We were lucky to catch up with Dominique Rose recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dominique, 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.
Most of my pursuit of an acting career has been comprised of risks. As a child I was extremely quiet. I was someone of very few words and never talked in school. I loved theatre as a child and wanted to give it a shot. It was terrifying but I did it and my confidence began to grow. I went from high school theatre to auditioning for one of the top acting conservatories in the country. I planned on being an English teacher, but I took a risk and ended up getting into a class of only 6 people! I became an even more confident and well spoken person. After school I took the risk of moving to NYC by myself. I performed off broadway and worked with a theatre company as a resident actor. When covid hit I moved back home and it was an extremely dark time. But I never gave up and I took yet another risk to drive solo across the country to move to LA on my own. The business has been slow but I’ve never given up and have gone this far. And I know this year will be my year:) thank you for hearing my story and giving me this opportunity to share it:)
Dominique, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My start in the business was inspired purely from my grandmother. She loved the theatre and she brought me to a show almost every week. I was a super shy child but I knew I wanted to be up there one day. I remember before my first audition ever at 15 I called my grandma and she said to just picture everyone in their underwear when I auditioned. It worked and that’s where it all started. She was there at all my auditions. I wish she had seen more. She unfortunately passed away shortly after I started performing. But she told me she would always be in the lights looking down on me and o still believe that to be true after almost 12 years. I attended the Hartt School for acting and received my BFA. I went from being very unsure of myself for being the lead in every MainStage show, usually as the most badass characters opposite of who I was.
I moved to NYC and performed in primarily Shakespearean productions. I loved it and really honed my skill in it. I also was lucky to enough to be the lead in an off broadway play making its world premiere. It was an amazing show, showing the strength of women.
In LA I’ve created some of my own work and have also done a lot of commercials. My goal is to audition for more features and tv shows and with my new management team I hope I can very soon:)
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I would love to one day work solely as a creative. I have been a server for the past 10 years. And although it is great money and flexible, it can be very draining and time consuming. I’d love to be able to do what I love and support myself from it. I’m realizing this could be a while but every day I pursue my career and put effort towards it the closer I get.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I love how acting makes me feel and also how it makes others feel. It’s so interesting and incredible putting yourself in the position of a character that you would never get to be in yourself. I like fully putting myself there and so much comes from it. I’m very good at being vulnerable and it is very therapeutic.
But I also love what my work does for others. Nothing beats when after you do a scene people are moved. To tears to laughter you name it. It may open their eyes to something they never thought of before or inspire them to do something differently in their lives . It’s remarkable what the arts can do and I think a lot of people don’t realize how powerful it is in everyone’s day to day life.
Contact Info:
- Website: Dominiqueroseactress.com
- Instagram: @dominiquerosewaite
Image Credits
Ben Bashor