I play Maggie, the cleaning woman. She’s a very down-to-earth person who realizes she’s not going to have the life she dreamed of. But instead of being really down about it, she keeps working because she wants a better life for her daughter. She knows that if she continues to work, her daughter won’t have to do the domestic work that she, her mother and her grandmother had to do.

I am not a cleaning woman, but my mother is. When I was a kid, I would sometimes go to work with her and help during the summer. Even now, I sometimes still help her when I don’t have class. So I feel like when I am on stage as the cleaning woman...I am actually playing my mother in many ways. She works hard so that my brothers and I don’t have to do the kind of work she does. She, like my character, has put all her hopes and dreams in her kids.

Singing the Cleaning Women song is a challenge because it would be so easy to make it a real downer of a song. I want to somehow communicate that Maggie is a hopeful person with a great outlook on life who despite her station in life is generous enough to want a better life for her daughter.

I am between jobs at the moment. But I keep myself going with the help of my photography and occasional sale of paintings!

The most moving song for me in the show would have to be Un Mejor Dia Vendra. It’s so sad. I have family who worked in the fields. I have also followed the migrant workers’ struggles for a few years now. I believe in a lot of the things Caesar Chavez believed in.

Everything you do has a price. For me, in this show, it was MONEY! “It’s so hard to separate people from their money.” (If you’ve seen the show you'll get that) You have no idea how much gas it takes to feed my car! ;-) I have a looooooooooong drive. Eric, Jonathan, Cornell, and Brett will surely agree with me when I say “Thank God for the car poll lane!”

So why am I doing this if it’s costing me money? I have no clue! Just kidding. I did it because I love musical theater. Being on stage is my greatest love! PLUS, I enjoy Stephen Schwartz and a goal of mine is to be in as many of the musicals he has written. And, of course, it gave me the opportunity to work with old friends and make a few new ones as well!

The best part of this production is the people. In theater, I have found that you either meet people whom you become great friends with...or people you just know you don’t want to work with again! This cast is great! I have become close to quite a few of these people. And whether they know it or not they have taught me quite in a bit in their own ways. I have enjoyed learning from them and I hope to keep them in my life in one way or another.