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GETTING TO KNOW YOU: Emjoy Gavino

Artist Interviewed

Emma H.J.M.R.B. Gavino Peterson (our very own Emjoy Gavino)

Libation Imbibed

Tequila Sunrises. Good morning.

Location

Emjoy's place, by the Ravenswood Mariano's.

In this brunch time episode of our podcast, we get really real (and sometimes silly) as Nate chats with Emjoy about her journey from a Seattle wannabe nun to Chicago equity actor to casting director as well as the challenges minority artists are facing in the industry right now.

But first, what's with the name?

My full name is Emma Hyacinth Joyce Maria Reyes Badong Gavino Peterson. So, I'm Filipino Catholic. I feel like that is all the explanation you need...?

Okay...Emma is my first name, Hyacinth is my mom's favorite flower. Joey is my mom's little brother, so Joyce. Maria, because Catholic. Reyes is my Mom's maiden name, Badong is my Dad's Mom's maiden name. Gavino is my Dad's maiden name. And my married last name is Peterson. For a stage name, Emjoy Gavino is taking my first name and my third name (Em-Hy, while adorable, is not as pleasant sounding as Emjoy. So that's been my name that people know.

What did you want to be when you were little?

Obviously a nun or a missionary. Because my favorite color was sky blue and that's the color of heaven. Do you follow that logic? That's clearly what was going to happen...

What made you decide to go into theater?

I was not allowed to go out of state for school, and I had to be at a Christian college. Seattle Pacific University had toured through Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart [the all girls Catholic high school I was attending]. First of all they had really cute guys and I was a little deprived. There were these five or six girls and guys - The University Players were an evangelical group - but they were also evangelical for SPU to get students to come to their school. I was talking to them and they were like "Yeah, we're on scholarship. They're paying 40% of our tuition this year." And I was thinking, "So I get to perform and tour and they pay a lot of my tuition?!"

And cute boys.

And cute boys! Tall boys who wore plaid! How dreamy is that?! So I didn't need to look any further. At that point I had switched to being interested in psychology. So I had gone from being interested in mission work, to social work to psychology. Which if you think about it, it makes sense.

And if you think about theater, it's still kind of the same thing.

You're interested in people. Though one end of the spectrum is helping lots of other people. And depending on who you are, acting is helping yourself. Though it shouldn't be! Anyway, I thought I'm going to be a psychologist anyway and SPU had a great psychology program, and they have this theater troop that pays your tuition. I signed up for psychology courses and one theater class. That professor was an adjunct with her own theater company and she pulled me aside and said "Why are you not majoring in this? You're good." It didn't help that the one psychology class I took was boring as hell. So...here's the dark part of the story: I never told my parents I was majoring in theater. I was living on campus, and I was doing plays, but they knew I was always going to do plays so they just never knew. But [at SPU] they didn't know what to do with me in that theater department because I was the only minority. So I played a monkey, a circus freak in Elephant Man, the one teacher who told me I should major, she cast me in Arsenic and Old Lace and that was the one normal -- not that pinheads aren't normal! -- but the one ingenue that I played...After a full year of that, I gave up and just auditioned in the Seattle professional theater scene.

And that's a great scene out there.

It is! And I got paid to do things onstage and wasn't playing a monkey -- no offense to monkeys or people who like playing monkeys -- but I didn't know what my academic theater career was going to be. Would I have preferred to stay on campus? Yeah, it would have been easier. But I got frustrated because they didn't know how to use me. Now granted, I was booking roles that were Asian specific, but I didn't mind that. I got to be Waverly in The Joy Luck Club which was awesome, and I got to be Sadako - I had a great resume when I graduated that no one else in my class had. Booking a show at an equity house immediately, freshman year of college, I realized I could make money doing this.

So what do your parents think of you being an actor?

Well they didn't think much of it...I remember graduating and the first show I booked was Miss Saigon at 5th Avenue, which is the BIG theater. And that show that made me realize that theater might want me. Because look at Lea Salonga. Miss Saigon, specifically Kim, but any of the roles, I loved that musical because it opened me up to that idea. I booked THIS dream show. I remember telling my Dad - who used to take me to 5th Avenue Theater -

"I got Miss Saigon at Fifth Avenue Theater!"

And he's like "Oh. What are you playing?"

And I said "I'm in the ensemble."

"Oh. Why aren't you Kim?"

Sigh. So...not impressed.

So did they come see it?

They did...although. So I met my husband Chad a little bit before we started rehearsals. And the choreographer did not know we were together --

Wait, was he one of the GI's?

Yes! And I grinded on him in that entire first scene -

And you're still grinding on him today!

Yes! Ten years later, still grinding...My dad hadn't met Chad and I was like "Oh crap, he's gonna see me grind on this guy and then I have to introduce them later..." So I got him the worst seat in the house so he couldn't tell...I was a bad kid. The great thing was when you're in the back of 5th Ave Theater, youm can't really tell which Asian is which, so I don't think he knew that was me.

We need to interview your parents now.

Oh, I don't think you dooooo...Oh. And I did descend from a pair of giant chopsticks. As Miss Chinatown. Because we couldn't afford the Cadillac. So they saw that, and it wasn't a big deal. But the minute I felt validated by them was when I booked this American Family Insurance commercial that aired during the Superbowl, then they were like "OH YOU'VE MADE IT!!!" I think part of it was just an actor's life is so scary, not just to Asian parents but to parents...The life we choose, the fact that I go on unemployent so many times. We chose a life that is unstable. So when they saw that commercial, they realized I can at least pay for things. Because I got to tell them: this commercial paid for this, this and this...So then they said "Oh, good, keep doing that!" Yes. Okay. I'll just keep on booking national commercials because that's so easy...I think they are proud of me in a different way, but it's just a weird mentality.

What do they do?

They're both accountants AND I SUCK AT MATH. But they chose the most practical profession and they wanted that for my brother and me, and we rejected that.

So tell me how you got from Seattle to Chicago.

If you go to Seattle, you won't want to leave. It's one of the most beautiful places. The water is right there, the fish, the food is soo good, and yeah, we are passive aggressive..but people are so kind there. At the time I was going to school, the art scene was so exciting. The only other theater scene I was interested in, as I started to read up about it, was Chicago. Because what was happening in Seattle while I was going to college was a lot of new works, a lot of experimentation was happening which is what Chicago is known for, and I was always like "well I ever have to leave Seattle, I guess I'll go to Chicago, but I don't ever want to leave Seattle." But I had just gotten engaged to Chad - who is actually a quadruple threat of actor, singer dancer, but also wisely chose to do marketing for theater, arts administration. He had gotten a job offer at Northlight Theatre. And I loved Chicago and he loved this job.

Had you ever been here before?

No, I'd only ever been in Seattle. And I had just started to hit a stride in Seattle, and it was hard to leave because I was scared of never having a career again. So Chad took the Northlight job and we moved over, engaged. And we moved to Evanston, and i went a year and a half, just selling shoes, which was NOT theater. But I lucked out because I did a general for Chicago Children's Theater which cast me in a workshop which I did with the lovely Geoff Rice who told me about Barrel of Monkeys auditions which I did my Judy Garland impression for and I got in and the thing about Barrel of Monkeys is that everyone knows someone in Barrel of Monkeys. And that's the thing about Chicago theater, is that once you get in, you're IN.

So when was this?

Well from 2006-2007, I didn't do anything. I probably sold you a shoe. And then came the time when I did my stint as a professional understudy for all the Asian actresses in Chicago - Chicago Children's Theatre, Steppenwolf, Goodman (I go to go on for that one - Mary Zimmerman's Mirror of the Invisible World) all I did was understudy. After a year, it got to be kind of sad. So the following year, I was still understudying and there was another understudy offer on the table, and I just went on this audition for Wait Until Dark at Court Theatre, thinking "I could do this role. I love this role!" But I saw all these beautiful white girls, other women I'd seen before, in the lobby, and I was like "Oh, I'm not going to get this, but they will see good work from me!" Also I think I was just so artistically frustrated at that point so I was able to do my best work because I was so tired of not being able to do this. Probably that edge got me the part. I really didn't think I was going to get it. The director was Ron OJ Parson who was really interested in having a diverse cast and he wanted that vision. I remember my agent calling me and them saying, "They want you to do the role," and I was like, "Oh, to understudy?" "NO. You're gonna be in this show. You're the lead."

It's a big step!

I'd gone from not doing anything onstage to being a lead...I mean, you deep down hope and think, "Oh I can do this! I can do anything...!" But when you're actually in it, you think "Oh no! I don't know! Am I a fraud?! Am I just pretending? Maybe all the doubts are correct!"

It's so much responsibility.

It is! And then you have to live up to it. For me, I had to fight that box that people were putting all of us in. "Why did they cast me in this role? Are they just casting me because they wanted an Asian in this? Do I even deserve this?" And it's so wrong. Because if you're right for the part, you're right for the part. But we have been put in boxes...I had to get this awesome director who had a bigger vision for me, to take me aside and say "You can do this." I think I had to go through the whole run and then close before I had that realization [that I could do it]. But I was working through my fears and my friggin racial hang ups about myself. And it wasn't until that point that I could see for myself you shouldn't JUST have to have the same credits that every Asian actress in America has - and I was working towards that till that point -- Miss Saigon, South Pacific...which isn't bad, but we are more than that. And it took Ron OJ, putting me in an Audrey Hepburn role for me to get that. Which is huge.

Do you take that with you? Do you try to take yourself out of your own box?

I do try! Chad and Lynn Baber [the casting director at Northlight] have repeatedly told me "stop trying to be the casting director because that's not your job."

But now it IS your job.

Well technically, now I am a casting director. But not for myself. And sometimes I'll read a script, I'm like "Oh! I wouldn't be good for that." But if I'm called in for something, it's my job to find my way in. I can't do Chaon Cross's version of this role because she's gonna do that. So what would my way in be? And maybe I wouldn't cast MYSELF In that. But we kind of have to. But it's the casting director and the director's job to decide whether or not we fit the production. We don't know what their big picture is. But I always have a hard time with that. To this day, I'll get called in for something and think "Oh this is an accident, they didn't mean to call me in. I don't want to work on this side." But it was intentional, from Wait Until Dark on, to not just go after Asian roles. I decided to widen my age range from 19-30 something, go after every role that wasn't specifically ethnic and go after those roles. And I did that with a vengeance. And luckily, Erica Daniels [at Steppenwolf] and Adam Belcuore [at Goodman] would indulge me in that. And didn't always get those roles, but to be in those waiting rooms with other ingenues who didn't look like me that's moving. And what should be the case.

So you feel like there's more of an inclusive casting here now than when you moved here?

Than when I moved here, yes. I remember reading a thing for a Bernard Shaw or Moliere and it said "seeking only white actors." And my heart just sank and I remember thinking "Oh my God, they don't want me here." I don't remember what theater that was and I don't know that that's true anymore. But I don't know that they DO want me. But you have to want YOURSELF in those rooms. So I think now there is more of a push for inclusion because people are making a stink about it and we all have to do that. Constantly. Until we guilt and shame and people into doing it correctly until it's habit. But it's not habit yet. But I will say around the time when I got in the waiting rooms with other people who didn't look like me - which is a weird goal and maybe counter-intuitive but was a goal - I was aggressive because I knew I had to be, but I wasn't seeing lots of other people of color in that room. And it wasn't that I was better.

You were like a pioneer.

I don't think that's true. I think I was aggressive and there weren't at that time (and God bless the colleges who are teaching their kids to be aggressive) at the time, people were being kept in their place. They were being the good actors, not trying to make too much noise. I hate to put the stereotype on it, but especially Asian American actors. I was one of them. For a very long time. I didn't want to raise a ruckus because that's not nice. That's how personally I was raised.

To be good and follow the rules.

Which is so stereotypical Asian. Which is why people are freaking out about "Oh Asians are now angry about yellow face?" YEAH WE ALWAYS HAVE BEEN. But now we have blogs. Now we have podcasts. But I think because it's so unusual. I don't necessarily have the capacity to be scary angry, I wasn't coming at it from that way. But I was being insistent. I was writing cover letters, saying "I see you're doing this in your season. I would love to be seen in this role, if it's not already cast." And I don't know that everyone else in my age range was doing that and I think that's why I ended up in those rooms, not because I was any better or more trained, because I wasn't.

You make your own opportunities! You have to do that!

Yes! As a casting director I will say that is helpful because what if we forget to think about you? I am relieved that you reminded me about you! Thank God! Let's put you in that room! Yes! Let's call you back! And I think that's how you have to think about it -- that you are helping the casting director solve a problem that they might not know how to solve and YOU might be the solution. I was very lucky in that way but it came out of frustration. That's what you do. You get frustrated, you let it bubble, you take your artistic frustration and YOU WRITE COVER LETTERS! And you know, do good work and bla bla bla...whatever.

So how did Chicago Inclusion Project get started?

The Chicago Inclusion Project was born out of artistic frustration too! So much of it is! It had been a long time coming. We sit in dressing rooms, hushed whispers talking about how we can't get seen for these roles. But nothing gets done. We end up frustrated. And we wanted to do something other than just talk. I'd gone to diversity panels, and they were always the same diversity panel. Nobody takes a course of action but lots directors say "we're working on it!" and then nothing changes. Or an actor of color ends up in their children's play but that's it. It's not enough.

And I knew I didn't want to start a theater company because that's exhausting. So we had the idea of just putting on an American play as a reading - because that's cheap. We can do it at a theater company that is handicap accessible to partner with us on an off night and go from there. We pitched it to Victory Gardens because they do inclusive stuff all the time. I think it was Christmas time, we were in this cabin, snowed in in Minnesota and I had a lot of whiskey I read this play by William Saroyan called Time of Your Life and I was like "Oh already know ten people that I could cast immediately in this." I was so blessed to have worked with and known so many talented actors in town - we collect our people, right? - and was actually just a fan girl so many of these people and it was only one night and WHAT IF THEY SAY YES? So I dreamed this cast who all emailed back immediately, "I'm in." So we approached AEA who informed us a reading this size would cost us $3000. Because it's a giant play and because so many of our dream cast members were equity.

Which is also an issue. So many actors of color get turned union immediately for large scale productions then they stop working. It's easier for theaters to cast white actors who aren't union because it's less expensive and it doesn't take a whole lot of imagination. The minority actors then don't work until a large theater needs an actor of color again, for their play set in Asia. But by then they don't have as much experience and practice. And we get put in those boxes. Time of Your Life, we were just asking people to play Americans. That's it.

i initially pitched this to Michael Patrick Thornton to either hold it at Gift Theatre (which is a small space) or help me produce it, which he immediately said "No thank you I'm already doing my own theater company, but please let me know what else I can do to help." My major take away from that conversation was when he said "Emjoy, you can't just do this once. If you do a reading, even if it's successful, even if you sell it out, it goes away and people feel good for going and then it goes away. You have to do this over and over again." And he was right.

So that conversation together with our conversation with equity propelled us to start an indiegogo campaign to raise money for the reading. Begging people to help us raise $3000, we had to show Chicago how important it was. All of a sudden, this thing that was going to be our little offering to the community...it was a became a huge thing! I was just an actor. I just wanted to do a simple thing. As we continued this campaign and we talked to so many people, people from the trans community, the disabled community, coming out and saying "I'm giving you this money because I want this to change. So you can keep doing this...IT WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE ONE READING! And then I could have gone on my merry way and only been responsible for myself. But that's not what we're necessarily supposed to do as artists. And then I realized, "My God, when I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be a missionary." And we don't necessarily have to be insular when we're artists and I'm in a moment of privilege -- I am an actor of color who's also equity who works enough that my name is out there and I can connect people. And there are enough artists who are like "we need to do this differently in Chicago" that that dialogue among all the theater companies can happen.

When theater companies reach out and say "We need help!" what we can provide is another perspective, a stage picture to their audiences and their artistic ensemble, then let's do that. Because it's already more than what a lot of theater companies are doing. If we can be the jumping off point, then they can take what we're talking about, they can put it into action. They have the resources to do it. We are not the decision makers, they are. We just want to empower artistic leaders to be inclusive because a lot of them don't know that they can be. Or how to be.

Then they see it.

It's entirely possible to do it. They just need to have that agenda. And people don't quite yet, and that's where we are right now.

Okay, changing it up now. What's been your favorite role?

The role that I would do, anywhere at any time even at a community college, right at this moment? Failure: A Love Story by Philip Dawkins, I played Jenny June. I told Philip, I would play any role, I would give up my equity card, I would play a coat rack. I needed to be in that production. Although. Comrade Chin [in M. Butterfly at Court] was an amazing role.

You were amazing.

Nate, YOU were amazing! Although. I did have nightmares of Chinese people calling up Court Theatre and telling them I was doing it wrong. But there's something about a new work. And there's something about the way Philip wrote that script - he wrote my heart.

Our final question: When you go to a buffet, what is your strategy?

You don't want to ask that question, do you?

I'm doing it with disgust. Do you go to buffets?

Well, I go to Mariano's which has a hot bar, which is kind of a buffet. But. When I go to a buffet, which I also equate to a Filipino family party - those are buffets, and weddings - because I do have that fear of food not being there always. So. I do load up my plate.

Oh. You're a loader.

I'm a loader. But don't get it twisted. I can go back for second a third plates, they'll just be smaller. So the first plate, I just get a little bit of everything. It's a sampling thing so I know what to get the next time. The second plate has larger portions of the things I liked from the first plate. And the third plate is the perfect plate. Or dessert.

I feel like you will be the only one who will answer this question.

No. I don't think that's true. I think there are closet buffet goers.

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