Note: This episode was recorded in September of 2024.

Nicole deRoux performed as The Bullet for five years (that's over 50 cities and 1,500 performances) before recently shifting gears and becoming a swing on the Philip Tour.

This week, Nicole talks about her long-term activism and using her platform to speak out and do good work. Additionally, she talks about her incredible mother, who *also* balances the cerebral with the creative: she is a radiologist *and* an artist.

Plus, Nicole explains why everyone needs to lose their mind during the Yorktown dance break and dives into her experience competing for Miss New Jersey including why she did it, what she learned, and why she's never doing it again.

Alex Nicholson's Viral "Black Jobs" Video on TikTok

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Nicole deRoux is here for three episodes to wrap up 2024! Nicole played Woman 3 aka The Bullet on Hamilton's Philip Tour for five years and most recently became a swing, which she absolutely loves.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Nicole has always had a balance between being academic and being creative; she grew up as a competition dancer, went to Drexel University on a dance scholarship, and graduated with a degree in marketing and retail merchandising.

Hamilton was Nicole's first official gig right out of college and after five years of the bullet, performing over 1500 shows in over 50 cities, Nicole started to look towards the future. She jumped at the opportunity to make a change and take on more responsibility and with her post-Hamilton life in mind, she made the decision to turn her world upside down and become a swing.

Nicole is also a big reader and makes a point to exclusively read diverse, non-male authors so she has some great recommendations if you too are sick and tired of the patriarchy.

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Jisel Soleil Ayon (Hamilton's Philip Tour) is back for round two of our engaging and candid chat.

This week, Jisel dives deeper into race and identity talking about her podcast Mixed in the Arts and opening up about her hair journey, where she learned to stop running towards whiteness (as she says) and to really see the beauty within herself.

Jisel also talks about bringing herself to the Schuyler Sisters, being a scare actor on a ship, curating her Spotify based on mood as opposed to artists, how her ideal dinner party guest list is almost exclusively actors from those golden age classics, and why her happy place is "less about the where and more about the who."

Plus, some final thoughts on self-confidence, having a place she can finally call her own, and the heartbreak of the nostalgia for a place you haven't built yet.

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Jisel Soleil Ayon (Hamilton's Philip Tour) is here for two fun, authentic, and very honest episodes.

Jisel grew up watching old musicals and performing as a kid but then she hit college where they do the ridiculous thing of making teenagers pick a major?! Insanity!

While Jisel loved performing, she also wanted a job where she could make a living, so she took her passion for American Sign Language and studied speech pathology and speech therapy. During her second semester, she was cast as Daniela in In the Heights and everything changed. She switched schools, focused on performing, and her career has been thriving since she graduated.

Jisel speaks very candidly about her initial apprehension towards Hamilton, her unexpected casting as a standby for the Schuyler sisters, and how being on tour as an offstage cover can actually be very lonely, especially for a self described "extroverted extrovert."

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Eddie Ortega (Hercules Mulligan and James Madison on Hamilton’s Philip Tour) is back for round two and this week Eddie talks connecting to his roots in the Dominican Republic, recounts his awesome time in Chicago (singing at the National Anthem and going to restaurants in The Bear), and we do a deep dive into our astrological charts. Plus, Eddie takes questions from the Patreon Peeps including his fellow cast member Lucas Babcock, who asks him to breakdown his process for "We Know."

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Eddie Ortega, Marcus Choi, and Jared Howelton performing the National Anthem at the Chicago Bulls game

Asia Ward on Spotify

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Eddie Ortega (Hercules Mulligan and James Madison on Hamilton’s Philip Tour) is here to tell you what can happen if you work hard, *really* love what you do, and stay focused. In his first episode, Eddie talks about growing up in Florida and discovering his love of theater as a teenager. After being rejected from Florida State University, he did everything he could to get accepted and start building his career. From making his Dominican-born parents proud with his award-winning performance in Usnavi in In the Heights to seeing the world performing on a cruise ship, all roads seemed to lead to Hamilton.

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Lin-Manuel Miranda Performs at the White House Poetry Jam: (8 of 8)

Eddie Ortega, Marcus Choi, and Jared Howelton performing the National Anthem at the Chicago Bulls game

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Lucas Babcock (John Laurens and Philip Hamilton on Hamilton's Philip tour) is back to talk about how booking Hamilton right out of school "was like jumping on a moving train." This week, Lucas dives into his favorite Hamilton moments and takes questions from the Patreon Peeps where he talks about his favorite hidden gems from his time traveling the world and why he absolutely loves going to Ren Faires.

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Elizabeth Babcock: Lucas's mother, founding director of the upcoming Smithsonian Women's Natural History Museum, and living legend.

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Lucas Babcock plays John Laurens and Philip Hamilton on Hamilton's Philip tour and in his first episode he talks about growing up playing sports, his strong interest in sociology and political science, and navigating the musical theatre world as the new kid who knew more about baseball than Sondheim. While Lucas auditioned for Hamilton (the first musical he'd ever listened to, by the way), he was able to see the world as a cruise performer and felt seen doing a production of Next to Normal that mirrored his own life in many ways.

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Elizabeth Babcock: Lucas's mother, founding director of the upcoming Smithsonian Women's Natural History Museum, and living legend.

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As I wrap up with Meghan Faddis (Hamilton Chicago and touring companies) you're getting some hot takes on beloved musicals, you'll learn about how she almost ended up a professional soccer player, there's lots of love for her dog Spencer, and you'll hear the story of how "Expert Hula Hooper" ended up on her resume.

Plus, Meghan loves and knows the lyrics to a ton of early 2000s hip hop and talks about how inspired she is by the amazing women putting out her new favorite music with super honest lyrics.

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Meghan Faddis (Hamilton Chicago and touring companies) continues to speak about her experience in the entertainment industry as a whole, especially as a woman: from navigating internalized standards and pressures, to realizing that "No." is a complete sentence, and finally deleting all of those damn exclamation points in emails #IYKYK. And while Meghan doesn't have all the answers, talking about mental health in the theatre world is a super important step towards making the very necessary changes.

After spending four wonderful and fulfilling years with Hamilton, Meghan made the careful decision to leave the show and focus on being home to reset, regroup, and branch out creatively. It was time to take everything she learned from Hamilton and apply it to different art forms and different ventures.

Meghan has fallen in love with working with the new generation of artists by way of dance competition judging and I promise you the conversation is super fun, educational (at least for me!), and really inspiring! You might have seen one of Meghan's viral judging videos on TikTok, and she breaks down the whole experience. We're finally getting the new wave of teachers the kids deserve!

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