Conversation with Luis Salgado, Director and Choreographer

Broadway ReFocused is in conversation with Luis Salgado, an international director, choreographer and educator. Luis was the Assistant Latin Choreographer of In the Heights on Broadway, which won four Tony Awards. Luis worked as the associate director/choreographer of Cirque du Soleil's Paramour in Hamburg, Germany. Coming to us from Puerto Rico, we are excited to learn more about his musical theatre background, what it was like to direct the first bilingual production of Fame and how he finds purpose in art and storytelling.

Interview with Luis Salgado

Spencer Williams: I am very excited to introduce Luis Salgado to Broadway ReFocused today. We're going to have a really great conversation about his work in musical theater, his bilingual production of Fame,  and how we can create more diversity inclusive productions. So, it's going to be a fun conversation. Luis is coming from Puerto Rico. He has the beautiful beach in the background. So, we can all be a little jealous.

Luis Salgado: No, be inspired, come to the Island one day.

Spencer Williams: Oh, I love that. Why don't you tell us a little bit of your background and how you got into dance and musical theater so we can get to know you a little better.

Luis Salgado:  I am from Puerto Rico, born and raised. I moved to New York City when I was 22 years old. Um, actually 21 leading into 22. And, I moved to New York because I dreamt of being on Broadway. I wanted to do musical theater. I started traveling to New York aware of musicals at the age of 17. And I often lie because I say that my first musical was Aida, but it wasn't.

My first musical was Fosse and I deny it. Why? Because it wasn't for me what Broadway represented. It wasn't for me, Broadway. It was a black box show of old dancing thing. And I didn't understand why I was paying so much money for it. I'll come back to that in a little bit. And so then the second show I saw was Aida.

 And I saw what I thought was Broadway. I saw lighting, I saw costumes. I saw an incredible choreography by Wayne Cilento. I saw Heather Headley singing her face off and I was like I want to be there. Right? So, my experience of Broadway was this big razzle dazzle event. Allah Disney, very much allah Disney.

That inspired me to take the leap of faith into following my dreams. I will come back to this later, but must sort of finish that route today, when I look at Broadway and I look at musical theater and I look at Fosse again. I then feel so grateful. That the very first experience I ever saw was Fosse because you don't need the big lighting and the big razzle dazzle, you need the essence of wanting to tell a story.

So, sometimes it takes an entire journey for you to realize that. And I'm grateful that my journey took, at least a good 10 years of being in the city to realize, which is not so long when you think about it, to realize the benefits of all the production volume, but that the real thing that matters to tell a story, it's telling a story and Fosse, it was doing that.

So, how did I get here?

I got here through the desire to be better. I got here through the desire to discover. I got here through the desire to learn. I got here through the nonconformity of just staying on what was given to me, which was not being against education, but what I was learning in college, wasn't it for me? Well, what I was learning in college, wasn't the thing that was making me thrive.  I put my hands on the dirt has always been the thing that makes me thrive and I've been very lucky to get my hands on the dirt with really special people like Jerry Mitchell, Andy Blankenbuehler, Sergio Trujillo, and learn from them the way that they make theater. And that I think has been my, biggest education.

Spencer Williams: I love that Aida was your first. That's my first Broadway musical.

Luis Salgado: YESSSSSS!

Spencer Williams: So that was fun to hear. So in talking about finding the essence of a story, can you tell us a little bit, Oh, why Fame happened and kind of how that bilingual production was created and how that played out?

Luis Salgado: There are a couple of things I should say.

The first thing is that theater to me is so personal to the point that I don't know that I can work with everybody because there's people that just do it on the surface and I'm learning more and more as I get older that I can't be on the surface. I need to, when I say, get my hands dirty, I mean it and the problem with musical theater is that people often do it through the surface. It feels like an archetype style theater. It feels like something that you can get easily by because you have people that sing and people that dance. So again, the razzle dazzle, I think that's going to be a theme for today...  the razzle dazzle sort of becomes the thing people think they're paying for, or trying to sell and you lack truth. And so I remember being in college next to all the theater department people that were studying, acting like me and they didn't value musical theater while I was falling madly in love with it.

And with the years of looking at the issue, I learned that it's because the legit actor thinks that musical theater is easy because there have been shows that only showcase a layer of the story. They don't go deep into the root of why the story is being told in the first place. So, then you meet crazy minds like Andy Blankenbuehler, and you look at Hamilton and you can debate how many people will actually go out of Hamilton talking about, Oh my God, that choreography, but if you studied  beat by beat of what the choreography department does for Hamilton.

You realize that you only understand the lyrics of Hamilton because there's choreography pointing out all the subtext and emotional journey of every lyric. And so, you know, that is going deep into the root of why you're telling a story, how you're telling a story. How do you put the elements of acting, singing, dancing, lighting, costumes in service of telling the story.

So back to your question and sorry, Spencer, for going in the longer route. But when I first auditioned for an off Broadway musical, I auditioned for Fame. That was my very first musical that I got to be off Broadway with. And I had a very personal story with that. Cause I did the entire A Chorus Line, "Staying Alive" journey where I was auditioning outside of the Little Shubert Theater with over 500 people being number 180, something on my chest, and then dancing from 500 to 300 to 200, to 150 people, to 50 to 20 to where only four on the stage of the Little Shubert Theater. And then we're only two and being two of us. This other gentleman, Ryan Sholto, who had been a contestant and one of the American Idols, contests, you know, he had the name, but he dropped the dance captain.

So at that moment, I was like, I got the job. God, I hope I got it. I really got it. Right. And then, three, four days passed by and I didn't hear anything. And I started sort of torturing myself. No, I didn't get it. I didn't get it. So, you know, like a week later, the incredible gentleman who I later on became really good friends with Dan Shaheen, calls me on my cell phone, cause there were cell phones still at that time, and he's like, "Hey, Louis Salgado thank you for your audition, you did a great job we indeed hire Ryan because the spot we needed to fulfill was very specific to his body type but we want you to come back to a private audition."

And so I'm like a private audition. And so I go into this private audition. Sorry that Spencer, my answer is so long. I go into this private audition and private there's like 70 people in the industry of the theater. And so 70 became 50 became 40, became 30, became four. And it ended up being my friend, Hector Flores and myself.

And I was like, listen, Hector I have no idea because last time I thought I got it and I didn't. So let's go celebrate that we had this journey. We're walking down, I was walking alone minding my business, walking down to get some food and it starts to snow. And all of a sudden I get the cell phone call right there.

"Hey, can you come to the Shubert theater tomorrow? We want you to start tomorrow. And that journey gave me a certain ownership of this show. I met David De Silva, who we call Father Fame. I met denture hygiene who owns part of the properties and rights and royalties Payne's Foundation, and became friends with them by just being in the show and keeping a relationship for many years.

Jump up to, to the Latinx movement it's happening. I'm part of it, I'm part of Revolution, Latina, which is a nonprofit organization that I founded 13 years ago, I'm part of Diva Broadway, which is a movement of the Broadway League to bring Latino audiences to Broadway. I'm part of, Women on the Verge I'm part of, On your Feet, right?

All of these things are happening  and my journey moves from being a performer to really wanting to tell stories. With my voice as a director and as a choreographer. So I started working in Washington D.C. in a theater company called Gala Theater. And so they hired me to do In the Heights. And I say to them, if we're going to do it In the Heights, we got to really, really explore the script and make it as bilingual as possible.

Each character needs to have their own accent, their own way of speaking, let's honor representation as best we can. And the show ended up getting, I don't remember now, but probably like 18 nominations to the Helen Hayes Awards from which we won nine of them. We expanded audiences at Gala Theater people that had never known about Gala in Washington D.C. came to see this show. So, then Gala asked me, we want to do this formula with you again and what can we do next? And so it so happened that Jose Fernandez is the person that was the author of Fame, the musical. And he happens to be of Cuban descent. And Gala Theater only does shows written by Latinos.

So we got very, very lucky. That I could justify Fame because it had a Latino book writer, but I don't like to look at things just as they are. That's one of my problems, theatrically. A lot of people want you to just do what's on the page. And I liked it so when I look at the material, I was like, well, I know the show, I've done the show, I know the people that I can get sort of some liberties in the show. I wonder what happens if the question we're asking is what happens if this show, like me, waiting on 42nd street to enter to audition and The Little Shubert Theater honors Latinx artists who have immigrated from different parts of Latin America with the dream of becoming part of the  Fame high school. And I got permission to go with that. And David De Silva even gave me great ideas of how to change some names for some of the characters and we started a collaboration that felt like we were doing a workshop of Fame for a Latinx experience. That's my long answer.

Spencer Williams:  Oh, I love that. That's a great, great story. And I definitely think from your beginning to the end, I think there's always like this journey, right?  You talked about finding your truth in the material?  how did that truth that you found in that material move to your director's vision? And then that collaboration and kind of working with, bringing this material to an audience.

Luis Salgado: I feel a little bit tangled with this question and it's a good thing for me artistically too. Thank you Spencer for making me question my own process. and the reason I say that is, I'm right now in the middle of a project and I'm being questioned for questioning the material.

And it's a hard process to feel like you're being questioned for questioning the material. When my job, I think is to question the material and the more I question the material, the more I can find the truth of the way we are to tell the story. But anyway, I'm not gonna apologize for that. And I think that every piece of theater, if you're going to tell the piece of theater, you have to feel something for it.

I think part of the problem is why it's so easy to just touch the surface. It's because sometimes people do it because it's a gig, right? Like, Oh yeah, I can pay my rent. And so you look at it on the surface and you don't really physically, humanly, spiritually relate to the material. So, you don't question the material.

And so you do what's on the page and you end up sort of like, I'm not saying what's on the page is wrong, but there's no way you can enter the psyche of a writer. If you don't question it. Right. The writer was going through some shit in his life or some wonderful shit in his life when they were writing the show.

And, even if they were commissioned to do something for the money. They had to get inspiration from someplace. So they had had to go through a personal journey of confrontation. I believe that the author had their own hero's journey as they're writing the hero's journey. And so I really, really believe in that.

So how am I to just follow stage directions and believe that I know the answers without letting me live the conflict of discovering the show. Am I making any sense with this?

Spencer Williams: Absolutely.

Luis Salgado: So when I look, so when I look at the material, before I say yes to the material, I need to know of the material. Can I curse? I need to know if the material can fuck me over.

If the material can fuck me over, then I want to do the work. Then I know that it's something that's gonna, it's going to change me. I'm not going to just get a check. I'm not just gonna talk to people. I'm not just going to look cute. Same move to the left, move to the right. I'm actually going to have live experience.

And the  more that I can have the life experience, the more that the thing I have to say, ideally will resonate with the audience. So this is a longer journey to making art and maybe again, one day people will be like Luis Salgado was just crazy, but it so far has given me a journey that makes me always feel at the end of the journey as a creative, that I don't need to be in the room when the show opens.

It takes me to a place where there's such ownership of the work in every actor, in every singer, in the music department and the lighting design that I can walk away now watch opening. I know that it's going to work because it doesn't depend on me or on the writer. It depends on the fact that we all took a painful, beautiful, inspiring journey of discovering the work.

And I think the best example, even more so than Fame, is Ragtime. When I directed Ragtime, somebody confronted me and said, "Oh, you might be the first immigrant to direct Ragtime". And I was like, wow, like literally, they were like, wow. So, you know, I looked at him and I said, well, first of all, I'm Puerto Rican, which means, you know, I'm part of the United States.

I'm a United States citizen. So, I take the vouch of immigrants and that's cool. I like it, but I just need to put that on the record. And second of all, thank you. Because you just gave me the clue to how I need to direct this show. The show is written by a white team. So that's nothing wrong with that, but you're telling the story of this black man who is suffering, the death of his lover/wife and mother of his child.

Who he has messed up at some point in his life with her, but now is working to rescue their relationship. And he has to go through this pain. From which perspective are we telling this? From the perspective of the white writer who wrote it, I will always be grateful that they wrote it. Or truly from the perspective of Coalhouse or Sarah or Tata.

Right. And so when this guy says to me, you know, you must be the first immigrant to direct the show, he gave me the best gift because I was like every single time I asked a question about this show, I have to ask it from the point of view of the immigrant. I have to ask it from the point of view of people who are not being heard.

And then I discovered, Sarah never gets heard. If you study Ragtime, Sarah has nothing to say in the show. She's right written as a victim, as a black  woman who happens to be left by the man who was a hot, sexy, guy, musician. And who's now the employee of a white family and gets murdered. Right. Like if you look at it, there's very little that Sarah gets to put out for, quote, unquote, let's say black lives matter or female empowerment or any of this reality social issues that the show so very well could address.

So then I did something bizarre because I'm quote unquote, just an immigrant. And I was like, I'm going to tell you all the lights away from this character. And so in her biggest song in- the lighting designer and I, we did this light narrow thing where we just gave her a really dim floor spotlight, which basically only lit her nose.

And this actress is sobbing and crying boogers are going left and right. The notes are being hit. The babies on her arms, there's like all the scenic design that we did, I had all these towers that we did over 35 compositions with three towers and they're moving and grumbling around the song and they were completely upstaging the song.

And people are coming angry during intermission. Why did you not let us see Sarah? Why did you upstage Sarah? Why did you, and I said thank you because finally you want to hear her story.

And so that's the kind of theater I want to make. Right? The audience was actively fighting for Sarah's voice and as we explored the unheard voices of this story, we found ways to trigger the audience, to actually want to listen to their stories. And so if you follow the stage direction, you'll never do that.

So that's a little bit of, I forgot the question right now, but. That's my answer.

Spencer Williams: No, that's great. And really interesting to hear the perspective specifically around Ragtime as well. I think both of these stories that you've told are immigrant stories, and I'm kind of curious too, with Fame, with these new voices in these characters and a new look of diversity in the show, by being bilingual in Spanish, like how did that change the story. Did it change the story or was it just more open to, different people to see themselves in that story?

Luis Salgado: I think it's, both perhaps. And I think, you know, clearly as you play with those twists, you give more people permission to identify, right? Because it's Shlomo it's a Jewish great musician.

Then a Jewish great musician or a family that understands great musicians within the Jewish community will feel very empowered by the journey of Shlomo. The moment that I made Shlomo a Dominican Jew, whose family happened to stumble upon great music. Now I have the Jewish community that can identify, and I have the Dominican community that can identify and I have the privileged musician family, but also those who hustle to become musicians. And so I went from one scope to four scopes because the background was more diverse. And so that sort of rings true to a lot of the characters and the way we play with them one, plus I added layers, you know, there's this whole, Serena Katz moment when she's like, "Gay? The love of my life is gay?" For me the real character of any musical I direct is ensemble.

Like I try to figure out a way to make the ensemble, the lead role. And so the moment that that argument is there, and again, we're, in 2019. And the topic of the gay community and, sort of the awareness and acceptance of what the community is and how it goes into LGBTQ and all of these things open up a whole new box.

So I put ensemble characters that are gay in their characters around that scene, and I added lines for them. So now, and I added lines in Spanish so that I will not violate the actual script and it feels like an approved quote unquote adlib. But it wasn't Spanish, now she's saying "Gay? The love of my life is gay?" And an ensemble member comes,  (Spanish)   and walks away and the audience starts clapping.

So a scene that would have just been a cliche of a scene, all of a sudden becomes I'm going to  clap for this moment statement, because an ensemble member ad lib  by translating  (Spanish) from hint. It's like, Hey girl, what's wrong. What's wrong with you, please. Don't mess up with my people, you know? And he walks out.

So, an ensemble member gets to the fence, the gay community, where in the script, there's no defense to the gay community... there's just a statement which will pose a question. And so. That's a little bit of a moment, which it takes me five seconds in the entire scope of the show, but it amplifies an entire statement to a community, representation, diversity, justice, the same worth.

I have a transition in Fame, Gala Theater has this beautiful challenge. Gala has a really small space. And my mind works, like, I think I'm always in a multimillion dollar musical, so I want things to come up and down and come in and go out and turn around, like the towers in Ragtime, 35 compositions, I got to show you that design one day, and so the, thing with lockers.

Imagine that this box is the stage, and so I have these lockers that in the top of Act Two are like this. So, there's a moment when I want to make a new setting change. So I bring this ensemble member to move it right manually.

But then this Asian performer, also from the ensemble, picks her up right here. So, now I have a Latina, black Latina, here with an Asian and they hold hands. She brings her a paper flower, holds hands, like, I get goosebumps telling you this. And then they walk together. What happens next?

I don't have to tell the audience. Right. But it's another moment to say that love is equal in any way. And that's a five second transition. And you as an audience member, might miss it, that's fine. You as an audience member like me, might feel like that is a show. For me, that moment gives all the permission to the development of artistic evolution and human evolution and each one of these characters.

That's the way I like to think of theater and the reason why I question it.

Spencer Williams: Well, I love that because that's not even the change in a script or something that you would have to get approval for And. You know, that definitely will show up, for people and

Luis Salgado: But, to the question of diversity, right. And inclusion, and the reality that every piece of theater, when you question it will give you the opportunity to discover those things.

Spencer Williams: Right. Did you have any issues within both of those property managers of kind of how you see it in a more diverse lens. 

Luis Salgado: And then, because the writers of Ragtime are white and, you know to like - I don't want to brag, this is gonna probably sound like the wrong answer, but I feel very lucky that I work with all of them. So, Lynn and Steve. I did Rocky the musical. So, it was not far-fetched for me to send an email. And say, I'm working on this show. I have these ideas. Do you think I'm okay exploring them? And I got an email back saying, go ahead. That outside of the MTI or whatever, it's a personal relationship.

I know that it becomes trickier when it's general right? But I've been kind of lucky. I have to use the word as much as I'd rather not, but I've been really lucky to work with these people. You know Lin-Manuel Miranda did the show with them originally. So, I know where the Spanish rights are and what he wants with them, which belongs to a Dominican Republic company.

And so I legally went and I purchased the Spanish rights and I purchased the English rights and utilizing the content from both. I created a hybrid. And then I called him and I said, "Hey Lin, can you be in our sitz probe? And you know, I put up my computer and people were like, imagine dying. You know, having Lin here, our sitzprobe through - it wasn't Zoom. I think at that time it was FaceTime or Skype or something. And with Fame, so the same Father Fame he's alive. Thank God. And I was able to write to him and then Jane. So I've been fortunate to be able to make direct email.

Spencer Williams: Yeah. That's amazing that you've been able to even just connect with the writers. A lot of shows we don't have that opportunity any longer  now  working on new-

Luis Salgado: Sorry, sorry, Spencer. if it's Shakespeare, you're not going to write Shakespeare, like that's the other thing, like the beauty of Beckett, Shakespeare, and whatever. It's like, all of these stories have been done and then they've been done for years and years and years.

So, if you don't question it, why are you doing it in the first place? So, in that realm, there is that, you should discover the material to your reality today because it's been done. Right and then on the newer writers that exist, if you've cannot send them a direct email, try to find them try to learn from them because they are the ones who wrote the story, even sitting down 30 minutes with any of them, will open up the canvas of questions that you want to then ask yourself as you're telling that story. it's what I think, what I, again, maybe I speak from a privileged point of view only because a lot of the scenarios I've been able to go directly to the source.

Spencer Williams: That makes sense. I mean amazing that you have had that opportunity and then be able to bring this story in kind of a new way, or at least through your lens, which is different than in the past like you noted, you might've been the first immigrant to direct Ragtime. So that's really quite awesome. Are you working on any new kind of revivals of shows or is your focus going to be more on new work or kind of, where are you at right now?

Luis Salgado: I do both. I got called by a couple of companies, like Gala the Axelrod Theater that started giving me some titles.

And I didn't think I was going to fall in love with that process as much, but because I kept treating it as if it was a new show, I did, because I come from working on new shows as a performer, like In the Heights and Rocky already had been done in Europe, but they had been renewing or revisiting how to tell the story for New York.

So it still felt like a new show, Woman on the Verge was a new show. On your Feet was a new show. So I've been in the room in development, always. And I love, and I have learned the developmental process. So I really like treating the work that way. Of course there's so much respect. Maybe if I do Ragtime in five more years, I will study the classical in a different way and then contrast it against what I did already and try to find a happy medium there.

I don't know, maybe, to answer your question I like both and because this year's a pandemic crazy year, it's harder to tell because now that takes us into the whole, how to do something on zoom or how to do something digital, conversation, which I'm sure that we'll probably touch on later.

But last year, which was a great year, I did seven shows in what, like six months. I directed a Cirque du Soleil show, I did Aida, I did Fame, I did a commercial for Telemundo. Like so, the scope of things that were happening were all so different. that doing Fame was something that felt new, although it existed doing Cirque du Soleil, the same thing.

Cause I took the show that came to Broadway, Paramour with surgery through Sergio. And we put it up in Germany, but we challenged everything that happened in New York. So we changed the script, we changed the music, we changed the acts. So, again it felt like doing something new. With Aida the same, I was like, okay.

So, if I am so busy with this work, how do I want to do Aida? Which was the first show that inspired me to come to New York.  This has to be somewhat like the biggest thing I do. And I ended up sort of backing up from it. I called my scenic designer, my light. This is your show.

So, I gave them a concept and I was like "I want ACDC rock Rob Wilson." And so that's what we did. We got like the ACDC lighting design with, led sticks with, stair sticks. And we put that all around the show. And then, and we did this cool as their lighting pyramid and we did a Rob Wilson background.

It was like doing a painting, like forget the shell for a second. I came from doing Cirque du Soleil and doing Fame. And all of a sudden we land to, Aida. And it was like, almost like resting. I'm just going to create poetry, visual poetry. And then, you know, that visual poetry is still triggered by Elton John's music.

And it's triggered by an amazing performer cast, that will bring their heart forward and all the conflicts that a black and white relationship, like the show, is already there. I don't have to look for it. But my "reinventing the wheel" quote unquote, is bringing ACDC rock music concert to Rob Wilson's point of view. And let's go, the work is there.

Spencer Williams: I wish I could have seen that. That sounds amazing.

Luis Salgado: Thank you.

Spencer Williams: So with Broadway being on pause because of COVID. We've definitely had some space to look more at equitable representation and racism on Broadway. And it's pretty clear. We need to address all of that.

How do you see that moving forward to reality, there's a lot of conversation now.

Luis Salgado: It takes all of us. I think in order for anything to happen, all of us have to be aware of the role we play. And you know, movement, change, revolution, evolution needs, everybody participating and it needs awareness. I could go into a sensitive side of this topic because I guess I could say we're all part of the problem. You know, I am part of the problem. and I run a nonprofit organization, as I said before, called Revolution Latina, which is about empowering and inspiring the Latino community.

And yet I am very fond of going to Amsterdam, which I did. And putting On Your Feet with an Amsterdam cast from which, you know, what is the percentage of Latinos in it? And, if we were to take everything into what we quote unquote can or cannot do, then I wouldn't be able to do theater ever because there will always be a red flag.

But I have to tell you that I feel so fortunate to go to Amsterdam and share with, Amsterdam performers, the truth of Gloria Stephan life of Amelia Stephan life of Gloria for heart goes live. And be able to give to them that honoring the valuing, the respecting of the Cuban culture, and that is a triumph.

And of course, somebody can be in and say, why is this Luis directing a show with all white, Dutch casts, well, that's the job I got. And in the job I got, I can look at it. Why are all these people playing these roles? Or I can look at it as, I have the perfect opportunity to further educate and share the value of the Latino culture to non Latin X performers.

And so that's one way of looking at it versus if I'm in New York City. And I know that there's a gigantic pool of performers as we did on the Broadway show, we will fight to have the greatest amount of representation possible because no one can come and say, no, there are no Latinos here to do the show.

But in Amsterdam, we had our Cuban dancers and we had, you know, we had the pull that was available. But the truth is that there's a gigantic pool of incredible talented people that are Dutch that can do the work.

And so my job is to give them the value. The problem is when there's no one. To honor and value the culture and you're just putting an archetype or the culture you think it looks like, and that's completely wrong, which then goes into the example of that Australia In the Heights production, where no one knew what they were doing, and it got shut down.

And so it's a very sensitive topic. I am learning as I go. You know, more and more where I need to put a foot down and where I am part of a problem or where I can contribute more to a solution. But I think my answer to you, Spencer, and to the classes that it takes all of us being, openly working work, more just work, but listen, if Jordan writes show today, and there's a non-Latino role.

And he hires me. I want to be able to play it. I want Jordan to know that I am good enough as an artist, that I get an opportunity to play it. I don't only want to play the Latino role in Jordan's script. And I think that that has to go both ways and that A: we need to prove our artistry by being ready when the opportunity comes.

And then B: we have to be sensible to the realities of our society and try to be as just, and fair to opportunities as possible, which is not to say taking opportunities away from anybody.

Spencer Williams: That's amazing.   One of the things that we're doing in class is looking at the past and also looking at the future about how we uplift voices, and stories in new ways.

What type of shows on Broadway, are you looking or hoping that producers are going to produce when we get back and what does that look like with new stories and new voices?

Luis Salgado: Wow.  I don't know the answer, I don't know the answer because I guess because of two things, one, I'm not playing the game of trying to do diversity. I've been doing diversity. I am not playing the game of trying to tell stories of unheard voices. My entire company is like all productions.

It's about making art with a purpose, telling the stories off the unheard voices, and I think some of the examples I already gave to you. sort of show you that. But that's, what's in my heart and on my mind. So when you asked me the question it's intriguing because I'm fighting against, in my mind the reality that now people will just do it as a gimmick.

They will claim that diversity and they will use the word, but they don't mean it, or they don't even know what it is and they will claim stories of the unheard, but they don't really study the unheard. When I did a production for Peru, I went for two weeks to a lot of different towns. And I interviewed the rich and the poor, and I went to the jungle and I went to gene chat and I fell in love with the people of Jean Chan.

I went deeper and I kept going back every other week of rehearsals to continue to learn about their life and why they dance on sandals and why they did stuff a Saika, and I wrote that show and I directed the show and I choreograph that show knowing that I was having a live experience in the Peruvian community.

Mmm. So for me, it's not a game, it's not about putting words that validate me selling a show. So that's the first thing that comes to mind. I'd rather that you don't care and boldly state I don't give a fuck and we're going to do this this way and I'm going to be like, I want to, I'm going to go see what it is they're doing.

Then you claiming diversity and that you claiming her voices and that you care don't, you don't care to study, I don't want that fake shit. And so that versus what stories I would love now to see, I want human stories.

Sarah is human. She was written by a white writer, but she's human and she's given us the opportunity. So there it is. If you look deep into it, you'll find that there's an unheard voice, screaming to be heard. Aida and Radames who are part of two societies in Egypt and Nubia who are imposed by political powers. They don't get to really be who they are. They're being imposed, who they shall be on both rounds on the white and on the black realm of this story as presented by Disney. So those are unheard voices. When you study that and you look into it, you can come in with a thousand names to use as background to both of those characters and past time and the modern time, when you look into, Rocky, same thing, the Italian stallion. How many Italian stallions are still having to prove that they have self worth in the world. Whether it is boxing or selling pizza or selling stocks or fighting against covid . So, it is really up to us to care, to get our hands dirty in the stories we're telling and look for some freaking truth that we can use not to use it, but to serve the story and amplify the real wise.

These actors, characters, stories, journeys, songs, moments of choreography have to exist. If not, why are we doing it.

Spencer Williams: Right. I think that's a great question always to ask. Thank you for your perspective on that. it's really, I think it's really important that diversity and inclusion is not a gimmick and so thank you for noting that, I think that's really important.

Luis Salgado: I think it's the biggest danger zone. Really, it saddens me, it frustrates me yeah.

Spencer Williams: Thank you for bringing that to the conversation. Definitely. We're getting closer to the end. So, I want to ask you 10 quick questions.

So, I think you've already mentioned this, but we'll go through it. Maybe it's a little different. What was the first musical you ever saw?

Luis Salgado: Musical musical musical I ever saw?  Yeah, Pinocchio,

Spencer Williams: Ah, Pinocchio. Your favorite musical of all time?

Luis Salgado: Movin' Out.

Spencer Williams: Musical guilty pleasure.

Luis Salgado:  Wow. Hmm, that's a hard one. Guilty. Oh, I mean, it's In the Heights, you know, in the Heights I can put the music and sing to it, I guess. Now it's also Hamilton. I do my exercises every morning to Hamilton because the music is so freaking cool.

Spencer Williams: Were you in musicals in high school?

Luis Salgado: Not in high school. No the answer is no, it has to be a short answer. If it's a longer answer, I will say I ended up creating my own musicals out of place that I did in high school.

Spencer Williams: Oh, cool. Your favorite show you've been in or directed or produced?

Luis Salgado: In the Heights.

Spencer Williams: Your dream role or dream show to direct produce?

Luis Salgado: I want to be Radames in Aida.

Spencer Williams: Favorite cast album?

Luis Salgado: Hamilton.

Spencer Williams: Hamilton... Love it.

Luis Salgado: It's an entire, like three hour musical and all in an album. And you can hear it in iTunes. What are you talking about?

Spencer Williams: Hahaha, favorite theater company that you've loved working for?

Luis Salgado: Yeah. Cirque du Soleil. They're just so powerful. I wanted to say Gala because of the opportunity to do the Latin X experience and be able to do the bilingual experiments and all that stuff. But Cirque du Soleil is like a machine of creativity. You know you go to their labs in Canada and you spend time there and you're just dreaming for months on how to do one act and you don't get that luxury every time. And it's like being a kid over and over again, so that I want a lot more of that in my life.

Spencer Williams: Love it.  Someone that you look up to on a Broadway theater?

Luis Salgado: Serjio Trujillo, Andy Blankenbleur, and Jerry Mitchell.

Spencer Williams: I thought you would say those three. And then finally, a quick snapshot of a moment you miss about live theater?

Luis Salgado: Being on the wings, afraid to come on stage, the lightings are hitting. The music is playing. You're excited and you go.

Spencer Williams: That's a great moment. That's a great moment. Thank you so much for being with us today. It's definitely been such an interesting conversation. Right in line with what we're talking about in class and the project that they're working on. I definitely heard lots of really wonderful things there.

They're looking at directing and producing a revival of a show that includes more diversity inclusivity. And so really great conversation that worked right into that. So thank you so much.

Luis Salgado: Thank you for the work you're doing with them. Number one, thank you all for being involved in the arts. You know, I think again, having this conversation is relevant because you're the next generation of theater makers. And so. I hope you care, you know, I hope you care for everything. And I'm just going to backtrack from one thing now, because I want to make sure that I don't impose my own journey, question everything, but also pay attention to what's written on the page. There are all great clues.

Spencer Williams: They are, well thank you so much. And, we will be following you on your journey as well. and excited for any other new things that you're producing, directing being in and thank you.

Luis Salgado: I am right now working as Associate Director and co-choreographer to a concert that's happening October 1st.  It's going to be accessible for everybody on Playbill. So it's actually a beautiful Latin X experience. Search it through Helio is the director. And you know, we have a wonderful community of artists coming together, and it's also a fundraising event for Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS. So I invite you all to tune in October 1st.

Spencer Williams: We will. Thank you so much.

Luis Salgado: Yeah. wonderful day. Thank you so much.