NBC News: 'Amazing' Broadway Latinos are back after Covid shutdown

“As soon as we get off stage, we put our masks on,” Gerianne Pérez, of “Waitress,” said. “It can be difficult, because it messes up your stage makeup. ... We are doing this balancing act of enjoying each other’s company and being very careful.”

Backstage visitors are no longer allowed, and actors can no longer greet audience members at the stage door after the show.

"The show is sacred, and no one wants to get sick and be out for an extended period," Pérez said.

Gerianne Pérez is back on Broadway in "Waitress."Courtesy Gerianne

Although she was based in New York, Pérez spent most of the pandemic with her family in Florida. “I did my best to stay busy, but I had moments when I wondered whether it was time to pivot and leave the business,” she said.

Wanting to get back to her adopted hometown, Pérez took a job at a mortgage company in New York City. 

“I tried it. I really did. I gave it my all, but I was so unhappy,” she said.

Then Pérez received an unexpected phone call.

“The 'Waitress' producers wanted to know if I would do the show on Broadway — and rehearsals started tomorrow. I left the mortgage company that day,” Pérez said. “If you had told me a year ago that I would be in one of the first shows to open after the pandemic, I never would have believed you.”

Pérez said the energy at rehearsals is “joyous and palpable” because everyone is thrilled to gather in person.

"It was like a sensory overload," she said. "And we have had such supportive audiences. They are glad to be back, too. They give us massive applause."

Originally from NBC News, read the full article here.