Today we’d like to introduce you to Bettina Lobo.
Bettina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started out when I was 7 years old singing along to “The Phantom of the Opera” film back home in Venezuela. After that, I got into choir in my school, then several performing arts camps and summer programs in the United States, all the way to doing it professionally in my country. Eventually I had to come the US to get an actual education in the Musical Theatre industry because Venezuela unfortunately is not prepared with a program for this career due to our humanitarian crisis and our horrific government.
I attended a two-year conservatory called The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City, where I graduated and took a year performing in New York and in Colorado in straight plays and musicals,and after, since I am international, I went back to school to The New School in NYC where I recently got my Bachelor in Fine Arts in Musical Theatre! It feels great to finally have achieved that degree after all these years. Now I am about to start my international student work permit for a year (OPT) to work in the US and I´m excited for the projects to come!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
In Venezuela, due to the lack of competition in the field and my dominance of the language, it felt like a smoother road. It wasn´t until coming here that I realized that the competition is very real and there are thousands of people that are going to be just as good or better than you when acting or singing a song. While I consider myself very fluent in English there´s still an insecurity of “wow, is my accent coming out?”, “are they not going to cast me because I said X word wrong?”, “am I too Latina?” “or too little Latina since my hair is blonde?”…thousands of questions that make you doubt yourself and your talent.
But you know what? If I could give any advice to someone who´s just starting is this: lets NOT hold on to these questions that make us insecure. You need to focus on what makes you YOU, focus on what makes you different from everyone else and actually embrace it. The casting director that chooses you will most likely do it because of your personality, like I said, talent is everywhere, but there´s only one you.
Please tell us about Musical Theatre actress.
As I´ve mentioned before I am a musical theatre actress, which basically means that I can sing, act and (on good days) dance. But I don´t limit myself to musicals, I love acting in straight plays (shows that only have text) and T´V and film is an area that really intrigues me.
I´m always searching for ways to perform. Currently I sing every month in an Off-Broadway Cabaret Series called “Let´s Broadway” in the Upper West Side in Manhattan. I also love singing covers of my favorite songs which I tend to post in social media and every once in a while I´ll record the song in a studio to make it available in platforms like Itunes or Spotify.
With being an actress, there comes the obligatory work of: auditions! These might be a little scary at first but I found that whenever I trust the process and my talent I actually have fun during them. Of course there will always be that one audition where you reeeeally want to book it because the show/role is extremely special to you…so you could be 5 years into the world of auditions and you can still get nervous, it´s perfectly normal and we all go through these.
Back home I´m known as “Bettina Lobo, the one who sings” (Bettina Lobo la que canta) and I think I´m slowly making that name here in the States, although now it goes a little more like “Bettina Lobo, the Venezuelan who sings” 🙂
There’s a wealth of academic research that suggests that lack of mentors and networking opportunities for women has materially affected the number of women in leadership roles. Smart organizations and industry leaders are working to change this, but in the meantime, do you have any advice for finding a mentor and building a network?
Finding a mentor is different for everyone. I found a mentor back home who happens to be my brother-in-law so I got very lucky but my friends who have mentors that they met later in life usually began with them being students in college and the mentors being the teachers. Then they developed that friendship outside of class and so on. Although, I really don´t think you need a mentor to “make it” in the industry, I do think that having connections is very important. Start with your friends, make projects with them, if you´re starting out, work for the experience and try to do the best you can- people notice effort and they will most likely call you back to work for them or even refer you to someone else and then the cycle starts!
I too, get very nervous about the concept of “networking” but a director once told me that if going to an industry party and initiating conversations with people was too intimidating then maybe try a “one on one” and invite that person for coffee to discuss your plans/projects. Maybe that helps some 😉
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bettinalobo.com
- Instagram: @bettinald
- Twitter: @bettinalobo
Image Credit:
Elad Ness – UNITED Photography
John Gary Brown
