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Hello, my name is Eden Espinosa, and I am currently playing Maureen Johnson in the closing company of RENT.
RENT has always been very dear to my heart. My first trip to New York, when I was seventeen years old,
all I cared about was seeing RENT. [laughs] And my mom and I bought – there were no tickets at TKTS,
no tickets at the box office, it was the first year that the show had opened, and we came across a scalper in Times Square,
and we bought tickets. And it’s just been a very, very special musical to me.
It was one of the first ones that I related to vocally,
and I felt like, “Oh, if these people can be on Broadway, maybe I can be on Broadway too.”
And I auditioned for it a whole bunch of times when I was younger – like 11 or 12 times between the ages of 19 and 21 –
and I never got it, and then when I moved to New York and started working on Broadway, it still never worked out,
so I kinda just made peace with maybe I wasn’t ever supposed to be a part of the show, and earlier this spring,
I got a phone call, and I was asked to be a part of the closing company, and it was amazing.
It was such a cool thing to be asked to be a part of it with a special group of people that were put together
for this special time for the show. And it’s an incredible honor, and I’m having a blast – onstage and with the cast,
and offstage, it’s such an amazing dynamic at that theatre. It’s an immediate family your first night that you’re there.
And it’s very, very special, and I’m so honored to be a part of it.
Thank you to everyone for coming to see us this summer, and see you at the Nederlander.