Interview: OUR TOWN's Hagan Oliveras is the September 2024 Debut of the Month

Hagan Oliveras is currently making his Broadway debut as Wally Webb in Our Town. His credits include Roundabout’s production of Jonah, and “American Horror Stories”.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Oliveras about working alongside an all-star cast, including Jim Parsons and Richard Thomas, about bringing this classic play to life, the lessons learned from his castmates, and more. 

Read the full interview and check out photography by BroadwayWorld's own Jennifer Broski below!

You performed the role of Wally Webb in Our Town in high school. How does it feel to be making your Broadway debut in this show in this role?

There’s a few things about the whole process that feel very serendipitous, this being one of them. With this show and how it pertains to having done it in high school, I came into acting very late in comparison to a lot of people that I know. Our town was the second show I did when I was like 15, and most of the people that I know now have been acting since they were quite young. And to have this show also be a large milestone again…

Our Town in high school was one of the first shows where I was like, ‘This wasn’t just a one-time thing, this is something that really fills me up with a lot of joy.’ And so, for me to have learned that at 14/15 because of Our Town, then to be re-entering that in a much bigger way at the age I am now feels really neat.

You’re making your Broadway debut alongside an incredible cast of actors. What has it been like working alongside them?

Right before this, the first big professional gig I did was called Jonah at the Roundabout. It was a very intimate cast, only three people. I was given a lot of space in that room to express myself and sort of figure out who I am in a professional space like that. And a huge lesson I’ve learned here is that in a room of 27 people not everyone can be talking all the time! You know? Navigating that.

It’s something that I went into in this process as a very conscious thing I wanted to work on personally. I wanted to listen so much more. And I was really worried about that, there was a moment where I was like, ‘Am I capable of sitting still for that long? I have a lot of thoughts; can I keep them to myself?’ And something that this cast has made very easy is to listen. Because these people are not just amazing actors, they’re really beautiful people, and they all have very beautiful stories to tell even when it just pertains to their life, not just the work that they’re doing.

It’s been beautiful, they’ve made lessons that would be very difficult for me very easy because of how generous they are, and how lovely they are. Jim Parsons is the nicest jokester. Richard Thomas is the kindest person maybe ever, he’s such a teddy bear, he makes you feel so safe in a room. And watching Billy [Eugene Jones] work, he’s so vulnerable in how he works through a scene and works through his process. And the scenes between him and Michelle, they’re such good scene partners, and they listen. All of these people are so generous in the way that they work, the way that they live. And they’re so earnest, and so good.

Our Town is one of the greatest American plays ever written. Why do you think it still resonates so strongly with people today?

That is something I’ve been grappling with since the beginning of this process. I came into this with my high school brain version of Our Town in my head, and Kenny [Leon] has talked a lot about that, how we’ve all seen this show, and how we all do have preconceptions of it. My preconception of it was the version I did in high school, being a young actor and having a lot of ego, and jealousy, and wanting to be a bigger part, and all of those thoughts, and not loving the play. And then before we started rehearsal I dove into it intensely. I love reading on the train, and I was just weeping, at the weirdest lines. I read a lot of poetry, and this play, the words are so plain, and the characters feel so plain when you read them, and I think what that allows you to do is receive them wherever you are.

A lot of plays ask you to meet them where the play is, and this is play is like, ‘I want you to sit back, if you sit back and just let these words reach you wherever you are, you’ll find meaning somewhere.’ And I think that’s why it resonates. I think Thornton wasn’t trying to say anything in particular about the world, I think he was trying to say something that he was feeling, and he was thinking. And it just so happens that that thing that he was feeling and thinking at that time was a message of profound peacefulness.

You can say that the play is about getting along with your neighbors, but it’s also really not about that. It’s also about conflict with your neighbors, and struggling with your neighbors, and no one in the play is perfect. Horrible things happen in this town because some people didn’t speak up. The play is not a perfect aspiration. What it is though, is an example of a few moments in time. And because it’s presented with as little judgment as possible for an artist to create something with, as little judgement as I think is possible, it allows the audience to watch it and just think about themselves. And think about ‘How could I have done that differently?’ What moments of this play remind me of my life? And the end of the play hammers that down. And I think that’s why it's so impactful in that moment.

You are currently in previews, what did it feel like to take that first bow on Broadway?

The beginning of the play for me is a sort of prayer, and I don’t pray a lot personally in my life, I only pray in very specific circumstances. And I remember not feeling super emotional, it’s been a very tiring couple of weeks. And so, we got to half hour, and I remember thinking, ‘When is this emotion going to hit? Am I jaded already? What’s going on? But, we started, and I remember literally stepping onto the stage, and I was almost overcome with gratitude. It’s a moment that can hold a lot of reflection, and to have a moment in my Broadway debut in the beginning of this play that can hold all of those thoughts and feelings where I didn’t have to hold them back—because I think that happens sometimes as actors, we kind of have to hold ourselves back from the moment. But Kenny has crafted this really beautiful, potentially very cathartic moment. And that’s the beginning, and I haven’t even talked about the bows yet!

For the bows, I remember looking at Julie Halston, she sits right next to me at the end of the play, and I wasn’t crying just yet, but she was, and I think I had it in my head, ‘I gotta hold it together, I can’t be the guy onstage losing his shit in the bows,’ I don’t know why I thought that, I actually really like it when people do that when I watch it. But something about watching her really gave me permission, and that’s been a lot of this process, watching other artists, and seeing the kind of permission they give themselves, and then applying that to myself.

What do you want to tell audiences who are coming to see the show?

I think I would tell audiences to have the biggest preconception for what you think Our Town is, hold onto that so tightly, all the way up until you sit down. And then let the play see if it can surprise you. Because a lot of the choices we made here will surprise you. And I think there’s something really incredible that has happened in a lot of these moments in this play where they sound different, even from when we started. Even as actors have shed their own preconceptions.  

And what has revealed itself is a version of Our Town that feels very right now. And it’s a version of Our Town that looks very right now, which I think is a very important thing, to have this town be one that visually represents more people than I think it ever has. I can’t say for certain, but certainly than it ever has on Broadway. And that diversity also leads itself not just visually, but into the types of people that are occupying these characters, these spirits of this play. And so, I think it’s really surprising, and I think it will shatter those preconceptions, if you have them. I think a beautiful moment you’ll have is ‘Holy cow, this is not what I thought it would be.’