Meet Alberto Alonso | Actor and Theatrologist
We had the good fortune of connecting with Alberto Alonso and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Alberto, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Theater is what I was born to do and I personally could not run away from my passion so easily. I come from a Hispanic family full of scientists: my mom is a pharmacist, my eldest sister is a doctor, and my older brother is an industrial engineer. Their paths were really promising from a very young age and that put me in a very challenging position. The age gap between my siblings and I is pretty big too and by the time I had to decide what I was going to major in college both of my siblings already had very successful careers in their fields. However, as hard as my mom would try (and I can assure you, she tried really hard) I couldn’t stop wanting to do acting and to learn the craft of theater.
Me and Theater, we go way back. I did my first play when I was 10 and there has not been a year that I haven’t been on a stage since. I definitely think that play unlocked something in me. As I grew older I started getting more training and my career has been filled with more and more complex characters that have brought joy into my life. I think I’ve grown a little more as a person and an artist after I closed a project. Most actors will tell you that there is something from each character that they’ve created that stays with them forever. I’ve learned so much empathy from working on characters that have nothing to do with me; which, by the way, are the ones I am most passionate about. In fact, the characters that are more transformational, those that are different from me and make me transform into something that is farther from me, have forced me to be more open minded; which is a quality that I value deeply in people. There is also something that I really love about theater/TV/film which is the chaos of it. I often think people should allow themselves to be more chaotic. “Chaos” is such a beautiful word that captures the essence of being an artist so well. It’s a word that represents losing control, leaving your worries behind, letting go of your insecurities to allow yourself to be raw and vulnerable in front of an audience. This is what I like most about being an artist: the unpredictability of the craft. There aren’t 2 characters that are the same, the same way there aren’t 2 souls that are exactly the same. You never know what path your next character is going to take you: Is he going to be passionate about drones? Or maybe about crows? Is it going to be a little kid or is it going to be Hades? You never know but that’s where part of the excitement in acting is. To be able to mold the personality of a character based on my lived life and the way I view it is a special kind of freedom that acting brings to my experience as a human being. It’s like when a painter is given a blank canvas and can just let their imagination take over.
There are always moments that as an artist I’ve wondered if I made the right choice going into this field because of how risky and unstable it is. But when something is vocational you can’t run away from it indefinitely; you always go back to your passion. I know I will always be acting no matter where life takes me.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve been doing theater all my life. I started when I was 10 doing a Christmas play at my school and I was a talking dog, which is funny because that would not be the last talking animal I’ve played. I loved that character with all my being. I remember none of my classmates wanted to be there. All of them felt too shy to be on a stage, but not me. Everyone could tell that I had found my passion. I did school plays until I was 14, then I was admitted to EMAD, the only acting conservatory in Madrid, Spain (where I’m originally from). I had to beg my mom so she would let me audition and I got in on the 1st try, which felt incredibly validating as this was my first time auditioning for something (in my school’s plays I was just given the character I wanted). I stayed in this conservatory until I graduated in 2020 (yes, my final performance was on Zoom) and I went straight into college for Theatre Performance at CSU Long Beach. Although my freshman year was all online due to COVID restrictions, once my sophomore year started we were able to do performances again. Since then, I’ve done 5 plays through Threshold Productions, 2 through California Repertory, and 4 student short films. I’ve loved my journey since I arrived in the USA: I’ve grown as a twentysomething, I’ve failed, I’ve had incredible performances and performances where I wasn’t as present. In conclusion, I’ve learned as an artist so many valuable lessons that I will cherish for a really long time. One of my favorites I’ve learned is to be more forgiving with myself. In fact, I learned to forgive myself so much that I’ve learned to instantly forgive myself during a performance. Sometimes, theater makers get caught up on a tiny mistake they made 5 minutes into the performance and they get in their heads until the end, but it’s good to know how to instantly forgive yourself for the mistake and be able to come back and continue with the performance as if nothing happened. But I think one of the most valuable ones I’ve learned is to be more professional at my work, which was a lesson that took me longer to learn; probably due to being a teenager. There was a moment that I thought to myself “If you love your work so much you have to treat it with due respect and put in the hours outside of the rehearsal space.” I found that the rehearsal space is to rehearse the work that you’ve practiced at home, not the space to do the work.
I don’t think any aspiring actor can say that their journey has been easy, I would be blatantly lying if I said it was. What I can say is that it is worth it. I would not have changed my so far lived experiences for nothing. I feel fulfilled as a person when I do my craft. I would like every artist to remember that the nature of artistry is not crafting for the money. It’s amazing to get paid for the job that you perform, but that’s not what should drive your instincts. Follow your creative mind and then money will come down the road. But It is important that as artists we remind ourselves but we are doing our craft for the love of art, not for the love of coin.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This one is a hard one because I’m not a LA local. But I did get here almost 5 years ago so I’m going to do my best with my recommendations. What I do have in my favor is that my best friend is not from the USA either so I could take her wherever I wanted and she would be into it. Firstly, I would definitely take her to a taco tent. I know they are very common in the whole American continent but they are not as common in Europe and they are my everything. The best tacos will always be from a street taco tent. If we wanted to find a place to sit down to have our tacos I would take her to El Sauz and I would really recommend their fish tacos… Top tier. I really like CAVA for some Mediterranean cuisine. I think it’s a good mixture of foods you would find in the countries by the Mediterranean Sea but with a different twist because it’s a combination of many diverse cultures. However, I would definitely order online to pick up, you will thank me later.
To go out I would definitely take her to West Hollywood. It’s always popping and, since this is a week long trip, I think we wouldn’t have time to go out somewhere else and WeHo is THEE best. If we had time I would also take her to a Drag Brunch and most probably at Hamburger Mary’s. I think the LA drag scene cannot be found anywhere else.
To finish, I would take her to the must see places in LA like the Hollywood Sign (I love the hike to go behind it), Santa Monica pier, etc. But I think one must see that people usually forget is the Queen Mary in Long Beach. They have a haunted tour that is super fun and entertaining.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are many people that have supported me throughout the years and that have taught me how to become the artist I am today. However, I would not be here today without the help of three books that made me shift my way of thinking. I’m a big time bookworm and these three in particular I recommend to any kind of artist and I still reread them more frequently than you’d think. I would really encourage you to read them in the order I mention them because I feel that’s how I should have read them to have their full effect on me. They are: “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, “The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them” by Meg Jay, and “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. They are brilliant pieces of work and the authors have done an outstanding job at explaining the answer to really hard questions that human beings don’t often know how to navigate. They have a lot of very important content in them but I’m going to try to summarize them as short as possible: the first one mainly addresses the issue of procrastination and how to put a stop to it, the second one explains how to become a functioning adult and answers the questions we have about the first years after college and how to use them to their full potential, and the last one is a 12-week course to unlock your full creativity as an artist. In fact, I recently found out that Grammy winner Doechii read “The Artist’s Way” and recorded her weekly progress a few years ago before she blew up on the mainstream media; so I’d say there has to be something of value in it.
These books have given me so much clarity and peace by answering and addressing my worries so directly. Now I know that everything will be OK.
Instagram: @albertoosa
Image Credits
My headshots were done by Rubén Galvez @racord.studio on Instagram!
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