Meet Alisha S

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alisha S. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alisha below.

Hi Alisha, 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, over time.

With every project came a new task, a new obstacle, and a new skill, which slowly presented the evidence for me to feel confident. I approached every job like an opportunity to learn and grow, and my focus was on doing the best I could at that moment. Naturally, my list of skills grew, and my aptitude within those skills grew – what’s not to be confident about?

Confidence contributes to self-esteem, but there’s the other component of self-respect, which came from how I have conducted myself. In the best and worst moments of my life, I can look back and say I’m proud. I’m proud that I chose to remain poised where I could, proud that I stood up for myself and others where I could, and proud that I had the strength to walk away when needed.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I believe storytelling brings community together. Can you believe that that’s the only reason I needed to pursue the arts?

Being able to sing and act gave me a clear path into the theater world, but even throughout college, I dabbled in performance, production, and administration. What mattered to me was being a part of a story’s coming to life, so I made sure I could fill an open need within a creative process, as an actress, a vocalist, a stage manager, a director, a teacher, or even a marketing and sales administrator, and this has allowed me to not only have continuous work in the theater space, but a continous presence in the ‘new works’ space. While that may not seem unusual to the music or film industry, most theater is re-producing existing material, and yet, in only 5 years, I’ve taken part in over 100 ‘new works’. 100 untold stories, unseen stories, never-experienced stories for communities to engage with and connect over.

I continue this work every day as a Marketing Sales coordinator at Two River Theater, and as a performer at several regional houses across New Jersey.

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?

I know I’m supposed to talk about three, but the most important skill I’ve developed in my theater career is the ability to set clear, respectful boundaries (so I’m just going to focus on that). In an industry where it’s common—especially for those just starting out—to feel pressure to say “yes” to everything, I’ve learned that setting limits is not only healthy, but it also builds trust and long-term professional respect. Many believe that being agreeable and endlessly accommodating is the only path to repeat opportunities, but I’ve found the opposite to be true.
By focusing on doing high-quality work and showing up with kindness and professionalism, I’ve built a reputation that speaks for itself. Most of the jobs I’m offered now come through recommendations, often from people or projects I didn’t expect, simply because I was reliable, genuine, and brought my best to the table. I didn’t overextend myself by staying late unnecessarily, taking on extra favors, or compromising my schedule to fit someone else’s chaos. If I was available and aligned with the project, I gave it my all. And if I wasn’t, I was honest about it.

But setting boundaries doesn’t mean being rigid or uncooperative; it means being clear, firm, and, again, KIND. It’s about honoring your time and energy so you can show up fully when it counts.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

I particularly feel overwhelmed when projects are short but have long hours. Regardless of the amount of work, waiting, starting and stopping, if a project requires 10-14 hour shifts, I feel overwhelmed, overstimulated, and frantic. It’s because my body has little time to rest, heal, and rejuvenate between work sessions, and unfortunately, most of the projects I work on have unconventionally long hours.

For a while, I just had to deal with the discomfort because there is no great substitute for rest, but there are ways to heal and feed energy into your body throughout the day. One thing I love to do is visit new coffee shops, so I would look for coffee shops near my work sites that I could enjoy before a shoot, during a lunch break, or after the performance. And plenty of gigs have taken me to areas where old friends live, so I reach out and plan a weekend trip, instead of just popping in town for the day. I found small ways to prioritize my well-being.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alishasheth.com

Image Credits

Lisa Hibbert
Vibes By June
Naveen Uta
Anna Zuckerman-Vdovenko
Jake Wasserman