I'm Annalee Ashford.

Hi, this is Queen Leslie Bolcher.

Queen Leslie Margarita.

Hi, I'm Eden Espinoza.

Hi, I'm Laura Osnes.

I'm Katie Finneran.

Hi, I'm Tanya Pinkins and you're listening to The Theater People Podcasts. I'm Patrick Hines. I first became aware of today's guest,

Tanya Pinkins, back in 2004. 2004 was an excellent year on Broadway for people like me who basically

live for the Tony Awards best leading actress in a musical category. That was the year Kristen and Adina were both up

for Wicked, alongside Donna Murphy for Wonderful Town, Stephanie DeBruzzo for Avenue Q, and Tanya Pinkins for

Carolina Change. It was, as the New York Times put it, the best Tony fight in years. Adina

Vinsett would eventually win, of course, but what got me interested in Tanya that year,

besides her performance, was the way she talked about Carolina change. The show's themes of racial and economic inequality set against

a backdrop of the 1960s civil rights movement wasn't perky and fun like the other shows in her

category, but the story and its message were personal for Tanya. It's that same sort of passion

that brought her back to Broadway this season in Holler If You Hear Me, a mostly rap-through musical featuring music, lyrics, and poetry of Tupac Shakur.

Though the show tells a specific narrative story, for Tanya, what makes the show unique and vitally important is the way it shines a light on the blackmail experience in America.

It took less than a minute of talking to her for me to realize that this is not just a talking point for her.

Listening to Tanya talk about the conversations, holler if you hear me is starting, why the show,

even if it isn't perfect, is absolutely necessary and why the story needs to be told now, I kept

thinking to myself, yes, yes, this conversation is exactly why we wanted to create the podcast in the

first place. I was nervous to meet and interview someone of Tanya's stature, and I was surprised when I listened

...