We recently connected with Alejandro Roldan and have shared our conversation below.

Alejandro, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have been successful in earning a full-time living as an actor and singer. I started performing professionally in 2011 when I auditioned for ‘Once upon a mattress’ in Evergreen Colorado. The first couple of years of my professional performing I was trying to pad my resume, so not all shows paid what I wanted. In 2014-2015. I found an audition posting for the Boulder Dinner Theatre, which I had heard great things about since I started working in Denver. They were looking for 2 male swings for their production of ‘Forever Plaid’ – after my audition i was taken down to the dining room and offered the job on the spot. That single audition led to my 8 year career at BDT Stage (Boulder Dinner Theatre). I was in over 16 productions in my time there- Some standouts were; Footloose, Forever Plaid, Something Rotten, Rock of Ages, Joseph and the Amazing technicolor Dreamcoat, Throughly Modern Millie, Motones vs Jerseys, Ragtime, Mama Mia, and The Buddy Holly Story, Unfortunately last year BDT stage closed after being open since 1976. I was kind of lost with my main source of income closing, but the universe had other plans for me. While I was rehearsing to go on the first national tour of Motones and Jerseys , one of the owners of Mannequin Entertainment saw me performing and was interested in having me join as a sub for the coming wedding season. I decided to turn down the offer because I had auditioned at Miners Alley Playhouse for their production of ‘Hair’. Luckily I booked the show as the lead, Claude Bukowski, and had a wonderful run of the show. At this time i was also working the front desk at a Salon, and the other owner of the band came in to get her hair done. She told me that this was serendipitous because she had a male singer drop out of one of their three bands the day prior due to health reasons. She asked me to come in and audition the next day, and I secured a spot as a regular singer in the band Midnight. I am now almost done with my second season with the band, I get to travel all over Colorado and sometimes the country performing with this band and luxury weddings. So that is where I currently am, professional singer and still working as an acrtor. I was last seen in ‘The full Monty’ baring it all on stage at Miners Alley. Next up I will be doing ‘Once upon a mattress’ at the Arvada Center, one of the few theatres I had yet to book, but that changed 2 months ago.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I think i covered a good portion of that in the last post. My love for singing and theatre all came about when I was a sophomore in Highschool and they were doing a production of ‘Les Miserables’. After that first production I realized i was pretty good, so i started taking vocal lessons, Eventually my vocal teacher convinced me to audition for a vocal performance program at the Chicago College of Performing arts at Roosevelt University, where I was accepted as a freshman fall of 2005. I eventually ended up transferring back to Colorado to continue school at the University of Northern Colorado, being accepted into their vocal performance program. The transfering of schools really messed with my derive to want to continue school, because I transferred to a university as opposed to a conservatory, so I played 2 years worth of catch up with my general education classes, After two years the want to perform was too strong, so I started auditioning outside of school and started booking work, and i have been working consistently since. I am a hard worker, this is not an easy profession to make a living at. But my hard work and dedication to what i do has made it possible.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Something you have to learn early on as a professional performer is that there will be plenty of no’s for every yes to you get. One thing i had to unlearn was not taking it personally. Occasionally it will be based on talent for not booking a job, but more often than not you are just not what they need in the show. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have the talent or skill to be in said show, but you just didn’t check whatever box they were trying to fill.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For the wedding band, its getting to share in some of people biggest day of their lives. We get to bring the party and have fun with everyone while providing top tier entertainment. For theatre it’s just making people laugh and getting to forget about their daily lives for a little bit.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Aroldan1687
• Facebook: Alejandro Roldan