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You began your career in theatre. Debuting on Broadway as a teenager. Would you say you've gotten back to your roots with your role as Ilona in "She Loves Me"? I do consider it that way. The Broadway community is my home community because that's where I started. I have such a love for Broadway. I had the most joyous experience on "She Loves Me" and it wasn't until I started doing interviews for the show that I realized it had been 13 years since I'd done Broadway. It was exciting to be nervous again. I was excited to have to learn and perform the whole play. TV is broken down and done in smaller scenes and out of order, so it was fun for me to use my brain in that manner again. The play is filled with so much love and joy that I think it transpires to all the performers on the stage and hopefully the audience as well. It was a homecoming for me, returning to the Roundabout Theatre Company for my third production with them. I had worked with director Scott Ellis before, so it was a homecoming on many different levels. It's wonderful to have the audience participation every night. You sort of feed off that energy. Exactly! You feed off that energy every single night. How was it juggling the filming with Netflix and returning to Broadway? It's been busy. I had a two week overlap, and thank goodness "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "She Loves Me" were able to work it out. For the first two weeks I was doing double duty, but then "Kimmy" finished for its hiatus. We finished "She Loves Me" July 10th so now I have a month off before we begin season three. It's worked out perfectly. What did it mean for you to not only return to Broadway, but to also be nominated for a Tony Award? It was incredible. I mean initially I was just looking forward to seeing if I remembered how to do it, you know? [Laughs.] I never expected to be welcomed back with such open arms and kindness by the community. It's been exciting to be a part of this particular theatre season in New York City. I mean obviously with "Hamilton" and "Waitress" and so many new musicals opening and great revivals, I think it was a really great season. You could feel the buzz. Especially at the Tony Awards. What attracted you to your role on Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"? For me, the whole attraction was to work with Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. I had many amazing years working with them on "30 Rock" and I was thrilled to get to work with them again. I had said yes over email without even knowing what the part was. I appreciate their writing— they're amazing. They still write jokes, and there's so many jokes per page in our show. Many of the cast will at first misread some of the jokes and realize there's a joke within the joke. The writing is just so well- crafted. I've come to love Jacqueline [her character], I had no idea what an amazing character she was going to turn into. Even though I've worked with them [Fey and Carlock] for so many years, they still challenge me. They still give me stuff to do that I'm like, "Oh okay, you think I can do this? Let's try!" I appreciate that. A lot POINT OF VUE V U E N J . C O M 57

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