S2E2: Kim Lara
In this episode, Hayley and Amy speak with performer, producer, and playwright Kimberly Lara about the lived realities of immigrant families in the United States, the importance of cultural specificity in representation, crowdsourcing feedback on new shows in development, and the transformative quality of theatre. As a bonus, we celebrate Women’s History Month by spotlighting Vinnette Justine Caroll, the first Black woman to direct a show on Broadway. Scroll down for episode notes and transcript!
Episode Notes
Guest: Kim Lara
Hosts: Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews
Music: Chloe Geller
Episode Resources:
Women’s History Month Spotlight: Vinnette Justine Caroll
Starting Up: A New Musical Comedy (directed by Women & Theatre community member Jen Wineman!)
The Musicals de Mañana at 54 Below
Theatre Twitter, created by Ayanna Prescod
Jacob’s Pillow Afro-Latin Immersion program
Guest Bio
Multi-hyphenated performer and creative, Kimberly Lara (she/her) is an American Musical and Dramatic Academy and New School Musical Theater BFA program Graduate. During her time completing her BFA, she became a contributing writer and published author for PopSugar Latina, has performed in multiple college productions, along with other works including performing with the Broadway cast of Chicago for Broadway Cares, appearing in CBS’s “The Code” and Nickelodeon’s “Club 57”, and recently performing at Jacob's Pillow as part of their first ever Afro-Latin Immersion Program. She assisted writer/composer Jesse Sanchez for "Sueños: Our American Musical" during its residency at NYTB, and now is the Associate Producer for New York Theatre Barn after taking on the role of Line Producer for NYTB’s Award-Winning New Work Series. She recently produced, co-hosted, and performed for NYTB'S Musicals De Mañana: Latin Heritage Month Celebration presentation at 54 Below this past fall. She is currently working as Associate Producer for Starting Up: A New Musical Comedy and Dorothy Dandridge: The Musical!
Find Kim Online:
Instagram: @kimberlyglara
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Episode Transcript
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to the Women & Theatre Podcast! We're your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews. Grab a cup of coffee and join us as we talk to people in the theatre industry about their experiences with womanhood.
Hayley: On the pod, we interview people with different gender identities, from different backgrounds, with varying levels of industry experience and professional roles.
Amy: Our goal is to build community and pool our collective wisdom to break down the barriers we continue to face.
(Music)
Amy: It’s Women’s History Month! Each week this month, we’re spotlighting a woman in theatre history that you should know about.
Hayley: This week, let’s talk about Vinnette Justine Caroll. Vinnette Justine Caroll was an actor, playwright, and theatre director. She performed in several Broadway plays, including the 1956 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, Small War on Murray Hill, Jolly’s Progress, and The Octoroon. Notably, she was the first Black woman to direct a show on Broadway, with the musical Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, nominated for four Tony Awards in 1972.
(Music)
Hayley: On today's episode, we sit down with multi-hyphenate performer and creative Kimberly Lara. Kim is an American Musical and Dramatic Academy and New School Musical Theater BFA program graduate. During her time completing her BFA, she became a contributing writer and published author for Pop Sugar Latina, performed in multiple college productions along with other works, including performing with the Broadway cast of Chicago for Broadway Cares, appearing in CBS’ “The Code” and Nickelodeon's “Club 57,” and recently performing at Jacob's Pillow as a part of their first ever Afro-Latin immersion program. She assisted writer-composer Jesse Sanchez for SUEÑOS: Our American Musical during its residency at New York Theatre Barn and now is the associate producer for New York Theatre Barn. She recently produced, co-hosted, and performed for New York Theatre Barn’s “Musicals De Mañana: Latin Heritage Month Celebration” presentation at 54 Below this past fall. She is currently working as associate producer for Starting Up: A New Musical Comedy and Dorothy Dandridge the Musical.
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people. We are here today with the multi-hyphenate, multi-talented Kim Lara. Kim, can you introduce yourself, share your pronouns and tell us a little bit about what you do in theatrical spaces?
Kim: Hey, my name is Kim. Pronouns - she/her, and I am a performer, a producer, a playwright…I wear a lot of hats.
Amy: Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to the theater industry and to the many, many hats you wear?
Kim: Yeah. So I actually did not grow up really into it. I sort of got into performing in secret. I did not come from a very creative, artistic family. I was in choir growing up. I would co-direct and co- choreograph and work within our musicals that we produced. I came from a very low-income school. Our musicals were on a stage in our cafeteria. My family just saw it as a hobby. A very committed hobby.
‘Cause I also was doing my AA in business while I was in school as well. So they were like, “That's what she's doing.” When you come from like... immigrant parents, you do what you can for them and whatever makes them smile when you say it. I already had some state schools lined up to go to senior year, and then it was just like…this just doesn't feel right. I need to give myself a chance. And my dad was coming to this performance – It was a show that I had co-directed, co-choreographed, and was gonna be in – and I was just like, “If this show totally sucks, I will go to business school,” but I was like, “If it's somewhat good, you have to please let me audition for a theatre school.” I think I blacked out that whole performance. I came backstage and my dad was already there.
Hayley: Oh.
Kim: And he was like, “Let's go, let's do it.” He's a tough guy, and he's someone I had to really convince to support me. I couldn't go into this or make that decision without their support. I don't know where I'd be without it today. So I only auditioned to one school, which was the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, ‘cause it was so late in the year. Before you know it, I was two weeks after graduation, moving to New York by myself.
Hayley: Wow.
Kim: So I got into it there. That was the first time I ever sang a solo, which was terrifying. In that first day of class, my professor asked, "Who's done this, this, this, and that?" and I was the only one who didn't raise my hand. I knew, “I have to be the one who works harder than everyone else.” And that also taught me to wear many hats throughout even my training. My professors saw the initiative I was taking and put me in roles as dance captain, co-director of little shows that were being put on at my school…That helped me to also professionally get a taste of those things and understand more of the offstage work before I knew the onstage. And I think it really did help me in producing the type of work I do today and the intention I have with every decision I make. I always put everyone else before me. Especially the actors, especially the storytellers, the writers, ‘cause you know, at the end of the day, it's their stories, it's their art, and we have to be there to support them. As long as I'm just a part of the process, I am happy with it.
Hayley: That's a really cool perspective. Could you tell us a little bit about what you're working on creatively right now?
Kim: Right now, I am working on Starting Up: A New Musical Comedy, that I was brought on as associate producer for - some fundraising and working on getting that to just be on its feet and play. It’s at a very early developmental stage. And so that's where I'm at with that.
Aside from producing work, I am working on a one-woman show about an experience I had growing up where I thought my mom was gonna get deported. There's no stories about what kids feel in that moment. Especially children of immigrants that were born in the United States.
I was like 15 or so. I had been raising money by selling chocolate bars for like, two years to go on this class trip to Europe. And for a lot of kids in my school, this was a big deal ‘cause a lot of us had never even left the country. And a lot of us come from low-income families, and we just never thought that would be a possibility until we were like grown up. And it was the day I sold my last chocolate bar. I was going on that trip. I was really, really excited to tell my family. I went home, and then I found that my dad was home early from work.
For a long time, we lived with my grandmother, which was basically eight people in a two-bedroom apartment. It was surprising that he was the only one there and I was the only one there. And he sat me down. My dad doesn't really sit me down for talks. And I thought I was getting the sex talk and I was freaking out. I could have never predicted the next words he was gonna say, when he was just like, "One day your mom's not gonna be here and that's okay." I couldn't process what that meant. I was like, "Is she going on a trip? Is he talking about death?” And he was like "Your mom's not a citizen, and the possibility of her being deported is very high at the moment."
And in that moment, life did stop for me – being like, I have to drop out of school, I have to get a job, I have to help my dad, I have to basically raise my siblings. That whole time period…like every day, I hugged my mom longer. She didn't know that I knew. And I'd sometimes pretend to be sick from school just so I could be here to make sure she'd come back from work, because I was scared to come back from school and her not be home. I used to call her at work all the time. And it was just a very scary moment.
I just remember overhearing them talk about needing money for a lawyer, needing money for this and this and that. And the next day, I went to my trip advisor. I lied and said, like, “My parents don't want me to go on the trip. They're scared. I'm gonna need that money back.” That same day, I just gave my parents the money. Europe will always be there. My mom is not, and I want my mom here as long as I can.
Honestly, I would've taken the news easier if my dad was to say, “Your mom's gonna be gone” and that meant she was gonna pass away. At least when someone passes away, you understand they're gone. But to know she's gone because of a law and she's just breathing, living somewhere else and I have no accessibility to her, is way more torturous.
Thankfully, she's still here with me in the United States. But you know, a lot of kids, especially like where I was from in Miami, did not know if that was gonna happen to their parents or even to them. It's something that a lot of us didn't really talk about out loud ‘cause, you know, it was also just not wanting to bring shame to our parents. Or making people think our parents aren't worthy of being here and that we're not worthy of being here. It was isolating for a lot of people, and talking about immigration is still hard. And so that's the story I'm working on. It's something I really wanna share with the world.
Hayley: Kim, thank you so much for sharing that. Would you say that sharing these types of stories is a part of a larger creative mission for you?
Kim: I would say yes. I think it does bring in a lot of what I believe in. The longer I've been in this industry, the more I've been driven to really be a part of Latin stories and support Latin artists as much as I can. Growing up, it was so hard to find representation for myself on a stage. When it comes to representation, a lot of people get confused, for example, “This brown girl played this role.” Just because you cast a diverse cast in a white story does not change the dynamic of it being a white story. It is still not our story. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in really having shows that represent a group of people and their upbringing and their culture in a way that doesn't fetishize it, exploit it, or just constantly cater to white sympathy. That's a reason why a lot of us in this industry have been fighting for recent shows that have been closing about underrepresented groups of people.
Hayley: K-Pop and Aint No Mo’ ...
Kim: Yeah. Those are stories that truly did show a group of people and like, culture and people within casts just really being themselves. For those to be the shows that were closing so suddenly, it was heartbreaking. And It also just goes into the whole problem with like, Broadway marketing and promo.
Hayley: Yeah, absolutely.
Amy: Yeah.
Kim: ‘Cause with a lot of these shows, I'd ask people, “Did you know about this?” And they’d be like, “No, I didn't even know that opened.” Who's making the decisions? Who's on the team for making those decisions? And who's speaking up for everyone?
Amy: Yeah. Given that drive and that creative mission, I think it's really cool that you are a multi-hyphenate and that you're approaching the problem from all different sides - from writing and from performing, and from producing, because those are all silos of representation. You can do a lot by approaching the problem from different angles.
Hayley: And you're already so accomplished, it's very impressive and very exciting. Do you wanna talk a little bit about “Musicals De Mañana”?
Kim: Yeah! That was a show at 54 Below that showcased seven new Latin musicals, all written and composed by Latin artists. It was just so fun to see so many Latin artists in one room and really have like, a full Latin creative team also behind it. Co-producing that with Hector, who's part of New York Theater Barn, was just such a privilege. And to be part of that stage and asked to co-host was so much fun.
Hayley: Amazing.
(Music)
Hayley: Kim, we've been talking a lot about identity and your experience as a child of an immigrant family. I'm curious about how you see womanhood as fitting into all of that and how those intersections sort of play in your life, in theatre and in general?
Kim: When it comes to womanhood, a hard lesson I've learned is putting myself first. There's always that sense of guilt and selfishness, especially when you come from such a family-driven moral compass. And of course, I still have that in mind. Everything I do, I always have my family at my core. But it has been tough. There have been tensions at times where I choose me before them. They don't understand it's for a greater picture in my mind. And it's hard. It's hard for them to unlearn that as well.
A lot of us in this generation are trying to teach our parents, unfortunately, to unlearn old generational habits and that they are coming from past traumas. Yes, they have to do with us, but we don't have to carry them with us. Especially when they were things out of our control. I think a lot of us have done a great job at addressing it and being aware of when that drives our decisions. There's a lot of unlearning that has to happen within our family, especially within women, I'd say, Latin women…have a lot of unlearning to do.
Back to the question of womanhood in theatre, I'd say generational trauma of just being a woman and being a woman of color - I do carry that with me in a room, and I always make sure there is a voice for me, that there is someone who's speaking for what we need, as whatever hat we're wearing. Especially when it comes to the vessel of the storytelling, that there is a voice saying, “This isn't right” or “This doesn't feel right” or “I heard this and this just didn't sit the way it's supposed to.”
I feel like a lot of people need to take more time in testing out and hearing feedback, especially about what works in a room and what doesn't. In a script especially, and in the story. I feel like a lot of writers sort of sit with their stories, with themselves, and think, this is gonna deliver the way it's gonna deliver. But it's like, you won't know until you see someone's face when they're watching it.
That was like, a big mission for me as a producer on Starting Up. There was a lot of sensitive jokes. For our second round of readings, I was like, “We're not gatekeeping this. I just wanna hear from the people who are gonna buy the tickets, the people who are gonna sit in the seats.” On like, Theater-Twitter…I dunno if you know about that group of people, Theater-Twitter, created by the iconic Ayanna Prescod, who I love and adore. And I blasted it on there, and a lot of people responded back and a lot of people came. They were very excited, and a lot of people were like, “I've never been to a reading like this.”
Hayley: That's really cool that you invited the theatre- going public to a show in development. I have not heard of a lot of people taking that approach.
Amy: That's so cool. It's like…a focus group, almost. A thing that we've been talking a lot about is ways to bring support for developmental processes and create pipelines for developing new musicals or new shows written by new voices, written from diverse perspectives. And I think it's such a cool concept. I mean, the same way that some shows do, like, a concept album that they'll release before a show to get the target audience on board, so they can really help to shape the show.
Hayley: Yeah it's a really innovative approach.
Amy: I think it’s awesome, yeah.
Kim: I even invited students from AMDA, just different groups of people. Especially because the show addresses a lot of generations within its jokes, within the concepts. And it was very interesting to hear what landed for some age groups and what didn't. It was very nice to get that feedback, and I think a lot of producers should take that approach. I just don't understand the concept of making readings exclusive. It's one of the most exciting parts of the developmental process. It's so new and it can go in any direction. I do wanna continue to invite theatregoers and those who are just interested in hearing new stories. Even when you see a show in previews and then you see it open, it's like, “Oh, that's not the version I saw.” And knowing you were part of that first experience.
Hayley: It's such a great way to build a deep relationship with the community. It's so smart. You see all these like, TikTok musicals and stuff coming out. And I think that the reason that some of those were so successful and so viral was that people felt like they were a part of the creative process. And you're kind of replicating that within the structure of theatre making as it is. So I just think that's really, really cool.
Amy: Yeah, that people are invested. Not financially invested, but like, personally invested in the telling of this story.
Kim: And I think because it was free, it made it much more accessible for people. It was one of those like, “Come if you want.” And a lot of people were sharing about it on Theater-Twitter, being like, “Thank you for this. People should go see this.” Someone even made a TikTok that was sharing their experience and how much they loved it. People are talking about Starting Up, and that's what I wanted to spark up at the end of the day.
Amy: Cool. We've already been touching on the topic of changes that you'd like to see and that you are actively making happen in the theatre industry, which I love. Are there any other big-picture changes that you want to see or be a part of in the theatre industry?
Kim: I just wanna be a part of more fun, genuine stories. I think the world's been pretty tough on us as human beings, and a lot of stories have been really tough. And, you know, they're real stories and they're stories of struggle, stories of hardship. But I feel like a lot of theatre nowadays is just catering to white sympathy. Especially after 2020. I sort of miss going to the theatre and laughing. I sort of miss that spark of imagination in my mind and just being in that escape. A story that just transports me to another world and I feel like a little kid again. I want that feeling. And those stories can be represented in a way that also can share someone's culture, can also share people's struggles. It could also be magical. For example, like when you see Lion King or something. That overly produced set, like… “Where am I?”
Hayley: Well, and the puppetry and the choreography and like all of it –
Amy: Yeah, that opening number. I am no longer in the real world.
Kim: It is just so magical to watch that transformation every time and not even notice that you're being transported. And a lot of shows just - I feel like are lacking that magic. I just want that grandness back. We are so focused on the budget, on what we can do with this budget, focused on limitations, that we lose the imagination. That's where the wonder is lost in these stories, and that's where that transformative aspect of someone leaving so changed they're just so in awe is sort of lost.
I just think people have to sometimes step away from the limitations and the money and focus on the imagination and how far we can go. “If I didn't have this budget, what would I do?” And that's how you know, also, if someone believes in that story as much as they claim to. Even if you take away the money, would you still be doing this? Would you still be fighting to tell this story on a stage and telling it in a way that will change people when they leave?
(Music)
Hayley: Kim, can you tell us a little bit about your work with the Afro-Latin immersion program at Jacob's Pillow?
Kim: I was part of the first ever Afro-Latin program at Jacob's Pillow. We did not know it was that big of a deal until we were there. Everyone that worked there was saying, “We've never seen this. We've never seen such work happen, especially emotionally, from a group of people.” It gave us all the chance to channel something we've never channeled in the art we create and in performance. I've never felt more connected to my ancestors than I did during that time. I still feel them here with me through every movement, through every sound I made. To be able to dive into art like that…it truly just felt like something every artist or creative just needs to do for themselves to really understand why they do what they do.
The people at Jacob's Pillow were so aware of the fact that we were a group of people of color who are always in white spaces, and this program was about us. And even our team - from the iconic Maria Torres and so many other people who were the greatest guides to have, and taught us–besides the styles of Afro Latin dance from all over the world we learned– that aspect of us understanding this comes from something much deeper. It's not just us learning a dance, it's understanding why we dance.
It changed a lot of our perspectives on dance. I never called myself a dancer, ‘cause I didn't grow up training as a dancer. And that was like, my biggest insecurity going into there. I was like, “A dance program? How do I tell them I just started pointing my toe like, four years ago?” But I left so assured of that title for myself. There's an article about my experience, and I go into it much more. But yeah, that was just so beautiful to be a part of, and the level of connection was otherworldly.
That company, we truly have just the most unconditional love for one another. I've never been so reassured of everything I did than being there with those people. I came out a different version of myself, beyond an artist, just as a human being. I’m very grateful for that experience. And being recognized by the American Dance Guild for that performance was such an honor. I could have never predicted that to happen.
Amy: Really remarkable. That's really cool. I do have one last question for you, which is, what are you most proud of in your life and your career, Kim?
Kim: In everything that I've done - from every solo I sang in college to every producing work I've done to my performance at Jacob's Pillow - I have never lost my sense of where I came from. And I'm very proud of that. Especially when you start out, you're very afraid to stand up for yourself in rooms, and you just wanna say yes, wanna just agree, because you got in the room and that's enough. Especially for women of color, you got in the room and you're like, “Whew, I made it.” But there's so much more. I am so grateful that I've been given the opportunities that I have and been able to always share a part of myself on that stage and part of my story on a stage. I feel so privileged to be able to always fight for myself in a room and never give up on myself.
Hayley: Kim, thank you so much for your time and for your honesty and your vulnerability and just sharing with us.
Kim: I am so honored to be here.
Hayley: We’re truly so grateful. So thank you.
Amy: Thank you.
(Music)
Hayley: Thank you for listening to the Women & Theatre Podcast. We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: And Amy Andrews. If you like what you heard, subscribe and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen.
Hayley: You can also follow us on social @womenandtheatreproject to make sure you never miss an episode.
Amy: The music for this show is written by talented Women & Theatre community member Chloe Geller.
Hayley: Thanks for listening, everyone. See you next time!
Amy: Bye!
(Music)
