Aldo Billingslea’s Insight on Professional Acting and Diversity in Higher Education
Actor and professor of theater Aldo Billingslea exemplifies how experience is a transferable skill which opens the doors to an abundance of opportunities. Billingslea’s humble beginnings started in high school plays, making his way to become a professional actor at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival prior to moving to Silicon Valley. He continued his passions in the San Francisco Bay Area and became a lecturer at Santa Clara University. Just as his proven performance in acting, his teaching abilities were phenomenal: his two-year contract became a ten year contract. He earned tenure in 2005 and received full professorship in 2013, becoming the university’s first Chief Diversity Officer. After three years as Associate Provost for the Diversity and Inclusion Office, Billingslea returned as a full-time faculty member. Billingslea’s commitment to diversity continued as he worked independently and with Strictly Speaking, a company working with tech businesses on consulting issues on diversity and management.
In June 2020, Billingslea started his own theater company Juneteenth Theater Justice Project after the tragic deaths of several people including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Playwright Vincent Terrell Durham put on a play at Juneteenth Theater and Justice Project called Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids. Seventy theaters across the country either supported the production by being a co-sponsor or produced their own play to be shown on June 19, 2020 in response to the civil uprising. Billingslea helped start a fund for Black theaters in the United States where proceeds from different theaters amounted to a collection of $184,000 to be disbursed to Black theaters around the country.
At a microlevel, Billingslea teaches theater and hopes to dispel stereotypes in the film industry. He expressed how his daughter and wife have power, unlike the female stereotype in film which embodies weakness. Billingslea explained how bravery and weakness come in different shapes, sizes, and genders and wishes to spread this idea to society. Through this, the world would see these traits in a different way. He went into further detail, “When we communicate that a community is worth less than, less valuable, less admirable, less honorable, then there’s a message put out that X is more valuable than these people”. With this, there are many challenges aspiring actors encounter when they need to pick between landing a role versus perpetuating a problem by acting as a character who fits into stereotypes. For instance, with fewer roles for women, they may contemplate taking on roles of women waiting to be rescued instead of saving themselves but Billingslea states it’s not “soul food”, it’s “brain candy”.
Moreover, Billingslea gives harsh but honest advice to actors: find something else that brings equal joy because the competition is fierce and the cost of acting is high. Economically, theater does not pay enough especially in comparison to where the majority of the work is available in the two most expensive cities in the country: Los Angeles and New York City. Regional theaters are also housed in pricey cities: Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Orlando, Miami, and Minneapolis. With few opportunities and factors beyond actors’ control, there are times of long unemployment. It becomes an emotional cost being rejected endlessly and bringing your best self to audition over and over again. In contrast, there’s a psychological cost performing for hundreds of people and then being alone in a hotel room after the curtains fall. Billingslea shares how the most static part of his life during his career as a traveling performer was the storage unit he was renting and after working forty-eight weeks out of the year, he had to file taxes in six different states. Lastly, there may be physical strains causing life-long health problems such as his friend who worked with rate stages: standing, sitting, stooping, walking on angles for years resulting in the need for back surgery. “But if this is the thing that brings you the most joy, that makes you most happy, then that joy may be there for a reason. As a believer of God, Billingslea believes he’s fulfilling his calling with his gifts, talents, and opportunities and that sometimes paychecks feel like a bonus, “I’m a guy who gets to say my work is play and that’s a great feeling”.