Q&A: Alum Haley McHugh discusses theater, life as a professional actress

Haley McHugh entered the world of performance as a 3-year-old, cha-chaing across the stage in a community theater production.

Since then, she founded and was president of her high school’s drama club, graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and starred in various professional projects, such as Horton Foote’s play “Lily Dale.” She currently plays Erika in “Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea” at the Skylight Theatre Company in Los Angeles.

The show will run through March 29 and portrays a young man, Dontrell, seeking knowledge about his ancestors during the summer before his first year at Johns Hopkins University. Along the way, he meets and falls in love with Erika, a lifeguard at the local pool who saves him when he attempts to swim in the deep end for the first time.

The Daily Bruin’s Alisha Kapur spoke with McHugh about her role in the show, life as a working actress and her plans for the future.

Daily Bruin: When did you start performing, and how has your experience with theater changed since?

Haley McHugh: When I was a kid, it was like, “Oh, my parents are here, and people got me flowers, and that’s so much fun, and I want to go on stage again, and everyone’s looking at me.” Now, honestly, I kind of prefer rehearsals to performances. I’d rather do a show for a small house than a large house.

You start with a play, and it sort of just is a big concrete block. And then, during rehearsals, and even during performances, you have your little chisel and you’re just chiseling. At first, it’s super overwhelming … then, by the end of it – and I honestly don’t even think it happens until you’ve started doing a couple of performances – all of a sudden it’s a person.

DB: How would you describe life as a working actress?

HM: I would say it’s the dream, but not too long ago, I was still working three jobs and was trying to act at the same time.

There’s a part of you that’s just like, “Am I really going to support myself doing this forever?” Roles come and go, and you book things sometimes and you don’t book things other times and you always want to have that security job. I would say it’s scary at first to know that acting is your only source of income.

DB: Are you more interested in film or theater acting?

HM: Before I did this show, I would have told you film and TV.

Doing this has reminded me this is what I originally did and went to school for for four years. (Theater) was my first passion and my first love.

There’s been talks of possibly touring with this show afterwards, and I’ve done a lot of thinking on that and possibly telling my manager that I’m leaving for a while to do theater, which would be really tough, but at this point, right now I kind of feel like that’s exactly where I want to be.

DB: You’ve played a variety of roles, how do you prepare for each one?

HM: On my scripts, every inch of white is covered in writing, and then I buy a journal per character and that’s my character journal.

I’ll write as if I’m just the character, journaling about an experience for pages and pages, and maybe give her other memories that support things that I say in the show or support ways that she is in certain scenes.

DB: What has it been like working on “Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea”?

HM: Something that’s so amazing is the show goes so deep and touches on something that every human has in common, which is your ancestry and where you came from.

It’s deep, but then it’s balanced so well with laughing so hard your stomach hurts because not all of the characters are deep – so many of them are comedic relief.

The rehearsal process has been super interesting and awesome because Nathan Davis, the playwright, was with us, and he was with us from the beginning. So, the first two weeks, what we did is we just sat in a circle and then just went through the text.

It really honestly felt like cheating, especially because the last play I did, the playwright had been dead for like 50 years, and I was just like, “What does this mean?” So, this one, every time I had trouble, I would just be like, “Nathan, can I talk to you?”

DB: What advice do you have for aspiring professional actors in Los Angeles and at UCLA?

HM: Stay optimistic. It is so easy to get down on yourself.

(My manager) said the reason why he signed me is because I was so not jaded. He was like, “You just seem so optimistic … Yeah, you’re going to be famous, of course you are, because you say you are.”

Compiled by Alisha Kapur, A&E contributor.