The Importance of Understudies: Maya J. Cristian And Jordan Quisno Share Their Experiences of Being in the National Tour of JAGGED LITTLE PILL

I had the joy of recently watching the national tour of “Jagged Little Pill” at Theatre Under the Stars in Houston. This Tony and Grammy Award-winning new musical—based on Alanis Morrisette’s world-changing music-- is about an American family and the struggles that they go through in our modern world. It is cathartic, it is incredibly poignant, and there is something in it for everyone to relate to.

When I viewed the show, I found out the day of that two of the leads—the roles of the daughter (Frankie Healy) and the son in the leading family (Nick Healy)—were being played by understudies. I was incredibly impressed knowing that they were thrown into the show last minute; my friend and I who attended the show agreed that we couldn’t even tell that they were understudies who were covering! So, I wanted to speak with them about their experiences with the show.

Here is my conversation with these two talented performers—Maya J. Christian and Jordan Quisno-- talking about all they do for “Jagged Little Pill”!

So, to get us started, I’d like to hear about you two, your journeys, and your current relationships with this show. Maya, tell us about yourself. What is your background? How did you get to touring with the national “Jagged Little Pill” tour?

Christian: I am a 2020 college graduate, so I was doing the whole showcase, finding an agent process. I was literally in a meeting when they announced that everything was going to shut down. So, I took a breather for two years as we all had to, and then I was thrown back into it when it got started again. This is my first really, really big gig I've done. I've been working professionally in regional theater and stuff since I was about 19 years old, but this is the second or third gig that I personally have done, and it's really the first time that I've been a swing for any kind of show.

And Jordan, can you tell us a bit about yourself? How did you end up touring with “Jagged Little Pill”? I see here that this is your national tour debut, which is exciting!

Quisno: I have been living in LA for the last handful of years and still auditioning for theater but doing a lot of work in voiceover mainly, so this is definitely my national tour debut. This year, I did a show right before joining. I did it from January to March in LA, but this year was my return to theater, if you will. I did go to school for musical theater, so it's what I wanted to do, but the work took me out to LA first, and I still was auditioning for Jagged while I was in LA. I flew to New York for auditions for when the tour was originally launched. That didn’t end up working out, but in April, I got the call that Jagged was checking my availability again. That was around the end of March. Then a couple weeks later, I got to join everybody in Chicago. I am sure that it was quite a different experience than starting the tour, but joining everybody there was great. They all welcomed the few of us who joined at the same time with open arms, and now we've been rocking here for a number of months ever since.

In the production’s program, I see that you are a swing for this tour, Maya, and that you are an ensemble member, Jordan. Jordan, just to confirm: Are you an ensemble member and an understudy?

Quisno: So, I have 3 tracks total. I have a track that I do every night in the show, and then I understudy Nick and Phoenix.

Great! Can you both tell us what these roles are? What exactly is an understudy and a swing?

Quisno: I think that the biggest difference between Maya and me for this show is that I do have the ensemble track of Andrew every night. So, for the most part, I know what I am going to do every night. Then, every now and again, you'll get the call that you will be doing something else that night, and this is my first time doing more than two tracks. I've done two before, but this is my first time doing three, and a few weeks ago was the first time I did all three in a week. When you are an ensemble member, once you do the first run that you do every night, you get a real feel for the show and what is happening around you. So, you know where every other character—including the characters you understudy-- is in space. When you go out there, you just say a prayer for the best, and you go out with all the confidence you can.  Thankfully, everybody else is aware of what's happening. Everybody else on stage has always been super supportive, and they have helped me move along through. If you get caught up in a traffic pattern or do something wrong-- which is absolutely going to happen, and that is okay-- you're gonna get through it, and everybody's going to help you along. This cast has dealt with it so much before I got here due to COVID-19, so they really know how to help and support people when they're onstage. It makes performing in this production a good experience overall.  

Christian: I am essentially an understudy who learns a lot of different roles, but I am an off-stage cover, which means that I'm actually not in the show every night. If everyone is well, then I won't be performing that night. I cover technically six people on the show. Essentially, I'm on call unless I call out due to sickness or being out of town. If someone calls out of the show, then they will go ahead and slap me in, and it's been quite the growing experience, especially doing a show of this caliber. We're doing a show of this caliber on the road, and then COVID and taking care of mental health are very real. So, I am on pretty often. I remember during COVID, when we started split-tracking-- which quite literally means that you are playing more than one person for a given performance (and those are some crazy days)-- I was like, “Oh, no…” I was dying because I forgot that split-tracking was an actual thing that they could ask me to do, but now it is just another skill in my book.

 

Wow! If you don’t mind, can you list the 5-6 roles that you cover?

Christian: Yes! So, I cover one principle. I cover Frankie, and it's an important thing to note that every role in our show has at least two different covers, so there's one person who's assigned that role, and two other people who could potentially go for that role. So, each role has three different people that could be on any given night. So, I cover Frankie, who is the daughter in the show. I cover a few featured ensemble tracks; I cover the pharmacist/therapist track in the show, I cover the dancer track in the show, I cover the Frankie avatar track in the show, I cover another ensemble track in the show, and then I technically cover one of our male ensemble members for one scene in the event that the second cover goes on because of how much coverage we needed.

Were you told that you were covering all those roles at one time, or has that been developing over the course of this tour?

Christian: It was pretty much set in stone at the top of the process. I will say when I got my offer, the only thing that I knew was that I was hired as a swing, and I knew that I was going to be covering Frankie. Then, they told me that I would not know who exactly I was going to be responsible for learning until about a week or two into rehearsals. About a week and 1/2 into rehearsals, they gave us our full coverage list, so then that's when I figured out how many roles I was going to be playing definitively. I knew I was going to be playing anywhere from four to 7 roles, and it turned out I was going to be doing 5-6. I will say that some people have something in their job description that says that they might have to learn more roles in the future, though. I have not had to do this, but we do have two other swings-- who are our vacation swing and then one of our male swings-- who around a month or two ago were approached with, “Hey, is it possible that you could also learn this role?” We've been on tour for almost a year, so it is a thing that could potentially develop throughout the course of the tour. I have not had to pick up more coverage, but I've known that in the event of an emergency or if we have a lot of people out (like when sickness spreads around the cast and people are taking turns stepping out of the show), you're asked to take up responsibilities that you sometimes don't have. We had a cast member who had to go get surgery and was out for two or three weeks. So, there was one scene where I had to move that cast member’s prop, even though I did not cover her role.

Have you played an understudy or a swing before in your careers?

Christian: Yes, I have, but it was only one other character, so this is the first time that I've had more than two. As for swinging, I actually technically have been a swing before, but it was for a regional theater, and I only covered around three people, and it wasn't on this level. We did not dance nearly as much, and I believe I memorized around two vocal harmonies. Also, the roles I covered all stood next to each other at any point of time, so I felt like I was only learning one track. I had a cast member who ended up having to leave the show for medical purposes, so I really didn't even swing that show because they ended up putting me in the ensemble a couple of weeks into our run. So, I have never had to perform any swinging responsibilities. I've been an understudy before. For my first gig ever, I understudied for a Shakespeare Company, and that was a ton of fun. I learned so much just from doing that contact. I've had friends who've swung, and I've watched them do their work, and honestly, all of us swings for Jagged had not really done swinging before, so we leaned on each other and learned from each other by watching each other.

How do you train for such a unique and important role? Do you get individual rehearsals? Do you have to do a lot of individual learning?

Quisno: Our rehearsal processes were obviously different with me joining later. When I joined, I joined with two other incoming cast members at the time, and we had a week where it was just us with our dance captain and our stage manager in a studio in Chicago where the three of us learned the whole show. I believe you typically get four onstage rehearsals. These rehearsals are called understudy rehearsals, and you get to move through the show onstage, but you don’t have access to the full cast. You have other understudies and swings come in, and you get to feel other people in the space with you. Then, after those, you get one spacing rehearsal with the full company mainly for safety purposes. That's the first time I felt everybody on stage, and that was right before you're put in. So, it is basically your dress rehearsal, your one go where you are in costume, make-up, full lights, and all that stuff. You get to actually feel what the show is going to be, and that's your one shot to get a feel and then that’s it. You just repeat that process for other roles. So, once I did that for the first track, I then went into understudy rehearsals for the next role for me. Learning Nick (the son) was my next track to learn, so over the next few understudy rehearsals, I walked through his track and then got a put-in. Then, later down the line, I did the same thing for Phoenix where you get the same handful of rehearsals and your dress rehearsal and then it's open! The thing that is interesting is that—technically—you as an understudy or a swing still could be asked to go on even if you haven't had that put-in dress rehearsal. You just have to know your stuff, and when I joined, our stage manager was very upfront that yes, you are going to learn this one first, but you need to be learning all of your tracks at the same time. Start learning the lines and know the songs because if the case arises, you can absolutely be thrown on without a full rehearsal process. That has happened to multiple of our swings.

Christian: That's our standard process for getting people into this show. I would say I was rehearsed for every show, and for every role that I covered, I got a put-in for everyone except for three people. One of the roles I knew I was not going to get a put-in ahead of time just because of our schedule. Some shows enumerated tracking, which means that if someone calls out, they go to the first person on the list and then the second. That's not the case for us. Our roles are rotated, so every other time someone calls out, you go on. You're splitting the responsibility with your other cover so that everyone doesn't get all of the work dumped on them. I was going to do one of the roles they knew that someone was going to need to swing out to watch some principal work for someone else that they covered, so they let me know. They were like, can you go in for so and so on this given day; you won’t be able to have a put-in, but we feel that you will be prepared, and in this case, I did feel prepared. In Portland, I split-tracked two of the roles that I did not get a put-in for. Something had happened, and they asked me if I could go on for both of the roles, and I was like, yeah, I can do that. When that happens, they'll bring everybody in early, and we'll run certain things. That time, the whole cast came in 30 minutes early. Then, the directors told us to run the lift, then run the part when this person was on the table, run this other part.

Can you each tell me how you went about developing your own version of the character you performed as Wednesday night (Frankie and Nick respectively?)

Christian: My experience is a little different from Jordan's just because I started with the cast, so I was in rehearsals with everyone. I was there for a lot of conversations with our director and choreographer. When it comes to my intention and script work and even choreography, I was there for the original conversations, so I got taken through all that information at the same time as everyone else. I will say when we started, it was a little tricky because I had to keep up with six different people, and sometimes our director Diane would pull the family and do scene work in one room, and sometimes we'd be doing choreography in another room, so I would bop back and forth between who I was watching, what rooms I was in, and they were very awesome about it. They let me freely flow and do whatever I needed to in order to consume the information I needed. Being a cover, I will do exactly the blocking and choreography that the track is already intended to do, but when it comes to acting and some of the singing, I am my own person. So, my goal is not to mimic the person that I am covering, but rather to be trusted to be slotted into their position when they're out. I will be trusted to use the same props, but I am bringing my own attitude choices, and I am bringing my own personal experiences to these roles.  That is what acting is anyway because we are all our own person, and so our own personal experiences will inform our characters differently. That has been my favorite thing! To watch so many people do the show with their own interpretation of their character is a lot of fun. I think that is very beautiful. We get to show a little bit of ourselves!

Quisno: I agree with a lot of what Maya said. We are a little different because I was doing those show rehearsals, so me learning the show was learning it through the stage manager at the time that the tour was going on. You have to learn the blocking; that does not change. However, when you are learning it on the road, there is a machine that's already moving. So, you have to show up with what your interpretation is before rehearsals. You're not really there to rehearse and work through things. All of your intentions, your thoughts, your ideas, and how each character feels happens before you walk in. Every actor plays their role a little bit differently, and there may be discussions about that if you do something much different than the person you cover.  The director will say, this is why this is the way it is. However, I will say that everyone was also really great. I was very much able to make my own choices and bring myself to it.

Do you have your own personal connection to the show as a whole?

Christian: I was supposed to see the show the night that the shutdown happened. So, that's a funny tip that I always tell people. I love the Alanis album. When people ask me, if you could bring five albums to a desert island, what would make that list? I always say Alanis is one of them. When they announced that it was going to be adapted into a stage musical, I thought, why would they do that? Why would they ruin such a perfectly good body of work? Then I heard all my friends say no, you would love it; listen to the album. The orchestration was fire. I found out about Frankie, and she was so similar to my high school self, so I decided to manifest it. I'm going to play this girl one day. I told my teachers that I was going to sing Alanis Morissette at my showcase and you cannot change my mind. So, when the shutdown happened, I thought, we’re going to let go of that dream for a bit. Other things came and went, and then they announced that they actually needed replacements for the Broadway cast, and I submitted for that. I made it to finals for that, and that was my first-ever Broadway/equity callback, so I was just happy to be in the room. I ended up not working then, but about a year later, they announced they were going on tour, so I submitted again. I did not have any representation at that time, so it was just me doing an open call blindly submitting like everyone else. So, I submitted the same tapes that I'd submitted the year before. The second that I saw the call on the casting website,  I dug through my computer. I was looking for that video I sent in, and once I found it, I sent it in immediately. I think about a week later, I heard back with a tape request, and at the bottom of the email (in bold), it said that if you have submitted for this role before—hint, hint, nudge nudge—just send back your old videos. So, I realized that they were literally telling me that they were interested in me. So, I submitted my old video that I got called in for a callback for. Then, the girl who was supposed to be before me was running late, and I showed up early, so the second I got there, they said that they were going to see me next. So, I didn't have an opportunity to change or to do whatever. I ran into the room with my bags, dropped my stuff, and they asked me to do the fight scene straight into “Unprodigal Daughter”. I didn't have any time to think about it or to get myself together, but I think that might be part of the reason that I got cast in the show. I just went with my gut, and it was a really killer audition. I didn't hear back again for a couple of weeks, and I was convinced that I was not getting cast in the show. The day that I told somebody that I was not going to be in the show, they emailed me literally 14 minutes after that conversation with an offer.

Quisno: For me, it's the music of Alanis. She is absolutely something that I grew up with. Similar to a lot of other people in our cast, it was the first audition that I ever did after college. There wasn’t even a long line for it. There really wasn’t a description of what the show was yet. It was just like “The Alanis Morrisette Jagged Little Pill album” and something about following a family through tumultuous times. I was like, that’s very broad. That was a number of years ago, and I wasn’t in New York during the height of COVID. Then, the show came back, and I did not get a chance to see it. I then flew to New York when the tour was initially cast, but it did not work at the time. However, there were so many people in the room that I auditioned with for the dance section and in the holding room who booked and did start the tour. So, when they opened the show in L.A., and I got to go and see it, it was really fun to see all of the people that I had met a few months before doing the show. At that point, I had let it go, and I didn't think that this was going to be a journey that I was taking, and I was perfectly fine with that. I was happy for all the people that I met doing the show. Then, out of the blue, there was no notice of it… I was doing another show, and then my manager came and said, “Hey, just a heads up: the Jagged tour must be doing replacements because they asked what your availability is starting the first week in April. That was a fast process because they reused tapes I had already been in, so they already had all the footage of me, and there was no real audition process. It was just, are you available? Then, all of a sudden, I was like, “Oh, yeah!” Then I was leaving L.A., and I hadn't really left L.A. in the last number of years. All of a sudden, I was like, yeah, I'm going to go on tour, and I'm going to do it right now! Fast forward to now, and here we are.

Why do you believe audiences should come on out to see “Jagged Little Pill”? In other words, what makes it important today?

Christian: There are so many social issues that we as people face nowadays, and so it would be ignorant to not address them in a modern-day musical. Heidi (the actress who plays my mother) said this wonderful thing the other night: there's something for everyone to gain from watching this show, and if you don't see yourself in the show, you see somebody that you love. I think it's a wonderful reminder that if we really work to be better people, to be accommodating people, to be nicer and kinder to others, to be nicer and kinder to ourselves, then the world would be a much better place.

Quisno: Going along with that, I think it really does represent the best of life itself. There are obviously so many topics that Jagged touches on that are difficult and controversial and thought-provoking, but there's also so many moments of celebrating joy and love…there's absolutely something for everyone, and I think everyone has their own individual journey with it. It's one of those shows that brings up so much within yourself and is potentially a conversation starter for the drive home or subway home. I do think everybody leaves Jagged a little bit different than when they came in initially. That’s for sure what happened to me when I first saw it in L.A.

To finish us off, is there anything else you would like to share with the readers of BroadwayWorld Houston?

Christian: I always say, if you know a swing or an understudy, thank them. Sometimes, it can feel like a thankless job. I know it's definitely not, and our cast is literally awesome. They're so supportive, but when you go and see a show, and you see a swing, say hi at the stage door. Go tell them how awesome they're doing. Chances are they found out maybe an hour before they got to be there. They would down their dinner and go over their tracking sheets. Swings are keeping our industry afloat, and that is not an exaggeration in a post-COVID world.

Quisno: Yes, swings are the heroes of this industry. The industry is not what it is without them. It is impossible without them, and I think something that I just hope to spread to more people as well is when you get to a theater, and you see the swing or an understudy is on that night, I hope that we can get to a point where there's a moment of excitement. Sometimes, if you're going to see a specific person and they're not on, I understand the sadness or whatnot, but when you see that board that says such and such tonight playing the role of whatever, I hope that audiences are excited because that show is going to be exciting. Everybody onstage is going to be aware and super locked into what is happening because it's not an everyday occurrence. You are going to get something special that not everybody gets to see.

 

 

 

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