Transcription for Fullerton College Fine Arts Department

Alumni Interviews

Eden Espinosa: My name is , I was born and raised in

Orange County, California and I grew up in a very music household and always attending things of the arts and music was always around. I was in dance and music lessons and children’s theater. I went to high school at

Canyon High School in Anaheim Hills and my senior year in high school I started working at Disney and doing shows and singing there. After I graduated I started school at Fullerton College and was enrolled in all the general ed classes as well as electives and as time went on I sort of, little by little started leaving my general ed classes and just taking more and more theater audition technique classes and choir and BRAVO and all sorts of art classes. From there I went to Japan for awhile and worked on a cruise ship I did everything you could possibly do in California as a singer or an actress. In 2002 I moved to New York and I’ve been living there for the past almost four years. I made my Broadway debut as the stand by for

Idena Menzel in the show and I also did another show that I created the character of Brooklyn, and its called Brooklyn the Musical. I am now back home, a very sweet homecoming and am currently playing

Elphaba in the LA company of Wicked.

Fullerton College, I think I sort of, I put it up on a pedestal sort of, because in high school I was in show choir and we would go to the Fullerton Jazz Festival, and my later years in high school I joined drama and we’d go the

The Thespian Festival, the Theater Festival and I would see the students there perform for us, I’d see Bravo perform and I’d just watch them go and “O my gosh, they’re so cool, they’re so cool, they’re so good” and John

Tibay who’s a teacher at Fullerton College has been a family friend of my family for a very long time and he was a part of the church where my father was on staff and so they would put on productions for Easter and

Christmas and our church had they’re own record company so they would make these albums and then perform them live, John and his wife Debbie were always featured soloists and so I would always wait till I was old enough to be in Bravo cause I looked at them and they were “doing it,” what I wanted to do and were being successful and he happened to teach, so I always wanted to be apart of his class.

First people that come mind are my parents, I mean they’ve always been so supportive and just there with enough of the guiding hand but not so much to smother me or to make me feel like they were forcing me to do a certain thing and at first school to be honest wasn’t on my, I didn’t want to go, but I went for them to Fullerton and at the beginning it was a big struggle but they’re a huge part of who I am today.

An average week for an actress in an eight show a week schedule whether it e on Broadway or a national tour or Chicago or LA, is crazy. I remember when I first found out what the Broadway schedule was or theater schedule was. I remember thinking “O my gosh that is sweet, all you have to do is show up to work for a few hours a night and twice in one day, that’s not to bad, you get your days free” but I’m here to tell you that its not. No, it’s really hard. It’s a lot of work especially when you have a role as big as the one that I’m doing now as Elphaba in Wicked. It’s do the show, go home, go to bed, seriously lounge around all day taking it easy, maybe go to an exercise class maybe take a meeting here or there or whatever you need to do, but its very, you’re very much a slave to the show and there is very few things that you can do outside that I personally can do outside. I’m very choosy and picky and I remember when I was a stand by for Idena, I asked her “so you know, what do you do during the day?” and she goes, “Eden, I sit on the couch and watch TV and get ready fro the show, I go do the show, I come home and I watch TV and recover from the show,” I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s really a strict lifestyle, that’s really, gosh” and as soon as I started doing more than a couple performances in a row, like a whole week or two and then months and months, I was just like, she was absolutely right. So, it’s very boring and its not a glamorous lifestyle, but its incredibly rewarding, and I wouldn’t trade it or the world.

Being apart of wicked is an incredible blessing, it really is. Ever show that you are apart of can’t all be hits, and this one happens to be a huge success and I get letters everyday from kids, from adults, from girls, from boys, whether it be people make fun of me at school cause I don’t look like everybody else, or people make fun of me cause my name is different, and me personally, I was made fun of as a child as well for my name being different, nobody ever heard of it, or I was extremely tall, so I personally can relate to my character as well and I can really tap into that awkward, o gosh, everyone’s staring at me, type of feeling. But I have a gallery of pictures that kids have drawn me and signs saying, “we love you Eden” or

“Elphaba’s great” and all sorts of things. I’ve had, on a more serious level, children who were suicidal feeling the death of their parent was their fault since a young age. There’s one moment in the show where I touch on that, where the character talks about that and is talking to Glenda about it and its just amazing how one little moment can bring someone out of such a dark place and bring them light and hope and to feel that and to know that going out there is, I don’t even really know how to describe it cause its amazing.

The through line of my character of my character in the show is, its an amazing journey. I like when, since Wicked’s been around for so long, not so long but for awhile now, there’s still a lot of people who haven’t seen it.

I like it when people say, I’ll never look at the Wicked Witch of the West the same again, which it makes me feel good, just knowing I could make someone’s point of view change on something, and that’s what the whole show’s about. Its about being perceived as one thing just because you look a certain way or politics media making something out to be something that its really not and everyone just buying into it because that’s what they say, but the journey for me as Elphaba is, I think coming to terms with who she is and finding love in a best girlfriend and also in a man, which she’s never had before, not even from her father, sort of from here sister, she’s never had the personal connection with anyone, so when someone finally gives it to her after treating her poorly, she holds onto it for dear life, it means the world to here, that friendship with Glinda. Its amazing to take the journey together, and I. Ever night, we have such a great time.

I haven’t, I don’t think I’ve really had an issue with separating personal life and professional life, the only time I can think of where it would come into play, which was a struggle with me, is when you are creating a new piece in New York and you’ve been working on it for so long and you are so invested emotionally and you put… Performing is a crazy thing. You put yourself out there in front of everybody because its something you love to do, but at the same time, you can be loved, hated, ridiculed, critiqued and everyone ahs an opinion and that’s the only time that I let it negatively affect my personal life and I had to tell myself, “Not everyone’s going to like you, they don’t have to like you, not everybody has to like you, you’re doing your job” and that’s a hard thing for me to be able to,

“Its just your job, you’re doing it every night and whether they like you r not, its ok. You’re gonna be alright.” But I think that as long as you have a good foundation of your circle of friends or people you choose to have in your life then its your job just like anybody else has a job, you have to view it as that, in a business and you’re work and business can sometimes be cruel and not fun and rigorous; so some days its gonna be great and some days its gonna not, but its what you have to do, its your job.

People think once you’ve done a certain, you know, once you’ve made your

Broadway debut or you’ve been fortunate enough to be in a successful show then you’ve made it and you’re famous in New York and people know your name and you’re on an original cast album but the truth is shows close and contracts end and when it ends, I’m right back in the same unemployment pool as everybody else, but when I do have a job I, every second I’m on that stage is never grocery list, its never, “O gosh. I just don’t feel very good today and I don’t feel like doing it,” because there are those days that you don’t feel like doing it and as much as you love it, but I just value the time that I have and I have a lot of integrity for my job and for my craft and something I’ve earned along my journey of auditioning and having, being put out there and people telling me, “Well you know, you’re a great singer, but your acting’s not up to par, you’re not the whole package” type thing is, I think I’m true to myself and my own sound and my own way and that once I became okay with that, is when I started booking jobs.. And so I hold onto that, who I am and this is what you’re gonna get and if it is not the right fit for this then its not the right fit and I’m okay with that.

Whenever I’m asked the question or what advice do you have or if I do a talk back and I talk to a group of kids after the show, I always say, as harsh as it sounds, if there’s something else you want to do, if there’s like “O I want to do theater and I want to be a stylist,” I would do the other thing. If you have a B plan then do the B plan, because, like I said before,

I’ve never done the TV film thing, I’ve done one guest spot on TV thing, but the theater aspect the eight shows a week, the Broadway run is very blue collar and its hard, hard work and its not as; I know you walk into the theater and you see the show and you leave the theater, you’re going

“Wow” but its so much more than that and if it is something that is something if its your passion and your love then go for it and chase your dream and do it. I’m living proof that you can do it anyone can do it.

When I moved to New York, it wasn’t an “Okay I’ll give it a shot for a year and if it doesn’t happen I’ll go home,” I have friends that have been living there for five years and have still never booked anything and that’s how much of a struggle it is to break into it. I happen to be very lucky with my journey in New York and blessed with doors that opened for me, but if you do chase it, and follow your dream I encourage people to just really search inside and find that thing that makes you unique and will make you stand out and the mistake that I made when I was younger and I was green and I, well, no pun intended, I didn’t know any better and on the

West coast you don’t get to see life, you get the cast recording you don’t get to see what happens so, I would just copy exactly what I would hear and I’d always get, “Well, we don’t want you to sound just like the recording” but they wouldn’t give me any other feedback other than that, they’re not gonna help you out any other than that, but you need to bring what you would bring to the character so they can see you and I encourage people to just find that something that, “I know that I have this , that none of these girls have:” And it may not be the right thing but at least they’re gonna remember you that way so I just say, find what sets you apart from everybody else and bring it into the room immediately when you walk in.

I mean the whole thing is amazing, it really is, but like I said before there are days that actually getting here is hard. You’re tired and you’re, whatever the issue may be, sometimes its like “O gosh” but once I run out on that stage and make my first entrance, its such a roller coaster ride and its just seamless, you don’t have time to think about, “O I wish I was on my couch, which is never the case,” but I think that just the live aspect of every night being different and every audience is different and its gives you the opportunity to really, to try different things and really express yourself as a different person. I would react differently than Elphaba would, but being that person for two and a half almost three hours and having a different audience every night its so great to find the different ways of that person and I love discovering those things and I’ve been with the show on and off for almost four years and I’m still discovering new things which is great cause it never gets old for me and then in turn it never gets old for people that have seen it time and time again. It keeps the show alive which is good.

Its an incredible historic theater, I mean, so many amazing things have happened here for so many years, its on Hollywood Boulevard and stars are down the way right in front of the theater, so for me growing up in

California and knowing the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the stars and

Hollywood Boulevard and the Pantages Theater its incredible, I mean its, I couldn’t ask for a better venue, I couldn’t ask for a better vehicle to bring me back home. I’m a very blessed and luck girl.