We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paulina “pau” Tobar a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, pau thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I want to start by saying that so far I have two most meaningful projects I’ve worked on but if I had to mention just one, that would be Nicolás Bascuñán’s one-woman show called ÑACHI. I was the Actress in the show.

ÑACHI was and still is one of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on because brings a bit of Chile, a bit of the south of Chile and the Mapuches (indigenous people), closer to the theatre scene and its audience in New York City (first city in the US where this show has been performed at). As a Chilean, it has been very important for me to make people around me aware of my culture and to break with the stereotypes and the idea of what it means to be Latino/a. Latin America has many cultures within it, there is not just one.

I strongly believe Nicolás created a beautiful and powerful play that shows a completely unknown side of our Indigenous Chilean culture, that even Chileans may not know. And I was so proud to be the one telling that story through my voice and my body.

This is the synopsis of the play, so you have an idea:

ÑACHI is a visceral story of ancestral rites, indigenous folk, and police brutality seen through the eyes of a sheep in Wallmapu, the land of the Mapuche people. Tracked through the passing seasons, the sheep’s wonder at the beauty of nature turns to rage at the violence exerted by the Chilean State. Ultimately, we are left to wonder— Is the sickness of human society beyond cure?

Told by a team of Chilean artists, this story brings us to the southernmost regions of Latin America, where native heritage has outlived the threat of erasure.

This show was produced by IATI Theatre in NYC at the end of April this year. It was co-directed by Braulio Basilio (based in NYC) and Roberto Cayuqueo (based in Santiago, Chile), both Chilean directors, and the assistant director was Mariela Eiriz Vigo (Argentinian based in NYC). It was imperative to have Chilean and Spanish speaking directors to understand the text and its layers. The script is in Spanish with a lot of Chilean slang. And we projected English supertitles on the upper part of the back wall of the stage so english speakers could follow along. It was satisfying to know that they understood the play and it was easy to read the supertitles and enjoy the performance at the same time.

I could go on for hours talking about ÑACHI (haha) but I really hope this project gets to be produced in other theaters and cities so more people can experience the show and start seeing Latin America through many other different lenses.

Paulina “pau”, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an actress, singer, and stage manager from Chile and currently based in New York City.

I decided to pursue acting and singing as a career after I injured my back practicing figure/roller skating which I thought was going to be the my career for the rest of my life. I got injured back in 2008 in Chile, before a South American Figure Skating Championship in Brazilia, Brazil. A competition where, after a lot of training along with treatment to control the pain, and a huge support from my family, friends, and team of doctors, won the first place in my category (back then, Creative Dance). After winning that competition, I quit roller skating for good. I didn’t really know what to do after that but I did know that I loved to sing and act, I just never did it professionally before.

To find a purpose in my life again, I got into an exchange program (always with my parents support) and Rotary International sent me to Pittsburgh, PA., where I lived for a year. I lived with two families, Kate Aldom, and the Robos (Jan, Robo, Amy, Molly, and Mark). That was one of the best years of my life. Learned english, did many sports and made excellent friends. That experience made me realize that there were many other things I was capable of doing, and if I was sure of something, it was the fact that I wanted to live in the United States in the future. I was inspired by the importance given to the sports life and the performing and visual arts in this country, and I for sure wanted to be a part of that.

Once I came back to Santiago, Chile and finished high school. I started writing my own songs, participated in some songwriting festivals in Chile, and even won the Festival de la Canción de San Javier in 2013 with my song “Tu Presente” which you can find in my album “Sueños” recorded later that year. This inspired me to pursue singing as a career, and started to study Popular Singing with a Major in Musical Theatre at the Universidad Mayor Conservatory of Music.

While studying there, I did a couple of musicals including Rocky Horror Show, Little Shop of Horrors, Les Miserables, and more. After the third year (out of six) studying in that conservatory, I started craving more and more Musical Theatre, and decided to look for universities and conservatories in the United States, where I wanted to end up in the future. One of the best Musical Theatre Schools that came up was the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. I loved the curriculum and after reading it once, something told me that that was the place I wanted to study at.

I had a conversation with my parents and I remember my father saying “okay, I will support you, but you gotta graduate from this one.” Those were the words I needed to hear to find the courage to audition via video submission (back then, AMDA wasn’t traveling to Chile to do auditions in person) and start my journey to New York City.

Seven years ago, I came to New York City to study musical theatre at AMDA, and as I promised my father, I graduated. And to my surprise, my discovery of new skills and passions wasn’t over. After we graduated, in 2019, my good friend Christian Clinton’s play, ANN, was selected to participate in the New York Theatre Festival and he needed a Stage Manager. I made a couple of comments to him before about me being curious about stage management because, while observing at our showcases’ stage managers at AMDA (Liz Redick and Don Adkins) it seemed like something I would like to do, so, Christian asked me to be the stage manager for his play and I gave it a shot. What I did not know was that I was gonna love every single part of being a stage manager, and I was gonna enjoy it and thrive in its environment. I started asking for help and guidance from Liz and Don, and reading a lot about the role of a stage manager in theatre. And the best way of learning was actually by just doing it, absorbing knowledge from everyone in the business, learning on the go and putting that knowledge into practice every day.

After ANN by Christian Clinton in 2019, I have been stage managing non-stop (except when I decided to get my BFA in Musical Theatre at The New School during the pandemic) in projects I thrive in while also being able to perform in plays like ÑACHI, that make every single part of my being vibrate.

I am proud of working on both sides of the stage, on and off. And I want to encourage everyone to listen, learn, and be conscious about other artists’ jobs in this industry and what that entails. It has definitely made me a more understanding and empathic person, and I can’t wait to keep growing professionally and personally to be able share my experiences with the people around me and the yougner generations.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Absolutely. Even though I saw it as a pivot when I started, now I see it as a complement.

I came to New York City to study musical theatre, to be an actress in musicals and/or plays. When I discovered stage management and started working as such, I couldn’t stop thinking that the reason I came to NYC was to act and not stage manage. I couldn’t stop thinking about what other people will think of me if they knew I came to this country to pursue acting but I wasn’t doing that fully, would they think I failed? Because of all these thoughts, at the beginning, I kept thinking of stage management as a pivot or as something I could do in the “meantime.” And as the time went by, I realized that it is OK if I love stage managing as much as acting. That being a stage manager doesn’t mean that I will stop acting forever. I had to come to peace with the fact that all those thoughts were in my head and I just have to do what fills my heart of joy, makes me happy and grow.

Of course, with all the work that being a stage manager entails, I haven’t had the time to audition a ton. But I have auditioned and I have been in productions that have made me keep the actress in me alive. I use and train different sides of my brain every time I stage manage and act. As an actress, being able to understand and knowing all the work a stage manager does and puts into a production, is key to help and try to make their jobs a bit easier by knowing what is expected from actors once in the rehearsal room and during the run. And vice versa, as a stage manager, knowing how we can make actors feel comfortable and how to lead a healthy and effective rehearsal room is key to have a successful production.

I strongly believe that we never stop learning about ourselves and what we are capable of. Find joy in everything you’re doing, and if those things are way different from each other, it doesn’t mean you have to pick just one. You just have to find a healthy balance and hey, more skill sets for your skills library!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I find the most rewarding aspect of being a creative artist is the people. The people I meet along the way, the people I get to collaborate with, the people I get to create incredible stories with. There’s so much to learn from each and every one of the people that I cross paths with, from the moment we say “hi”, spend a certain amount of time together, until the project ends. Whether we get along or not, whether we develop a close friendship or not, people teach you so much without even trying to. We just share what we know and how to do it, and suddenly, without even noticing, we connect, we create, and we grow.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: pautobarmusic
• Other: spotify: pau tobar

Image Credits

1 & 2 – ÑACHI (photos by Leah Peticolas)
3 – Rocky Horror Show, Santiago, Chile
4 – Proud (photos by David Anthony Wayne)
5 – Café con Leche; reading
6 – ÑACHI; team
7 – Your Name Means Dream; tech (photo by Seth Freeman)
8 – Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting; tech (photo by Seth Freeman)