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Joaquina Kalukango Quotes

1988–1989 United States

Joaquina Kalukango (born 1988 or 1989) is an American actor and singer best known for playing Nelly O'Brien in the Broadway musical Paradise Square, for which she won the 2022 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

United States
Actresses
Singers

Random Joaquina Kalukango quote

6 quotes

Theater is like being in the playoffs every night. It’s always changing based on who comes into the space.

We don’t always give them the grace to be human, the grace to have complex or troubling thoughts, the grace to figure things out.

This is a story about people who manage to overcome their differences and create something beautiful in the face of fear and danger.

Bring all of yourself to the character, because there is so much to play with. Be as honest and open and vulnerable as you can be to the experience, and trust what you find. And take full care of yourself.

I often find the reason people have an issue with Kaneisha is because they want to put her in a box, the same way we do with a lot of our black characters.

That is what we are trying to get to — that point of being human and respecting that there is room for everybody’s stories, instead of giving one strict narrative of what theater should be and how black women should behave.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Joaquina Kalukango (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.