We recently connected with Alessandro Yokoyama and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alessandro, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

That’s a really hard question! There are so many projects I hold dear to my heart… If I had to pick one though, it would have to be “Tracks”, by Paula B Stanic.

First of all, it was my Off-Broadway debut, so that was a huge milestone for my career of course. On the other side, I was broke, working ridiculous hours on a new job, and (once we came down to our Off-Broadway venue) I was kind of homeless for a month. Yeah…not exactly the dream scenario. Super quickly, I wanna give a huge shout out to my castmates Laura Hooper and Jason Carvell, they really saved my life. They essentially adopted me, they took care of me and took me under their wing, they even hosted my girlfriend and I in their house for a whole month. They are the best. …I guess it sounds sorta romantic now that I tell the story, but it really wasn’t at the time. However! The reason I chose “Tracks” above all others was because of the script: oh let me tell you, the script was just an actor’s dream! It was so full of life! You know how in Chekhov or in Shakespeare plays the script makes little sense on first reading? (or even on a second reading?) It was just like that! That happens because you haven’t found the filter: words make no sense until you put them into this incredibly specific context, a context made of past experiences, events, and other stimuli to which the characters are deeply reactive to. Some of these are spelled out by the playwright but other you need to figure out on your own. Only when you’ve found this “filter”, then the play comes alive, then you have not just a story but life itself! I guess you can say this about any play, but the ones I enjoy working on the most right now are the ones like “Tracks”, or “Hedda Gabler”, ones that require the actor to have depth of understanding, to have size. They need us to dive deep into the shoes of our characters for the play to make any sense at all. What a gift! And to top it all off, the play was set in 2011 North London, which meant dialect coaching and a lot of dialect practice.

Yeah, “Tracks” was just an incredible challenge, acting wise and life wise. I emerged from it a different person.

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?

That sounds like a good idea! Hi there, I’m Alessandro Yokoyama and I’m an actor based in Brooklyn.

I was born and raised in Florence, Italy, by a Japanese mother and a Cameroonian father.

Florence is absolutely gorgeous. It is also not exactly the Mecca of diversity. I always say that at one point in my high school there were around 1300 students, and only 5 black ones. My brother, my sister and I were 3 of them. So…yeah I guess I’ve always felt alienated, or wrong, growing up. Don’t get me wrong, I have friends and I love them. But that feeling of separation never really left.
I’d watch hundreds of hours of movies and TV Shows, trying to find shelter from my life, a place where my problems didn’t matter and all that mattered were the problems of the characters. And if I got lucky, I’d see something that would break me down in tears, because it was able to express a feeling that I didn’t know other people also felt. Then I wouldn’t feel as alone in the world, so wrong.
A year after I had discovered my haven, I caught the “acting bug”: my high school English professor (God bless her heart) had us perform scenes from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in class one day, and I had a blast! I had no idea why but I had never felt so curious about anything in my life! That was the first time that I thought “Oh, I love watching movies…maybe I can be in them too?” My heart was set: I was going to become an actor! I was going to give others the same gift that saved me from my loneliness, I was going to share and commune with other people, and they would understand. We’d truly be together and not so separate anymore.

And so it began! Fastforward a couple of years and a myriad sacrifices later, I found myself walking to my last class at one of the world’s most prestigious acting school, The Stella Adler Studio, in New York City. A literal dream come true. And after that, it’s been one milestone after another, from me booking my first regional gig, to me making my Off-Broadway debut, to me acting in yet another Off-Broadway show right after, and to now, on my way to star as Romeo in the upcoming season of The Great River Shakespeare Festival. It’s truly been a wonderful journey, and I am so grateful for all the people that have shaped me and helped me get to where I stand today.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When I am able to move a stranger deeply, in some way shape or form. Sometimes they come and tell me personally, other times I can just feel it (or hear it) in the room. For me it’s truly an honor to be able to do what I do, and having people respond to my work is a just a beautiful blessing. My acting in the end is just me saying “Hey! This is what I think being alive is like” and then someone saying “Yes!”. I love it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

One day, I’m going to go back to Italy and revolutionize the entertainment industry there. Right now, it’s all very white (and I mean, very white): the vast majority of movies, plays, musicals, and TV Shows are centered around white characters and their struggles. The occasional black character is rarely more than a stereotype and a trope, inconsequential to the story’s end. I want to end that. I want to shine a spotlight on all those Italians who are outside of the “normal” ethnic group. Second and third generation Italians like me and others, who right now struggle to find any sort of authentic representation on the screens and on stage. I want to hear stories I can deeply relate to, and not the Nth movie about an old Italian pervert traveling somewhere for Christmas (yes, that is a thing).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nibalessandro.wixsite.com/homepage
• Instagram: @ale.niba

Image Credits

Headshot: 26st Photography
“Tracks” dir. Tabatha Gayle & Sarah Norris: Burdette Parks
“Room 1214” dir. Sarah Norris: Hunter Canning
“Hedda Gabler” dir. John Gould Rubin: @ak47division
“Othello” dir. Tom Oppenheim: @ak47division
“Green Show” at the Great River Shakespeare Festival: Pedro Figueiredo