We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kate Cherichello Tente a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kate, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

From a broader ‘performing’ standpoint, I first just learned from videos of musicals. Sound of Music, Annie, Beauty and the Beast…these played on repeat at my home when I was little, and I belted out every song included therein.
Ready for an audience? No. I would hide behind Mom’s skirt when asked to sing for someone or somewhere. I kept watching musicals, though, getting to go to live shows at the community theater near where I grew up in New Jersey once I was old enough.
Eventually (the ripe old age of 8), I had enough courage to do their summer workshop, and I couldn’t get enough. I found such joy, met the most wonderful people, and realized how we on stage could help audiences feel all sorts of emotions– the biggest perhaps, being happiness while getting an ‘escape from reality’ when at a show.

I absorbed so much as a child through teenager, and to this day, there are plenty of things I feel I can recall better that happened during those years than I can recall from the past decade. I am thankful for all those amazing formative years with the community theater and then high school theater as well, dance lessons, incredible performers to watch, and all the ways I had the opportunity to learn.

Skipping ahead to the professional world of acting/singing/dancing, I found the phrase “the more you learn the less you know” coming up aplenty. And the industry changes as each year goes on as well. It is hard to keep up, especially when one is paying for class after class with no guarantee of a job, unlike some other careers. (This was before YouTube and all of that, too!) But there is also so much learned from observing, and this has paid off a lot, too.
A piece of advice I would give someone starting out now that I do wish I would have realized in how much it could have helped from the start is to find a mentor: someone who knows the industry inside and out and in the present moment. I went to NYC after graduating from a college far away from ‘the Broadway world’ and without a musical theater degree. I have always said ‘I made my own masters degree in NYC’ by hitting the ground running and figuring it out along the way, and that helped me build plenty of great skills in of itself. But it would have been helpful to have had someone who could point me in the right direction, push me on focusing on practicing my craft more effectively, and just ask questions to, Regardless, I am grateful for my grit and determination in showing up day after day to auditions, work on making connections, and the various performing opportunities I have had because of it all.

These skills all have served me in the fitness industry as well as now hosting, too.

Kate, 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?

I am a performer, host, and fitness professional who fell in love with the arts as a young child. From singing through the grocery store as I followed Mom around to joining the community theater near my hometown in NJ to my first ‘paychecks’ coming via hosting a dance and craft camp for the ‘little kids’ in my neighborhood when I was only 10, performing filled my days and heart in various ways.

A Butler University grad, I majored in arts administration with a vocal music minor, getting the opportunity to work professionally while there as a performer with the Indianapolis Symphony shows including Yuletide and Guys & Dolls.

I moved to NYC after graduation, having also added certified fitness professional to my resume. It is a great additional passion to work in while also auditioning and performing. In the fitness realm, I taught in corporations for over 15 years, training and inspiring clients at 6am and 6pm, teaching Pilates, Barre, HIIT, and more. I love teaching workshops for beginner and advanced groups and helping people find the joy and power in working out. One of my sayings is, “Every bit counts”. I also train clients virtually and have an on-demand fitness platform where people can take my Pilates and Barre classes from anywhere at anytime. I created The 101 Series to help take out the overwhelm that I have seen so many people experience over the years, between not knowing what to do at a gym and feeling intimidated by others around them. I am so motivated by the steps I have seen people take to fulfill their health goals.

While still auditioning for theater and on-camera projects, I also started my podcast, Be The Good with Kate, at the height of the pandemic. Each week an individual is featured who is following their passions while making the world a better place along the way. It is absolutely incredible to hear all of these stories as well as to connect with people from all over the world and such an array of backgrounds. Be The Good with Kate now has over 130 episodes and we’re still going strong. Guests have included nonprofit founders, a former prison inmate, a Broadway musical director, a hospital clown, my own Kindergarten teacher, and so many others. Talking with this individuals has left such a profound impression on me: We ALL have the power to make a difference, and no step is too small.

Be The Good with Kate is on all podcast platforms and YouTube.

Some highlights in recent years include: traveling with Jersey Boys and the USO Show Troupe, subbing as the co-host for the NJ Morning Show on ON NJ/MeTV, and singing and dancing in a concert in Times Square one week before giving birth!

Why do I love stage and screen so much? There is something about making people feel, and helping them to see things from a different perspective, and the list goes on…

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

As an actor, singer, and/or dancer, we get rejected daily. Why do we keep doing it?
Because when you have such a passion for something, you have to pursue it.

This also comes up on Be The Good with Kate with people in other industries. They have had, what some may call, ‘crazy ideas’, but they pursue them because they feel so strongly about the mission of what they are doing.

When we look at history and the inspiring people who have made impacts in our world, how many leaned in to their calling and made things happen through perseverance and a focus on what is important to them, regardless of how hard, unique, or out of the mainstream these plans seemed…

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

With Be The Good with Kate, my mission is to share these guests’ journeys as widely as possible, as they are each doing things to make the world a better place. And if ONE person is inspired to take action, the ripple effect will continue.

Every interview leaves me amazed. Whether someone started an entire nonprofit or is a self-described ‘everyday person trying to lift others’, it is wonderful how much we gain from listening to others’ journeys.

We need to hear these stories and see how possible it is for us to do the same: follow our passions and do something good along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katecherichello.com
• Instagram: @positively_kate, @bethegoodwithkate
• Facebook: Kate Cherichello Tente
• Linkedin: Kate Cherichello Tente
• Youtube: Kate Cherichello

Image Credits

Jon Taylor
Self
Unknown