Today we’d like to introduce you to Wendy Natividad.
Hi Wendy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Gladly! I’ll start with my origin story in a nutshell:
The day I tell my husband I want a divorce, I call Mom to break the news.
“Wow,” Mom responds with admiration. “You’re fearless.” She and Dad reassure me that whatever struggles to follow, they’ll be there for me.
Roughly six months later, I find myself on the receiving end of a violent episode from my pregnant younger sister. I decided to draw a firm boundary and disconnect from her to protect myself. Mom and Dad didn’t stand on the same side of the line in the sand as I’d hoped.
Distressing as it was, I still understood their side. How could I ask my parents to choose between their only two daughters? In the fallout, I became disconnected from them too. First, my partner of 11 years. Then Mom and Dad. The pillars of my emotional support network disintegrate, seemingly into ash. I feel stranded on an island.
Roughly six months after that, COVID hit. That island eroded really fast.
What kept me afloat during the pandemic was the same force that pushed me to end my marriage, that pushed me to assert my boundaries: a reawakening of my artistic spirit. It made me look inward and answer hard questions about the life I truly wanted to live. This reawakening began with reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I began to recognize genuine wants and needs I’d been repressing in deference to serving everyone else’s wants and needs.
Having taken up the pen again after a decade of creative dormancy, I sought more volumes to sharpen my neglected writing craft. I devoured Lynda Barry’s Syllabus and Octavia E. Butler’s “Furor Scribendi,” which provided me with the paradoxically inspiring wisdom to “forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not.” In the beginning of the pandemic, I found social connection despite social distancing mandates by joining writer-centric Zoom gatherings such as The Digital Sala (instagram.com/thedigitalsala) and the BIPOC Writing Party (bipocwritingcommunity.wordpress.com).
As COVID continued, the same friend who introduced me to The Artist’s Way prompted my return to it. In this subsequent reading, I surfaced a buried curiosity around voiceover work. As a kid, my ear always perked up at familiar voices in the cartoons I watched after school. It delighted me to recognize Don Adams from Get Smart as the voice of Inspector Gadget; the handful of Star Trek actors who voiced various characters in Gargoyles; and Jim Cummings, whose lifetime of voiceover includes so many ‘90s favorites of mine like Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Adventures of the Gummi Bears, and TaleSpin.
Having grown up an introverted wallflower with zero theatrical training, I messaged a couple of acquaintances over Facebook who I knew worked in voiceover. I asked them how someone like me could get started. Both of them offered the same advice: take an improv class. Taking “an improv class” quickly became “doing improv practically every day for the rest of my life.” I loved the freedom that improv gave me to be more of myself through the characters I conjured in what started out as workshops, then soon leveled up to improv jams, and now consists of multiple shows every month around LA’s comedy scene.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Coming into my political consciousness post-college – a climate marked by such historical junctures as Occupy Wall Street, the ending of the Iraq War, and the murder of Trayvon Martin – I found that aligning myself ideologically was an ongoing challenge, and I yearned to find my place among social justice movements where I could make a difference. My trial-and-error explorations often left me feeling that I had come up just short of my destination. The people and places that made the most sense to seek out on paper never quite lined up with how I’d hoped they would in reality. So I wrote about it.
I wrote briefly under the alias Klarita Makinig. (“Klarita” invoking the intention of clarity; “Makinig” meaning in Tagalog to listen. Because what else is a writer’s job but to hear clearly the world around her and convey that to her reader?) Since I was closeted then (about being a writer), I took on this nom de plume to distill my experience into words. What resulted was my personal essay “I Pan the Bodycam Diasporic,” which was published this past spring in the academic anthology Closer to Liberation: Pin[a/x]y Activism in Theory and Practice (https://store.cognella.com/82695-1b-001) edited by Amanda Solomon Amorao, DJ Kuttin Kandi, and Jen Soriano.
Once I began to write in earnest again, I built up the confidence to put things out in the world using my government name. Today, I write and perform unabashedly as Wendy Natividad. I’ve come to see my art as my resistance – a means of expressing myself and calling other artists to arms.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m always hungry for inclusive and genuine storytelling that uplifts underrepresented communities. Such narratives resonate deeply with me because my intersecting identities as a bi-Filipino American woman often have me facing the question, “Am I enough?” As a writer and performer, my lifelong goal is to create a body of work affirming that we all are in fact more than enough just the way we are.
To this end, it’s presently my pleasure and privilege to be part of two Los Angeles theaters in particular: The Pack, where I serve as an Inclusivity Board member and an Artistic Committee co-director to support making space for creators from historically marginalized communities; and The Ledge, where I co-host Indie Night, a monthly variety showcase spotlighting improv, sketch, poetry, storytelling, and more from culturally diverse artists across LA.
As one-half of improv duo Power Sauce, I co-host Indie Night with my partner on and off stage, Stephen Gillikin (https://voyagela.com/interview/meet-stephen-gillikin-of-los-angeles/). We’re always on the lookout for new artists, and we invite submissions on a rolling basis (https://forms.gle/cuuQ8XfkqSCYeFzN7). Together, Stephen and I book, produce, and promote Indie Night to bring the voices of artists from underrepresented communities to the performing arts stage.
I’m most proud of my contribution toward fostering a warm and welcoming community in LA’s independent comedy scene. Here, I’ve found a sense of belonging I haven’t experienced anywhere else, and it fulfills me to know that I help give that sense of belonging to others. It’s even empowered me to bridge a healthier reconnection with my parents. I’ve recently invited Mom and Dad to be part of my life to the fullest extent possible, despite my separate and independent dynamic with my estranged sister. While it continues to be a work in progress, I’m glad to share that I’m in a better place to include my parents whenever I find an occasion to celebrate the joys and successes that my creative labor continues to bear.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
The older I get, the more I embrace creating for the fun and enjoyment of the process. I’m learning to detach my self-worth from others’ approval and external validation. That said, I’ve largely been able to achieve this perspective because of mentors past and present with whom I’ve been fortunate to cross paths, including Devon Coleman, Royce Shockley, Oscar Lemus, Shaun Landry, and Jennifer Aquino.
I am where I am because they, and many others, believed in me, saw something in me that I didn’t know I had in myself, and showed me what I’m capable of. I push onward to honor the trust and energy they’ve so generously given to developing my talents as an artist. In asserting my drive to write and perform my own work, it’s my hope that I, in turn, can be a guide and create opportunities for others along the way on their own artistic journeys.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wendynatividad.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nativi_rad/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendynatividad/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nativi_rad
- Other: https://forms.gle/cuuQ8XfkqSCYeFzN7
Image Credits
Matt Beurois; Michele Gutierrez; Carolina Rodriguez; Josh S. Rose; SEIU Local 721; Marj Urquidi; Stacey Uy; Virtual Hug Improv Jam; Ian Zandi.
