Meet Alyssa Klein

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Klein.

Alyssa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Performing has shaped the better part of my life since I was really little. Some of my earliest memories are being in the back seat on road trips, listening to cassette tapes my mom made, and singing to The King and I, Into the Woods, Peter Pan, and The Sound of Music. I specifically remember putting on a “show” for my nonna and trying to match Julie Andrew’s exuberance and high note at the end of “Do-Re-Mi.” Seeing her glee and “Bravo!” at my spectacle made my malleable toddler heart so happy.

I grew up in Grayslake, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago (though it was definitely closer to the Wisconsin border than the city). The first nine grades of my sub-rural, Catholic school upbringing, were ripe with theatre exposure. I.e., Lots of Nativity and Passion plays. I’m not sure if you know, but as a 5th-grade girl being cast in the Nativity play you have three options: Mary, Angel or sheep. Needless to say, I was cast as 1 of 5 sheep. What my director didn’t know was that my gramma watched Thoroughly Modern Millie and Singin’ In the Rain with me. So I wasn’t gonna be just any sheep. I was gonna be a sheep with a story. This sheep came from somewhere. This was some sheep’s daughter, and she was on a trek to see baby Jesus. I had a big black nose, floppy ears, and oversized, white long-johns. We worked in some physical comedy bits for those blundering sheep. No small parts. I lived for it.

After a couple of lead roles in high school plays, I had a few supportive teachers and directors who inflated my ego just enough that I convinced myself I could go to college and major in Acting. I paid my way through community college, learning the foundations of acting and playing in some of my favorite musicals and classic works. I transferred to Illinois State University where I honed my craft, devoting more time to voice and movement, technique and discipline than I ever had before. As challenging as it was, it solidified my passion for drama and storytelling. I decided I was going to make Acting my career.

Almost a year after I graduated, I moved to Los Angeles. I’ve continued to act on stage while making the transition to film and commercial. Since starting classes at The Groundlings a couple years ago, I’ve become infatuated with improv and incorporating more song and characters into my craft. Most recently, I’ve become a member of SkyPilot Theatre Company, a non-profit theatre and incubator for original works, and Wretched Hive Comedy, a Star Wars inspired improv team. I’m excited to continue my journey in LA as a creative professional in a way that’s authentic to me and honors what I know and what I’m capable of.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’ve been told from the get-go that I’ve chosen a difficult path. Moving to Los Angeles, a city notorious for swallowing up newbies, I didn’t have a lot of savings or professional experience under my belt. I also didn’t have a community I could turn to here yet. So, I took the first job I could as a personal assistant to the co-founder of a marketing company. That was a horrifying experience and looking back, also an abusive one. I was already in a vulnerable place, and that definitely did a number on me. I stayed at that job purely out of fear of not being able to support myself. When I did finally quit, what followed was a string of random jobs ranging from working as a receptionist to housekeeping and anything in between. These professions offer so much value to our daily lives, but they not only left me feeling like I’d betrayed myself and the reason I came here, but also barely helped me pay my bills. I questioned whether moving to LA was the right choice. I couldn’t shake the feeling like I wasn’t doing enough or being enough.

On an emotional level, I feel things very deeply and with a complexity that (when paired with being a perfectionist and people pleaser) often makes me doubt myself. That tends to lend itself to some bumpy roads and frequent deviations from the aforementioned path. Truthfully, I’ll say I had/ have a tendency to internalize or phone it in, in fear of rejection (which, I know, is 98% of this industry/ L.I.F.E.). I’ve been scarred by comments made about my weight, my gender, my oddities, and my “look” since a very young age that seemed to only exacerbate out here. In 2018, I had a series of seemingly unexplainable panic attacks that brought me to my first cognitive behavioral therapy session. I live with a fun cocktail of anxiety, depression, and inherited trauma. It’s been a humbling journey as I’ve learned I’m very much not alone, and I wouldn’t be here to tell my story today had I not listened to myself and sought help.

If I could offer a resource to anyone who finds themselves in a similar position and the stress of affording mental wellness is overwhelming, I’d recommend looking into Open Path Collective in their own time:
https://openpathcollective.org/

All that being said, I have been very privileged to be able to go to therapy while trying to navigate being an artist here. My family members and community of friends in Los Angeles and back home don’t let me quit. They’ve been more like unrelenting cheerleaders. They have my trust and support, and they give me the validation to be in my feelings when I’m struggling. I’m working to turn that struggle into a source of healing, growth, and creativity.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m an actor and a writer. These two modes of expression have been therapeutic to me. I’m very interested in exploring and writing for grounded characters in everyday situations, but whose emotions and approach are dynamic and maybe a little left of center. What sets me apart is my endless curiosity and ability to find the humor- not always the comedy, but an alternative point of view. That’s also what makes me proud; I strive to bring empathy into my life and work.

With the recent shut down, I’ve been focusing on refocusing. We’ve been taught that an actor’s work is constant. When classes and production shut down, I was pretty restless at first. Literally not sleeping. Our bodies tell us when we need a break to refocus. So allowing myself the time to meditate, reconnect and engage with what’s happening in the country and our world today, or just cry for a week straight and not feel ashamed have been crucial elements to my work. Learning this compassion for myself has enabled me to step into someone else’s shoes with more understanding and less judgment, which is vital to acting. It’s also given me the courage to take the plunge into facets of the industry I’ve always been interested in but never thought I could do.

In my current job, I’ve been learning how to edit and write screenplays. In the fall, I plan on taking a Music Video Production class. I’m currently working on a devised piece with my partner for a virtual variety hour with The Halogen Company that incorporates our passion for culinary delights and mental health. Tickets for that go up on the Halogen website September 7th. Additionally, Wretched Hive Comedy’s flagship show that our producer, Louise Woods, is spearheading premieres live on Twitch September 27 at 9AM PST. I’ll be doing improv with players from all three Wretched Hive teams from LA, London, and Denver and special guests in a game show format similar to Who’s Line is it Anyway and @Midnight. We’ll be taking suggestions from the virtual audience for games, characters, and joke prompts. At the beginning of quarantine, I worked with a few friends on a scripted comedy podcast called Private Detective Randy Randy. The show’s creator, Weslie Lechner is a comedy dream queen, and I play the fast- talker, Mona Meeks. It can now be heard wherever you get your podcasts! All of these projects are things I’ve never done and never thought I’d be doing if you’d asked me just a year ago. They’re literally dream-scenarios. How incredibly lucky am I that I get to do this for my life??? 
www.thehalogencompany.com
https://www.twitch.tv/wretchedhivecomedy
https://linktr.ee /RandyRandy_Links

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I say I’m lucky that I get to do what I do for a living. Not everyone can. In a market as heavily saturated with actors as LA and a career path with a 98% rate of “failure”, it’s hard not to believe luck plays a role in “making it.” So many stories are about being in the right place at the right time with the right person watching. But in believing that, I would constantly be comparing my journey to someone else’s. Living that way doesn’t serve me. This isn’t to say I’ve never sized myself up to different actors… or even people on completely different career paths!  But that just isn’t fair to myself or them. And those people in the “right” place had to work hard to get there. Actors are some of the hardest working people I know. And if you’re not a white cis male, you’re forced to work even harder to gain a tangible amount of momentum.  It’s been a process learning to reframe all that through a lens of gratitude. I’m grateful for the home I’ve made here with my partner and cat. I’m grateful for the friendships that I’ve found and the community I get to nurture in this diverse and fascinating city. And I’m most grateful for the doors that have continued to open and look forward to connecting and creating so much more with Angelenos.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alyssamarieklein.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsalyssamarieklein/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/uhlyssaemkay

Image Credit:
Sela Shiloni, Huebner Headshots, Louise Woods, Carlo Pangalangan Labrador, Patrick Boylan, Chris Bush

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