We were lucky to catch up with Angélica Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Angélica, thank you so much for joining us today. There are so many topics we could discuss, but perhaps one of the most relevant is empathy because it’s at the core of great leadership and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your empathy?
I had the extreme privilege of being an exchange student for a year when I was 18 years old. I lived in a small town in north western Germany and stayed with three separate host families. This was by design so that I could get a broader perspective of German culture since every family is very different. I lived on a farm for six months in the beginning and the neighbors across the way were Japanese. At Christmas dinner it dawned on me that I, as an American, was breaking bread with Germans and Japanese at the same table. It was in that moment that I realized how special this experience truly was and how exchange programs are meant to broaden the minds of the youth, so that we can learn to have compassion, understand each other, and prevent future world wars.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
For the last decade, my main focus has been as a performer with acting, singing, and dancing through theater and indie films. In that realm, I try to be a part of stories that either entertain and make the audience feel good or to educate so that people walk away from the experience smarter and hopefully more compassionate in some way. As most performers, I also have a number of side jobs and have been lucky enough to find work as a teacher to children, grades K through 8th teaching musical theater and Spanish. My degree is actually in Spanish, so I’m glad to have been able to put that to good use especially during the pandemic. At the moment, I’m working with kindergarten- 2nd graders and they are performing the Lion King Junior this very weekend!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. That music is a powerful tool for learning anything. 2. Understanding that we all want the same things.
3. Our natural state is play.
So to go more in depth in these three, music is a powerful tool for learning literally anything. It’s helpful with language learning. It’s helpful in retaining large chunks of information, whether it’s the 50 states in alphabetical order or large paragraphs like poems. It’s also a remarkable tool for remembering. My grandmother had dementia pretty severely in the end of her life and it was extraordinary how she couldn’t remember anything including her own name sometimes, but if I would play Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra for her, she would remember every single word. Music is powerful.
What I mean by “understanding that we all want the same things”, my experience from my travels and connecting with exchange students from all over the world and also dissecting numerous plays and scripts, it’s pretty apparent that we all have the same needs of course: oxygen, sleep, food, water; but also the same wants: to love and to be loved. Everyone wants to feel valued. When we recognize that our similarities are so much stronger than our differences, I think we can communicate better and thereby blossom friendships and relationships in general. If our politicians understood this better, perhaps war truly would be a last resort. Community is everything.
As actors, we have to maintain a childish enthusiasm as we explore our characters. After working with children, it never ceases to amaze me how easily they play and find the joy in the process. It truly is our natural state. As adults we get bogged down by our ego and the stresses of adulthood. It takes more work for us to tap into that again but when we do, the magic happens. Sometimes I think we are all just a bunch of children and we think we grow and mature but we actually just age. We’re still children who need nurturing and play time just like the kids.
My advice to anyone starting out is to explore. Explore what you love, explore what interests you. The more life you live, the more you can bring to your characters. The more life you live, the better teacher you can be. I would encourage people not to be afraid to step out of their comfort zone and seek new experiences, especially if they scare you. Sometimes the things we fear are actually the gateways to unlocking a new adventure.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Like I said before, community is everything and the performing arts is no exception. Sure I could create a one woman show but I would also need lights, sound, a stage, an audience! It’s so much more fun and frankly necessary to have a community of people who all bring different strengths to a project and you see what magic you can create together. There’s no other feeling like it.
I have been doing a lot of theater during the pandemic years but I would love to redirect my focus more towards indie films and TV. My ultimate goal is to create work we’re all proud of, bring more laughter and joy to people, while also making the world a better place.
If anyone is interested in connecting, I can be reached through my website: TheReelAngelicaSmith.com.
Thank you so much for reading!
Contact Info:
- Website: TheReelAngelicaSmith.com
- Instagram: @angel_po_pangel
- Facebook: @angelicasmithactor
- Linkedin: @angelicasmithactor
- Twitter: @angel_po_pangel
- Youtube: @angelicasmithactor
Image Credits
Headshots: Sean Kara Photography Others are random.
