss Saigon. Now making her Broadway debut as Anne Boleyn in SIX, Andrea Macasaet, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:01] Andrea Macasaet: Oh my goodness, thank you for having me.

[2:04] Alan Seales: I had to dig into some videos of you saying your own name so I could pronounce your last name.

[2:11] Andrea Macasaet: You did great. That was amazing.

[2:15] Alan Seales: Is that a Filipino name?

[2:16] Andrea Macasaet: It is, yeah.

[2:18] Alan Seales: Cool. So Filipinos will actually say it like,

[2:24] Andrea Macasaet.

[2:27] Andrea Macasaet: Oh, because it's got the two vowels at the end.

[2:30] Alan Seales: Yeah. So they'll pronounce every vowel.

[2:35] Alan Seales: Yeah. So you're from Canada. You are Canadian.

[2:38] Andrea Macasaet: Yes.

[2:39] Alan Seales: Yes. But right now I'm talking to you over Skype and you said you're still here in the city in New York?

[2:49] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, still here in the city. I'm originally born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

[2:58] Andrea Macasaet: And now I've been trying to get home. I've been waiting for the official announcement that Broadway was going to extend further into its suspension before I made any flight arrangements to come back home. So when that announcement came up, I booked my flight to come home actually on Wednesday, so tomorrow. And I got an email last night from Delta being like, the Minnesota to Winnipeg flight has been cancelled.

[3:40] Alan Seales: Why are they cancelling flights in the first place? I mean, I guess the flights that they have, are they just cancelling them that are completely empty? I don't even know what's going on.

[3:52] Andrea Macasaet: I feel like it's along that process where not a lot of people have booked, but also they don't want a lot of people to book so that we can be separated in the plane. But then if you only have two people flying from Minnesota to Winnipeg, it's not enough. So I think there's that weird balance, but I could be wrong.

[4:22] Alan Seales: Is it like a border closure thing?

[4:24] Andrea Macasaet: No, I mean, the border is open for Canadians to come home.

[4:30] Alan Seales: So can you just, why don't you just drive?

[4:34] Andrea Macasaet: I don't, I think it's about a two-day drive from New York.

[4:39] Alan Seales: So, okay, so cost benefit analysis, would you be stuck in New York for weeks waiting on a flight, or take three days and calmly have a nice trip home?

[4:52] Andrea Macasaet: I probably could do the three-day drive, but I've never done a long period of driving by myself, ever.

[5:04] Alan Seales: So, from Canada, well, I guess I'm kind of torn on where to begin because I want to talk about where you grew up and how you grew up and how you got into theatre, but I'm anxious to get straight into the fact that your Broadway debut was just like ripped away from your hands.

[5:24] Andrea Macasaet: You know, the morning of your opening night, you find out Broadway goes dark.

[5:32] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, that was, that was really weird, and I look back on that night, that day, a lot, and each time, it brings up different emotions. Sometimes I'm like, yeah, I'm so sad, and then other days I'm like, no, no, no, it was for the best, and then other days I'm like, trying to blame someone. It's a weird roller coaster that I go through when I look back on that day, but March 12 was our opening, and my family, my boyfriend, flew in the day before. Everybody was kind of getting ready and figuring out what they were going to do on March 12 before the show, so I woke up that day, and I was getting ready.

[6:46] Andrea Macasaet: Uh, 12 p.m., 1 p.m., rolled around, and I noticed something on Instagram. It was a post from Official Broadway World or something, and it was that Broadway was shutting down as of 5 p.m., and I looked.

[7:04] Alan Seales: You heard about it on Instagram before you heard about it from your company?

[7:11] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, I think the announcement from the governor happened, the announcement happened, and in the midst of all that was the deliberation of, is SIX going to go on? Are we going to open it, or are we, what are we going to do? Because the show, it was the party, it was pressed in between the party, so there were a lot of elements that had to be decided and kind of reconfigured in order for us to make a solid decision.

[8:02] Andrea Macasaet: So, I mean, I remember, you know, sitting in my bathroom, texting the girls, being like, okay, so do I shower? Do I shower? What do we do? And then 4 p.m. rolled around, and that was when we got the confirmation that we were not going to go ahead with our opening, and that we were just gonna make a little toast at one of the pubs nearby, and send off our beautiful creative team who came from London. We were going to send them off and just have a toast to all the things that we have accomplished, because the journey thus far has been so epic, and so we took the night to celebrate that, which was nice. But yeah, for a few days, it felt like I was in this weird dream-like state, where I was like, okay, now it's time to wake up, like.

[9:11] Alan Seales: Well, you've done, you've done more performances of SIX than any of the other North American cast, right?

[9:17] Andrea Macasaet: I was in all the productions, yes.

[9:27] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, so you've been in this for quite a while.

[9:33] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, and then, I think Anna and I have been, yeah.

[9:40] Alan Seales: So you've been in this for basically, like the North American beginnings years ago, and then you, yeah, it's, it's like you didn't get to say goodbye to a close friend, you just got it ripped away. Like, there's no closure there, and I, and I, and I know that it's going to come back, and it will open, and you know, and I don't want to, I don't want to bring you down here. I'm thinking, like, we'll be lucky if it's September, because first you have to open bars, and then you have to, then people have to get comfortable, and then even when it's safe for Broadway to reopen, according to the government, you have to go through the process of making sure that, you know, are we going to have to sit six feet apart in the theater, even though it's okay to go in, and will producers want to, want to put that, will perform to half-empty houses, and if everything goes on sale at once, is it, is that going to dilute the pool, or have people come back?

[10:34] Andrea Macasaet: I mean, you know, I, I just, I was talking with, with Sam Pauly earlier, I was telling her that I was, I was like, my heart just broke for you guys, because I was at your final, at your final preview on the 11th, and the first time I'd seen the show, I purposely didn't read it, read anything about it, or, or listen to music beforehand, because when I want to, I want to binge it after I've already seen it, and I just went back, and I listened to the soundtrack on the subway, the home, on the way home that night, and was like, this is so great, I can't wait for the, the OBC from New York, and then next morning, I was like, it's not going to happen for these girls, and I just can't, I cannot imagine, I cannot imagine, like, kind of what that felt like, I mean, you sort of, you, you walked through what happened during the day, but did you, I mean, was it like, you said it was sort of like a fog or a dream, but I mean, is it, are you, like, doing okay, is it, is like, you're sitting in your apartment, is your, your boyfriend with you, do you live by yourself, like, are you?

[11:41] Andrea Macasaet: Oh, yeah, um, yeah, well, um, I was lucky to have gone through kind of, like, the hard emotions when I was surrounded with my boyfriend and my family, so they were here for about a week before they all went back to Winnipeg to then start the

[12:05] Andrea Macasaet: So in that time, I had the support that I needed to kind of like, give me the space to be and kind of go through the weird, like, the weird what the fuck am I going through, um, mental state. But yeah, I mean, like you said, you know, we get the wow, like opening night was taken away from you guys. And yes, it sucked. But I am sitting here now and I can confidently say that it was the best choice. Because I think had we opened that night, the reopening of SIX, like the comeback won't be as juicy as it is going to be. So I mean, we've had what Chicago, Boston, Citadel, Minnesota, we've had four opening nights already. And we joke about it all the time. I mean, like, we've had four glamorous opening nights. And we can wait for our last one. We can wait for it. It will be so epic when it does happen. So I think the hopes and dreams of SIX and what it is going to be in the future and all the stuff that comes with it is going to be all the more fire when it happens.

[14:21] Alan Seales: I agree. I think, I mean, at first I was sad because I said, Oh, crap, they're going to maybe maybe they won't reopen. Maybe maybe they're going to miss Tony, Tony eligibility for this season or whatever the case is. And once I heard that the Tony's were postponed indefinitely, I said, Oh, okay, good. That's good. That's good. Okay. Because like, maybe they'll do a shortened season. I mean, who knows? I don't you know, they haven't announced what they're going to do at this point as we're recording this. So maybe they'll extend it. Maybe they'll include previews. I mean, because you went up to your final preview. Reviews are there. They're embargoed. But press thought press has written their reviews.

So, you know, I guess the question is whether or not Tony voters got to see it during previews, which I guess is the issue. But man, I mean, the trajectory of the show is just incredible and to get where it is now. I mean, I think you're one of the best ones to speak about that, though, because like you said, you've been in all of the North American productions more or less. But okay, so now let's go back to the beginning. Winnipeg. Yeah. So little Andrea, what got you into theater? What was your childhood like?

[15:43] Andrea Macasaet: My childhood was a lot of Filipino singing competitions. I grew up joining local Filipino community singing competitions. And then once local competitions expanded in my city is when I started to join more. So a lot of it was karaoke tracks and my mom being my director and telling me, you know, sing it with feeling now walk over here and make sure you look at them in the eye and make them feel things with your song on my own lame is a rabble. It was a lot of that from my childhood. And then one year, I think I was in the fourth grade was when I was finally introduced to musical theater. My first production was The King and I at one of my local theaters. And I got introduced to owners of a dance studio there and then I enrolled in dance and that's kind of when my interests shifted into acting and singing and dancing.

So I grew up in a competitive, I can grew up in competitive dance and then doing local theater productions all the way through till high school. And then once I finished high school, I went to study performing arts in Victoria, BC.

[17:42] Alan Seales: Did you have a moment where you were like, this is what I want to do with my life. I don't I know I won't do anything else. And this is the hard treacherous road I'm going to go down.

[17:52] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, I think, you know, I just over time. I guess my one moment that sticks out for me was probably the 10th grade. I knew we were doing a production of we were doing a high school production of Chicago. And I played appropriate, appropriate. No, I played Velma Kelly. But I mean, that the feeling of playing such an epic role at that, like, I guess, at that age, and you know, Chicago, Velma Kelly. And after that, you know, those feelings of your high school musical company and being so supportive and loving on one another and never wanting it to end, was just kind of like, No, I want to do this. I want to do more of it. And I want to do it after high school. And I don't want my next two productions to be my last productions.

So I pursued it, I went to school in Victoria, studied performing arts there. And then from there, it kind of was just like, Okay, now, I booked Miss Saigon in Victoria. That's amazing. Cool. Then I booked Avenue Q. Amazing. Great. And then I, and then I went on to do a couple other shows, and then found myself. I guess, fast forward to 2016, 2016, 2017. Where I stopped performing and stopped booking things. Yeah, it was a weird, very weird time in my life. Like you aged out of looking younger, but weren't old enough to play those older roles? Yeah, maybe. I yeah, I all of a sudden just stopped. I would audition and no one would hire me. I would audition and the parts I auditioned for were already booked.

And no one told me it was just it was it was really hard for a few years. And at that time, I didn't have an agent. I wasn't equity. I wasn't I was finding all my work on my own. Good throwback. Yeah, that was through till 2018 was pretty rough for me. I decided I was giving up theater. I didn't want my heart broken anymore. I kept getting no's. And I was like, screw this. I have other passions. I'm going to pursue them for a little bit and give theater a break because I started to wake up and not be happy anymore. So I at the time, I was also working for Lululemon. And yes, big Lulu girl. I was working at Lululemon. Lulu always supported my dreams and goals throughout my theater career, whenever I had a gig, they would give me the time off. And they would welcome me back with open arms and be really interested in my development outside and inside the company. It was great. I was lucky.

[21:56] Alan Seales: For sure. And I knew that I loved working with people at Lululemon. I loved people development. I loved HR. I loved the hiring process. I loved interviewing. I loved developing training, all of that. So you were in corporate, like the corporate side? No, in the store, just taking those things on, learning as much as I could so that I could pursue something maybe in the corporate field with this company and make some more monies because hello, that's what we need. Regular paycheck. Regular paycheck, for sure. And that's kind of what I decided to focus on. I said, okay, bye theater for now. I'm not auditioning. I'm going to say no to all these things. And if things come up, I don't want to do them because my mindset at that time was, what's the point if I'm just going to get rejected?

[23:11] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, totally. And that's where I was. So I put myself through school. I went back to university and started pursuing a diploma in human resources. I was in the midst of completing my management certificate through the course. And then I was also still working part-time at Lululemon as much as I could with full-time school going on and still taking on as much as I could in the store so that they knew my development was still very much being worked on and that I wanted to pursue it and move to Vancouver and do the Lululemon head office thing. That's where I set my eyes on and I was working towards that.

[24:12] Andrea Macasaet: I saw a Facebook post. It was of this musical called SIX being presented next season at the Citadel Theatre in collaboration with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. This musical is like a Spice Girls musical, all women, pop divas, as what it was. And I looked at it in the middle of class being like, Oh, that's cool. Let's listen to the music. I started listening to the music over my break and I was like, Okay, this is not theater. This is a bop. Cool. Set that aside, continued on with my life. And then February 2019 came. And I, that month I decided, Okay, you know what, I feel pretty good now about the arts. I've had a break and now, okay, this isn't really gonna leave my body forever. I'm gonna audition for one thing.

And it was a play. So I submitted for this play. And in looking at the open call, pardon me, submission on the website, I saw that there was an open call audition for SIX the Musical in Toronto. But let me backtrack back into the time in between when I discovered the show until I found that open call audition. I had said to my boyfriend one day in the car, I played the soundtrack for him. And I said, What do you think of this? And he was like, Oh, it's like radio music. It's pretty cool. And I said, It's a show. It's a musical. He said, That's cool. Yeah. And I said, I think if it ever came to Canada, I think I'd audition. I think it's very different from what I had auditioned for. And I think I'd have a shot.

So fast forward to the day that I found that open call in Canada, in class. It was the last day to submit. It was the last day to submit to audition for this musical in Toronto. It was February 7. Auditions were February 10. In Toronto.

[27:24] Alan Seales: Where were you at the time?

[27:25] Andrea Macasaet: In Winnipeg.

[27:26] Alan Seales: In Winnipeg. Okay. How far away is that?

[27:29] Andrea Macasaet: It's about a two hour flight.

[27:31] Alan Seales: Flight. Okay.

[27:32] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah. So about a 16 hour drive. I submitted. Didn't hear anything that day. Next day was when I got an email from one of the casting directors being like, Hey, Andrea, you're the last spot of the day. Make sure to come in early. I looked at the flights. Broke student that I was the $900 flight. Um, so I, I remember crying to my mom being like, I know $900. It's $900. Like, that to me at that time was like, do I spend a thousand bucks? And sing 32 bars for a no in a new province in a province that like I don't live in and then come back and be not have $1,000 and go back to my life, which is fine, but now I'm down money, which I need to be using for school stuff. Um, and she said, Well, are you going to think about it?

If you don't go, are you going to think about it? Because if you're not going to think about it, then don't. But if you are, then that's on you, Andrea, you, you go. So I went, my auntie came with me for support. She flew to Toronto with me. We had a little auntie and niece one day getaway. I did the audition. And now here we are.

[29:52] Alan Seales: What did you?

[29:54] Andrea Macasaet: I mean, it all it takes is one time. But did it? Did you have to go? Did you have to stay for more callbacks when you were there? Or was it just one of those things? Where did you expect to go home that night?

[30:09] Andrea Macasaet: So the call said, be available the following day, if you are called back for three hours, from 10 to I think three or something. So I had arranged the flight so that we flew in first thing in the morning on Monday and flew in the evening on that Tuesday, just in case. I went into the audition. It was 32 bars of a pop song, so no musical theater. The creatives wanted to hear your best pop. You remember what you sang?

[30:40] Andrea Macasaet: I sang Stone Cold by Demi Lovato. You remember what you sang? I sang Stone Cold by Demi Lovato. And then I love on top by Beyonce. And I didn't have the piano.

[31:04] Alan Seales: You sing an acapella?

[31:06] Andrea Macasaet: I walked in there with my phone with a cut karaoke clip of each track. And I said, we're going to put it, I put it in the aux cord. And you're going to be now being now associate director. I got her to click play on my phone. And so I could sing. So I sang my best karaoke. Stone Cold Demi Lovato.

[31:51] Alan Seales: That's amazing. And did you know before you went home that you were going to get the part? Did they tell you right away?

[32:00] Andrea Macasaet: No, I so I left. I left that first audition. Bob Mason came and found me outside get kind of getting my stuff ready to go. And he said, we want to see you tomorrow, Andrea. And then he proceeded to give me the sides. I got the sides for Anne Boleyn. And I got the sides for Jane Seymour for the callback the next day. And the callback process was very, very different than what most callbacks are like. They actually went by. So by Queen, everyone who was called back for their queen all went into the room. You sang it all. You sang through the musical cut one time. And then you all sang in front of each other.

[32:57] Alan Seales: In front of each other?

[32:59] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, in the room. So no one left. So you were watching all these girls singing for Anne Boleyn.

[33:08] Alan Seales: That's so much pressure.

[33:11] Andrea Macasaet: Very weird. Very weird. Did they did they have a type like, you know, I one of the things that I really like about the show is that it's all different. All different types of women like different presenting looking women of all races and heights and body types and everything. And and then when I was looking at the Olivier Awards clip and but so it seems like each character is has been envisioned to to present a certain way. While in general, the characters are are like racially and ethically irrelevant to the what they actually were because they were just, you know, white people in history. Right. And did they did you notice a type when during the callback process? I mean, was it like, you know, was everybody sort of the same or did it kind of vary and not matter at all? Like, was it true colorblind casting?

[34:16] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah.

[34:17] Alan Seales: Really?

[34:18] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah. Toby and Lucy are so amazing at what they do and how they see people and how open they are about people and their experiences and what people bring to the table. And as long as you were telling the story, whatever you looked like, sounded like, whatever you wore didn't matter. Like they. Yeah, it's. Auditioning for them and working with them has been an experience that I have truly, truly appreciated because they allow us, the Queens, to be exactly who we are. Exactly who we are. So whatever you really see on stage is. It's a lot of just our own personalities shining through. So it wasn't like, oh, we're looking for Berlin. Berlin has to be this and this and this and this. Berlin is like five Spice Girls in one. So pick your shade and pick whatever spice you want. Have fun.

[35:50] Alan Seales: That's really that's really interesting because all I mean, there's so many different incarnations of the cast now. You know, there's like the Australian tour and and there's your cast and there's still it's still in London and all of these others. And so it's interesting because now now that you said that, you know, I assumed as with other shows, you know, they're trying to eat as an.

[36:47] Andrea Macasaet: We were given the space and freedom to create these queens on our own, knowing what they have gone through, doing our research, and then, you know, giving you the story our way. So, the Boleyn that you see in London is going to be different than the Boleyn that you see in the US, because she's every woman, and sometimes she's spicier than others, and sometimes she's way more innocent, and sometimes she's chaotic, and sometimes she's in your face, hardcore, not taking any shit from anyone. And I think it's not just Boleyn, it's every queen. So, whatever you see is a different side of Boleyn, and it's yours to take, it's yours to embrace, because it's, what am I trying to say? Yeah, it's yours. It's unique to you.

[38:03] Alan Seales: Did you have to do, did you do a lot of research? I mean, like, when I think of Anne Boleyn, I just think back to the Tudors on HBO, like, that was where I learned the most about Anne Boleyn.

[38:14] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, I'm actually re-watching the Tudors right now.

[38:22] Alan Seales: Oh, are you really?

[38:25] Andrea Macasaet: No, I didn't, I knew she was the iconic wife, like, she was the one who got beheaded. Um, so when we got into rehearsals in Chicago, Lucy gave us school projects, we were told to do our research on our queens, and make a presentation, and then present it to one another. And so we, so we read books, we read, well, I read some books, chapters of books. Um, watched a couple, we were told to watch a, um, a documentary. So we watched a documentary. But the most fun was, first day of rehearsal, we had the morning, and then the afternoon was saved for research purposes. And we all, we all went into a conference room, creatives, and cast, sat down and watched the Beyonce concert.

[39:44] Alan Seales: Which is probably the best onstage reference that you could have had.

[39:50] Andrea Macasaet: So, we watched a Beyonce concert for research and character development.

[40:02] Alan Seales: Yeah, a Beyonce concert to me sounds like probably the best way that anybody could prepare for what you're doing, because, I mean, I said this before, that this is, it's a pop concert disguised as a musical theater show that happens to teach you about history.

[40:18] Andrea Macasaet: Wow.

[40:18] Alan Seales: And I think it's, I think it's just brilliant. And it's, it's, you know, I don't want to say it's like following in the footsteps of Hamilton. It's, it's, it's using the same, it's fallen into the same sort of success in that it's so different that it works. You know, like it's, it's, it's talking to existing audiences that want new content, and they're tired of the same old thing. And this is, on top of just being good, it's a good story, performances are great, and it just works. So, yeah, I, I cannot wait for it to come back, because, you know, it's just, it's fun. It's just fun. It's easy. It's, you're out early in the night and you come out energized. And yeah, all of you have so much fun.

I enjoy, I enjoyed watching everybody. Like I usually have a favorite when I'm watching a show that I'll kind of follow. And I couldn't, I couldn't pick one when I was watching Six, because all of you had your moments where you're all just like, all right, you know, aside from having individual, individual solos anyway, but I like watching people when they don't think they're being watched. Because, you know, of course, everyone's always being watched. But all of you, all of you just had so much fun together. I could tell, you know, just sitting backstage, watching other people sing their solos is when I love to watch everybody else. And it just, it looked so much fun to be up there.

[41:35] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely something else. I, I look forward to everybody's solos, because there's moments in each song that someone does something different one night. Or just, I look forward to like one, like a particular part in a song or a monologue. And the whole time, I'm like this whole show, I'm literally on stage with my best girls, and I, I get to like witness them kill it every single night. So the energy is not like, okay, I'm gonna watch your solo now. And then wait for it to be done. Okay, let's go and do this now. Um, it's always, it's always just like, and I can, I think I can say this for everybody, where we're just so proud of one another. With how far we've, we've come, like, singing six of them will never get old.

You know, hearing Abby Mueller riff every day in her song will never get old. And just like, Sam's monologue will never not be funny to me. And it's just like, there's so many parts in this show that I, that change for me every single day. And then I, I'm just, I'm just so proud of everybody.

[43:20] Alan Seales: Does your, does your Boleyn change based on the kind of day that you've had?

[43:24] Andrea Macasaet: Like, absolutely. Absolutely. Sometimes she's, um, she's, she's already pretty, um, fiery.

[43:40] Alan Seales: I was gonna say firecrackery.

[43:42] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah. She's, she's that every day, but sometimes if she's like already on a level 10, some days she'll be on like a 12, like six times two. And when that happens, I, I don't know. Some days the lines just come out and they're really spicy. And then I can't look at the girls for the rest of the show, or they can't look at me because then, then we'd laugh. Right. So it just depends. Some days she's more spicier than others.

[44:25] Alan Seales: I can see. Yeah. You're, you kind of, you kind of bop around on stage. When you're up there, I can see everybody's got, got such distinctly different, yet huge in their own way, uh, energies. And I don't know how to describe it. I mean, for those who've seen it, you should know exactly what I'm talking about, but all of, all of you up there are, you just crush it. Like you said, you just, you know, you're riffing and slaying and, and you're bringing your, you bring it every show. Right. And, and it's all so different that it's like, it's almost incomparable, incomparable, incomparable. That's the word. It's almost incomparable, but at the same time, you're all doing the same show and whatnot. And I don't know, maybe, I mean, it's just everything, the costumes and the lights and the choreography and it all just works. And yeah, like I said, I'm, I'm excited for it to come back because when it opens, it's going to be bigger than it would have otherwise.

[45:41] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah. It's going to be such a celebration. I can only imagine how lit it's going to be.

[45:49] Alan Seales: Well, let us wrap up our podcast interview here with the three standard closing questions that I ask everybody on the podcast. The first one, very simply, is what motivates you?

[45:55] Andrea Macasaet: What motivates me is my family and making my, you know, my Filipino community proud. I mean, this is for every Filipino girl who thinks, you know, theater might not be for her or a stage might not be for her. It is. There's space for you. And we have, we've already started making these steps and it will just extend further. So that's my motivation.

[46:33] Alan Seales: Nice. The next question is what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[46:37] Andrea Macasaet: Don't take life so seriously and be kind. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others.

[46:52] Alan Seales: All right. Last question. So if you can 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?

[46:57] Andrea Macasaet: Can I say my own?

[47:08] Alan Seales: Sure. But with you in it or not?

[47:13] Andrea Macasaet: Oh, six with.

[47:20] Alan Seales: Okay, me in it sometimes, but I would love to see queens of every color of the rainbow. Come on. Wouldn't that be so epic?

[47:25] Andrea Macasaet: Yes, it would. That would be great. Oh, all these queens just playing all these roles. I would never get tired of it.

[47:34] Alan Seales: Yeah. So where can we find you on social medias?

[47:34] Andrea Macasaet: I am on Instagram at andrea.sisio.

[47:47] Alan Seales: And that's it.

[47:47] Andrea Macasaet: Yeah.

[47:47] Alan Seales: All right. Cool. You can get more of me on Instagram and Twitter at theater underscore podcast. You can find me online at the theater podcast.com. Please leave a rating and a review everywhere you're listening to this. This is edited by Matthew Hendershot. And thank you to jukebox the ghost for the music and Andrea. Thank you. Most of all, I have enjoyed this so much.