Today we’d like to introduce you to Kacie Swaffield.

Hi Kacie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I found my love for acting on a whim when I started taking acting classes at my new school. I was 11 years old and had no clue what I was getting myself into, but had vague preconceptions about it involving games. It was nothing like that; I found myself doing Meisner exercises taught by a student of Meisner himself. It was intense and strengthening and the standards set in that class set me up for success later on when attending an acting conservatory. It felt like kismet from that first repetition exercise. It was almost an immediate understanding that this was what I was meant to do, without knowing what it would all entail. When I was 12, I made the decision to study acting after I graduated high school and was dead set on New York. I was stubborn and steadfast in that decision and did everything in my educational career to get there, such as exclusively applying to New York schools so that I would have no excuse not to go. I was accepted into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and decided I wanted to go where many actors I admired went before me. I moved to New York with my mother, my dog, and my three cats with no idea where we were going to live—empowered by my PT Cruiser and a dream. My time at the Academy was everything I could have dreamed of and more. After graduating, I was accepted into the Academy’s NY Company, in which I got to work with brilliant directors in the industry, such as the great Ryan Quinn and Jose Zayas, and did several plays back to back. Now, I find myself navigating this rich, complex world that continues to surprise me at every turn, much like it did when I took that first acting class. I’ve grown as an actor in ways I am grateful for, imbued with new skills that have resulted in my involvement with several Shakespeare productions, and dipping my toes into film work. Most recently, I took to the stage as Diomeda in “Troilus and Cressida,” directed by Orson Ansari-Cox and Kamran Bina. I am currently working on a short film that recently wrapped, and look forward to sharing news of its release.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, however, I have never had any delusions that it would be anything close to easy. When it comes to your calling, you don’t really have a choice but to roll with the punches. It’s okay for things to not be easy, to have to chip away at something and peel back the layers. Every project brings up new challenges and elements to work through that surprise and change me as an actor. However, I’m not unfamiliar to the twists and turns that come with the pursuit of acting. I began taking acting classes in a small Arizona town, and with that came objectors. In a small town that can breed small perspectives, there were people of authority that would try to sabotage our theatre department, trying to stop our shows from seeing the light of day in an attempt to stifle truth and creativity. Our director who, in many ways, was the heart of the theatre department, had to fight for every production we wanted to put on without any funding from the district. But it was our love for acting and the community we built that helped us push past naysayers. Later on, when I was applying to colleges, I knew I had to leave Arizona to pursue a meaningful education for Drama and was sold on New York. How could I not want to cultivate my career in an epicenter of the acting world? When I was accepted into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, facing my future, on the brink of escaping anything that was holding me back, then came the pandemic. To say the least, that came with its own onslaught of difficulties and changed my program enormously. There were times where I felt like everything was telling me not to do this, but I ignored those voices. If you look for something or someone to tell you no, you will always find it. So, I took the challenge and said yes instead. I came into this industry in the midst of a whirlwind of change, and when there is a lot that is out of your control, you have to focus on what is in your power. What was in mine was to continue saying yes instead of no, and fighting to pursue my calling in spite of forces working against me.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As an actor, most of my experience has so far been on stage, but I’m interested in going deeper into film work and recently worked on an independent film. I have no intention in putting myself in a box and know that I have only scratched the surface of all the possibilities for myself. My heart will always love the stage, though, and I am so grateful that that’s where I can say my career began. It puts you through the wringer, wringers you didn’t even know you could exist in, let alone conquer. Currently, I look back and feel most proud of my process and time playing Macbeth. It was my first Shakespeare production and final play in Company, with only four weeks to bring this show to life. That process stretched me in directions I never once stepped foot towards before, but it also molded me into a better actor. I look back on that time very fondly.

What were you like growing up?
Both of my parents were 40 when they had me, and having parents born in the 1960s, who were older than my friends’ parents, exposed me to older media from the very beginning. I was watching films and shows, such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and anything else Audrey Hepburn, from their childhood with them and immediately took an interest. Because of this unconventional exposure to media at a very young age, I was an odd kid at times with very specific hyperfixations and phases. I’ve worshipped at the alter of Barbara Streisand since I was four years old. I enjoyed talking to older people, like my parents’ friends, about their lives and hearing their wisdom. I felt like it wasn’t always easy to fit in with other kids, and I sometimes felt inferior and excluded. Then, when I transferred to a new school in junior high, it was as if I was transplanted into a brand new environment where there were a lot of kids I didn’t know and, in many ways it felt like I was starting over. When I was in acting class was when I felt like the freest version of myself. I didn’t have to fit into any one mold of how to be, but rather, play in a space that allowed me to fully embrace my oddness, and in playing other characters I was actually peeling back the new layers of my truest parts of myself that I didn’t know existed before. It was a time of unforgettable exploration and self expression, and I discovered that acting had found me at the most crucial time.

Contact Info:

• Website: kacieswaffield.com

Image Credits
Time in “The Winter’s Tale” dir. Orson Ansari-Cox (photography by bettybyrd photography) Macbeth in “Macbeth” dir. Ryan Quinn (photography by Bronwen Sharp, courtesy of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts) Boggett in “Phoebe in Winter” dir. Jose Zayas (photography by Bronwen Sharp, courtesy of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts) Diomeda in “Troilus and Cressida” dir. Orson Ansari-Cox and Kamran Bina (photography by bettybyrd photography) Masha in “Dying For It” dir. Barbara Rubin (photography by Bronwen Sharp, courtesy of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts) Macbeth in “Macbeth” dir. Ryan Quinn (photography by Bronwen Sharp, courtesy of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts) Time in “The Winter’s Tale” dir. by Orson Ansari-Cox (photography by bettybyrd photography)