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[0:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: Here we are at another FINAL FIVE episode, this time with Alina Alcántara.

[0:06] Alina Alcántara: These questions cover topics and subjects that we didn't get to talk about in the previous episode.

[0:11] Alina Alcántara: She has a long list of bucket roles that she still wants to do and a particular piece of advice that keeps her going.

[0:18] Alina Alcántara: This is the FINAL FIVE.

[0:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: So, Miss Alina, if you could have any other job outside of the arts, what would it be?

[0:33] Alina Alcántara: Hmm. I'm surprised that I have to think about this, because I'm kind of doing what I dreamt of doing when I was a kid. But let's see. Just for the fun of it, I'm going to tap into back into my inner child, back into little Alina in New York. She would say that she wanted to be a ballet dancer or an oceanographer. Those are two very different. But legit, those were the things that I would say. I want to be a ballet dancer and an oceanographer.

[1:06] Patrick Oliver Jones: And it's so good.

[1:07] Alina Alcántara: So you've always had a connection to marine life and to the water.

[1:12] Alina Alcántara: Yeah, I always have this fascination with marine life. I probably am not as connected or you know, caught up and informed as I was as a child. But yes, I had an extreme fascination with marine life as a child. Like I was just that kid watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I know, I know, I know you know what I'm talking about.

[1:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: That just dated both of us.

[1:44] Alina Alcántara: It did. But we're ageless.

[1:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: Exactly.

[1:48] Alina Alcántara: I know all things. I've seen all things. Yes, Dorian Gray has nothing on us.

[1:52] Patrick Oliver Jones: Dorian Gray has nothing on us at all.

[1:55] Alina Alcántara: But I would say outside of the arts, perhaps something as an oceanographer studying marine life, something involved in the study of animal life. Because I'll still catch myself watching Discovery or Animal Planet or Nat Geo or something.

[2:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh, yeah.

[2:11] Alina Alcántara: I'm still watching Animal Planet all the time.

[2:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: So I love it as well. Shark Week.

[2:16] Alina Alcántara: Shark Week is coming down.

[2:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Now, to number two, what is a bucket list role or show that you still have yet to do?

[2:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[2:33] Alina Alcántara: Just because she's such a freaking diva. God, she's too much. Let's see who else. And I would love to play Mrs. Potts.

[2:42] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yes.

[2:41] Alina Alcántara: I would love to play Mrs. Potts. And it's a bit of a gender bender, and I would probably have to take tap lessons for this, but I would love to be Genie in Aladdin.

[2:53] Patrick Oliver Jones: Now, see, I think that would be fun to have a female, especially like a woman of color, to have that kind of energy brought into Genie.

[3:02] Alina Alcántara: I think that could be really fun. And you're noticing a bit of a Disney vein. I've mentioned two Disney musicals so far. And I'm gonna mention another one because the truth is that it's there, and crazy as it sounds, I would love to be Rafiki in The Lion King.

[3:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh, why not? That's a great part.

[3:18] Alina Alcántara: Yeah.

[3:19] Alina Alcántara: But yeah, and I'm like thinking. I mean, there are so many different things.

[3:22] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, I thought there's so many different things.

[3:24] Alina Alcántara: I think you've given it.

[3:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: So basically what you're saying is there's a lot you still want to do.

[3:31] Alina Alcántara: Uh-huh.

[3:31] Patrick Oliver Jones: I totally get that. Let's do it.

[3:33] Patrick Oliver Jones: So number three, who is it that you look up to? A mentor or someone who has inspired you along the way.

[3:41] Alina Alcántara: Well, he popped into my head, so I think that he should be mentioned. My very, very dear friend Juan Cantu.

[3:48] Alina Alcántara: He was my music director for In the Heights the very first time that I did it. And in the last, I would say in the last two to three years, we've become very close friends. He also began his career. He began young. He began practically out of high school and has quite a lot of experience and has given me so much advice on this journey.

[4:17] Alina Alcántara: He has helped me, coached me. He has been a mentor in many ways, a mentor, a confidant. And he inspires me.

[4:27] Alina Alcántara: Yeah. So I hope that he hears this so he knows that. And because I know that he's all that and more to me. And I know many people in this local community and practically around the world, because another person myself included.

[4:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, myself. I've worked with him as well. He's a wonderful performer and much like you, one of those people that's really inspiring and uplifting and supportive of people that he works with.

[4:57] Patrick Oliver Jones: So number four, name a lesson or a trait that has taken you a while to learn, or even one that you're still working on to this day.

[5:07] Alina Alcántara: To just let it go.

[5:09] Alina Alcántara: Yeah, and that applies to so many things. You know, people go and talk, hate is gonna hate, as they say. To learn to just let it go. There, you know, and I don't know if it was Dita Von Teese or somebody who said that you could be the juiciest ripest peach on the tree, and it's still gonna be one fool that don't like peaches. You know, so it's just let it go. Let it go. That okay, it wasn't a good audition, just let it go. Thought the callback was going to go great, but you bombed it, let it go. Oh, cast announcement was made, oh, you're not in that cast, oh, let it go. Don't dwell on it. Seriously, and that's something that I am still learning because we take things personally. It's hard not to because we put ourselves in the room. It's us, and we're giving our interpretation, ourselves in that song, and it's tough not to take it personally.

[5:27] Alina Alcántara: Yeah, it's like okay, release it, let it go on to the next one. It is, yeah, so I'm still, it's a work in progress. Some moments it's easier to do than others, but yeah, that is still a work in progress. That is still something I'm learning every day.

[6:17] Patrick Oliver Jones: So then number five, here we are, last one. What is the best advice you have received? This could be for the arts or just in life in general.

[6:17] Alina Alcántara: My goodness, there are a couple nuggets that I could throw out. I would say I'm going to share this one in particular just because of the nature of our conversation. For my fellow artists out there, it's not our job to tell ourselves no. We get enough of that from the other side of the table. Don't tell yourself no. Don't typecast yourself out so quick. Don't, yeah, that before you've even contemplated. No, no, it's not your job to tell yourself no. Just show up.

[7:02] Alina Alcántara: Leave that for somebody else. That's not your job. You hear that enough out there on the other side of things. There's no need to be saying that to yourself.

[7:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, I think that's great because so many times we limit ourselves. And the casting directors, the people that we're in front of, they'll do that for us. If we're not right for that particular production, they'll let us know. But our job is to be like, you know what? I can do that. And here's what I can bring to that. And here you go, and showcase that.

[7:34] Alina Alcántara: And yeah, keep saying yes to the things that mean something to you. If an audition pops out, yeah.

[7:40] Alina Alcántara: That's something that I have to remind myself of. You know, I'm like, I mean, I guess I could do that, but they're not gonna cast me. They're looking for someone shorter, younger, or this or that, or so guilty as charged.

[7:54] Patrick Oliver Jones: Guilty.

[7:54] Alina Alcántara: Michael Jackson saying it best. You are not alone, as I'm telling you.

[8:00] Alina Alcántara: Yeah, I am here with you.

[8:02] Alina Alcántara: I'm here with you, babe.

[8:05] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yes.

[8:09] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, I certainly hope you enjoyed our conversation together. Alina and I go way back, and it's always a great time to get to talk to her. Join me next month as I talk with Broadway creatives from producer Hal Luftig to composer Andrew Lippa.

[8:23] Patrick Oliver Jones: I'm your host, Patrick Oliver Jones, reminding you that the reasons for not making it may be frustrating and disappointing, but the reasons to keep on going are even more numerous and rewarding.