We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rose Scalish. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rose below.

Rose, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Currently I am in the process of putting up a play that I wrote. The show is inspired by an experience I had some years ago and someone I knew once. It is about the complexities of human behavior and relationships we have with one another as well as the torturous battle of alcoholism. The idea to culminate my ideas into a script came about during the pandemic while I was on a lengthy night drive. I immediately called my friend and told him this was something I was going to do and he will see this on stage someday. Fast forward to when I moved to LA a few months later, I met a wonderful actor/director/mentor whom I artistically admire, and I gave him the script and asked his thoughts. After some discussion I said the only person I would trust to direct this piece would be him and he graciously agreed. Now, I am acting as one of the leads and he has taken on the role of directing a piece very close to my heart.

Rose, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was first introduced to acting as a possibility when I was in the 4th grade. I came home from school and somehow had heard that if you join the drama club you get to do a play. I must have expressed this at the dinner table because my mom came home from work the next day and announced that she signed me up for the drama club. Once a week I met with a bunch of goofy kids in 4th through 8th grade. I immediately fell in love with this whimsical way of being in the world. I began telling anybody who asked that I am going to be an actor. I continued to do shows through high school booking acting roles with equity theatres and getting a taste of the professional world, as far as theatre goes. All the while I never hesitated on my decision to pursue this career. Along with applying to colleges I also went through the process of pre-screening and auditioning for BFA Acting programs. I got into an exclusive program of only 20 people. After 2 and a half years the pandemic hit. I moved back into my parents’ home. After much debating and an audition for a conservatory across the country, I walked downstairs many years later from my first announcement about the drama club and told my parents I would be moving from Ohio to Los Angeles, California to attend The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. My parents were, of course, shocked but also extremely supportive and excited. So, I did just that. I packed my small Ford Fusion and drove 4 days and some three thousand miles to California. I knew nobody out here and yet I still did not question my career choice.

Cut to present day. I have recently graduated from The Academy with an amazing support group and connections. I wrote an entire play that is being produced, I have joined a theatre company out here and I have been working on small film projects and features consistently since graduating.

I could say “I have been lucky” and in some ways that is true. With the immediate support of my parents. When I asked my mom if she was nervous about me to move to LA she simply responded, “Well, we knew when you were very young that when you set your mind to something there is no stopping you.” But in regard to my constant working on projects, that is not luck. That is consistent hard work, determination with no excuses. I told everyone when I was 9 years old that I planned on “being an actor when I grew up” and I still intend to be just that.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I was stage managing a graduation show for the second years at my two-year conservatory. At the same time, I was the lead in two separate shows that we called “exam plays”. All three shows were set, by chance, to be performed consecutively over three days. One week before the tech and performances I get a call from my family that my grandfather, who I am very close with and is some three thousand miles away, is suddenly very ill. Due to the time difference, I got this call in the morning as I was heading into a full day of rehearsals. First of them being a graduation show for another class, which I was acutely aware was a big show for the cast, not for me, a first year. I walked in, fully intending to not make the day about me because truthfully, it should not be. My problem is mine and I have a job to do. The next morning, I got a call that my grandpa had passed. I went in and did my day of rehearsals again, booked a flight, flew out that weekend and came back Sunday night. Time difference and all I came back in as if i had never left and put on three different shows starting the next day.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think people who are not wired to be creatives in the artistic industry do not understand that our choice to follow this dream is not merely a choice. It is a desire within us that does not waiver. There is no “back-up plan”. This is it. This is the plan, and we cannot fathom doing anything else. It is a fire within us. We are willingly going into an industry that does not guarantee a job right out of school or ever and I fully intend on pursuing it with everything in my being. Which, truthfully, is what it takes. I also think people do not know that there is no “big break” and then bam your life is glamour. It is all hard work and discipline and will continue to be hard work. Just because you are seeing people on a screen does not mean anything was handed to them or that they did not put in the countless hours of work and putting themselves out there unnoticed. Someone’s “big break” simply means the general public has now noticed the work they’ve done that has led them to this point.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @rose.scalish
• Other: https://www.backstage.com/u/rose-scalish/ https://resumes.actorsaccess.com/roselillianscalish

Image Credits
Jeff Xander Brandon Ruckdashel Tina Vonn