We were lucky to catch up with Esther Banegas Gatica recently and have shared our conversation below.
Esther, appreciate you joining us today. 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.
Life is full of risks, every choice we make feels like a potential risk or reward that we can experience instantly or eventually. I would describe my biggest risk to date, and probably ever, as my dream to pursue a career in the creative arts outside of my native country of Honduras. Since I was little I have enjoyed dancing and singing and performing in front of any mirror I came across, my Mom being attentive saw my precocious energy and put me in an after-school theatre program at the age of six. My first role was as one of the flowers in Alice in Wonderland and that joy and passion of performing stayed with me. Then life happened and I kept performing in small school recitals but I wasn’t sure what would come of me once graduating high school. For reference in Honduras theatre is seen as a hobby, something you do on the side but not a career. I would visit my family in Florida with my mom and in one of those visits over the summer, my favorite cousin Josie mentioned she knew they were holding auditions at where she worked. She worked for Miami Dade College and the theatre program was called Teatro Prometeo, the only Spanish-speaking acting conservatory in the nation. My single mother worked hard for me to be in a bilingual school in Honduras so the possibility of coming to study in the United States did not feel impossible since I knew English, but it also had not been done before by anyone in my immediate family. My cousin reminded me you don’t have anything to lose if you audition and since I was already in town I decided to take that risk. I had slept over at her place so I asked to borrow some of her fancier clothes and I wrote my monologues and decided to audition the next day. That seemingly insignificant risk paid off. I got accepted into the program and now I had a bigger risk or reward to evaluate, do I come to the United States to study a career in the arts or do I stay in Honduras? Financially this decision wasn’t entirely up to me, I was only 19, but my amazing mother told me she would support my dreams, and we could find a way. And we did…I worked while I studied, tried to get scholarships and my Mom worked to pay my way through school. Every lempira, our Honduran currency, is 25 dollars, so pressure and return of investment as I made my way through school was something on my mind. If I didn’t succeed my risk wasn’t just affecting me, but it was affecting the person I love most, mi mama.
God’s faithfulness made this insane risk eventually a reward. Along the way, there have been many missed marks and achieved goals, from having to return to Honduras after completing Teatro Prometeo to then returning to complete my Bachelor’s degree but in Tulsa, Oklahoma this time at Oral Roberts University. Then again not knowing if to return to Honduras or keep going I applied to the University of California, Riverside where I achieved a Master’s in playwriting. Moving from Tulsa where I knew Christian missionaries I had translated for to California where I knew nobody was yet another risk. Never abandoned my passion for performing arts, and understand that as a first-generation Latina immigrant, I was delusional for picking Humanities instead of a STEM-related career. It took almost 12 years for me to see that initial risk of going to an impromptu audition to now being fully graduated, employed, and happily married in the United States. I have had the opportunity to act, direct, write, and produce meaningful work I am proud of, to meet amazing people, and to discover in myself the value of perseverance and the value of taking risks daily.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Esther Banegas Gatica, I am a very proud Latina immigrant. I was born and raised in the country of Honduras and now live and work in the United States. I am based in Riverside, California but collaborate all across the country through my multi-hyphenate work as a: playwright, director, actor, teacher, coach, translator/interpreter, and stage/program manager. My training is in several theatrical disciplines, specifically the Rasaboxes acting technique. I graduated from Teatro Prometeo (FL) and hold a BFA in Theatre from Oral Roberts University (OK) and an MFA in Playwriting/Screenwriting from UC Riverside (CA). I have worked for great organizations like Teatro Prometeo, Syracuse Stage, Gluck Foundation, and many more.
I entered this industry wanting to only act, like most of us do, but quickly discovered through my training that storytelling can happen in many forms. The most fun aspect of being multihyphenate is how my acting informs my writing and other disciplines and vice versa, every skill supports the next, all in service of the story being told. Currently, I am part of Black Voice News (writer), Playground LA (writer), Lime Arts Productions (Line producer), and serve as executive assistant to Riverside Studios. The most immediate way to work with me if you are not in the SoCal area is through the creative consulting company I am a member of Distinctive Voices LLC. Distinctive Voices is a coaching and consulting firm that helps people with story, script, and performance development, as well as translations. We provide our clients with detailed feedback and 1:1 coaching, whether it’s in an audition or a board room presentation to script coverage on your latest draft or working on a writer developing a new idea. If you want to be understood more clearly in whatever creative medium is necessary we are the team to support you.
What sets me and the work I do through the company Distinctive Voices is that I want to get to know you as an individual in the process of helping you create the best version of your art. I don’t just see you as a client, I see you as a future collaborator and I trust me I have been in your shoes before. There is nothing scarier than staring at a first draft looking for edifying notes or wanting feedback on an audition/presentation. That is what I do best: coach, direct, cheer, and workshop alongside you, not a one-and-done deal where your work is torn apart and not nurtured. I am most proud of collaborating with writer-performers and developing new work. I did most recently with Dr.Juhanna Rogers on her one-woman show “Shattering”.This piece started as a series of monologues that we together drafted into a cohesive one-woman show with a clear beginning, middle, and end, it is a solo poetic performance piece that reflects a young girl’s journey into womanhood. We toured this piece to the Fort Worth Fringe and the Newark Arts Festival to name a few. I served for Juhanna as a dramaturg, director, stage manager, and tour manager and she now continues to tour the piece while rehearsing with me virtually.
As I mentioned the consulting we do at Distinctive Voices can become a lifelong partnership, we artists thrive in community not isolation. Another proud accomplishment is being the translator of “Dreamscape” by the pioneer in Hip Hop theatre Rickerby Hinds, from English to Spanish. The Spanish version got to tour my native Honduras since Rickerby himself was also born there. If you are interested in having me be your creative consultant then contact me through my socials or the Distinctive Voices llc. Website itself.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
As cliche as it may sound the most rewarding aspect of being creative is that I get to do what I love constantly. Work is exactly that work, but when you devote your life to your passions, although still hard, at least you are devoting yourself to something that fuels you. I am a person of faith and believe that God has given us all talents, if we don’t use them then we are ignoring what our truest destiny could be. I enjoy feeling that I am giving my talents a chance to flourish and be in service to others. The most fun for me is the process of starting with an idea, writing it, rehearsing it, and presenting it to share a communal experience with others. Through creativity you get to problem-solve on the spot and save the day in many ways, that is a rewarding feeling. Whether in theatre, film or just pitching an idea in my day job, my creativity is my secret not so secret weapon.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I do! I wish I had known about several theatre competitions when I was early in my undergrad journey. I can’t list them all but with a quick Google search, you can find a lot. I assumed that theatre opportunities would come from my connections in school, but a lot of them can happen organically through applying to as many summer or virtual programs. This is a relational business so the bigger you can make your circle of who and what organizations you know about, the smaller and more interconnected the industry becomes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.distinctivevoicesllc.com/
- Instagram: esteyg
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esther-banegas-gatica-05b566227/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/EGatic_Art
Image Credits
Esther Banegas Gatica Kimberly Guerrero (headshots)