Sam Linda (Communication ’20) is back in the Chicago area for a 17-day-long stint as a cast member in the North American Tour of “The Lion King.”
In the show, Linda plays Ed, an aloof hyena. He also understudies for Timon, a comedic meerkat who is one of Simba’s companions, and Zazu, a short-tempered bird.
Linda was cast for “The Lion King” in August 2024 with a rehearsal process that lasted about five weeks. Approximately two weeks ago, he celebrated his one-year anniversary with the show. In a full-circle moment: Linda said he plans to acknowledge this milestone with his castmates at the same restaurant where he celebrated his 21st birthday as a student at Northwestern.
“The Lion King” will run from Oct. 3 to Oct. 19 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. The Daily spoke with Linda to discuss his time at NU, his experience performing on a Broadway tour and advice for aspiring musical theatre actors.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
The Daily: How does it feel to be back in Chicago?
Linda: Oh, it feels really good. I expected to be excited, of course. But having been here for a couple days so far, it feels unbelievably special and full circle. My first week of school at Wildcat Welcome, I got a text from my PA that’s like, “Hey, do you want to go see ‘Fun Home’ at the Cadillac Palace?” And I was like, “Yes, of course.” And I remember going and being like, “Holy crap, this theater is unbelievable. It’s huge and these performers are world class. It would be awesome to get to perform here.” And I just came from a meeting where I got to see my dressing room backstage, and I was like, “What is going on?”
The Daily: Tell me a bit about your time at Northwestern. How would you say your experience at NU has enriched your career as an actor?
Linda: I’m so grateful for everything that Northwestern had to offer. You’re surrounded by such an eclectic group of people — no shade to a BFA program, where everyone’s trying to do musical theater. Some of my best friends were directors, writers, and I was friends with designers. I was in class with people across every emphasis that you can imagine within theater, and I was also exposed to puppetry and clown work and physical theater. Without all of those experiences making up my education, I wouldn’t be the artist that I am today.
“The Lion King” was such a fortuitous thing, because I feel like I’m getting to do all of the things that I got to do at Northwestern in one show. I’m doing clown, puppetry, physical theater and dialects. I’m pinching myself. It’s crazy.
The Daily: In the show, you play Ed and you understudy for Timon and Zazu. What’s it like playing each of these characters, and do you have a favorite?
Linda: Ed is always going to be the fave. It feels really special to have the mechanics of that puppet in my muscle memory so deeply, it’s like a part of “The Lion King” legacy that I will have for the rest of my life.
Timon and Zazu were both wildly fun because they’re both so different. I mean, Zazu has my favorite entrance in a musical of all time. You enter from the back of the house and you’re the last person on the stage, since it’s his job to gather everybody for the ceremony of the presentation of Simba. That’s the most special, where I try to remember what it felt like to see the show for the first time, and what it felt like to be a kid who wanted to do theater. It really does feel like the fulfillment of a lifelong dream every time I get to enter for that.
And Timon is special because I had always said Timon was my dream role. When people ask me what my dream role in musical theater is, I’d be like, “Timon from ‘The Lion King.’” And now I have to figure out something else to say because I can check that one off.
The Daily: And finally, what advice would you give aspiring Broadway actors at NU?
Everybody’s path looks different. Nobody’s better than anyone else. Like, this person isn’t better than me, who just happened to end up with this crazy opportunity. It will happen. The thing that surprised me the most was it’s hard to get rejected from jobs, but it might be even harder to figure out what life looks like when you do get the job. The challenge just becomes something different. You end up being really grateful for the challenge. But it really can’t be said enough, this s**t is not easy.
The most magical thing can start to feel mundane, and it’s the actor’s responsibility to remind yourself every single day that the people in the audience have never seen the show. There’s a kid in the back of the house whose life is being changed because of the work that we’re doing. So just stay present for the next two and a half hours, and then you get to go home and be grateful to be able to complain about something so cool.
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X: @mayaw0ng
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