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Actress Vannessa Vasquez speaks about what it takes to start a career in an extremely saturated industry on Thursday in the Jane Dibbell Cabaret Theatre. Along with the lecture, Vasquez presented an episode of the Hulu series “East Los High,” in which she has the lead role./ photo by Ben Camacho
Autumn Simon
Staff Writer
Daytime Emmy-nominated actress Vannessa Vasquez visited the theater department to give advice to students pursuing careers in entertainment Thursday at the Jane Dibbell Cabaret Theatre.
About 20 students and faculty members gathered in the theater for Vasquez’s presentation.
She was invited by the theater department’s artist-in-residence Alma Martinez for the theater seminar class.
Vasquez’s acting career experienced difficult moments like being a Hispanic woman in the entertainment industry and not looking the part.
Senior theater major Michaela Bulkley asked Vasquez if it was difficult for her to get roles because she is Hispanic.
“At first it was difficult; my agent in Texas told me I did not look dark enough, I did not speak with an accent or I was too skinny to get the roles I went out for,” Vasquez said. “I had to decide, either I am going to think I need to change my accent or hair color, or I believe I can be an actress by being myself.”
Vasquez introduced the audience to her character from “East Los High,” a Hulu original series that deals with the difficult lives of high school students in East Los Angeles.
Vasquez portrays Camila Barrios, an East Los High senior who deals with the obstacles of living in East Los Angeles with her sister and mother.
Camila and her family have been through many trials and secrets, including Camila coming out as bisexual.
Vasquez received a 2015 Daytime Emmy nomination.
Vasquez praised the cast and crew of “East Los High” for bringing awareness to heavy topics on a critically acclaimed show.
“The show discuses sexual abuse, drug abuse, LGBTQ, teenage pregnancy and other issues that goes on in the teenage community that are not discussed,” Vasquez said. “I appreciate the show for using the power of the arts to educate.”
After discussing the character of her show, Vasquez gave some background information about herself and her experiences in becoming an actress.
She is Mexican-American and was raised in Houston, Texas.
She studied at the University of Houston and is interested in getting her master’s degree in creative writing because she wants to write and produce scripts.
Vasquez had many things to learn to become an actress and offered to teach La Verne students everything she knows.
Her first lesson was how to select a good head shot, where she emphasized not to use selfies and mug shots.
Vasquez’s advice on how actors can get an early start to their career was for them to start marketing themselves and creating their brand.
Producers chose the main cast of the show based on the social media reaction, so having connections and a fan base helped Vasquez become a main cast member on the show.
“It is a part of the business and keeping yourself relevant,” Vasquez said. “Utilize Instagram, Vine, YouTube and Facebook to increase your brand, which is what people will say about you.” Vasquez also gave students advice involving the auditioning process. She said it is preferred to self-submit for the audition.
The websites she recommended were actorsaccess.com, nowcasting.com and castingfrontier.com.
During the audition, the casting director will have the actors give a slate – a brief statement in front of a camera.
The casting director asks for the actor’s name, age, weight and other questions that relate to the character they are auditioning for.
For practice, Vasquez had a couple of students practice their slates for the audience and then she critiqued it.
Junior theater major Wayne Keller and Bulkley were a few of the students who performed their slates for the audience.
Vasquez’s parting advice was to continue pursuing school and absorb all of the education that students are getting, because that is bringing something different to the table.
“It was great to meet her because it is always nice and reassuring to meet working actors because they inspire me,” junior theater major Audie Munoz said. “It is such a hard field to get a career in, and when I hear success stories it is very refreshing to me to keep doing what I love.”
Martinez’s goal for the course is to train students to enter into the arts or to enter into graduate school.
“The idea of the course is to create this space for theatre majors and minors an opportunity for them together once a week and focus on different aspects of the artist,” Martinez said. “I designed this particular class to help them to dream and strategize a career in the industry.”
Autumn Simon can be reached at autumn.simon@laverne.edu.