The following is a transcript of our four-minute “Behind the Curtain” interview with Allison Taylor, who plays Vanessa in our upcoming production of In The Heights.

I hope people find something that goes beyond a sense of community. I hope it it creates understanding.

Hello, my name is Allison, or Ali for short. I am playing the part of Vanessa in In the Heights. Vanessa is a go-getter. She is strong but fierce and stunningly beautiful. I really admire Vanessa. She comes from a background where her family isn’t as supportive as they need to be. It’s a really demanding and confusing background and she has a lot of courage to step out of that and try and find something better for herself, and I really admire that about her, and that’s something that I want to take into my everyday life.

My first experience with In the Heights was when I was a little girl. I was in a theater gala and some of the older kids were performing “96,000” for the gala, and I remember watching them perform it and specifically when they got to Vanessa’s part, it was just so captivating! The music… how everything layered on top of each other… I was taken away.

video clip from Sitzprobe rehearsal
(Vanessa singing) I win the lottery. You never see me again. Usnavi: Damn, we only joking. Keep broken. Vanessa: I’ll be downtown in my studio… (music fades)

Immediately I went home and I was like, I have to learn everything about this show and know everything about it. And my family, we often went to the music store to get music books and CDs. So we went there and we got the piano music, sheet music, for In the Heights and it was a concert in my life after that. In the Heights means a lot to me. I come from a family of Filipino immigrants, and when my family came over, they came with basically nothing—just money and hopes and dreams of something better. And as a third-generation immigrant, it means so much to me because they they—my family—did so much so that I could have what I have now. When you’re living in a place where your culture isn’t dominant, you can feel left out or alone. And that’s where your community comes in. It’s beautiful to have people around you, your family, that sense of community to make you feel like your dreams are attainable when you feel like you’re alone.

I think the cast and community honestly started before rehearsals, even in the audition process. We were trying to learn choreography, like 10 minutes before we had to go and perform it in the audition, and everyone was helping and supportive. Since rehearsals have started, that sense of community is still the same, which I love.

When you’re talking about theater, there’s a phrase that “there’s no small role.” And I love that phrase, because this cast, this show, the production team, everybody is so collaborative together in creating this show. We’re all focusing on one goal, and that one goal is to put on a great show.

I hope people find something that goes beyond a sense of community. I hope it it creates understanding. In the Heights gives you a glimpse into a small corner of the world that you learn is expansive and full of so many stories and they might not be stories that you experience in your day-to-day life. So, I hope people leave appreciating other people’s stories. Part of what makes America so wonderful is that there’s a lot of different cultures in one area, and you have to give those cultures the room to flourish. That’s what makes the world beautiful.

We would love it if you came to see In the Heights. It’s running May 16th through June 6th at the Saratoga Civic Theater.

Video credits:
Director of Photography: Jared McDaniel (@jafikitv); Editor: Lex Rosenberg (@thatlexplays); Makeup/Hair: Aishy Panwar (@aishwarya.panwarya)