Meet Chloe Griffault

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chloe Griffault. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Chloe, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

For me, confidence is a skill that takes practice to learn. I used to really have a lot of self-esteem issues, especially when I was just starting college. I was so worried about how other people perceived me. I went through the college audition process, which is so difficult for young actors. It’s one of your first times going out and auditioning for industry professionals, and what made it so hard for me was that there wasn’t any role or part I was going for, it was just myself. For other auditions, you can kind of compartmentalize and think “well I just wasn’t right for this role or this show”, with colleges you are auditioning yourself, and when you don’t get it, the thinking can end up as “they didn’t like me”. And I did not do well with college auditions, and that sent me spiraling for a while. I didn’t do theatre for a year after that. When I finally started doing theatre again in college, it took a while for me to rebuild my self-confidence. I had a director say to me during a coaching session, “When are you going to trust that you know what you’re doing?”, and that really helped shift my perspective. I took a step back and remembered that I’ve been doing this since I was seven years old, and I have all these strengths as a performer. The more I put myself out there and auditioned and performed and wrote, the more confident I became. Every performance was an opportunity to learn more about myself, and every challenge I overcame taught me that I do have the will and the drive to be an artist.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am a queer performer and creator based in Philadelphia. I primarily perform musical theatre, but I also write plays and create performance pieces. I have a passion for immersive theatre, and love incorporating genre elements into my pieces, especially horror. A lot of my plays are about fear in some way or another. I think the horror genre lends itself so well to storytelling, and I’ve always wanted to explore how that translates to a live theater environment. As well as working on stage, I recently performed as a scare actor at Six Flags Great Adventure. I really had to push myself physically to be able to scare people effectively, while also staying true to my character, which was a scary clown. I have also performed with Camp Half Blood, becoming different mythological characters every week and devising quests and challenges for young campers to solve. In February and March, I will be in Jesus Christ Superstar at Civic Theatre of Allentown. This is my dream show, and I am so honored to get to perform two tracks, Simon, and the alternate for Judas. I couldn’t have hoped for a better group of people to create this show with, and I can’t wait for people to see it.
I love creating characters and I love telling stories. Everything I do, from performing to creating, is connected to that. Theatre has been a part of my life since I was seven years old, and started going to an after school theatre program with my friends. That decision changed my life. I stuck with that same program until I graduated high school, and by that point, I knew I couldn’t see myself doing anything else for a living. I had mainly stuck with acting all through high school, but college was where I got to explore performance art and theatre making. Bard was the perfect place for me to broaden my theatrical horizons. I was surrounded by amazing collaborators and friends who each had their own artistic identity, the faculty are all working artists, it was honestly a great environment to create in. I wrote some pieces that I’m still really proud of, and made my own solo performances for my Senior Project. After graduating, I studied Shakespeare for two months in London, and now I’m a professional struggling artist! Although, it’s hard to call it struggling when I’m having this much fun. I have certain goals and obviously I have financial needs, but I’m so open to trying any kind of performance and theatre. I really just want to get out there and make people feel something, and other than that, I’m willing to try anything.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

This one is tricky, every time I thought of a skill, I thought of like five more that were related to it. So these are like, Chloe’s 3 Big Ideas To Live and Learn By, and they each have a bunch of smaller ideas underneath them.

1: It has to be fun. Seriously, if you aren’t having fun, then why are you doing it? Especially for auditions. Every audition is the chance to perform material you love for people who love theatre. Wear something that makes you feel good, perform one of your favorite songs or speeches, and go have fun. One of the best things you can do as a performer is not take yourself so seriously. We’re playing characters, literally playing. The more you let yourself go, the more you’ll discover about the character. The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll discover, “oh, maybe that doesn’t work”, and you’ll try something different. Most of all, you can’t be afraid of looking like an idiot. I’ve done a lot of character performances for children, as various gods and monsters for Camp Half Blood and as a demonic clown at Six Flags. Children can smell your fear. As long as you are committed to the character 100%, you won’t worry about what people think about you. I like to evoke certain emotions with my performances, but I mostly perform to make myself proud. I know what I want to accomplish, and the only way I’ll know if my performance works is if I fully go for it. At LAMDA, my project director Colin Hurley ran our rehearsals by using games. We would do a whole run through without standing up, or we’d have to overlap all of our lines. It made sure we never felt “finished” with our play. Every day there would be a new challenge waiting for us. It kept rehearsals exciting, and kept us all on our toes. We all got to try so many different things in that rehearsal process. We never had exact staging nailed down, we were always discovering new things, even for the final performance. It made me fall in love with the process, the nitty gritty rehearsing. A performance is never really finished, it is always growing and evolving. Rehearsal is a place where you can live in those unknown discoveries. And that’s fun! When it gets tedious or exhausting, I try to always go back to the character. How would they be feeling right now, and how can I incorporate that into the performance.

2. Own your uniqueness! Stop trying to sound like everybody else! It is so much better to show up every day as yourself than to try and be what you think people want. Developing your own artistic identity is so important. It’s one of the benefits of going to college, you get a chance to explore different ways of creating theatre and art. One of the best ways to figure out what excites you as a performer is to read and watch more theatre! This is one of my resolutions this year, and I’m definitely still working on it, but reading lots of different plays is a great way to find new material for auditions and figure out what kinds of stories you want to tell. Read contemporary stuff! Read Shakespeare! Go see a show at a regional theater! There is so much amazing theatre out there that isn’t in New York City. This goes for everyone, not just artists, but the best way to support the performing arts near you is to go see local theatre. See what people are doing on social media, give them a shout out, support their work! Artists need to support other artists, and as much as social media is a curse on society, it’s also a great way to connect with the local arts scene. Sorry, local theatre tangent over. Anyways, don’t limit yourself to one thing. Try writing! Try directing! If you like it, you have another skill you can bring to the table. If you don’t, then you learned something new about yourself. You’ll never know if you don’t try. I wasn’t sure I could do a two month Shakespeare intensive in London, but I did, and I loved it! Now I have this new passion for Shakespeare that I would love to use in my future work. It’s okay to be scared, just do it anyway.

3. Do the work and trust yourself! Do something every day that is related to your art. Draw something, write, sing, read something, just make sure you are devoting time every day to being creative. Also, especially for actors and singers, doing something physical to build your stamina is really really helpful. Stamina is the biggest skill you can have, particularly for musical theatre actors. It’s one of the things I’ve been working on leading up to Jesus Christ Superstar. It’s a really physical show, especially Simon. I’m not the type of person that enjoys working out, but it’s become a necessary part of prepping for this show. So I put on a funny TV show, I hop on my mini-stepper machine, and I make sure I run through one or two of my songs while I’m using it. It’s helped me focus on my breath support more, and it’s nice when I notice that I’m becoming stronger and building my endurance. All this to say, if you put in the work during rehearsals and practice at home, you get to relax and just enjoy the run of the performance. Instead of worrying about the staging and score, you can relax and live in the moment of the show. I started saying this as a joke, but the internet mantra of “people can do hard things,” has been pushing me along. Because, yeah! I’m people, and I am doing hard things! Theatre is hard! But we have fun doing it because we’re sickos and freaks! We feel right at home where other people would probably panic. Let your passion drive you. Find new goals to strive for. As long as it stays exciting, it’ll stay fun!

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Unfortunately, for like the 10th year in a row, we are in very overwhelming times. As a trans person, I’m pretty terrified about what the Trump administration has in store. As a person with empathy and concern for others, I am furious that this is what we’ve come to as a nation. I am lucky that I have an accepting family and supportive friends, but I know so many trans people are going to feel more and more unsafe in the coming weeks. Looking at the news on social media feels like drowning these days. I think now more than ever, it is important to find joy and fulfillment outside of the media. I’m so happy I’m living in the mountains right now. I just put a bird feeder outside of my kitchen window, and seeing all the birds that come to eat from it every day keeps my spirits up. I keep track of all the birds, and eventually I want to draw all of them. All I can do is keep living my life as my authentic, strange, transgender self. And as long as I feel safe, I’m going to be loud and proud about it. Lean on your people, find the little things that give you joy (I highly recommend backyard birdwatching), and just keep on going. It can be really easy to get stuck in all the bad news, but we have to keep being creators. Keep making the art you want to make, because no one can take that away from you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @chloe_griffault
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chloegriffault

Image Credits

Chris Kayden
Six Flags: Great Adventure