When Renée Elise Goldsberry was asked to audition for the role of Angelica Schuyler in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2015 smash musical Hamilton, she almost didn’t go. Then in her early forties, she had a solid career under her belt. She had performed major roles on Broadway several times and had steady TV work, including hundreds of episodes on the soap opera “One Life to Live.”
Though her delusional diva character Wickie Roy on the Tina Fey-produced sitcom “Girls5eva” wouldn’t have, Goldsberry felt she was probably too old and otherwise not a good fit for the Hamilton part. But she found the audition material — Angelica’s lightning-quick showstopper “Satisfied” — too compelling to pass up. She took a chance and ended up joining one of Broadway’s biggest and most culturally relevant shows of all time.
Goldsberry, 54, tracks her experience with Hamilton from the workshop phase to her 2016 Tony Award acceptance speech in a new documentary, Satisfied. Through deeply revealing interviews, the actor discusses her struggles with motherhood and being in the spotlight, brought to life with loads of archival footage, home movies and vlog-style confessionals. It screens on Thursday, October 16, at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., followed by a Q&A with Goldsberry.
The presentation is part of the Dartmouth Arts Weekend Celebration, which unveils the college’s brand-new, multifaceted performing arts center. The following evening, Goldsberry and a full band take the stage to present a spiritually charged musical extravaganza, including selections from her genre-hopping debut album, Who I Really Am, released in June.
Before her appearances at Dartmouth, Seven Days caught up with Goldsberry by phone.
What’s inspiring the radical honesty behind your latest projects?
I’m actually just realizing now how kind of miraculous it is that all of them are being released at the same time. When I started them, it felt like they were different projects. In reality, they’re very connected to each other, and so the timing is perfect.
I’ve always been very open about everything. I think that’s part of being an artist: self-exploration and the bravery to share it. What’s unique about artists is our willingness to be ourselves in the most real way in different scenarios. What of me works and brings this character to life?
I really like the song “Staring” on your album. What’s it about?
It celebrates the surprising humor and spirit of the album. It’s written for my husband. It’s a celebration of just being able to objectify someone that you love so completely for so many reasons. It simplifies a very complex, very long love into the moment you first saw them.
Before writing it, the Satisfied team found footage of us talking and looking at each other and decided to put it in the documentary. The directors did a wonderful job of showing how awesome my husband is. I wasn’t aware until I saw it that he was going to end up being the star of it.
One of my favorite scenes in Satisfied is when you meet up with your high school drama teacher. Back in the day, did he give you any advice that stuck with you?
Absolutely! I learned to just show up and not limit myself. He cast me in South Pacific in a role that really doesn’t work for a person of color, because the issue that the character has is marrying a man that has children of color. She has to get beyond her prejudice and what people will think if she marries this man. So it really doesn’t make sense to cast a woman of color in the role when she’s the only woman of color in the cast. It’s very confusing.
I wasn’t really aware of that at the time. I just showed up for an audition and got a part. It’s the reason why I do it to this day. [My high school drama teacher’s] ability to dream beyond what might have made sense to most people in that time is the reason my entire career exists.
And one of the reasons why it was so perfect to include him in the documentary at the time I was starring in Hamilton was because, decades later, I was also playing a role where there were only reasons not to cast a woman of color, because, historically, that is not who the character is. There’s a direct line between the creatives of my high school musical and the creatives of Hamilton.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Satisfied screens on Thursday, October 16, 7:30 p.m., at Loew Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. The film hits video on demand on Tuesday, November 4. Goldsberry performs on Friday, October 17, 8 p.m., at the Hop’s Spaulding Auditorium. Both events are sold out but offer waiting lists. hop.dartmouth.edu
Hop to It: Other Highlights of Dartmouth Arts Weekend Celebration
The original print version of this article was headlined “Truth Be Told | Hamilton alum Renée Elise Goldsberry reveals it all in a new documentary, album and live performance
This article appears in Oct 15-21 2025.
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