Erika || Story-Telling + the Importance of Community
Erika + I met in a dance class at the Theatre School at DePaul. Her energy was always inviting, full of sun. I had the great joy of getting to chat with her about her journey through acting a few years after recieving her BA at the Theatre School and watching her on the Theatre School stage....
Lin Kahn's first modern class at the Theatre School. Can you find Erika and me?
““I am a storyteller + theater maker””
Today Erika is a TV and film actress, but she started her journey in second grade when she was in a production of Damn Yankees. She laughed at the irony of getting her start in musical theater, when she does not do that "at all." Erika had the lead/titular role in Diary of Anne Frank and decided she needed to make time for acting. Her last show in high school, she was in the production of Wait Until Dark, and her mother came up to her and told her that it was the first time she did not see her daughter on stage—this spurred the motivation to pursue this much more intentionally. For college she moved to Chicago to study at DePaul University’s Theatre School (where I would eventually meet her).
After graduating, she moved to L.A. for gig, and she decided to stay for a bit, but there was a lack of community that Erika began to crave. A few things began pointing her back to Atlanta Georgia, where she grew up. A lot of her auditions were being filmed in Atlanta and one day while meditating on the beach she got the sense that she should go to Atlanta + make her own community.
I wanted to know, what Erika had learned throughout this journey. She said,
“When we chose “art” as out career, we go through a lot of different hardships that ebb + flow, and are peaks + valleys. Sometimes you are riding this incredible wave, right, and then it’s not until it crashes that you remember there is a crash”
To explain her lessons further she quoted F. Scott Fitzgerald, “there are no rules to this thing.” Meaning life and the way you live it have no guide book for success—you have to write your own story. Erika has been doing this through reminders that worth is not attached to an outcome.
“I live in the land of ‘no’s.”
So she has found it important to “click unsubscribe” on comparing herself to others. Her cohort’s journey is not hers, and no matter how difficult it can be to remember that, it is the truth.
Through this she finds a great amount of joy in what she does.
“there’s NOTHING telling a story and being a part of a story of a voice that matters. And seeing the effects of it. There’s this vibration, and when it lands on an audience member you can feel it”
Through the ups and downs, I wanted to know how Erika continues to care for her soul.
She has a particular way of doing things these days:
“I let myself feel everything. I don’t try to be like “don’t want it” or “don’t be disappointed. If I don’t get it I will be 100% disappointed, but BUT...that only is allowed if I my “Action.” I can cry, etc, and then I remind myself, “ok what’s next.” And that comes in the way of passion projects”
She also recommends the book The Artists’s Way --- a self taught workshop of twelve weeks. So like free form writing, things I do when I am upset or down. The biggest thing she says, is to not pretend that is doesn't matter.
Curating community also took on importance as she made the move from L.A. -> Atlanta.
In L.A. she had found networking exhausting. Like me, she dislikes small talk
“I just want to know you’re biggest fears + your best dreams!”
We laughed at the truth of it and she continued,
“I craved a collective, collaborative, nurturing space
”
So she decided to curate this space herself by beginning Moonlit Dinners.
The dinners center on the question: how do people come together as people first? Right now there are two elements to being at the dinners...female-identifying + creative (as a hobby, interest, or goal). The first dinner had 25 women at the table. Erika provided them with a meal that was nourishing and that was elevating.
She has been amazed by the power of community and being seen and heard by others. (wrap up)
“It was really important for me to talk about dreams, collaboration is an afterthought. I also wanted to create a space for women to be safe and nurtured and not be competitive”
On top of taking her role as a story-teller and community curator seriously—Erika sees her work as political.
She wants to remind people that
“theater can be for the young.”
She hopes that theater can change and challenge ideas for the next generation. There remain issues of gender, color, ethnicity, and so much more in theater. Erika herself was denied a role for a reason such as this. A lot of the time, pursuing art can feel like a selfish goal, but Erika has begun to see it as anything but…
“I continue to understand how to have important conversations through what I do, why is my dream important”
In the end,
“the world actually needs art
”
And I couldn’t agree more.
Huge thanks to Erika for taking the time out of her night to FaceTime me, for doing amazing work. For more on her journey, check out her instagram
