“The Lion King,” the musical has been on tour in Fort Lauderdale for the past week and will continue its run at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts until Feb. 1. After watching the performance, I had the pleasure of speaking with Nia Holloway, who plays Nala in this adaptation of the Disney classic. Here’s what she had to say about her experience playing Nala, “the warrior princess.”
Can you tell me a little bit about your character?
“Nala is Simba’s playmate, and they grew up together learning the ways of the Pride Land. She grows up to be this princess warrior when Mufasa dies, and she takes on the role of a leader. She’s also very young and powerful, but she’s also very vulnerable when it comes to being around Simba and finding Simba. I’m in love with the character Nala, and I enjoy playing it every single day. I feel like I embody some of the characteristics from Nala within myself.”
How do you merge yourself and Nala into one character?
“I try to find similarities. I’m very young and driven, I want great things, and I feel like I find that in the character. Nala is very strong, and she is going to do whatever it takes to take care of her family and just find a way for things to be the way they used to be. So I feel like I embody the strength within her, and I pull that out from within myself to portray the character.”
How long have you been singing and performing?
“I’ve been singing since I was about 4-years-old. My aunt heard me sing, and she told me the first song I sung was “Bag Lady” by Erykah Badu. So I’ve been singing forever. It’s in my blood and in my family line. I’ve been performing seriously since I was about 11. I’ve done things like the Apollo Theater; I was on a TV show named Majors and Minors which aired on The Hub network, and I’ve done arenas and all types of competitions and performing in school. So it’s always been in my blood and always been something that is a part of me.”
How long does it take to prepare for a whole tour?
“With this production, you would think it would be a few months, but actually, about a year and a half ago, I started the tour and rehearsed for five weeks. It was the most intense five weeks of my life. It’s usually about five weeks, and you constantly learn on the job; we perform [almost] every single day of the week, so we constantly learn new things and find different ways to tweak the way we perform every day.”
Do you ever make errors or miss a line in your performance?
“I’ve definitely missed lines. When you’re on stage and you miss a line, it literally feels like an eternity, but it goes by so quickly that you’re able to pick up where you left off. It’s been a while since I’ve missed a line. The first two nights I ever performed, I missed lines. I was born in Illinois, but I’ve been in Georgia since I was eight years old, so I have a bit of an accent. My cast mates tell me I have a little bit of a country twang. I have to work really, really hard to make sure my accent doesn’t come out, so that’s about the only thing I go through on stage. You also have your slips and falls and stuff.”
How is it working with the other cast members?
“Ben Lipitiz, who plays Pumba, is absolutely hilarious and Nick Coreleon, who plays Timon, is the nicest guy ever, and he’s so funny. The whole cast gets along. You have your besties, but it’s like a big family. We tour together all year long, so we have to make light of it, and these people do become your family.”
Do you ever get homesick while you’re on tour?
“I get so homesick. I see my family very periodically, and it’s sporadic, too, because our schedules are so constant. We get vacation time, but I definitely do get homesick. My family and I are a super duper close tight knit family, and it does get tough. I can go a few months, but maybe like the fourth or fifth month of not seeing my family at all, that’s when I start to go crazy and I’m like, ‘I need to go home.’ It’s something you don’t get used to, but you learn to deal with it.”
How long are you guys on tour?
“It’s a yearlong tour, and it all depends on if you get another contract. The principle contracts are a year long, and the kids have six-month contracts. For as long as they want you, you’re here. I’m very excited that I got offered another contract, so I’ll be with the tour going on a third year in July.”
How does it feel to be the youngest person in the performance?
“The animated film came out a year before I was born, so this show has been around for as long as I’ve been on this planet. It’s truly amazing and humbling every single day when I get to be in a production that’s impacted so many people’s lives for as long as I’ve been alive. And it’s impacted me from a very, very young kid. To be a part of it is like a dream come true, and it was an amazing opportunity; I was so blessed to be 17 years old starring in what they say is “the greatest show in the world.” To do that at 17 was so humbling, and it made me want to work even harder to achieve this goal of sustaining the role well and also achieving other things in my career, so this was a great jumpstart. I’m really excited about what’s in store for me.”
If there were any other musical that you would do, which one would it be?
“If it was around longer, I would love to be in ‘Cinderella.’ That would be a dream come true to play Cinderella. I live my everyday life saying that I’m a princess, so to play one of the greatest Disney princesses would be amazing. But I do hope to play Nala on Broadway. That’s always a goal to get to. People work so hard to get on Broadway, so that’s also a goal for me to also achieve that. I have a lot of time, I’m very young and I’m very driven, and I have a lot of goals as far as acting. I want to do a lot of plays and television and also have my own music career, which I constantly work on while I’m on tour. I actually just released a song on iTunes called ‘Favorite Love Song,’ and I have the video coming out for that soon. I’m really excited, and I just have a little fire under me right now, so I’m just going to keep going.”
What do you want your audience to know about your character Nala?
“I want people to embrace her and just fall in love with her strength and also how the character is so dynamic. She’s a teenager but she takes on this huge role, and she also has vulnerable moments; embrace her strength and enjoy. It’s truly an amazing experience to do it, so I want people to think it’s amazing while they watch it.”
Photo Credits: pressroom.trustarts.org
