Defining Creativity Podcast [August 23, 2022]
S1E8: A TV, Film, and Theatre Performer's Definition of Creativity with:
Megan Elyse Fulmer
Megan Elyse Fulmer is a TV, film, and stage actor who was raised in Morrisville, PA by her Puerto Rican mother and German/Irish father. Megan embraces her roots, as well as her varied experiences, as she engages creatively in both her work and everyday life. Currently performing in "In the Heights" with Stages St. Louis, she reflects:
“Coming from Latin roots, there’s a lot that’s always unspoken, there’s a lot of things you don’t talk about and then you put yourself in the world of this show [In the Heights]… This show has meant the world to me since it came out on Broadway. I was obsessed with it and I felt so represented for the first time, because, yeah we had West Side Story, but I’m literally a product of what that show is against the entire time... They don’t want a white man marrying a Puerto Rican woman, and that’s me. My father is Irish-German. My mom’s Puerto Rican. So, for the first time, I saw families like mine; I saw stories like mine. But now that I’m twelve or thirteen years older, those stories hit on such a deeper level… all these moments in the show that directly relate to my life—yes, I’ve worked through as me, but now I’m portraying it through my art, through my soul, through my body, through my passion…”
“I have so much diversity just within my family and so many different cultures within my family… and when you [welcome everyone with open arms], you’re able to learn from so many different people’s points of views, feeling… Our family would not exist if we were not open and if we were not willing to explore. And then comes the creativity with building families, with cooking different dishes, with traveling to find roots—again, we go back to those roots. We are creative from the roots.”
Debbi and Megan after a performance
of In the Heights with Stages St. Louis