Hilary Maiberger (HM) and Darick Pead (DP) are performing in Jakarta next month and today they were in Jakarta, giving a meet-and-greet session with journos. I (AP) happened to have an exclusive interview with them and here is the excerpt just for you.
AP: “What are the lessons that you want the Indonesian audience to learn from the musical?”
HM: “Staying true to yourself, don’t try to be someone else because they’re popular. And your uniqueness is what makes you special.” DP: “One of the important lesson is to look at somebody for who they are. Especially nowadays, people tend to see how you look and that’s not important honestly. It comes down to the person that you are.”
AP:”When was your happiest and lowest moment during the tour?” DP: “The happiest is when we met the writer of Beauty and The Beast, Linda Woolverton, in Los Angeles. We were so amazed because we performed her work in stage. Maybe my crazy experience was when we were in Arkansas and the bus with the entire cast got stuck on a mountain because of snowing. But finally a limo came and picked us up to the nearest town.”
HM: “My happiest moment is in LA at the Pentages when I first saw Beauty and The Beast when I was 10 years old, that was when I saw the Braodway shows. I was like a kid all over again. I never imagined that I’d be there. My lowest moment (is) my little sister just had her first baby and I can’t be there.”
AP: “What can you tell to kids out there who whope to be involved in a world-class musical like this and to be actors like you both?” HM: “Be yourself! Have fun! And work hard! Haha…”
DP: “And I’d say most importantly, be kind to those you work with. People don’t want to work with people they don’t like.”
AP: “Apart from lots of rehearses and all the routines, what do you do in your spare time to stay balanced and sane because it must be stressful?”
HM: “I love to go shopping, do girly things like that, playing by the pool, really doing nothing, reading. Decompress, like a normal person. Haha.”
DP: “I play guitar and I learn to play it. I bought one that’s very skinny and thin and so easy to travel. I like to read and watch movies. Lots of movies.”
AP: “Have you been in the situation when things don’t go the way it is supposed to on stage, and how did you handle the awkward situation so the audience din’t notice something wrong is happening?”
HM: ”Awkward things happen every night because it’s live. Something always happens. During my first year of tour, I may not have passed it and beat myself up and then over the years I’ve learned that I’m human. I make mistakes. Things go wrong. You just got to move on.” DP: “Sometimes the audience notice, sometimes they don’t . You just have to go through your job and we have a great crew and orchestra and cast. So when something goes wrong, I feel safe because I feel I’m in good hands.”
AP: “How long will you work as performers? After you quit, do you have any plan?”
HM: “ I’d never lived in New York and never experienced the New York theater scenes so I’d love to dive into that and see what it has to offer. If not, I’d love to teach. I love teaching the voice and singing.”
DP: “Lots of possibilities. Especially moving to NYC. From there, I’d love to do films, theatre, all kinds of things. Someday I’ll have my own band…”
AP: “What do you both usually do right after a long tour?”
DP: “I’ll go hang out with my family.”
HM: “I’m at home with that couch with chips and my family around me watching movies and just talking.”
AP: “What’s the line that your characters speaks and you like most?” HM: “I like:’So I know how it feels to be different and I know how lonely that can be…’ It’s a long line but she says it’s ok to be a little different. Everything is gonna be ok.”
DP: “I like it when Beast says:’What did you say? like 4-5 times to Beauty.’
AP: “Along the tour, have you seen the best audience? Where and when was it?” HM: “Every audience have different energy every night but definitely there was audiences in Bangkok that was just ..
DP: “Bangkok… and Singapore. (We were) blown away.”
AP: “Do you have any personal stuff to bring along on tour that you cannot live without?”
DP: “Hmm… My passport? Haha. My guitar, something that I really love and am really sad when I don’t have it. And my computer to watch all my movies!”
HM: “I have a couple of jewelry pieces from my parents and friends.”
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