Carla Stickler: Broadway Star to Software Engineer

So it's interesting.

So when you audition, it's common that I know the first time could turn into a yes six months later because they cast over over time and you keep trying.

And do you you work at that? You know, like, do you get feedback and then you go work on it? I remember earlier you saying, you know, it's hard to know what they they're looking for in terms of the voice or the looks or the height or whatever.

And I just wonder what makes it different the second or third time that they say yes.

I think when it comes to like long running shows, especially a show where like there is time, right, there's going to be more replacements, there's going to be openings, there's multiple casts, there's multiple companies, there's time to kind of grow with a role and sometimes go in.

and they go, okay, you're not ready yet.

That's fine.

And you do a work session and they like give you notes and then you come back in four or five months later and they see it again.

And it's how you take those notes, right? It's how you come in and like whether or not they think you're ready for it.

And sometimes you get the pleasure of having an opportunity like that where like you do get to go back in and you do get to show them that you worked and you get to prove to them that you have been able to grow with it.

Yeah, that's interesting because when I think about working in corporate and corporate America, you interview for a job and you're told no and that's it.

They hire someone else.

They're never going to say, well, go work on this, this and this.

I guess if you're young and you're applying for an internship or an entry level position where they have multiple positions, they may say, you know, try to go get some experience and then come back and reapply.

But it's not common that when you're told no, you need to go find another place that's going to be a yes.

But the fact that you had all these opportunities where you got to work on the role, take the feedback.

It's interesting that you really work through a lot of news.

So Carla, when was the moment you were working as an understudy for wicked after seven months of working hard and taking their feedback and coming back, they finally cast you and you worked at it for five years.

And I wonder when was the moment when you decided that this has run its course and it was time for you to make a change?

So my reasoning for leaving that show had a lot to do with the like the physical toll that the show took on my body.

So now being grateful to be in that show was one thing, right? Like I loved being in that show.

I actually really enjoyed being in the ensemble of that show, like doing that show every night and understudying.

I had also been a standby on tour.

When a standby role, the difference between standby and understudy is a standby is not in the ensemble.

You're offstage, your first cover, you probably do the show maybe once or twice a week as Elphaba, maybe, depending on the girl you're covering.