HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Sometimes in life things don't go quite as expected. Growing up, I have vivid memories of seeing my dad singing opera and my mom reciting poetry around the house. As expected from a young kid and later teenager, I was slightly mortified, but it quickly became a normal part of my early years. You'd think that someone who wakes up to toast and a passage from Don Juan would inevitably and certainly end up in the arts, right? Well, yes, that did happen, but it took me a long while to get there.
I did not pursue any artistic endeavor "professionally" until I got to college. Right until I had to sign up for classes, the plan was to go to med school - something I had always said, and my family nor me had ever questioned. But yet again, things don't go as expected. With the sudden realization that I do not want to be a doctor, I take a leap of faith and start a degree in Filmmaking and Television, following a recently found interest in Photography and Visual Art - that explains some things, doesn't it?
Now, in order to understand how we get from there to being a performer and a teacher, we need to take a step back. Perhaps a jump, one all the way back to 2009 and one Susan Boyle auditioning for Britain's Got Talent. Yes, you've read that right. Her audition came to me as one of those viral videos that make the rounds on Facebook. I watched it a thousand times, not just because of the performance itself, but because of the song. I knew close to nothing about musical theatre, though I was an avid music consumer. And suddenly, there was this song, "I Dreamed a Dream", which was a completely different form of storytelling. Within the day, I was listening to the whole Les Mis 10th Anniversary Concert, and so began my love for musical theatre.
Fascinated by this new discovery, I signed up for my first voice lessons - to my parents amusement. But, yet again, I was about to enter college to be a doctor (!), so it was more of a hobbie than anything else. But let's flash forward again: I'm in college, studying film (not medicine) and loving it. One day, a classmate at the time tells me about this church choir looking for singers, and I happily join, not sure why, but also having no reason to decline an opportunity to sing more often. It was there I met the first musical theatre actors I have ever known. They were like deities, standing proud among the rest of us, perhaps unaware of the admiration I had for them. After all, I was the new, quiet Bass 1 still figuring it out whether survival depended on standing out or blending in this type of thing. Times goes by, we become friends, and one day I tell them about my love for musical theatre, which prompts them to tell me about an audition their theatre company is holding for ensemble members. The production? You've probably guessed it: Les Miserables.
So, I am on stage (kind of) for the first time, I have no clue what I'm doing, but I love every second of it. Sadly, the production comes to a halt, and so does the following one (a brief attempt at Jekyll & Hyde). As the academic year comes to an end, I leave the company and get ready for the summer. Quite depressed about the outcome of my first theatrical experience, I head to my friend's beach house to spend part of the break. For the most random reasons, I one day end up at my friend's friend house (who I had never met), by myself. She's a musician and an actor, and has done some shows in the past (with our friend in common, I must add). Most importantly, she's co-directing a student production of Newsies that upcoming Fall and, all of a sudden, I'm helping out and, later, auditioning.
If you have never attempted doing an amateur production of a highly complex, dance-heavy Broadway musical, with a team that has no training or experience for the most part and with zero budget, it is an experience I highly recommend. And I DO mean that. That year, that production changed my life. Yes, it was chaos - we lost our leads, had to re-cast, raised funds to rent a space, rehearsed in people's living rooms (mine included), and crashed every karaoke on sight afterwards. We went through hell and high water, but it showed me what hunger for storytelling and artistry was, what true ambition looked like, and what a theatre community could be. We had two performances, just the cast and a piano - which broke down halfway through day one. And humble as it was, to this date, it is the most exhilarating experience I've ever had.
So, let's recount. Two years have gone by since I started my performance antics, and I'm about to be a junior in college. I just got done with Newsies, and I leave for the summer. But there are exciting things ahead: the following year, I am studying abroad in the US. All of a sudden, I'm a very cold Spaniard in Fargo, ND.
Knowing I want to continue doing theatre, I find my way to the Theatre Department at NDSU - Go Bison! - where with horrifying grammar and questionable pronunciation, I talk my way into an ASM position. Confession: I had no clue what that was at the time, but, oh, am I glad I did it. I spend that whole year working as an ASM, and later stage manager, master electrician, wardrobe master, and all the positions I could get my hands on. However, I did not audition for any show. I know, you're thinking I'm a fool, but hear me out: I was surrounded by students with years of training and I had one credit to my name and no background whatsoever. So, I'm not acting, yet, I am happier than I had ever been. And so, when I am forced to leave NDSU, I go on another exchange program, this time to the University of Kentucky - Go Big Blue! - to continue my media degree. Yet, my attention is really in their Department of Theatre and Dance.
Once again, but with a slightly better accent, I show up and somehow land another ASM position. But, this time, it opened the door to getting a minor, and later transferring and getting a full degree in Theatre. Of course, in order to do so, you need to take acting classes and audition for productions. And so, what I thought was a an upcoming Stage Manager career, switches again, and I'm back on the boards. During my time at UK, I start to find my voice as an actor, what gets my wheels turning, and I decide (finally) that my future is up on a stage.
With the help of some incredible mentors, I finish my degree and find my way into Grad School at Michigan State University. Did I mix up two interviews and pitched for the wrong institution during auditions? Perhaps. But we don't need to talk about it. So, Go Green! - now you say "Go White!"
I'm not quite sure what makes a family a an actual family. But I do know I found one in my cohort at MSU, and if I owe them much of who I am today. We laugh, we cry, and we work our graduate behinds off for endless days and nights. Shows open and close, courses come and go, bourbon is poured and drunk. And, all of a sudden, three transformative years after, feeling more empowered than I ever thought possible, and more hungry and eager for storytelling than ever, here I am, writing an excessively long bio, and wondering what the future has in store. Now, you ma have missed this part, but I am not a doctor. I have played a couple, though. But some things just don't go as expected, do they? And that is a wonderful thing.
