Your Cart is Empty
-
Erica Ito is an actor based in New York City, but credits her theatre background to a summer magic camp that taught her improv. After attending the University of Michigan and graduating with her BFA in Musical Theatre and a minor in English Literature, Ito went on to build her impressive resume. Most recently seen as Nessarose in the national tour ofWicked, she’s also sung on the "My Heart Says Go" Studio Cast Recording and in a developmental concert of this new musical "Pump Up The Volume," based on the 1990 film. When Ito’s not onstage, she puts her English Literature minor to work through a literary analysis podcast she co-hosts and produces. Her advice to young artists? “You either define ‘success’ for yourself or abandon the idea entirely and just have fun and mess around and make sure you’re able to pay your rent each month.” Read on to learn more about Erica Ito and what makes her an Amazing Asian in the Arts!
Name: Erica Ito
Heritage: Half Japanese, Half White
Hometown: Kailua, Hawai’i
Current City: New York City
Current project: Wicked? Haha just finished, currently unemployed :)
What are some of your favorite credits/projects:
Creating the "My Heart Says Go" Studio Cast Recording was very special. I also LOVED doing a developmental concert of this new musical "Pump Up The Volume," based on the 1990 film.
Any advice for young people getting into the arts?
My iconic college professor Brent Wagner famously always says, “You can’t move forward if you're looking sideways.” There really is no definitive benchmark of “success” in our line of work. You either define “success” for yourself or abandon the idea entirely and just have fun and mess around and make sure you’re able to pay your rent each month.
How did you get your start?
Doing magic camp for summer school when I was 9, then lots of improv with a very generous middle school teacher who taught us how to "yes, and."
Do you have any favorite moments in your career that you'd like to share?
BeforeWicked, I did a developmental reading at The Playwright’s Realm ofSean-Joseph Choo'sThe Isle is Full of Noises.Sean is from Hawai’i, the play was set in Hawai’i, and almost everyone they gathered for the reading was from Hawai’i. The first day of rehearsal was like a big reunion, with tons of hugs and “Omg YOU’RE IN NEW YORK NOW?”s and “When did you graduate again?”s. It was my first time actually being IN something with the legendary Jason Tam. In high school our theatre teacher used to wheel out the TV and make us watch Jason’s monologue in theEvery Little StepDocumentary. I’ve seen him in every show he did from like 2015 onward. He’s my hero. So it was extra special to get to do the presentation together.
What have you found is the biggest challenge in your career?
Knowing when to turn down auditions can be really challenging, especially for young actors, and especially for mixed actors. You want to take every opportunity that comes your way but sometimes you know in your bones that, while it’s nice to be considered by casting, that role simply isn't your vibe or your vocal part or your personality.
There are also of course very few (essentially no) roles that will come along specifically written for your exact racial makeup. So you have to sit down and ask yourself, am I comfortable auditioning for this character who is half Chinese? Or the character who the script seems to imply is full Japanese? Or the character specified as being “non-white” or expressly desired to be “white.” I’m grateful that even in the few years I've been out of college, there seems to be a lot more intentionality in the casting space, and fewer situations where I have to email my agent back saying, “I fear this is gonna have to be a polite pass.”
Who do you admire?
This would have been my answer if you'd asked me this question when I was in middle school, but I feel even more strongly now that Audra McDonald is god. After witnessing her performance inGypsy and absorbing her grace and advice and vulnerability online throughout this entire season, I am simply grateful to be living in the same century as her.
Do you have any mentors?
Every week I play Dungeons and Dragons live on Twitch with some of my favorite people on the planet (our homebrew campaign is called Brunkhollow, check it out). I had no prior experience with D&D, but I was in an acting class on Zoom post-grad and one day my acting teacher’s assistant reached out to me asking if I'd like to play. For years he’d been producing a MASSIVE and successful D&D show alongside his partner who was also assisting the class and they were seeking new guest players. I thought they seemed cool and they thought I seemed cool. Fast forward a few years, D&D is my truly favorite thing in the world and all the folks I play with are like big siblings and mentors to me. Not only have they guided me through the glorious world of tabletop role playing games, but they've all been working actors in NYC longer than I have and they inspire me to keep going, create my own opportunities, and enjoy every day (shoutout to Matt, Jordan, Anthony, Dierdre, and Talon).
Did you always want to be in the arts or did you have another path before you got here?
I wasn’t sure I wanted to study musical theatre in college because I was also really interested in English and going the academia route towards teaching one day, so I applied to a variety of schools and figured I'd let fate decide which direction to go in. I ended up getting a BFA in Musical Theatre with a wee baby minor in English Lit from the University of Michigan and now I get my kicks through the literary analysis podcast I co-host and produce with one of my best friends (Seaweed Brain, on all platforms, check it out).
When did you know you wanted to have a career in the arts?
I always loved TV and books and movies more than anything else. I had zero hobbies as a child, played no sports. My favorite thing to do was watch, memorize, and regurgitate episodes of SpongeBob at family dinners. I'm just lucky my parents found this entertaining and not upsetting.
Did you have any interesting “odd jobs” you worked at between gigs to pay the bills?
I've loved every single day job I've ever worked in New York! Being a barista and teaching yoga are pretty typical actor survival jobs. But I also spent a while post grad working at an iconic indie bookstore on the Upper West Side called Book Culture – they stock course books for Columbia University and have such interesting clientele. I got to meet many professors and authors and cool UWS celebrities and distressed college freshmen while working there. I also conducted a lot of interviews with various artists for the platforms Mixed Asian Media and JoySauce. And right before the tour, I was assisting with afternoon capoeira classes at elementary schools across Manhattan. I love working with kids, and I felt like I was having a simultaneous bonus anthropological experience. Being from Hawai’i, I was fascinated to see what it's like inside all the different city schools and get a glimpse of NYC childhood culture.
If you come from parents who aren’t in the arts, what parts of them do you see in yourself that have helped you succeed in the business?
Neither of my parents have careers in the arts, but both my paternal and maternal grandmothers were piano teachers. Having been raised by musicians, my mother and father love listening to show tunes, supporting live theatre, and doing karaoke on nearly every holiday or special occasion. When I have weird days and question why I am participating in this odd, unstable industry, I think about the joy musical theatre gives my parents and the joy my parents instilled in me as well. Ocean Vuong’s most recent Fresh Air interview with Tonya Mosley made me cry and I'm just going to plop a chunk of it here: “And it's important for me to say this because so much of Asian American life is about making art despite or against our family's wishes. And I know that's true. But for me, I always had their blessing, even though they didn't know what I was doing. It was so strange to them, but they never said no to me. So when I walk into a place like this or when I walk into the classroom or onstage, my mother, my grandmother, my teachers, living and dead, my partner, my brother – I come in with their blessing, and they have vouched for me. So I do feel completely invincible in that sense. The body I can't speak to. That will degrade and fall apart. But mentally, spiritually, I feel invincible because that's the only thing I care about – their blessing.”
If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
Wear sunscreen every day.
What are some goals you hope to achieve?
When I was younger I was really passionate about writing. And then when I was 15 I had a very strange interaction with one of the world's most famous musical theater writers (who shall remain nameless) where he told me and my writing partner that we were quite bad, our script was horrible, he was “mad at himself for laughing” etc., effectively discouraging us from pursuing any form of writing ever again. And he was certainly correct – the script was quite bad. But if I were him, I definitely would not have spoken to a teenager that way. I did do a lot of writing in college, but always non fiction, creative essay type stuff. Now that I've got 11 years on that whole traumatic experience, I'm working on freeing myself back towards writing scripts. My biggest goal right now, like oh so many actors before me and in this exact moment, is to write myself a silly little movie script. Also I would like to be a dog owner by the time I’m 29.
How do you deal with performance anxiety?
We were asked this question frequently at talkbacks forWicked, and our responses all distilled to the same idea: focus on the storytelling. Auditions are tough. You want to be as prepared as possible, control the things you can control and release what you cannot. But when you're in a performance and you're feeling that anxiety rising, and it will rise when you least expect it, the fastest antidote is to make eye contact with your scene partners and focus in on the story. Ground yourself alongside those warm bodies on stage with you and remember that regardless of how you may be doubting yourself, you're smack dab in the middle of the story. Serve the story. Support your partner. And if all that isn't working for you, know that many many many actors take medication for anxiety and there's zero shame in that game :)
How do you prepare for a role you consider difficult personally (such as villains or antagonists), whether it hits too close to home or goes greatly against your personal beliefs?
As attention-seeking nut-job actor people, I feel we are all naturally familiar with what it feels like to want to prove people wrong about us, and painstakingly pull that slimy rope of empathy out of the void. I had great fun being stuck in the brain of Nessarose this year, latching onto our personal similarities, and trying every night to get someone (onstage or offstage) to understand her. It's a delightfully engaging challenge and I hope I get to play many sweet manic girls with dark lipstick for the rest of my life.
To find out more onErica Ito, please visit her at:
Instagram: @ericaito_ and @seaweedbrainpodcast
Podcast available for listening on YouTube and Spotify
Comments will be approved before showing up.
