00:00So nice to make your acquaintance. It's Julie Debra from 1057WROR in Boston, and I get to
00:06talk to one of the stars and creators of a new Cirque du Soleil show and Disney collaboration.
00:12It's called Drawn to Life. I did a little reading about you, Emily, and it's Emily
00:17Callagher. Welcome. Thank you. And you've been with Cirque for a while. So how did this
00:24get started? How did I get into Cirque? How did I get into Circus? Into this particular
00:30show. Oh, in this particular show, I had actually just closed the show with Cirque du Soleil
00:37and had met the director of Drawn to Life there. And he really liked what I was doing on Verakai,
00:44which was an older show by Cirque. And yeah, that's when the process really started. And
00:49I started submitting videos of my character ideas for him. And that would kind of like
00:54help him go like, oh, for our next video, we want to see you do this. So I just kept
00:59making videos until I got the job. So talk a little bit about the story of Drawn
01:04to Life. Drawn to Life follows the story of a young girl named Julie. She is given a animation
01:13project to complete left by her late father. And it follows her through the adventure of her
01:19basically coming of age and realizing her own power. And it's a wonderful, heartfelt and like
01:26genuine story that I think a lot of people will be inspired by, really.
01:31And the development of your character in the show, Miss Hesitation.
01:37Oh, yeah, I'm the bad guy.
01:39So tell me how that came to be.
01:41So Miss Hesitation is a character who basically is the personification of self-doubt. So I think
01:48everyone can relate to hearing that voice in their head of you can't do it. This is terrible. This is
01:53awful. And that's who she is, basically. And she's basically a big giant wad of crumpled up paper.
02:01So it's like all the hopes and dreams of the world thrown away. And that's who she is.
02:06So your costume in that, as that character would be what?
02:10It looks like a giant wad of up ball of paper. You can't miss me. You can see me from the moon.
02:17So how many people in this show?
02:20I think we have about 65 artists on stage. It's a big show.
02:24And the music I was reading is all original.
02:28Yes, the music is fantastic. We have a lot of little tidbits of Disney melodies thrown in there.
02:38So you'll recognize lots of little pieces of music. But it's also interwoven through original
02:43Cirque music, which is awesome.
02:45So and I read that you got your start playing a clown, a female clown in Cirque.
02:51How did that happen?
02:52Oh, I saw Cirque when I was about 13 years old. And I had no idea what it was. But I just said,
02:58that's what I want to do. Whatever that is, that's that's what I'm going to aim for.
03:02So I just started studying clown theater, mime, all the different techniques that go into clowning.
03:09And I think it was about 2000. And I want to say 14 before I got my first contract with Cirque.
03:17And are there a lot of female clowns?
03:20There are. There are lots of female clowns. We don't get enough attention. I'll be the first to
03:23say it for sure. Not that I'm looking for a job, but just wanted to throw that out there.
03:28Oh, yeah. No, there's lots of us.
03:30And this particular play show, I'm sorry, not play show, drawn to life is playing at Disney Springs.
03:39Yeah, it's the only place you can see it.
03:41So tell me a little about Disney Springs, because I've been to Disney World numerous times. And I
03:47don't think I've ever been to Disney Springs because I'm so busy at Disney World. So tell me
03:51a little bit about Disney Springs. Well, Disney Springs is really awesome. It's really unique in
03:56the way that you can anybody can go at any time. It's like a beautiful spread out shopping center
04:04mixed with restaurants and different experiences. It's good for the whole family. It's just a
04:11beautiful location. And again, you don't need a ticket. Anybody can go free parking. You can't
04:17beat that.
04:19So that is so what else did I want to ask you? Oh, what do you do to keep yourself? Because I've
04:25seen some I've never been to a search show. But I've seen of course, I know, always wanted to go
04:30just haven't done it yet. I will. But I have a question. I had I had a yoga teacher who used to be
04:36in the show. And I want to know what you do to keep yourself in shape to be able to do all of the
04:42acrobatics that you have to do in that show. Well, I'm I don't have to do too many acrobatics.
04:48Thank goodness. It's my job to stay on my feet. Mostly. If I'm doing acrobatics, call someone
04:54because it's not it's not normal. Okay. But I still have to stay in shape. I still have to keep
04:59physically fit. Definitely. It's a lot of movement. So, you know, running, eating well.
05:07Yeah, just all the all the stuff across the board just to keep your mind sharp and your body sharper.
05:13So there'll be some acrobatics in the show, of course. So lots of acrobatics, tons of it. It's
05:18just amazing. And the girl who plays Julie. Yeah. How old is she? The actresses that play Julie
05:26are in their early 20s, I want to say. So we have two of them and they go back and forth.
05:33And the animation. Did you have something to do with the animation as well? The creating of the
05:38animation? The animation of the of doing the the drawings? Well, we actually got to meet Eric
05:46Goldberg during the creation and he is the president of the Disney animation and studios, I want to say.
05:53And he actually got to show us what it looks like to actually animate. And it was really,
05:59really interesting. It was amazing just to see his process and, you know, how how they really have
06:05to study the human body and how things move in space in order to, you know, like accurately translate
06:12it onto the page. And it's kind of just like circus in a lot of ways. It's a lot of planning,
06:18anticipation, you know, like knowing yourself and knowing how to, you know, like express different
06:25things clearly. One of the coolest things that I ever saw, I went I was on Disney magic recently on
06:32the, you know, the big giant ship and animators palette. They had a thing where the people it was
06:39a restaurant and people in there, you would just do a little drawing and they mixed and then you would
06:43pass them in at the beginning of dinner. And then during the show, they would have the animation
06:48up on the wall that you did mixed in with the Disney animation. And it was incredible. So
06:52I just I'm blown away by what Disney does anyway, but that was just really spectacular. And so this
07:00show is I'm sure going to be amazing. And this was supposed to start in 2019, right? But because of
07:07everything creation started in 2019. And we were supposed to premiere in 2020. And of course,
07:13that didn't happen. And we finally did premiere it last November. How long is the show going to be
07:20going on? Oh, 20 years. Fingers crossed. I mean, we're in it for a long time, for sure. And where can
07:30people go to get tickets for this show? Oh, I believe you can go to Disney Springs dot com slash circ.
07:35And that's the best way to find out all the information you need to know about how to get to
07:40the show, how to get tickets, anything you need to know is there. Perfect. Emily Callagher, thank you
07:45so much from Cirque du Soleil and a Disney collaboration drawn to life. Have an awesome show.
07:51And hopefully one day, maybe I'll get down there to see you. You better come down. I'm going to I'm
07:55going to wait. I'm going to hold you to that. You better come down and see us. And I will look for you.
07:59Thank you so much. A pleasure to meet you. Likewise. Thank you so much, Julie. Take it easy. You too.
