Hi, I'm Caroline Bowman, and I'm Austin Colby, and we're talking
to Playbill about Disney's Frozen North American tour.
So 18 months ago, we were in Portland and that was March of twenty.
Twenty, right. Eighteen months ago. Who feels like a lifetime ago.
So we had just done our first weekend in Portland.
We did a five show weekend, and we got into the second week
and we did two shows that week and shut down in Portland.
Actually, I didn't do those two shows because I was very sick
and we heard like grumblings of something might be happening, but obviously
none of us ever thought it would be to this extreme.
We love this show with all of our hearts.
And I know for me personally,
this is one of the greatest experiences of my career.
And I feel like at that moment on the tour, we were just starting
to kind of get our groove and to have it
just like the rug pulled out from under us so abruptly.
At first, it was confusing and
exciting to have a little break.
You know, I was like two weeks off. Great.
Well, sound fantastic after two weeks.
And then once it started to set in that it was longer than that,
I really felt quite lost.
It was devastating.
We do a good job of trying to stay positive and find
the light and things and we had each other.
And so that's the greatest blessing.
But I know that there were just days when I would turn to him
and I was like, just so sad.
It's just was really sad.
You know, we worked really hard in this industry
to be ready when opportunity presents itself.
And so in a sense that it really becomes
I don't think it defines us.
We are like we are much more than just actors.
But it does hold a huge peace in our heart because it is our passion.
And so to to lose that, to lose
that that piece of our happiness
was a challenge.
And it also created a little bit of perspective
to to remember that a lot of this film has so much more joy
that we can discover.
But we are so well after discovering that we are
so thrilled to have audiences back and have our jobs back.
And we're holding on to it really tight.
It's like every moment is so precious and we feel that on stage.
And I know the audience feels that I can feel them.
They want to be here just as much as we do, maybe more than ever, which is like,
so what a gift to be in theater right now and be doing this right now.
I'm going to cry.
It's like just we're so grateful.
When we got married, we we signed up to be life partners
and then to have a potential to work together with the auditions.
We got really excited about that and and more time together.
And then we also had to prepare for the potential
disappointment of us not getting it. But we did get it.
And so that was great.
And then we were hitting our stride loving tour and then
exploring a pandemic together,
knowing that we are both mourning what we what we temporarily lost.
And now together, celebrating what we're we're getting back and
being a teammate both on and off stage.
I wish more people could have seen what it was like
just walking in the room and seeing everyone and, you know,
knowing that we're all vaccinated and we all had a negative Covid test.
But still with masks on, big hugs,
you know, trying trying to catch up
how how somebody else 18 months have been.
And it's it's too much to unpack.
But fortunately, our company.
The first day had us circle up and say who we are.
We introduce ourselves and also say where we're coming from,
where our feelings lie in that moment.
But to hear about people's insecurities and
confidence, low confidence and trauma
and sadness and fear and all that, and then to at the end of the week here,
those same people talk about the boost that they received from each other.
That's what we were missing. We were missing each other.
I know. So I said this in the circle.
But two weeks before we started rehearsals,
I told Austin, I said, I'm going to go down into my parents basement
because we were living with my parents for the last 18 months.
Thank you, mom and dad.
I went I decided that I was going
to start running the show and like try to get it back in my bones, try to like,
you know, start flexing my muscle, my vocal cords and my muscles again.
And I was in the basement
and I was trying to like run my lines and also run my songs.
And I was so blocked and I tried it every single day.
And I went to Austin. I don't have it anymore.
It's gone like I don't believe that.
I like I just had no confidence in myself.
I was so nervous.
It was challenging, as her partner is understanding that those feelings
are completely valid and that what she's going through is so real.
Meanwhile, knowing to myself she's got this like she's going to be fine.
And she but you she's glorious.
But acknowledging acknowledging that somebody is going to be feeling something
and it doesn't matter what your view of it is.
I think that's a big takeaway from how I interact with people is
is is really hearing about their experience
from their point of view and understanding that
I'm not going to be able to feel that, but I can be here to here to listen.
And and and Caroline has been great to listen to me as well.
Adding on to what I said earlier was
we needed I needed the room, I needed my community.
I needed this cast.
I needed this company to do my job.
I can't do it without him or any of them.
We need each other.
COVID is still very real.
That is at the forefront of our thoughts a lot of the time, I know
we've always thought about our health and we've always been Usted and I are very
have always been very careful and
drink a lot of water, get a lot of sleep and take those vitamins.
But then on top of that, we are getting tested every day.
So we've been very lucky, especially working for Disney.
They're really protective of us. We feel very safe at work.
We have kids in the show and we're really, really careful around them, knowing
that there are hopefully on the verge of getting their vaccine.
But there's a lot more to to juggle, to put up a production.
But it's all worth it.
It's all worth it to be doing what we're doing.
I feel like I've never been so present in my life,
which is can be a good thing and a bad thing.
My emotions, especially right when we're opening,
we're just on the edge of like I'm always on the edge tipping point now.
So I had to reel that in a little bit because or else else
would just be an emotional mess the whole time.
And she's supposed to conceal, not feel.
So that was just really work.
But I do feel like, again, that's like such a gift to be so present.
Never going to forget this for my whole life.
I don't think anybody will hearing the mumbles in the audience.
And like I just had chills, like feeling that again.
It's it's like nothing else.
I'll never forget that. That first performance back.
Thank you for watching. And thank you, Playbill, for having us.
And make sure to catch Frozen the musical in a city near you.