by Chloé Hayat, edited by Kevin Russell Poole, photos by Kevin Russell Poole
This week, Chloé Hayat, the director of our resident artist program, The Line-Up, sat down with one of our artists, Sophia Isabel Quiroga, for a Zoom chat about her relationship to theatre, her artistic obsessions, and what she’s been working on. After a few moments of gushing over Sophia’s newly rose gold hair, Chloé jumped right into the questions. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Chloé Hayat: How do you identify yourself as an artist? What are the hats that you wear, your multi-hyphenate, give us the full rundown!
Sophia Isabel Quiroga: I’m predominantly an actor. I've always been like “I’m an actor, that’s what I do” but I also have my degree in playwriting.
Chloé: I didn’t know that!
Sophia: Yeah, we had the theatre degree [B.A. in Theatre and Dance from the University of Texas at Austin] and my focus was playwriting (laughs) so right now I’m like “no I’m an actor and a writer!” I would say those are my hats!
Chloé: You're also a poet judging by last time I saw your work in the [Line-Up] Writer’s Group.
Sophia: That’s true that’s true, I guess I’m just [an] overall writer!
Chloé: I just learned so much about you I didn't know! How did you get into those forms? How did you get where you are?
Sophia: I’ve been doing theatre since I was a kid. I went to theatre camps in San Antonio, and then I went to a performing arts high school and I was doing musical theatre. Then I auditioned for like 14 programs, and I didn’t make it into any of them, so I had a few months where I was just like “okay, what now?” because I had been a musical theatre person forever; that was what I was going to do. So for a little bit [I was] like “maybe I’ll go to a different school, maybe i'll go do fashion or something,” but I had this moment where I [accepted] I didn't want to do anything else. Nothing was really sparking my interest as much as acting. Even the writing focus, that was kind of accidental because I didn't want to take Acting 1 through 3 again, so I was like “I’ll just try some other stuff; I’ll do directing and writing,” so I think the writing kind of came second. I don’t think I realized that I could do anything writing-related for real just because I’ve always been a bit of a slow reader and I can’t spell for shit, but lately writing has been something I’m really focussing on.
Chloé: Who are [the] most influential artists in your field that like you feel like you can look up to?
Sophia: Oh my gosh, I feel like there's a lot. As far as writing goes, I get a lot of inspiration from songwriters. I think that the poetry in songwriting is pretty big for me. So people like Phoebe Bridgers, Aimee Mann, [and] Lake Street Dive [have] really great lyrics. And then for acting, that's a hard question, there’s a lot of actors that I really like!
Chloé: List as many as you feel like you have to!
Sophia: People like America Ferrara, and other Latinx actors [have] been very important to me to find and kind of emulate, and Ilana Glazer from Broad City.
Chloé: Of course.
Sophia: Because she's kind of like, you know, fun, [and] I hate to use the term “ethnically ambiguous” but (laughs) that helps a lot.
Chloé: I get that!
Sophia: Yeah! Rashida Jones from Parks and Rec, I really appreciate her career. I like that she kind of blends into all of these different roles. I just like people who like to have a good time and make what they want to make.
Chloé: So what do you look for in an ideal collaborator when you're like choosing a project?
Sophia: I like people, obviously, who I can get along with. I feel like a lot of people are nice and friendly, so that's not very hard, but I think a good mix between organization in the rehearsal room, but also playing around and collaborating. I love going into a rehearsal room and, let's say the director already has blocking, so that's like a place to jump off of, and even then things might change, nothing is like super rigid and has to be “this way.” I love when everyone brings a jumping off point to bounce off of and then creating whatever it can be together.
Chloé: Totally! So do you wanna just like tell us how you got involved with Breaking & Entering?
Sophia: Yeah! I knew Kevin [Russell Poole, Associate Artistic Director] from UT; we’re from the same department. When I moved to New York, I did a rooftop reading with Kevin and they just needed an actor, so i came on, (Kevin’s Note: This is a gross misrepresentation of how Sophia was cast in her first reading! I had been obsessed with her since I saw her in Spring Awakening at UT, and then I was lucky enough to see her in a reading a couple weeks after she moved to the city, and I begged her to be the lead in that reading!) and then from there, PEA Fest happened (Another Kevin Note: I also begged her to be the lead in Abandon All Hope: Bees Who Enter Here by Sarah Marksteiner), so I got to meet other people from Breaking & Entering and then The Line-Up happened, and then Covid happened (laughs)!
Chloé: (laughs) Pretty much immediately! And was Nick [Nicholas Vasillios Pappas]’s play [Another One of those Love Triangles] your first rooftop reading?
Sophia: Yes!
Chloé: You were so good!
Sophia: Oh thank you! I had a lot of fun doing that.
Chloé: Okay, I wanna know what your secret artistic obsession is and what your not so secret obsession is.
Sophia: Oooh, okay, my not so secret obsession would be sad music. I love sad music, don't give me the aux cord, like, we will be sad! (laughs) I just love sad music.
Chloé: You want everyone to cry!
Sophia: Yes! (laughs) And then, I don't think this is a secret, I really really like stand up comedy, like I’ll listen to stand up comedy albums and watch stuff like that.
Chloé: Who's your favorite to listen to?
Sophia: Beth [Stelling], and I love Hannah Gadsby, her Netflix special.
Chloé: Oh yeah.
Sophia: I love Natasha Leggero, and her husband Moshe Kasher, they’re pretty funny. Jim Gaffigan, I love Jim Gaffigan, Sarah Silverman, Aparna Nancherla.
Chloé: There's no way this is a secret obsession, your list is [so extensive], like, it’s definitely coming through that you care very much!
Sophia: It’s pretty big!
Chloé: Can you tell us what about stand-up comedy you feel gravitated towards?
Sophia: Honestly? Okay, honestly. I think it’s because when I was in elementary school I had multiple boys tell me that I wasn't funny, and I think that scarred me, and so when I found stand up comedy, I just, I enjoyed laughing! And when you start to learn about it there's a lot more, it's not just people being funny, there's a joke and a punchline and an order; I think I like that there's kind of more to it than just like being funny.
Chloé: Okay our last question is: what have you been working on these days?
Sophia: i’ve been working on a lot of poetry! I had all of these little notes on my phone, and so I put them all on notecards and figured out what the common themes were, and then I put them together! So now I have, like 24 poems that are in the beginning stages of drafting. So right now I’m just trying to get it more concise and somehow loop them all together to make a kind of cohesive story. And I would love— I’m nervous to say this out loud— I would love to get that published in a year or so; by the time I'm 25. I think that would be really cool!
Chloé: And from what you've brought in (to the Writers Group), they’re amazing.
Sophia: Thank you!
Chloé: I found that, in the last set that I heard, it's clear that you're a playwright. Even though I didn't know it at the time, the fact that you create these like very clear beginning, middle, [and] ends through imagery and texture, you're clearly a storyteller.
Sophia: Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
Chloé: You're welcome, it's true!