Katie has been a member of the Ensemble since the very beginning of SP1. She's very sweet and friendly and I'm so glad that I finally got a chance to interview her.

NR: Can you tell me something about your background? Where did you grow up?

KN: I was born in New York so I contend I was bit by the "Broadway Bug" early on. I grew up in southern California, Orange County. It was one of those things where I started singing around the house to Olivia Newton-John with a hairbrush for a microphone. Then, in the third grade, for the first time they were letting third graders try out for the school musical which was Annie. I tried out and I got Annie, and that was it. In terms of theater background, very early on I got a taste of it and have never looked back.

NR: Did you do community theater?

KN: Yeah, and a lot of things in school. I did it through college too. I know a lot of people either discover it in college or maybe even afterwards. It was nice because in college I always knew where I wanted to go next. I have a lot of friends who have majored in something and don't know where they're going.

NR: That's great. Is this your first Broadway show?

KN: Yes.

NR: Was it anything like you imagined it to be?

KN: That, and more. Not only was it my debut but it was an original show, which is just so exciting, to be creating something. It was just such an incredible cast, and you know the scale of it all at the Minskoff, making an original album, and doing the Tony awards in June. It was really incredible. It was a lot like walking on air a lot of the time.

NR: And who would believe that all of these things would have happened?

KN: Well, you know we had what seemed like a tug of war at times. We would hear, "OK, we're not doing as well as we hoped" but then all of the fans were so incredible and we had the most amazing producers that just hung in there and said, "We really believe in this show. We're going to keep it going." And, God bless them, they did it in such a style as to create a resurrection of sorts and here it is with the new production with Bobby (Longbottom) directing. It did even better than we could have dreamed and the fans were still there. And we're all still here in a new theater.

NR: And the League is still growing. There are over 600 members now.

KN: You guys are so great. It's amazing.

NR: There are people in the League now who only know this new version. They found it in Texas or Atlanta.

KN: (laughing) Creating new migrations every day as they come to New York to see it again.

NR: And they aren't comparing the current leads to the ghosts of the former people.

KN: That's right. I think what's interesting too is for those who fell in love at the start and to see it go through all the changes must be as fascinating for all of you as it is for us.

NR: It is. It's completely fascinating.

KN: My favorite part of working on any show is the rehearsal process, the exploration and discovery of characters and what the show is about. It's funny because we've had the chance to do that here. It's renewed every year and of course we joke about it - the yearly incarnation.

Interview conducted and photographs by Nancy Rosati.