Two key scenes then. Starting to review the film of her life (a short actually, because she is only 23 years old), Camila Figueiras Meriggi highlights two of those moments that mark a turning point in history. The kind of situation after which nothing would be the same… even if she didn’t know it yet.
So there’s Camila, Barely 10 years old, a girl from Olivos, watching the rebel novice. Julie Andrews sings and dances in the skin of María Rainer and Camila doesn’t tell anyone (for now) but she has just decided something for her life: “I want that!”he says he thought.
Cut.
Several years later, we are now in 2018. Camila is about to take a Language exam at Universidad Austral, where she is studying Communication. Camila suffers, doubts (approving is complicated) And suddenly an email arrives…
It is sent from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), one of the most prestigious musical theater conservatories in New York. And what he says is “Congratulations”congratulates her and informs her that “We are amazed at your audition” and that “You have been awarded a scholarship to study at AMDA”Camila recites from memory as if that email had changed her life. What has happened.
“I came to New York with a one-way ticket and I still haven’t come back,” he says. “Today it’s time to be here.”
–
Moving away from hackneyed metaphors (“the movie of his life”, for example), things happened between the two scenes, of course. And Camila is talking about all that right now with Clarioncomfortably installed in the small apartment (“for one person, but there are three of us, ha!”) that she rents in Manhattan with two friends and roommates: Cata, Argentine, and Pedro, Mexican.
“We share the room, Pedro sleeps in the living room”, summarizes the coexistence, and immediately clarifies: “We are like brothers, we get along very well. And since we share friends, our house is ‘the people’s house’, we always get together here”.
years of training
There is a before and after scholarship in New York. His formative years locally were forged at the Reina Reech School of Dance and at the Hermanas Escudero Dance School (read Vanina and Silvina), training in different dance disciplines such as jazz, tap, salsa, dancehall, funk, hip hop and theatre danceas well as singing and acting.
In addition to various formations with great teachers such as Pilar Muerza, Sofia Rangone, Luli Brindisi and Andie Say, among others.
Dancing and singing was his thing -he felt it-, but dad and mom “They insisted that I make a more stable career. So I started Communication and Advertising at the facu”, says Camila.
Scholarship
Proud, Camila Figueiras shows her diploma at AMDA, the prestigious conservatory where she is a scholarship holder.
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But while he was studying, he added experience integrating casts of many musical comedies in Buenos Aires. By the time he was informed of the scholarship and he left for New York, he had already worked on productions in English as Sweet Charity, The Sound of Music, Cinderella, Legally Blonde, Footloose, In The Heights, Les Miserables y We Will Rock You.
In 2018, his mother gave him a ticket to the Big Apple and decided to take the admission test at the demanding AMDA.
“When I got that email I couldn’t believe it! It’s true, my parents were always afraid of the instability that an artistic career entails, but I remember that I told them: ‘I prefer to get tight to the end of the month but doing what makes me happyand not be unhappy for eight hours in an office,’” he says.
“So in 2019 I came with a one-way ticket and my life changed radically. In fact, I still haven’t returned to Buenos Aires. You don’t know what I miss. But I also feel that it is time to be here: my biggest dream was to study on Broadway and I am making it happen”.
He also uses that word (“dream”) fantasizing about one day getting to one of the great Broadway musicals. To be more precise, “Hamilton o red Mill”, he emphasizes.
“And Just Like That”
And while he continues to train to jump into the big leagues in musical comedy, for now he had to “spy” from within the elite of the world of series. It is that at the end of last year she tried her luck to participate in And just like thatthe series of HBOsequel to Sex and the Citywhich means share recording with Sarah Jessica Parker and her friendsnothing less…
“That was how it was,” he says. “I sent my resume to the casting agency and they called me for what is called ‘background actress’ here; In other words, you don’t have a dialogue, but you participate in the background, behind the actresses, “banking the scene”, as they say here in the jargon”.
“Stepping on the floors of Steiner Studios seemed like a beautiful and adrenaline-filled madness,” he continues.
“Hamilton” and “Moulin Rouge” are the two Broadway musical comedies that Camila chooses when dreaming about where to work.
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“Being in a project with such an international impact was wonderful. Sharing a set with talented actresses like Sarah and Cynthia Nixon, and on top of that within an HBO production, is an honor for me. But above all it was a great learning. Being there, you see how professional they are, how everyone knows their lines, whether they are the stars or not.
There’s Camila, then: episode 9, season 1. “And you don’t know how crazy it was to see myself behind those names. Because when you do “background actress” you never know what will be in the final edition.
“It was a whole day of recording, and about fifteen shots were made -he continues-. On top of that, it was the first time I was doing television! And suddenly there I was, amazed. I began to receive calls from family and friends in Buenos Aires who He said: But, baby, what are you doing there! We couldn’t believe it.
raising the same voice
In addition to the demands of the studies (“You get to have twelve subjects per week. You have to be on the ball!”), during her time at AMDA Camila also stands out for being the founder of Latinx Alliancea space promoted to exchange experiences with Latin American artists.
“I had the goal of being able to create a safe space in which Latin American students feel closer to their homes and as a family,” he explains.
“Training never stops,” Camila says of her New York days.
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“Through different artistic projects, the idea is to reflect the cultures and traditions of our countries of origin. There are artists from Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Honduras and Argentina, obviously. And I love the slogan: We raise the same voice”.
Among the various projects they undertook, the Alliance had a couple of public presentations under that multicolored neon rain radiating from Times Squarethe heart of Manhattan.
life is a cabaret
While graduating with honors from AMDA, Camila began touring the New York cabaret circuit. She actually debuted as a singer in the Comeback Cabaret, Don’t Tell Mamaone of the most prominent venues on this circuit, in the Broadway area, and is currently preparing to perform at the Super Arts Secret Cabaret Showand Brooklyn.
Camila in her cabaret facet. She is about to debut her second independent show.
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“Another great experience, and more learning,” he repeats. “I took the opportunity to share the stage with other artist friends. And now I’m preparing my second show, but this time alone. I have to define my repertoire, and although I don’t know which one I’m going to sing, I want to include a tango, which I also really like”.
The vacuum
“When I returned to Argentina without knowing if they were going to give me the scholarship”, says Camila, “I was sure of something: I no longer felt the emptiness…”
– What emptiness?
-The emptiness of feeling that I wasn’t doing what I wanted, that I had to dedicate myself to what I love: dancing, singing and acting on stage -he says, and goes on to confess that more than once he cried secretly while preparing finals for college.
At this point, Camila has known for a long time that that intense desire of the 10 years old that revealed to her the rebel novice (“I want that!”) is called a vocation. And that in New York, the vocation is mutating into a profession. Live from what you like, what they tell you. Something that -it should be remembered- happens little in this life: few discover her vocation, much less receive pay for it.
Oh, and not a minor detail, Broadway is one step away.
WD
