Life & Work with Lara Strong

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lara Strong.

Hi Lara, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was lucky enough to grow up in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, by the beach. Like most kids who love the performing arts, it’s in the blood and it’s something you have to do to let it out. Even as a little kid, for me playing was dancing and singing and performing, not very well of course, but just a natural thing and not something that was a conscious choice.

Later on, it became conscious and the highlights of my week. At around three years old, I began Polish dancing, as my mum is of Polish descent and loves to dance. Then I took up ballet at four. It was probably four nights a week dancing at that stage, plus concerts every few months. I still remember my first ballet production was The Wizard Of Oz and just how magical it was with the music, the colors and the energy on stage and backstage. I had no fear as I danced out on stage and heard clapping and the joy of the parents. I think I even did a small final jump as I danced off-stage! It hooked me and set the thrill of stage work for the rest of my life.

Ballet was my dominant training until my early teenage years and it was intense. At ten, I was asked to perform in The Nutcracker with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, then traveled to London to dance at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall at 13. My teachers always used to put me in the front row because I couldn’t stop smiling. To them, I was a smiling kid who could dance, to me, I was just living the story and thrill and electricity of performance.

As I entered my teens, performance became my whole world (on top of school), in the same way other kids play sports. It was physically intense and very busy but fun and nothing was ever draining or too hard. Rather, it kept me going through the academic part of school. I started to move away from solely dancing and began other elements of performance such as singing and acting training. This subsequently opened up other realms of performance such as Musical Theatre, screen acting, improvisation, voice work, and Shakespeare. Eventually, I signed with my first acting agent at 14 and began auditioning for film and tv and getting cast.

I was fortunate enough to have had Deirdre Tarrant as my dance teacher, who the Royal Academy of Dance describes as the “name all Wellingtonians associate with dance.” Any event happening in Wellington, organizers trusted Deirdre to bring the performance. We performed a lot, including at Christmas parades, museum exhibit openings, public holiday celebrations, street fairs, and sang in front of thousands of people for annual cultural festivals. The list is extravagantly extensive.

I got a feel for all sorts of styles of performance. It was wonderful and exciting, all the possibilities that were opening up in front of me, offering me more opportunities to play, escape and explore.

I remember one afternoon at school and my friends were talking about the university they were going to study something like law, medicine or psychology. All I could think about was my upcoming auditions for different performing arts colleges around the world. One of them was for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC, the golden opportunity that brought me over to the States.

It’s funny, as I recently saw my old Facebook profile and realized that when I was 13, I had written my location as “Lives in NYC”, so maybe a part of me always knew I’d end up there. I remember waking up one morning to my parents jumping for joy and telling me, ‘Lara you got into AMDA on a scholarship. You’re going to New York in October!’

So at 19, I left lovely New Zealand to head over to the Big Apple on my own. It’s just crazy to travel to the other side of the world to study and in the first weeks, you’re pinching yourself walking down the street and seeing all the places you’ve seen in tv and dreamed, and looking up at the skyscrapers in awe like a tourist.

I remember at orientation, they said to us that few of us will actually make it and that we were all the ‘theater kids’ of our high schools. It was a big down to earth moment, and after being one of the only performer kids through school, I was now only one amongst a sea of many others. That’s when I knew that I had to push myself and excel to start to forge a career. I tell you, after a few months in New York I wasn’t looking up anymore, although I probably still do pinch myself from time to time.

At AMDA we also learnt about the business of being a performer, this came in handy in the year after as I went straight into the hustle with auditioning and working as a cabaret singer and Hostess at an Italian restaurant in Hells Kitchen. With all the auditioning, I began to crave and miss just being on a stage and performing. So, I took it upon myself to produce my own cabaret show at a local bar. The bar packed out and I sang and performed and told stories, and it was like therapy. I felt refreshed, focused and motivated again; they even invited me back to do another! Later on, I found out that I was nominated for best debut performance in BroadwayWorld.com. I learned that you just have to do it and keep going.

This got the performance ball rolling, the rest of the year then became a blur of performances including more cabaret shows, singing at the restaurant, being cast in a new Off-Broadway musical about Audrey Hepburn as the understudy to Audrey and as young Audrey, representing New Zealand singing at a trade delegation event, and concluding the year being asked to sing for Broadway’s Future Songbook Series at the Lincoln Centre performing a beautiful new piece by award-winning composer, Jay Alan Zimmerman.

So that’s a lil snippet of my story. I think little Lara, the wee dancer who had dreams in her sights of being an actress or living in New York, would be proud to see where I’ve come so far. Who knows where I’ll be when I reflect on how far I’ve come from this moment. I’m excited to see what the future holds. I just hope that whatever opportunities I get to play, I always have that childlike thrill, joy and fascination of performance that I had when I first stepped foot on a stage, that is now overlaid with an understanding of the realities and demands of this career.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’m a natural optimist and as a child, performance was easy because it’s all I knew and I loved it. But it hasn’t been smooth and there are definitely struggles. To start New Zealand is a long way from NYC and Broadway so moving my life over there on my own was a little difficult. But when I look back and ask myself if it was hard – all I can think of is the excitement as I was so driven and in love with what I do that I wasn’t afraid. AMDA was hard work, but I loved it. I loved how challenging it was, I loved being pushed outside my comfort zone.

But the hardest thing is rejection and not having anything going on. There’s a hustle and pace to NYC and you feel like you’ve got to always be in amongst it or you’ll miss out. The industry has super high highs and super low lows – and on top of that, I’m living in New York City which is notorious for being up and down. I’ve had times when I feel like I’m at a roadblock. You have to be incredibly resilient and strong-minded because there is a lot of rejection. As hard as it is, I’ve learned that those moments are important for perspective and reflection. When I have time to reflect, the next work I do is better because it’s conscientious. I’ve also learned you have to do things yourself, like create your opportunities, everything is small steps, putting yourself out there and loving what you do, just reveling in it when you’re on stage.

I don’t know where I will be in a year, let alone a month. It’s unpredictable and if the past three years have taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

I think being put in a box is hard to take, as I’m young and still finding myself as a performer. I love stage and screen, dancing, acting and singing. I love comedy and improv, drama and serious acting. I’m careful that I try and do many things and continue to learn. Like after graduating from AMDA, I put myself through a Stella Adler course and joined The People’s Improv Theater NYC.

Like many career choices, there are sacrifices. You need to perform on demand at an elite level as the competition for roles is so intense. And it’s worth it in the end, the pay off of being able to share art, to move people, to have a shared experience and to feel that exhilarating feeling of all that. The spark inside me that lights up, it reminds me that the hard worth and up and downs are worth it.

I think the people element of the arts is crucial. Getting to meet and collaborate with other creatives who also have intense passion and love for what they do. People who you can share struggles with and who understand, who you can create things with – this fuels me. You get to meet awesome people in this industry; it’s one of the things I love most about it.

Also, mentors are incredibly important and I’ve been lucky to have great mentors. From my early dance and acting teachers who still look out for me and offer advice to AMDA teachers who have made recommendations to others to give me a go. They are so important and I’m very grateful to have them. And, of course, friends and family. Giving yourself downtime and enjoying the moments you have with them. Especially my parents who are incredibly supportive.

I feel lucky to love what I do, even though it’s hard and grueling at times, the payoff is worth it. You have to love it to do it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a New Zealand-born and NYC-based actor, singer, and dancer and am passionate about performance and entertainment through the mediums of theatre and film. Doing things the Kiwi way means bringing my unique Wellington theatre experience to the theatre scene in New York.

I’ve been lucky enough to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London and danced with the Royal New Zealand Ballet both before the age of 13. Since then, you might’ve seen me across the stage and screen, favourite credits include the Off-Broadway debut of ‘Audrey: The New Musical” about Audrey Hepburn, Broadway’s Future Songbook Series at Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Centre, co-starring as ‘Sarah’ in the internationally screened short film ‘Maunga’ and performing my multiple one-woman cabaret shows in NYC.

I’m a lover of performance and expression, and love exploring who we are as humans at the core and reflecting it on the stage or screen. I love those moments when audiences see parts of themselves in my performance, but also create escapism for audiences. I’m a massive people person, and love meeting people especially in the industry, hearing their stories and collaborating with them. I’ve been lucky to have trained under brilliant and esteemed professionals, across screen acting, theatre, musical theatre, voice, improvisation and more, both in NYC and New Zealand. I love to learn and as humans, we always have more to learn, even more so as performers. I will always be eager to improve and absorb the wisdom and lessons that other artists have to offer so that I can add to my toolbox. I’m excited to see where the journey takes me.

How do you think about luck?
You’ve heard it many times; it’s all about who you know and being in the right place at the right time. So success is about luck. But it’s also about making opportunities and making your own luck, then one thing leads to another. I’d say there’s more to it than luck, I think we all know that. There’s a lot of hard work, for me I suppose since I was a child, I’ve been training and learning my craft. Yet, it’s such a competitive industry and there are incredibly talented, hard-working actors who haven’t got one solid role.

Relationships are very important too. So much is walking into the right room, being at the right event, or clicking with the right person who months or years later, comes across an opportunity and recommends you.

I’ve never relied on luck; if you did, you probably wouldn’t get too far. I believe that as a performer who’s starting out, I’d have a better shot for a director or producer to choose me if I’ve got talent, but I am also easy to work with, am reliable and turn up on time, always doing the preparation and work, engage creatively with the director and their vision, and be a team player so others like to have me around. There’s a lot that accompanies luck.

Or, you really do have that once-in-a-blue-moon moment when you are exactly what they are looking for. See, now that’s pure luck.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lara-strong.com – currently being updated so is down right now
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lararosestrong/

Image Credits
Andi Crown Photography, Amber Griffin Photography