Brian Stokes Mitchell Quotes

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Last Updated on May 30, 2021

Just
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Nov 07, 2020

I'd been playing the piano since I was 6 and wanted to be a composer, but I also wanted to be an actor. I decided to just pursue both and see which won out.

Me
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Nov 07, 2020

To me, a theater is a kind of a sacred space. It needs a kind of ceremony, like what happens when you consecrate a church.

Love
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Nov 07, 2020

That's what I love about New York. So many people crowded together, pushing against one another. And that's what I hate about New York. So many people crowded together, pushing against one another.

Hate
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Nov 07, 2020

I hate those vacuous musicals, the happy-happy, 'Let's have a good time' shows.

Being Different
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Nov 07, 2020

I like being different people.

Dance
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Nov 07, 2020

I wouldn't call what I do 'dance.'

Fear
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Nov 07, 2020

Fear is destructive. Fear and creativity don't mix. Ultimately, it doesn't do you any good.

Listen
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Nov 07, 2020

My favorite music is jazz, actually. It's what I listen to, it's what I was raised on, and it's what I prefer to sing.

Father
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Nov 07, 2020

My father was a huge jazz fan, so I remember him playing Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughn, and Count Basie.

Listen
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Nov 07, 2020

I gravitate to rhythmic music, so I listen to jazz, world music, Indian music, Hawaiian music, all kinds.

Like
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Nov 07, 2020

Oddly enough, I almost never listen to show tunes. But there are some shows I love, like Adam Guettel's 'Floyd Collins.'

Great
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Nov 07, 2020

Years ago, I couldn't get arrested in commercials because of my look: 'Is he Jewish, Hispanic, or African-American?' I ended up doing voiceover work, which has been great. Honestly, I can't complain.

Life
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Nov 07, 2020

I'm fortunate that I've been able to work on Broadway, but it doesn't give me an outside life. So I decided to go into the concert world. I do 40 to 50 shows. That takes one to three days a week, and I'm home the rest of the time.

Hard
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Nov 07, 2020

Doing eight shows a week is hard.

Experience
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Nov 07, 2020

That's the magic of art and the magic of theatre: it has the power to transform an audience, an individual, or en masse, to transform them and give them an epiphanal experience that changes their life, opens their hearts and their minds and the way they think.

People
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Nov 07, 2020

The thing about doing concerts is that it's doing a live show. It's on my schedule. It's songs I want to sing. It's saying what I want to say. It's working with the people I want to work with. I don't have to worry about pleasing other people - I can do what I want, and people come along and go for the ride.

Nov 07, 2020

I can't remember ever not singing.

Feel
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Nov 07, 2020

I kind of feel the career chose me. My motto has always been, 'Go where I'm wanted.'

Last
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Nov 07, 2020

The first audition I did was for 'Trapper John, M.D.' I was surprised to get the part, and then to have it last for seven years was a bonus.

Nature
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Nov 07, 2020

You lose more than you win in life, and that's OK. That's the nature of life.

Bored
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Nov 07, 2020

Variety is the key to not being bored.

Great
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Nov 07, 2020

My job as an entertainer is to give a great show.

New
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Nov 07, 2020

I love rearranging and reimagining tunes, so I want my audience to enjoy hearing songs in a new way and make their own discoveries.

Home
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Nov 07, 2020

I studied arranging and orchestration a number of years ago, so I have a home studio and arrange about three-fourths of my songs on the computer. Since writing orchestration is tedious, I often put an arrangement on the keyboard and let someone better-qualified finish it.

Guess
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Nov 07, 2020

My family's very, very mixed. I am, I guess, a kind of melting pot in a person.

Direction
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Nov 07, 2020

When I moved to Los Angeles, I thought, 'Whatever hits, I'll go that direction. If it's music, fine; if it's acting, fine.'

Hands
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Nov 07, 2020

I've always felt that my career was in wiser hands than mine. Whatever, in its good time, is supposed to happen will happen.

Love
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Nov 07, 2020

I love doing theater. It's what I grew up in and is my roots. I get a huge fulfillment from it. But if my path is to go someplace else, hey, I'm there.

Great
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Nov 07, 2020

Each time I have performed in Utah, I had a great time, and the audiences seem to enjoy what I do. The audiences are very warm and very appreciative.

Culture
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Nov 07, 2020

There is a built-in appreciation for music that is so much a part of the LDS culture. Utahns know that music can be divine and can touch a person's spirit in a unique way.

Forever
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Nov 07, 2020

I can count on one hand the number of conductors-composers-arrangers that I enjoy working with, and at the top of that list is Mack Wilberg. I feel like I've known Mack forever. I'm just nuts for him.

Heart
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Nov 07, 2020

Music, for me, is the most sacred of the arts. I say that because music communicates in a way that no other art form can. All great art has a spirit that we recognize and appreciate, but music goes directly to your heart.

Disease
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Nov 07, 2020

The Actors Fund is a human services organization, so our focus has been on caring for the entire human as opposed to dealing with the disease.

Community
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Nov 07, 2020

When you have a community that's strong in the arts, it brings all sorts of attention and different businesses into the community.

People
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Nov 07, 2020

People in the performing arts have a lot of other skills they don't realize they can utilize, and part of what the Actors Fund program is there to do is wake their head up to realize there are other things they can do.

Impossible
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Nov 07, 2020

It's nearly impossible to make a living in the arts.

Love
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Nov 07, 2020

Cabaret presents different challenges, as it is all on me. I love having the freedom to say anything you want - do anything you want. It is a lot of responsibility, and if it works, you get all the kudos, and if not - all the blame.

People
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Nov 07, 2020

On Broadway, you are working with some incredible people, and they have great reasons for doing things the way they do.

Mother
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Nov 07, 2020

My mother was the first African-American policewoman in Seattle - recruited, actually - and she did it for only 2 years, as she did not want to carry a gun. She worked mostly on domestic disturbances. The NAACP wanted her to do it. She did not actually have the temperament to be a cop - she was very sweet. She had a Masters in social work.

Me
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Nov 07, 2020

Something is guiding my career; I don't know what it is. When I look back at my career, I call myself the most lucky actor in the world. It is all I have ever done. I do master classes, and I tell people not to use me as an example. I do not know anyone like me - not to brag - it is just very unusual.

Nov 07, 2020

You need raw talent to be successful.

People
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Nov 07, 2020

People who are artists professionally are not artists because they want to be artists; they have to be artists. They're compelled to get that creativity out and to share that with others.

Never
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Nov 07, 2020

Performing in the theater is a very ethereal profession because you do it once and it goes out into the ether and it goes into people's minds and that's the only place that it ever exists. And it never exists truly; it only exists in the way that people think they remember it. But it's a really powerful way to tell a story and to pass something on.

Nov 07, 2020

What I love about piano and vocal is it's incredibly pure, and it gets down to the essence of the song because you're not distracted by an orchestra. When it's just a piano and a voice, it's about the purity of singing the song.

Feel
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Nov 07, 2020

When I was preparing 'Kiss Me, Kate,' I did go to the Museum of Broadcasting and watched an old kinescope of Alfred Drake doing the role on a television special. It was interesting, but I didn't feel any need to try to copy him.

Feel
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Nov 07, 2020

Usually, I don't feel comfortable with a character until I've played him before an audience for several performances. It is not until after three months of performing that I learn to discover what I call 'all the nooks and crannies' of the person.

Family
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Nov 07, 2020

I'm one of the few lucky actors in the world. I've never waited tables. I never pumped gas. I've always earned a living. I never had to borrow from my parents. I was the first in our family to own a new car.

Beauty
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Nov 07, 2020

I think the problem is when people hear 'arts education,' they think, 'I don't want my son to be some painter that's going to be hanging in some museum after he dies. I don't want my daughter to be a struggling artist making no money.' People don't realize it's more than that. It's beautiful. It brings beauty to our lives.

Make
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Nov 07, 2020

Artists make our lives livable and enjoyable.

Bye
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Nov 07, 2020

The first role that I played as a musical - I was 14 years old, and I played Birdie in 'Bye Bye Birdie.' That was an awakening of, 'Wow, I'm good at that. People are responding.' And I hardly knew what I was doing back then, but there was something that people were seeing.

Living
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Nov 07, 2020

I'm the chairman of the board of the Actor's Fund. It's an incredible organization. It helps anybody that has made their living in the performing arts and entertainment: actors, singers, dancers, film producers, agents, managers, ticket takers, writers, anybody in times of need or crisis.

Astaire
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Nov 07, 2020

Astaire was ballroom, basically, and Gene Kelly had such athleticism - that's always what I responded to and what just blew my head open when I watched Gene Kelly's numbers. But, Fred Astaire was just so incredibly inventive and so, so smooth - so smooth.

Hate
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Nov 07, 2020

Honestly, I hate watching myself on TV - I have always hated watching myself and listening to myself.

Been
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Nov 07, 2020

I'd always been a huge fan of Stephen Schwartz.

Artist
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Nov 07, 2020

I always like to talk about how important space is. Art is in the spaces. Anybody can sing a note; it takes an artist to sing the spaces. Anybody can paint a brushstroke; it takes an artist to know when not to put the brushstroke.

First Time
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Nov 07, 2020

The first time I really had an influence on a show was during 'Ragtime.' It's still the most magical show that I've ever done.

Language
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Nov 07, 2020

To take the ugly language out of 'Ragtime' is to sanitize it, and that does it a great disservice.

Nov 07, 2020

'Ragtime' is about how we get through ugliness, how we talk together, work together, get through it together.

Like
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Nov 07, 2020

Through most of my life, music has been like a radio that plays and plays in my head.

Nov 07, 2020

I'm a fan of odd meters. For example, I've decided to sing 'No Business Like Show Business,' but I'll be doing it in constantly changing 5/4, 7/4 and 11/4 time signatures. I've found a way to make that work.

Doing
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Nov 07, 2020

There are some projects where you have to just start doing it, and, after a while, the show starts telling you what it wants to be. You put your spirit in and, after a while, something bigger takes over, and it turns out to be much more fun and creative than what it was at the beginning.

Laugh
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Nov 07, 2020

If you can make an audience laugh, you can make them love any character.

Getting
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Nov 07, 2020

Left to my own devices, I would go to bed at 2:30 or 3, but I can't do that if I'm getting up at 6:50!

Feed
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Nov 07, 2020

There's a lot of risk involved in acting, and you can't take the same kind of risks when you have a kid to feed.

Good
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Nov 07, 2020

I started out on the stage, then I had a great career in television for quite a few years. The good news about a TV series is that they give you a certain amount of fame and money. The bad news is that you're in people's living rooms every week and get associated with a particular character.

Conducting
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Nov 07, 2020

I studied film scoring and orchestration and conducting and arranging in my twenties, and I scored a lot of television shows and other things.

Lawyer
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Nov 07, 2020

Everybody comes to the planet with certain gifts. It may be writing, it may be acting, it may be singing, it may be being a lawyer, it may be making a beautiful cabinet, it may be being a spectacular dry cleaner. It could be anything. We all have gifts in different areas.

Experience
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Nov 07, 2020

'Ragtime' was the most magical show that I've done. I had an incredible experience with that, with the show itself, with the cast, with the audience. The response to that show - my God, it really blew me away, the reactions to that show, the way it changed their lives and altered their thinking, their own self-discovery.

Nov 07, 2020

I always say it takes three weeks to know a character and three months to own it. And I think that's probably true of every theater artist. If you really want to see a performance of the show, wait three months.

Nov 07, 2020

One of the best pieces of wisdom I ever got is you work because you work, meaning you work because you're saying yes to things, and you're connecting with people.

Job
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Nov 07, 2020

Stay as connected as you can. Sometimes that means you're going to do a job that may not pay you much but may give you a great connection. If the work is not going the way you need it to go, create your own!

Music
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Nov 07, 2020

I've sung a whole lot of jazz. It's my favorite style of music to sing. People don't realize it, because they're so accustomed to hearing me sing musical theater.

Coltrane
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Nov 07, 2020

I was raised on jazz. My father, from the time I was born, used to get up early on Saturdays and Sundays and put on Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Kenny Burrell, Sarah Vaughn, John Coltrane - all these great, classic albums.

Life
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Nov 07, 2020

When you're doing eight shows a week, you don't have much of a personal life.

Living
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Nov 07, 2020

I've been really fortunate that my concert career has taken off hugely. I can make a living. I enjoy performing in front of a live audience, and I can do something different every time. Sometimes I'm with a quartet, sometimes I'm solo, sometimes with a symphony, and I get to go to different cities and meet different people.

Fresh Air
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Nov 07, 2020

I love being outside, and I love the fresh air.

Friends And Family
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Nov 07, 2020

I love seeing the stars, and I love being around my friends and family.

Cast
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Nov 07, 2020

I'm having a ball on 'Glee.' It's a joy to be working there - the whole cast is so talented.

Music
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Nov 07, 2020

I was practically raised with Christmas music.

Boy
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Nov 07, 2020

At our house, we'd always open presents with our Christmas records playing. 'Little Drummer Boy' was one of my favorites when I was a kid because it was about a kid.

Love
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Nov 07, 2020

I love rethinking and reimagining songs.

Kiss
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Nov 07, 2020

'Kiss Me, Kate' was my 'Ragtime' Tony.

Myself
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Nov 07, 2020

I always call myself the luckiest actor in the world because I made a living solely as a performer from the time I left home at 17 years old.

Grace
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Nov 07, 2020

The older I get, I realize, 'Man, I'm a very rare bird,' and that's not because of necessarily my talent or ability; it so much depends on luck and just the grace of the universe.

Like
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Nov 07, 2020

I like to capture the spirit of what the writers intended but find my own nuances. That comes from jazz - the invention and freeness within a structure.

Jazz
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Nov 07, 2020

I didn't really think I liked jazz all that much until I was about 18. That's when the freedom and possibilities of it began to seem appealing to me.

Orchestra
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Nov 07, 2020

If anything, when I was young, I wanted to be an orchestra.

Me
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Nov 07, 2020

I don't recommend skipping college, but things have worked out for me.

I Am
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Nov 07, 2020

I am always looking for the next show.

Life
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Nov 07, 2020

I have been fortunate in my career to play a lot of lead roles. The downside to that is I don't have a life outside of the show. I go on lockdown even with my wife if the show is really difficult and I am having vocal problems.

Impossible
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Nov 07, 2020

I like to sing the songs people love, like 'Impossible Dream.'

Singing
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Nov 07, 2020

One of the interesting things an artist does is they keep rediscovering things, whether it's a jazz piece or a role you've done for 3,000 performances or a song you're singing for the 3,000th time. My job is to find that spark that keeps it fresh and alive.

Me
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Nov 07, 2020

I think the Oscar is the big money award; that means you've made it in a money sense. The Tony has always represented - to me, and most actors that I've talked to - an artistic award. It means you're an artist and not just a popular performer.

Like
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Nov 07, 2020

I love the theater, and I just don't love television like that.

Parents
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Nov 07, 2020

When I was 6 years old, I asked my parents for an organ. I don't have any idea why I wanted an organ.

Like
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Nov 07, 2020

I'm not a pop singer; I'm not a jazz singer. And I know I sing like not a whole lot of people do; I also know that a lot of other people act like I do. And better than I do. But what informs the singing is the acting. They're not separate from each other.

Me
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Nov 07, 2020

For a while, I couldn't get arrested in television because everybody thought of me as that guy on 'Trapper John.' So I thought, 'Great, I'll come out here to New York and do some theater, and when they get tired of me, I'll do something else.'

He
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Nov 07, 2020

I think I just had it by osmosis: an appreciation of Duke Ellington before I really even knew who he was.

Jazz
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Nov 07, 2020

People comment on the way that I phrase. And in my 20s, I realized, my phrasing is jazz phrasing. I don't comply strictly with musical theater phrasing. Musical theater tends to be very one and three, and jazz is definitely two and four.

Meant To Be
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Nov 07, 2020

Music is liquid. It's meant to be messed with and played with and stretched and pulled and pushed, I think.

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