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

Hi Andrea, 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.

I am not the first person to survive twelve years of Catholic School and live to tell the tale. And like many others before me, this experience has deeply influenced my creative work. “Divine Perversions: a sapphic mass” actually began as a variety show. My collaborator, Nicole Adsit, and I would host as two deranged lesbian nuns and invite other acts to perform, asking them to let religion inspire their act in some way. After a while, Nicole and I decided that we knew our characters well enough to build a show around them. Eventually, the show became a parody of a Catholic mass, where we (Sister Incarnata and Sister Coco) take over the mass, delivering our own version of the good news: that everyone in the congregation, and the world, is actually gay. Divine Perversions is a way for me to connect with the parts of Catholicism that I miss and appreciate, like the camp, the rituals, and the theatricality. The show is also a deep criticism of the church as an institution. Divine Perversions has allowed me to continue to engage with the complications of being raised in a very specific, deeply flawed culture. It lets celebrate the parts that I enjoy or that provide me comfort despite myself, and also provides me a safe outlet to critique the parts of the religion and institution that have been deeply harmful for many people, but especially my own LGBT community. Nicole and I have worked on this play in different iterations for years, which has also shown me the beauty of workshopping a project over time and letting it evolve at its own pace. By doing the show over and over and moving and changing every aspect, we were able to build a stronger piece. We’ve performed Divine Perversions in venues all across NYC including at NY Comedy Festival. We most recently performed the show in Los Angeles during Pride month which was extremely special. Nicole and I have collaborated on many projects, including the web series UNHINGED, and a new show we are currently workshopping through the CAMP program at Ars Nova, and getting to work with her time and time again is the most meaningful part of these projects.

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.

Sure! I am an actor, comedian, and writer based in New York City. I’m actually about to celebrate my 10 year anniversary in NYC which is a relief because then I will be able to claim “New Yorker” status. I am Colombian-American and was born in Ecuador, which means that I am particularly picky when it comes to empanadas. I am technically a “third culture kid,” meaning that I grew up living in different countries and because of that haven’t always felt a strong belonging in any once place (hence my excitement for New Yorker status). When my family did return to our home base in the US, we lived outside of Washington, D.C. In college I started participating in more comedy and theater, and decided to move to New York City to pursue a creative and artistic life. It has been really easy and nothing has gone wrong ever!
After moving to the city, I slowly but surely began meeting other like minded people who wanted to create unusual and often irreverent comedy. I met many wonderful friends and collaborators through the indie comedy scene, where we went on to form sketch teams, web series, live shows, and plays. I also briefly worked at Refinery29 where I learned more about the industry, including writing and producing my own material. This experience inspired me to create my own work including various comedic videos that went on to screen at film festivals and led to other interesting work including writing and acting branded comedic content for Tinder, producing a Spotify news show for Cheddar, and creating content for Comedy Central’s LGBT instagram channel.
Every project introduced me to more talented creative people that have challenged and inspired me. After a few years creating my own work, I decided to get formal acting training in the Meisner Technique. In acting school, I met more collaborators and mentors. Along the way, I have written and acted in many meaningful projects, participated in exciting workshops, and most importantly, met inspiring collaborators and friends who make this really easy and not stressful at all path significantly less harrowing.
I’ve participated in many projects that mean a lot to me over the years! Through the RIOT Writer’s Comedy lab, I workshopped my pilot “Breaking Habits” with a fiercely talented cohort that still inspires me to this day. I also created the sketch web series UNHINGED with Nicole Adsit, Kami Dimitrova, and Steph Leschek. UNHINGED premiered at NewFest and has streamed in other exciting festivals. We created UNHINGED because all four of us are deeply inspired by “characters” in our every day life, and wanted to heighten and celebrate them. I have often found that in order to be taken seriously by any institution or group that has “power,” I have had to create my own material and prove that I have an interesting voice and point of view. While I used to find this frustrating, I have come to appreciate and celebrate the fact that this is a strength for me and allows me to create authentic art that is meaningful to me. My personal projects, including Divine Perversions, have led to other opportunities including a current residency at Ars Nova, where Nicole Adsit and I will present a brand new show on May 15.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect is getting to connect with people through my art. I am happiest when I am on stage making people laugh, especially when they are able to connect with me through shared experience or by recognizing something in my work that affects them, even if it makes them feel uncomfortable. That’s why Divine Perversions means so much to me- it is a way to connect with an audience in many different ways. For some people, it may make them uncomfortable or challenge the way they believe the Catholic Church should be portrayed. For others, it has made them feel seen as someone who felt ignored or actively hated in that community. I have had to learn over time that not everyone will enjoy my art, because I have a very specific point of view and I want to challenge people’s automatic assumptions about power structures, the status quo, and even about me as a person. I have a freedom on stage or on set that I don’t feel in “real life” and I enjoy being able to express another part of myself and push against expectations.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think sometimes non-creatives have struggled to understand that my journey as a creative person and an artist is not linear. However, I can’t blame them too much because I have struggled with that idea myself, as have many of my peers. I think it’s important to remind myself that I do not need to have a certain amount of money or achieve a certain level of success to be an artist. I am an artist by creating work that is meaningful to me and that engages with the themes I’m particularly interested in. When I make plays that challenge the Catholic Church and invite people to really look at how queer the church is despite being so publicly homophobic, I am making valuable steps in my creative journey. My collaborator Tayler Hamilton and I are currently producing a short film called ‘Gunners’ that we co-wrote. It would be nice if a studio appeared from thin air, offered to pay for everything, and asked us if we would be so kind to accept series regular roles in the next season of ‘Beef’. As far as I know that isn’t going to happen, but creating meaningful art with my friend and collaborator, and getting to meet other extremely talented and driven artists in the process like our director, Talia Light Rake, is arguably more important to my journey. That being said, it’s definitely a challenge to be an artist in our current society. The industry I have chosen is comically unstable, and I have had to learn to try not to compare my growth to anyone else, inside or outside the industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://andreaccardenas.com
• Instagram: alittledre

Image Credits

Dustin Molina
Nicole Adsit
Maddie Fischer