Meet Julia Cassandra Smith (Nina Rosario)
Meet Julia Cassandra Smith (Nina Rosario)If you won $96,000 from the lottery, what would you do with it?
“If I won the lotto tomorrow, well I know I wouldn’t bother going on no spending spree…” I would donate half of it to the LGBT It Gets Better Project. I’ve seen many of my best friends struggle with all of the prejudice and hate that still comes with being gay. No one should have to live in fear and shame about who they are. And I would donate the other half to the Arts Action Fund. All over the country, schools are struggling to keep arts education as a part of the curriculum. Art is such an essential part of a child’s development and growth – I know having a creative outlet certainly made a world for difference for myself!
Who’s someone in your life that’s not blood related, but who you consider to be family?
Some of the people I’m closest to in the world aren’t necessarily people I’m related to. There’s the family that we are born into, and then there’s the family we get to choose. They’re both equally important to me. I have some truly amazing friends that have stuck by me through the best and worst of times and that’s what family does for each other.
What was your neighborhood like when you were growing up? What’s that neighborhood like now?
I actually grew up across the street from Annadel State Park in Northern California! I never even realized how lucky I was until I was older, but it was amazing having all of that nature right outside my front door. Now, the area is a little bit more urbanized. There were a lot fewer houses when I lived there, but in the past few years they’ve built in some new developments, so it’s more populated than before, but still just as magical.
What’s your favorite photo from your childhood? What’s your family’s favorite photo?
One of mine and my family’s favorite photos is of me and my sister when I was a toddler and she was 9 or 10. We’re sitting on the couch laughing at each other, absolutely carefree. Years later, when we were both adults, we unintentionally recreated the same picture. My mom noticed the similarity between the two and gave us a frame of both pictures side by side, young us and older us, a couple of Christmases ago. A lot has changed between the first picture and the second, but some things will always stay the same!
Do you have a favorite moment in the play?
It’s incredibly hard to pick just one favorite moment in the show, but if I had to, I would probably choose the finale. There are so many beautiful scenes and songs, but the finale gets me every time. It’s just such a perfect coming together of the entire show and it’s central theme of home and togetherness. I basically start crying every time I hear it, but don’t tell anyone I said that…
What do you connect to in this story?
When I saw this show on Broadway six years ago, I had no idea how much I would one day connect to it and especially how much I would connect to “Nina,” the character I play. The emotions she feels are so real and so close to home for me. The first song she sings in the show, “Breathe,” is something I’ve felt and experienced almost word-for-word and I can’t think of a more perfect way for me to serve my community than by sharing something with them that I can sincerely portray. This show is so relatable for people on so many levels and it’s such a gift to be a part of that!
How do you prepare to work on a project like this?
Preparing for a show like this takes a lot of work. The first thing I always do is read the play. Then I read it again. Then one more time. Each time I read it, I gain more insight into the little details of everyone’s stories and where my character fits into all of it. Then I document all of the information the script gives me about who my character is and find the clues about how my character’s relationships work. Then it’s my job to fill in all the gaps that aren’t given to me by the script, even things as simple as my character’s middle name and date of birth. And then there are big parts of my character’s life that I need to be well versed in so that I can play her to the best of my ability. For example, my character, Nina, is coming home from her first year at Stanford University, so I had to figure out exactly what the process of applying to Stanford was like. What kinds of grades and classes would she have needed to get in? What is she planning on studying once she’s there? What was her social life like while she was there? Everything she says and does onstage has to come from somewhere: I have to figure out what experiences she’s had that make her who she is today. Just like you and me, this character has a whole life and story that goes beyond just what the audience gets to see in those two and a half hours onstage and it’s my job to figure out what that life and story is.
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