Bollywood Interview
Lindsay Hartley (Theresa) was able to put her prior stage experience to good use during the "Passions" Bollywood musical. While the hours were long, Lindsay enjoyed learning the Bollywood choreography and letting Theresa vamp it up a little in Gwen’s fantasy. To get the lowdown from Lindsay on the behind-the-scenes action, continue reading!
You have an extensive background in singing and dancing, right?
I started in musicals. My first professional experience was Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" in Palm Springs. My next big job was in Vegas where I worked as a lead vocalist in a daytime show called "Viva Las Vegas" at the Sands hotel. I worked on "Grease" on Broadway. I traveled all over. I was Marie in "West Side Story" in Austin, Texas. I’ve been doing musicals since forever. Actually, I was focused on singing and becoming a singer until I landed on "Passions."
Were you excited to use that background again for "Passions"?
Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t a lot of singing. But the dancing was neat. Any opportunity to do something different on the show is wonderful.
Do you still find time to dance or sing outside of "Passions"?
There is an event once a year that I’m able to sing at, through "Passions," in Tennessee. That’s always fun. We perform at the Wild Horse Saloon. That’s always fun for me. Otherwise, I’m pretty busy between "Passions" and my home life.
What was the hardest part of putting together this sequence?
The hardest part was just the hours. It was only a little under two weeks of rehearsal, but we still had to tape our regular episodes. Some days we would tape one and a half shows and then rehearse for Bollywood and then go home and learn lines for the next day. So our days were like doubled. A lot of times I wasn’t able to see my daughter so that kinda sucked. So the time management was the hardest part for me. Other than that, nothing was hard. It was fun! We weren’t complaining. We all enjoyed rehearsing.
So you enjoyed learning the choreography?
I did. I loved the choreographer, Dev. I thought he was wonderful as a person and as a choreographer. It was definitely a challenge to learn the specific hand movements. Dev worked with us though; he knew we were struggling with the hand movements, making them look authentic. He was great.
Had you watched any Bollywood movies from before?
No, not really. Lisa [de Cazotte, Executive Producer] and Dev showed us a few though. It was interesting to see how every person incorporated their own style into the dance movements. Not everyone did it the same way. You were able to have your own version of certain movements, which I thought was awesome.
What was the most memorable part of this experience?
The opportunity to do something different on the show and the fun we had. Meeting the choreographer and getting to hang out with Eric [Martsolf, Ethan] and Liza [Huber, Gwen] outside of the show. There wasn’t a lot of dialogue to learn so we could just hang out and talk to each other. It was cool.
