Friends, as you know, I'm co-producing Real Women Have Curves the musical now on Broadway,

and at the heart of that story is Anna, an 18-year-old daughter of immigrants, the only U.S. citizen in her family,

who is desperate to go to college and pursue her dreams. Her older sister, Estella, who has

talent and ambition she is pouring into the family's garment business, and their mother, Carmen,

who is laser-focused on keeping her family together. The love and tension among these three women is the

engine that propels the storytelling and is brought to life every night by the mega-talented

Tatiana Cordoba as Anna Florensia Cuenca as Estella and Tony nominated Justina Machado as

Carmen. We're going to talk about what goes into building a character and originating a role, a rare

and very special experience, and what rushes through their minds each night as they disrobe

in front of a thousand strangers. Hi, friends.

Hi.

I feel like I have the whole family here, like a family reunion.

You know, Justina, I had not realized that you played Anna, the daughter, in an earlier part of your career.

I was doing a play at the Latino Chicago Theater, and Josefina Lopez was there, and she walked into my dressing room, and she said,

there's a play about me, and we're going to do it at Victory Gardens, and I want you to play me.

And I said, okay, and then that's how it happened.

And I really didn't even understand the material,

being from Chicago, a city that's very segregated, that everybody kind of grows up in their own

neighborhood. I grew up with a lot of Mexicans in Chicago because it's a huge Mexican population,

but I didn't even know about La Migra. I had all of these Mexican friends, and I'd never heard of anything

like that at 19 years old. So that was my introduction to that world. And to me at that time,

it was just a gig. And it was like how I got my equity card. Real Women have Curves.

...