We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alariza Nevarez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

ALARIZA, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

First, there are three minds behind the idea of our business. We are Kerstin, Hadiyyah and Alariza and the three of us are the evil geniuses who founded Run Amuck Studios, Inc. The three of us met as actors for a previous theatre company that closed its doors in 2019. This company specialized in immersive theatre for audiences of all ages. For five years we performed original shows and performed at venues including traditional theatres, Schools and Non-tradition perfromance spaces like bars, community centers and even people’s homes. After four years of not doing the theatre that we love, because of the pandemic, we chose to take matters into our own hands and do something about it. Thus Run Amuck Entertainment LLC, our flagship company, was born.
The completely reputable source Urban dictionary defines “running amuck” as ” out of control behavior; overly fun or disruptive; rebelling behavior.” And as a wise T-shirt once said “Well behaved women rarely make history.” And while we are professional performers, we love causing a ruckus and making a statement, and we intend to do that with each and every show we perform though Run Amuck.
Being huge risk takers and hitting the ground running amuck immediately, in our Inaugural year we did four shows, two family shows and two 18 and over shows. And then this year in 2024 we launched our Non-Profit branch: Run Amuck Studios in an effort to bring our love of theatre to students and families in underrepresented communities. In April we embarked on our first ever Run Amuck with literature in school educational program, focusing on Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy “Romeo and Juliet.”
Lastly, starting a theatre company in a prominently film-industry region in itself is a huge risk. It has most certainly been a learning curve. No one tells you what to expect when you’re expecting… to start a business. Some of the struggles we learned along the way is that a theatre company isn’t your traditional business and sometimes even business experts are unable to use their expertise towards the performing arts. Being a brand new theatre company it might be an assumption that we wouldn’t pay, which is often the case in the theatre industry, especially with new and smaller companies. However, as actors ourselves, we started this company with the intention of paying all of our artists for their art, even if it may be very little at first. That being said, in order to pay you have to sell tickets and one of our largest hurdles has been marketing and getting butts in seats, but we are proud to say all of our actors have been paid and each show there have been more butts in seats!
The newest risk we’re facing is a new location. Once you establish an audience, switching theatres, let along switching cities, is a HUGE risk! In 2023, we primarily performed in Los Angeles in the west part of town, near the Santa Monica border. We noticed that though we received a loyal audience for our show with more adult and explicit content, our family friendly shows weren’t getting the same numbers, or not as many butts in seats. So we’ve made the choice to move our family friendly shows to a new location in the valley. Simi Valley to be precise. This is a more suburban area, with families starving for unconventional weekend entertainment. The hope is we will remain in Simi Valley for our family-friendly shows, and we will start bringing our more risque performances to bars and cabarets around the Los Angeles area. As I said before, its a HUGE risk, but we’re hoping it pays off!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For myself, and I think my business partners Kerstin and Hadiyyah will agree, some people aren’t meant to have the traditional 9 to 5 job. From a young age, performance art was critical in my life. Whether it was amusing the family during reunions to stall for time for those working tirelessly in the kitchen, whether it was in school or community performances, or whether it was in the company of good friends, I always noticed that I was good at entertaining people. And when you realize you can not only sing, but sing well and can easily pick up on harmonies and time signature, it seems a waste of talent to not pursue a life in music. This is why I personally started studying musical theatre, and once I got to college and started acting more seriously, I knew a life on the stage was what I was meant for.
I’ve had the honor and privledge of acting internationally. I went to grad school in the United Kingdom at the East 15 Acting School in Loughton, and received my Masters of Fine Arts with Honors in Acting. Through this International Masters program I performed Shakespeare on The Globe in London, I studied and performed Checkov and Meyerhold in Moscow, Russia, and I performed in London’s West End. As a final showcase, American students had the option to perform in Los Angeles or New York. Since I grew up in Northern California, Los Angeles was the easier and more accessable option. It was that practical decision that untimately led me to moving to Los Angeles. I have been here since 2016, and through many trials and tribulations, I live the full artist’s life!
It took me years to get to a comfortable place where I no longer have to have a “survival job” as we in the community call it. I used to juggle three or four jobs in those early years, but now I am a professional teaching artist, supervising other teachers early in their teaching career, and have started my own theatre company with two of my closests friends.
This is not an easy path—the life of an artist is full of uncertainty and risks—but through this artistic journey I’ve grown as an artist and a person.

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?

Some conventional advice that we keep getting from the “non-creatives” in our lives is “over time, it will get easier.” Perhaps if we had opened a retail store or catering business, the business side of things would get easier. However, circumstances are always changing in the arts. One fiscal year could be wonderful, but you could be struggling the next. It’s hard not to notice how small theaters all around Los Angeles are either struggling, gone on hiatus, or have closed their doors permanently. The world is constantly evolving, and art needs to evolve too. In a way, we theatre practitioners have to accept that it will never get easier. But we didn’t choose the life of an artist because it’s easy. We chose to be artists because it feeds our souls and brings us a joy that nothing else can provide. So we take the risk of not always having stability and success and we work hard. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes is the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do. And keep riding the seesaw of life because in the end, its worth it!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

We understand that in expensive cities like Los Angeles, going to support the performing arts isn’t a major priority. However, in times of stress, heart ache, or frustration, there’s a reason we as humans turn to art for comfort. Whether it’s through music, drawing, crafting, television, or dance, art in all its forms is there to console you. So the most supportive thing society can do is go and see your local artists and your creative friends. Go to a friend’s play at a local blackbox theatre instead of seeing the Blockbuster film of the season a second time. Go watch your comedian friend’s stand-up show instead of going bar hopping. Go listen to your friend’s band at their first big gig instead of going out to eat that night. We artists understand we can’t get supported by everyone every time, so showing up at all means the world to us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.runamuckentertainment.com
• Instagram: @runamuckent, @runamuckstudiosinc @alarizanevarez

Image Credits

Logos Designed by Aurie Myers
Live Production Photos by Selah Myeres
Headshot by Jeff Xander