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

Mia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

Well, I’m actually very proud to say that the first dollar I earned as a creative was from a project I was part of creating, producing and acting in!
The project is called MAD MAD MAD. It’s a clown show, directed by the incredible Michael F. Toomey, and it focuses on an incident in 1983 when the world was saved from Nuclear Annihilation by a soviet soldier named Stanislav Petrov. It also follows The Danvers Onions, a group of clowns from Massachusetts who somehow find themselves involved with Stanislav trying to save the world. Believe it or not, it’s even more ridiculous than it sounds. Originally we had devised and workshopped this play at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, when I was part of their company program. And very quickly after we performed it, I knew we have something great in our hands and I would like to see where we can take it. It was terrifying to perform and work on, because the whole show was using Clown, a technique I had very little experience in, and requires a tremendous amount of vulnerability and allowing yourself to be truly seen and laughed at. But I love a challenge, so once we graduated we started fundraising and producing it, and I’m very proud to say it was a huge success! We performed it for 6 nights at Target Margin Theatre, and eventually it was successful enough that we were able to pay ourselves.
I can’t express how lucky I feel to now that my first creative dollar was earned from something I helped breath into existence!
So my advice to other starting actors is – if you aren’t getting cast in the roles you want, write them yourselves!

Mia, 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 name is Mia Alexandra, I’m an actor, writer and producer based in New York City.
I was born and raised in Hadera, Israel, and have basically been performing and creating for as long as I can remember. I just always loved watching people perform, especially if it was live. I would to watch SNL religiously, and see every Lady Gaga performance like it was the air I was breathing. There’s such a thrill in watching someone bare their soul to a live audience, in whatever form it takes, and I knew very early on I wanted to be a part of that.
I started out in devised and movement based theatre, and moved on to studying in one of the top acting schools in Israel, but I always knew getting to New York was the goal. I had a feeling living here would mean living and breathing art, everywhere, and I wasn’t wrong. It inspires me every day, and there really is a feeling if limitless creation. Anything I can think of, and better, things I can’t even think of, they have a place here. So I moved here, graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and since then I’ve produced and performed in my own play, MAD MAD MAD, that I created alongside a wonderful ensemble of Clowns, and currently working on producing another play called A Crucible: A Puritanical Celebration of Witches and Turkeys, which I will be performing at the New York Fringe Festival!
You can find more info on it at my website www.miaalexandra.com. So if you want to laugh out loud, come check it out!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Well, I’m a big planner, I always love a good checklist and schedule. And while that’s very helpful in my producing work, unlearning that as an artist is probably the most important and challenging lesson for me so far. I used to get so upset when my acting teachers would tell me “come with a plan, and then throw it out the window.”. It took me a long time to understand what that meant. For me it meant I have to build a deep relationship of trust with myself. Trust that everything is already inside me, the right impulses, the “talent” (whatever that means), the urge to play. So I do the research, warm up, emotional prep, and then show up and allow myself to see what happens!
And even more than that, I had such a strong idea of what I wanted my career to look like, and what it meant for me to be a “good actor”. But last year, Clown came into my life, and when I tell you, never in a million years would I have imagined I would be producing not one, but two clown shows?
But by staying open to it, I’ve found a new passion, and met so many incredible people. Entering the world of clown has strengthened my relationship to myself, helped me through grief, and made me feel closer to creating art I’m truly proud of.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Communication. There is such a magic when people listen and communicate truthfully, and to me that’s what art is really about. Everyday that I see a play, listen to music, look at a painting, rehearse, I learn something new about humanity. I think that true listening and communicating is what we are missing the most in the world right now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.miaalexandra.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.miaalexandra/?igshid=MmIzYWVlNDQ5Yg%253D%253D#
• Other: Backstage profile: https://www.backstage.com/u/mia-alexandra-1/
  Actors Access profile: https://resumes.actorsaccess.com/2090296-5840297
  more information about “A Crucible: A Puritanical Celebration of Witches and Turkeys”: https://www.thehumanistproject.org/a-crucible-a-puritanical-celebration-of-witches-and-turkeys.html

Image Credits

Bronwen Sharp
Ke Xu
Bianca Jenkins