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Tiziana (@tizipagliarulo on Instagram) has over 20 years of experience in the live entertainment industry. Growing up in a small village of Italy, she dreamed of becoming a dancer but had no idea where to start. Only that NYC was calling to her. At the age of 18 she traveled to New York to study dance and began her career working with some of the worlds greatest directors in the Live Entertainment Industry, Television, and Cinema. In 2019 she began collaborating with the legendary Director Franco Dragone, and ever since, she has continued to work on multiple film and television projects. This is an interview with Tiziana Pagliarulo Part 1: A Glance At Her Past.
The industry has changed as eras and generations change! I think at some point, we’ve all drifted toward a sense of grandeur, searching for the biggest “Wow.” We live in a digital age and art, today, reflects it too. Changes are important, they make us grow and define what suits us best. If I have to express the way I feel today and what I would like to convey to the public, it is to take a small step back and get a little bit closer to simplicity, purity, truth and poetry. Realities change, words and therefore communication tools, but what never changes are human feelings! The same ones since forever! So I believe that my task is to find new languages that will speak about eternal things.
I attribute this wonderful journey to the beginning of my life!I come from a very simple but value-rich family that lives in a small village in the south of Italy. It was very difficult for me to convince my parents to let me leave and move from such a small reality to a large reality as that of New York. So, as soon as I had their permission, I didn’t hesitate a moment to organise my trip before they changed their mind! I knew nothing about N.Y. I didn’t speak a word of English, I just felt that there I could realise my dream to become a dancer. So in one day I packed my stuff, bought the ticket and left. When I got there, I didn’t even know where to go to sleep, if I think about it now I realise how reckless I was and maybe even a little bit naïve. I’m a very instinctive person, I don’t know why I chose this city, I just knew that I had to go and so I did. There was nothing particular in my mind, I didn’t have a plan, I just had a dream to realise.
When I left for New York, I didn’t know much about dance… So when I came to N.Y., my knowledge was very limited and I had almost everything to learn. I started to try anything, I would take all kinds of dance classes. I was very hungry to learn. So, what I try to convey today to the artists that I have the chance to work with, is to be hungry for curiosity, to be sponges with enlarged skin pores. To always take the most difficult path, because behind the longest paths, there are always the biggest surprises. I never pretend to pass on the technique to them, but only the courage to face fears and to have a lot of faith in destiny. I think there is someone up there ready to take care of each one of us if we really desire something and constant work. To never be jealous of people who are better or more intelligent than us, on the contrary, admire them and take inspiration from them. It will allow us to improve and grow. We need to be surrounded by people who are stronger than us because they stimulate us to surpass ourselves and push us to always give our best. I have learned that life is the only business that must end “in the red”. At the end of the journey, we must have given much more than what we have received. That they must be passionate… because money doesn’t give you ideas, it’s ideas that give you money!
Working internationally is the best thing that could have happened to me! Because it forces me to deal with other cultures, customs, languages and colours. I constantly have to adapt myself to different ways of thinking or living. But I love challenges!I give you an example: Lately, I have been working a lot in Saudi Arabia and I directed a show called “Terhal”, written with Franco Dragone, before he passed away… When, with my collaborators, we presented the project to the Ministry of Culture, and talked about our vision, proposing a huge project with 120 artists coming from all over the world, liquid sand, horses… one of the comments received from them was: “Very good, thank you very much, everything is very beautiful, but, can you please dedicate one of your scenes talking about our Saudi coffee?”
I must admit that at the time I really didn’t expect that coming and I didn’t know how to respond! For a moment I thought it was a joke!
I’ve made so many!! I worked for many years with a director who, artistically speaking, I admired a lot. At one point in our collaboration, I think, we no longer understood each other, not from an artistic point of view but more about moral and life values. I could easily have continued and pretended that everything was going well, but, as I always do, I preferred to make a change and remain faithful to myself, and so I left. Obviously, by making this decision, I lost everything and a pandemic arrived. Until one day appeared, like water in the desert, Mr. Franco Dragone. If I hadn’t listened to my instincts, I wouldn’t have met one of the most important men in my life who gave me the chance to be where I am today.
It’s difficult for me to answer this question because they were all important to me, big and small. They have been part of my journey and have allowed me to be who I am!
Same thing! I am a very selective person, I choose very carefully the people I want to be surrounded by, friends and projects! But then, when I decide on someone or something, I give it my all! So for me, again, they are all very important.
Everything! For the moment I only had a few opportunities to work in film. I really enjoy working on television. We have to work at an exaggerated rhythm, full of adrenaline! You have to be fast, efficient and smart. What I like most is that you don’t have the time to get bored because you immediately have to move on to the next scene. The only defect I find in it, consequently, is the fact that you never have enough time to go deeply into things .Opposite in live production, you get the chance to explore more and delve deeper into details with much more intense human exchange.
The creation process is very delicate and sensitive, it forces you to put yourself “naked” in front of the public, revealing your most intimate emotions and fragilities. It gives you many joys but also many sufferings. So I think it’s very difficult to touch something that has already been created by someone else. I’m very respectful of this process. When a curtain opens, we enjoy the show and simply say whether we liked it or not, and don’t think about all the hard work that is behind it, we don’t think about all the sleepless nights… So if I had to choose, I would prefer to avoid dealing with a revival of an existing show but rather create a new one. To be amazed every day and discover things that I don’t know, otherwise there is no evolution. On the other hand, there are some shows like “O” by Franco Dragone or “Room” by James Thierre that when I look at them, I say to myself: “Wow, I wish I had made it myself, exactly the way they are!”
Thanks to social media, it’s easier today to let people know you exist and show them what you’re capable of. But unfortunately or fortunately, I don’t know yet, I’m not a big fan of social media. So, I would approach the industry the same way I do it today. I will keep working hard every day and continuing straight to my road.
Janine has always been a part of music and performing. The first show that inspired her to go into theatre was the Velveteen Rabbit which she saw as a child, and Drew works to keep that magic alive in her work. When Drew was accepted into an internship program for audio engineering at a recording studio, she jumped at the opportunity. That was at the start of 2020, and so much has happened since then, both in her career and in the world. Since then, Drew has taken several opportunities to work at recording studios, concerts, festivals, and even large theatres while spending some time on tour. Drew's favorite by far though, has been the chance to work on Broadways and West End shows, as this was a dream come true. Drew is honoured to get to share these experiences from being inside the entertainment industry.
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