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[0:11] Jose: Diana Pou, welcome to Token Theatre Friends. It's such a pleasure having you here today. How's everything going?

[0:18] Diana Pou: Yay, I'm so excited, Jose, to be here. Everything is going so good so far. I can't complain.

[0:28] Jose: You are about to star in a new play, The Desire of the Astronaut. I read the script because it hasn't opened yet, and it's mind-blowing. So can you tell our audience a little bit about what the show is?

[0:43] Diana Pou: Yes, of course. Well, The Desire of the Astronaut is a play about Esteban only, the last boricua in space. And he is sent on this mission to space, and there's an accident that leaves him stranded. We see throughout the play how he copes with isolation and the world that he creates within that isolation. The character that I play is called Emily, but I also play ensemble. All the girls in the show, we are the same character. We are an extension of the lead Emily played by Gabriela Sacker. Each of us, each of the girls, we represent Emily in different stages of Esteban's transition throughout that isolation that he's going through. So we all represent a different tension moment in his journey.

It's really interesting to play a character that feeds off of my colleagues. We all pick each other's last moments to then enter our moment. So that's pretty much what the play is about. It's gonna question the audience a lot about what is the purpose of human life, if you know where you're standing in life, and puts into perspective the universe. We have the universe that is vast and infinite in size, and yet we think we are the center. So where are we in that big picture? It's really a beautiful play, I think. It's really gorgeous, and I'm dying to see how Lehman Lopez is going to see it. Oh my god. I have to say, Lehman is one of the most passionate human beings I've ever worked with. She has this power and this imagination that shocks me every time. It's been so fun to go to rehearsals with her, actually.

[2:49] Jose: Yes, then come join us. We love you. I want to go back to those questions of those themes that you were talking about. Were those, Diana, the same themes that made you want to do the play? Because those questions that you hope people will ask themselves in the end.

[3:07] Diana Pou: Definitely, yes. When I read the script, one of the first questions it asks the audience is, do you know where you stand? I was like, okay, wait, do I know myself where I stand? As I kept reading, I just kept asking myself all these questions. To some of these questions, most of us think that we have the answer, but we don't. And even if we do, we revisit the answer because these are constantly changing answers. If we know where we stand, the purpose of life, we are changing beings, hopefully, if we're growing consistently. So these answers continue changing. I think, yeah, that's one of the first things that made me want to do the script.

[3:50] Jose: I don't want to get too metaphysical because it's too early in the morning for you right now.

[3:55] Diana Pou: Don't worry, I'm caffeinated already.

[3:57] Jose: Okay, great. Typical Latino, already coffee in hand. So do you find, Diana, that plays and works that you end up doing come to you when you need them, let's say? Like when you're expecting some message or something from the universe?

[4:16] Diana Pou: That is such a good question, Jose, because honestly, I do think it happens that way. All of the roles I've played in my life and all of the scripts I received, they have come in pretty particular moments actually. Prior to doing this show, the last time I was on stage was a year ago, playing one of the most challenging and hardest roles I've ever played in my life, which thankfully, I feel very honored that it was recognized all over the Latino industry. I received an Ola award, a LATA award, a LATA Anati award for that. But I was in a specific moment of my life where I needed to tap into different things about that role. Not to talk too much about that other play, but this one, The Desire of the Astronaut, comes at this time in my life where I'm like, what's happening?

Why am I not back on stage? Do I know where I stand? What is the purpose of me being in New York? All these questions I was asking prior to receiving Lehman's phone call, like, hey, do you want to do this play? I'm like, oh my God. It's really bizarre how things happen that way.

[5:31] Jose: That's amazing. And do you go into the work then hoping to find answers, or is just getting the messages enough for you?

[5:40] Diana Pou: Well, yes and no. I mean, I go as an empty canvas, ready to put some colors in. Sometimes you get the answers and sometimes you don't. It's interesting to be okay with that. I do let myself be played by the roles I play rather than me putting something too specific in them. And definitely, theater heals. So regardless, I receive the answer I'm searching for, and I'm gonna put that in quotes. It's always a liberating experience that gives me something that probably I wasn't even thinking about. So it gets a little bit mystical that way too.

[6:25] Jose: I love that. Is that fear, let's say, about, you know, will I be on stage again? I hear that from probably every actor that I talk to. Does that ever go away, Diana? Do you hope one day you're never gonna have to ask yourself that? Like, because you know it for sure, or is that part of the trail of being a stage actor?

[6:45] Diana Pou: Well, definitely I do hope I don't have to continue asking myself that question because honestly, I've been living in New York for 15 years. I am Dominican, I came here with a suitcase full of dreams, like all actors do, and everybody who migrates away from home. You truly hope that what you are dreaming is worth what you're sacrificing. Sometimes when I spend too many months or days without doing something, I can ask that question. It's like, what am I doing? Am I doing something wrong, or should I just wait? Should I just continue working on different things? Because also, myself as an actor, I'm a singer, I'm a teacher, I am a musician, I play the piano, I'm an audiobook narrator. Thankfully, because I do many things, I can jump from project to project. But definitely, what gives me the most passion and the biggest energy is being on stage. So hopefully after this project, it just continues happening more consistently.

[7:21] Jose: Have you found that since 2020, the ways—because yes, you do everything. I think of videos, and you're amazing at everything. Have you found that that idea of a stage as we used to think about, like before the pandemic started, has that changed? In that year that you were not on stage, did anything give you a slight pleasure? Can you compare anything that you did to the pleasure of being on stage?

[7:21] Diana Pou: Well, since you asked that question, for sure the pandemic changed my approach with different things. I mean, being confined in my New York apartment, which you can imagine is super small, with my partner here, we're both actors, and we had nothing to grasp on. Theaters were closed. TV and film also not working. We were like, what are we gonna do? We had started a music duo at the time, and our producer moved out of town, so we couldn't even collaborate with him. He was our neighbor at the time. So my husband and I were like, well, I guess we're gonna have to build a home studio because what else are we gonna do that is artistic? At the time, a lot of Zoom stuff was going on, Zoom concerts, etc. So we built the studio, we continued recording our music there in our bedroom home studio.

Out of the blue, a friend of mine contacted me to start doing audiobooks. Honestly, that has been growing very strongly in my career since the pandemic. I had never envisioned myself as a voice actor. I had very little training in it, although when you're an actor, you already have your voice and interpretation ready. But of course, techniques for audiobooks, that's something I had to work on during the pandemic. The funny story is that as soon as the pandemic was over, I continued booking more and more audiobooks. So that has been something very interesting that I've been able to approach to continue doing my art when I am not on stage.

[10:08] Diana Pou: And I love the fact that I can do it from home. And I sit and I narrate a book. I'm a reader myself, so I love reading different books and giving a voice or a story to it. That gives me a lot of passion and purpose to do. And because I'm also a teacher, some of the books that I narrate sometimes, if they are age appropriate to my students, I teach elementary school, then I bring it to them or call it to their attention or motivate them, not necessarily because my voice is in it, but if there's something interesting to point out, I just redirect them there or mention it to them. So it's really interesting. Um, that side of my career to put a voice to books and characters in a book. We also get to be, you know, in people's homes, like there's nothing I would say more intimate, right?

Then being you use the right word. It the intimacy when you when you do audio is just fascinating. Sometimes I feel a little bit alone in my booth, I have to say, because you know, you're recording yourself. Uh most of the time I I uh direct myself. Sometimes I have an engineer or director with me via Zoom. Um, but most of the times it's just me there and the words and the pages of a book. Um, but it's just really beautiful how how close, how small it gets, um, so that you can bring it to people's ears. It's just gorgeous. I feel like I'm about to turn to like Esteban asking Emily all these questions about you know life and like what is the cause of things. But yeah, hear you hearing you talk about this also makes me think in a way of going back to astronaut, you know, like being on your own in a booth is similar to like separating right from the rest of the universe in a way.

Mm-hmm. For sure. And there's so many things that go and that happen to a human when they are in isolation. Um we are we are beings that we need to socialize, and when you are put in that you know, forced isolation pretty much, you create a world within itself. And it's interesting to see Esteban just daydreaming pretty much um and writing because he he leaves uh his story in in pages that he wrote, and to see how he envisioned things and how he was at the same time in the past, in the present and in the future. That is mind blowing. That's really beautiful. And you're gonna be singing as well. I don't think we talked about the music element.

[12:40] Diana Pou: I will be singing. I am so excited because I was trained as a classical uh vocalist and pianist, and then when I moved to New York City, I transitioned to more contemporary musical theater. Um, that's what I wanted to study. So I kind of put away the classical training for for a moment in my life, and then this show happens, and and the musical director, um, Desmar Guevara, he's like, I want you to tap into that. He knows me. We've worked before, we did Guaracha a couple years ago, and I was singing there more like uh contemporary salsa song, and then he brings this to me. He's like, Yep, I want you to tap into your classical voice, and I feel so light these days, which it goes so correlated with space with floating gravity.

So it's just it what's happening is really magical, and all of the Emilies we sing different in different styles and in different parts of our voices, which is interesting. I have like the soprano, very light sounds. Then we have Anna's Emily, who has this very um raunchy and down to earth. She's the one that envisions the accident. There's an accident that happens in space um with Esteban's mission, and then Gabi Sacker's Emily is like the daydreamer, the romantic um energy in the song. So it's just fascinating to see, you know, it's the same Emily in different perspectives, but different voices. It gives so much lay so many layers to this story.

[14:16] Jose: As you know, and I've you know, I've read about this. Like I loved you so much in what I've done. Like I was like team piana immediately when I saw you there. And I don't think maybe I forgot, but I don't think I knew that you were trained a classical. Like I'm can you talk about that? That's mind-blowing. Like, do you hope to at some point get to do, you know, maybe not canonical, but like new operas and new classical works?

[14:41] Diana Pou: Well, Mira, since you mentioned that, you're not the only one that doesn't know that I was trying classically, and I don't talk too much about that, honestly. I don't know why. But I mean, I've my dream role is to play Maria in West Side Story. So if I ever have the chance to play something like that, I would love to. Also, the the musical The Light in the Piazza. I don't know if you've heard the music in that, but holy mother, that music is like I I need to sing that, and it's pretty much operatic musical theater, yes, but it's more operatic style. Um, or any place like Evita, which is like operatic rock. I am fascinated these days because I'm type tapping into this um singing style for this show in operatic rock lately.

And one of my motivations for this um song that I'm singing is the the diva from the fifth element. I don't know if you've saw if you've seen that movie, but it's she's blue color. Lady, yes, I love her. And she is so impactful. She walks into that stage, and all she has is her beautiful blue self and her voice. She has no props in the back, no scenery, no dancers, nothing. She's just this higher being singing and giving you a story. And that's precisely what I'm doing with this song that I'm singing. Just standing right there, very calm, but I am envisioning so many things in front of you, and I'm singing about the storm coming. So I'm singing about darkness approaching, but I am telling it to you with this calmness that I know that after the darkness comes, then the light comes.

So I am like one step ahead. I know that we need this to get here. So it's really magical and it's really um mind blowing to me, even as an interpreter to analyze it from afar. Not while I'm singing it during, but when I see it or when I remember, oh my goodness, this happened to me while I was singing this. It's just really powerful. It's really beautiful.

[16:52] Jose: If it's not too personal to ask so far from the process of you know creating the play, getting to rehearse, what's the most exciting thing that you've I guess learned or discovered about yourself?

[17:06] Diana Pou: Oh my goodness. Well, hmm. I think, and I don't know if this is something that I well, yes, maybe I did. I'm gonna like thinking, well, the having fun on stage, and it's not like I haven't had fun before, but and actually, maybe I should refer it as leaving myself alone on stage. Sometimes we are our biggest judges, and we are there um trying to just be perfect, and yes, we're doing a job, and and we have to be as prepared, but what I'm trying to say is not about being prepared or nothing like that. It's just leaving yourself alone and enjoying, let yourself be moved. Um continue searching on stage. Sometimes we take things for granted, and I feel that this play has me so aware and so present, and I think that that happens because the energy within my castmates is like that too.

We do not take a step in that stage without our consent or looking at each other because there's so much happening too there. We are in a spaceship, we are in the space floating. There are um two big trusses moving up and down, which are like um metal structures that are really tall on stage. So we have to be very careful in many, many different ways, but the fact that we are floating is I guess what's allowing me to be like, oh yeah, let me leave myself alone. I am floating here alongside the rest of my castmates, and yeah, in previous productions, I feel like I have been whipping my back, like, oh, I need to get to this, or I need to get to that, and if I don't do it, I'm not this good. This time it's like, nope.

This is what I bring, that's it. And it's grateful. I'm I'm grateful that I could find that within this play for for actors that are gonna be listening to this episode. Like, do you have any practical suggestions, tips, um, any grounding advice that helps you find that joyful place that you've tapped into recently?

[19:23] Diana Pou: Yeah, for sure. I mean, for me these days, I am I'm taking my warm-up time very serious. And by serious, I mean I am putting a lot of intention in my warmups. Um, whether that means physical or vocal. Um, I'm trying to make fun exercises. Um I uh we in the in the play our castmates, we play a game called Wuha Hee, which is kind of similar to Zip Zip Sop, and that helps you to distract your brain and add some funness and some movements prior to starting the rehearsal. And that helps us, me included too, in to like, okay, we're gonna have fun and we're playing here, so let's do it rather than just a square warm-up that is just very militant, you know.

[20:17] Diana Pou: I'm trying to like switch, switch around with the things that I do. Also vocally, I am doing a lot of like um, I don't know if you've seen any singer do this, but like I grab a cup of water and I have a straw and I start blowing bubbles in it. And even though that's like a therapeutical kind of approach for singing, it's really fun for me. It's like I'm blowing bubbles, so it adds some sort of um silliness to before I start um the rehearsal process. Um and also remind yourself that you know your colleagues are there to support you to have you. So as long as you have all of those things in mind and you have that trust, I think you will allow yourself to to play and to have fun because everybody is there for everybody.

[21:07] Jose: I am so trying the bubble thing, although I don't sing, but that sounds like amazing.

[21:12] Diana Pou: The bubble is amazing because you're controlling your airflow through the straw and you're blowing the bubbles, and it helps you to, you know, um have more support in your diaphragm. It's just it's an amazing technique, and it looks super silly, but I encourage you to try it.

[21:28] Jose: I will. Do you think Bianca? Because you know, you mentioned earlier that you teach elementary school kids as well. Like, and the things that you're talking about make me think about things that we know as children, how to lose ourselves into these silly things that also help. Like, do you think you're getting some of that energy and learning from your students?

[21:47] Diana Pou: 100%, yes. 100% yes. Um, I've been teaching for about seven years, I think now. I started in 2016 or so, and um my students are just amazing. Kids are amazing in general, and precisely what I'm teaching to them is music and uh drama, and the things they come up with and and you know how they see things. At the end of the day, I am the one being taught. I am just showcasing myself as a functioning adult for them because they deserve that as uh you know in their generations based on what we're seeing, right? They need to see more functioning adults around them. But honestly, I feel like they're teaching me. And I grab ideas sometimes from my students for sure. I see stuff and I'm like, wow, this kid, look what he or she came up with. So I sometimes you know incorporate it in my own um explorations in in my acting.

[22:46] Jose: I agree with you. Like, I I think you end up learning more from your students in the end than then you can teach them, and that's something that you it's invaluable, right?

[22:55] Diana Pou: For sure. Yeah, last time I saw you since I left New York was on the big screen. I saw you in La Condesa, and I was so happy to see you again after leaving. So please tell me you're doing more films of any kind.

[23:09] Diana Pou: Oh my goodness, yes. That is such a good question because precisely this weekend, I will be shooting a short film called Lala on Facebook. And I believe in the film and TV realm, this is going to be my most challenging role because I'm playing the lead in this short film. And I love the story because it's about an actress who is creating her own projects. She knows the deal. She's a hustler, she is out there doing her thing. And she's a fan of this director, uh, which she contacts via Facebook. She sends him a Facebook uh friend request, which he accepts. And that got her really excited. She's like, Oh my goodness, he replied. I am I have a chance in this industry. So she starts sending this director her um her different projects.

Uh, and it's all within a link. So she's always sending, I have this link to this web series and this link to this other thing. So the guy sees her project, the first one, and he replies, like, oh my goodness, this is really good. Good for you. And she, you know, starts getting this hype of like, oh my goodness, somebody finally is acknowledging, appreciating my work. Then the other things that she sent to this director, he does not reply. And then we see her in this comedic twist where she gets really angry and frustrated, like, oh my god, why are you not replying my messages? Write back to the people who was taking the time to write to you. And then we see this fantasy of her of going to the director's house and getting aggressive with him, um, because he does not um reply to her.

And then at the end of the story, we see that it's actually a dream, and she's just waking up, you know, as a regular human as an actress, just you know, trying to move and uh move forward in her day-to-day in spite of rejection. And we see a last image of her, which is my favorite. She's brushing her teeth a regular morning, she has an audition, and you see her looking at herself, knowing that it's gonna be okay, just she's still gonna make it. It's hard, yes, but here we are, and we are here to make it. And I mean, I'm an actress. I left my family 15 years ago. I create my own projects every now and then. So, I mean, yes, I'm very passionate about this story and excited to play this character, and she plays a character within a character.

This um Lala is all about acting, and you see her in every project that she sends this director switching gears, playing different characters, and the different colors and layers that I will be able to portray in this short film has gotten me really busy constructing this character, but also very excited to to put it out there for anybody who is you know dreaming the dream, regardless if they're an actor or not. So I think it's gonna be a really good step in my career, and I'm very excited.

[26:24] Jose: I'm glad that you say, you know, whether you're an actor or not. Because I don't know, Diana, if you have you have you have you seen uh May December, the Todd Haynes movie with Natalie Portman and Julian Moore?

[26:36] Diana Pou: I have not.

[26:37] Jose: Please do it at some point. I highly recommend it. But anyway, it's you know, it's one of the characters is is as an actor and they spend so much time in front of the mirror, um, just like discovering and exploring their face.

[26:52] Diana Pou: So I I want to talk to you about that because I've been fascinated by that. Like I I've noticed that not an actor, but I've noticed how you know there's so much that goes into just like the choices you make with like a gesture and stuff. So are you gonna be doing any of this?

[27:09] Diana Pou: I get sorry, like I'm getting excited with this question. So let me let me ask what I want to ask. You know, like when you saw yourself, for instance, on the big screen, and now that you're gonna be doing another film, like what is it like to get to sculpt something different with your with your face in a way that you don't necessarily have to do on stage, right? Because people don't get to see you up close.

[27:32] Diana Pou: Yeah, well, you know, tell a TV film is such a also like audio, right? As I was speaking about audiobooks, an even more intimate scenario. And when you're doing theater, it's theater is ephemeral, it happens live. So we don't get recordings of our performances. We don't get to see it most of the times, unless I truly want to record it, which I have in fact uh have recorded a couple of my musical theater shows. But going back to the point, seeing myself on camera, um playing a different role. I'm seeing myself, but I'm not seeing myself. It's really interesting because you're, you know, you're in somebody else's shoes. Um and seeing it on screen, it's intimidating, I have to say. When I first saw myself playing uh Déborah in La Condesa, I was like, whoa, this is this is bizarre.

You get you, you know, you get goosebumps because it's right in your face, right there. I I wish I could sit down and see myself on on theater, but you cannot do that. But on film, it's like you have it there in perpetuity, and you can see it over and over and over again. So, you know, it's it's cool. It's a completely different um, completely different art form. And I enjoy having it that I can see it, and also that my family or anybody who's who's not in New York City can see it too.

[28:59] Jose: Diana, it's always a pleasure talking to you. I'm glad that we get to do this every now and then. So can you please invite uh our listeners to come see the side of the ashram?

[29:10] Diana Pou: Yes, of course. Thank you, Jose, for having me. It's such a pleasure always to speak to you and you know and catch up in our artistic projects because you too have been doing some pretty cool things. Um, but yeah, I encourage everybody uh who's listening to us right now to come see the desire of the astronaut. Um, if you are in New York City or are planning to travel to New York City, we open May 2nd until June 2nd at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. And this is located on 304 West 47th Street in Manhattan. Um, yeah, so come support Latino Theater. We definitely would like to see more audiences enjoying our stories. So come by. Trust me, you will not regret spending time with Diana and Lima and everyone at Panama. So please go.

[30:01] Jose: Definitely. Thank you, Diana. Mucha mierda y muchos exitos en todo.

[30:05] Diana Pou: Gracias a usted.