Thalia Atallah auditioned for Anastasia’s National Tour her senior year at UCLA. After submitting videos singing Journey to the Past, In My Dreams, pointe work, she booked the ensemble dance track and understudy role for Anya her last week as a student at UCLA.
Between her ensemble track and the role of Anya there were many differences. She notes the main focus of her ensemble track was the dancing and a lot of quick changes. She received three weeks of rehearsal in which she honed in on her dancing ballet and high soprano notes.
For Anya as an understudy, Thalia received three rehearsals. She recognizes that a lot of it was on her to work on it independently rather than with creatives.
“I really created Anya for myself and my ensemble track was more curated in a rehearsal room with the cast. Anya has those big songs, she has that big character arc that she goes on so you have to focus on that when you’re on for Anya,” she said.
To develop the chemistry of Dmitry and Anya, Thalia didn’t have the same rehearsals or moments to build the relationship the way she would if she did the show every night. Most of the time, she performed as Anya with Willem Butler as Dmitry .
“What was cool with Willem was stepping into the role, it honestly was a matter of really listening to each other. If you do a show every night you know how the line is going to go, and you kind of can get a gist for the flow of the scene, but with a new person stepping in you really have to listen to how the line is being delivered, listen to the emotion coming from each other and the tempo. You have to find that chemistry in the moment which I think is actually pretty cool. It keeps things fresh, it keeps you on your toes,” she said.
However, her last time playing Anya was with Dakota Hoar who was debuting as Dmitry .
"He also had a few rehearsals like I had so that was a really cool experience to really create something new together on that stage in front of an audience and really feel grounded while Dakota was leaning on me,” she said.
Thalia recalls seeing Anastasia when it was on Broadway. It was her second Broadway musical she’d ever seen. She remembers setting in the audience during Journey to the Past crying.
“ I was in the third row thinking this is just so beautiful so something that was super rewarding about taking it on the road was bringing that experience to others every night,” she said.
As for Anya, Thalia says she was nervous to do this initially. It was her first time understudying, first national tour and first role of that magnitude on a tour playing the title character. Once she got there and felt so much support from her cast and creatives, she was able to really go out there and just do it.
“I just felt like Anya, I found my own strength, I found that perseverance and that fire. I feel like I brought a lot of me into the character so knowing that I can do that, and that whatever role I step into bringing myself into it like you can do that. That was a huge learning lesson for me,” she said.
Ballet was one of the classes at UCLA that was essential for Thalia when on tour. In the ensemble, she danced on pointe. While she is trained in ballet and pointe during high school she focused more on jazz, tap, musical theater, hip hop. In the UCLA program, freshmen and sophomores are required to take ballet three days a week for an hour and a half. Then, junior and senior year you can add in jazz and tap.
“ I really had to be patient because I really wanted to do jazz and tap but they only offered so much ballet. Now looking back I’m so grateful for that. I honestly don’t think I would’ve booked Anastasia without improving my ballet as much as I did in UCLA,” she said.
During her freshman year, Thalia took classes that taught her what a stage manager does, what a lighting designer does, and what a costume designer does. She notes that when you travel with a company like that and you are friends, basically family with everyone involved in the production it’s important to have an understanding of what everyone’s doing.
Her advice for musical theater students is find what makes you, you in this industry, what makes you happy, what makes you feel the most yourself and show that in your work, show that in the audition room and find that confidence.
“Auditioning can feel so vulnerable but if you just rewire your thinking as like this is me showing you me, and that’s a gift. This is a mutual exchange of you watching me, me showing you, you really have to walk into those audition rooms and feel grounded and find that confidence,” she said.
She also wants understudies to know that there’s a reason they were chosen to play the role as well.
“ Never feel like you’re underwhelming or letting anyone down the second you step on stage and trusting yourself if you don’t get the same amount of rehearsals as someone else. Trust that there’s a reason you were cast in this part and you got it and you are just as amazing as anyone else and that’s why you’re playing the role too,” she said.
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