RUSHES: Tony winners Brandon Uranowitz, Bonnie Milligan talk trans, queer rights and embracing who y

(11 Jun 2023)
BACKSTAGE WINNERS RUSHES INCLUDING BELOW:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York - 11 June 2023
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Brandon Uranowitz, actor:
"It's sort of like something I can't really put into words. I mean, this play means more to me than anything than I've ever done. And I feel like this is validation of all the work that has led up to it, as well as just validation for the work that we all put in as a company into this story. You know, this play is moving people in ways that I've never experienced before as an actor, and it has given me so much purpose that I felt I had lost, especially during the pandemic, when we were sort of stuck inside feeling directionless and without purpose. And I didn't know that I could feel this purposeful as an actor. And this is—so to like, sort of reach this point with this play is sort of beyond."
++SEPARATED BY BLACK++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Brandon Uranowitz, actor:
"I did a lot of suppressing parts of myself growing up as a means of survival and just to get through the day. And I started to change who I am in order to be accepted or to feel like I belonged. And by doing that, I was falling farther and farther away from my truest self. And the only way that I feel like I can come to the work and be a human who navigates the world is to live authentically and truthfully and honestly. And I was deeply scared to tell my parents that I'm gay. But I'll never forget when I told my mom, my mom said, 'We love you for who you are and we wouldn't want you to be anyone else,’ so—and just sort of like shrugged like that, you know. So and I just feel like at this we're reaching an inflection point in the zeitgeist right now, culturally, politically, and queer and trans folks are being persecuted and targeted. And I just want them to know—nd their parents and guardians to know—that they must believe them when they say who they are and accept them for who they are. Because it's the only reason I'm standing here is because I was able to live fully and completely, holistically in my own truth."
++SEPARATED BY BLACK++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Bonnie Milligan, actor:
(On what she would tell her younger self)
"I've had a lot of hardship and loss in life, and I think that's just deepened me as an artist. And so, I never look backwards. I look forward. So, I would tell that little girl to buckle up and keep dreaming and be that loud little dreamer that you are and you will be embraced one day."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Identity was a recurring theme at the 2023 Tony Awards in New York on Sunday (11 JUNE 2023).

Brandon Uranowitz won featured actor in a play for his role in "Leopoldstadt," a story of a Viennese Jewish family who flees when Nazis arrive. Uranowitz said the role was deeply personal.

"This play means more to me than anything than I've ever done," Uranowitz said backstage. "This play is moving people in ways that I've never experienced before as an actor, and it has given me so much purpose."

Bonnie Milligan, who won for featured actress in a musical for her performance in "Kimberly Akimbo," echoed Uranowitz's comments about the importance of acceptance.

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