With a growing curiosity starting from such a young age, alumna Tatiana Bustamente grew fond of the connections that theatre brought her. Since she grew up in an immigrant family and was new to the acting department, she had to branch out to find others that would help her pursue her dream career, bringing her to where she is now.
Before graduating from PPCHS in 2014, Bustamante participated in both the theatre class and club. She was a part of the club for all four years in high school and always kept singing and acting close to her heart. Bustamante grew fond of acting at a young age, she had acted in multiple plays, such as Annie when she was in 5th grade at the FSU elementary school.
Bustamante informs that she’s been with the same singing teacher since she was young: Marisol Morales, a Broadway vet. Bustamante says that Morales was her biggest inspiration and was the person who introduced her to musical theater. She was always someone Bustamente looked up to. “Everything she told me about her life, her shows, living in Barcelona for 7 years… She had such an exciting life, and it inspired me.” Adding on, “[She helped guide me] through the world.”
With Marisol’s assistance, Bustamante states that Mrs. Kidd, the old PPCHS theater teacher, also greatly inspired her impacts: “Mrs. Kidd made it feel accessible, viable, [and helped me] with college picks.” When taking her class, acting became a viable career for her.
Bustamante, however, thought that acting initially couldn’t be a viable career because acting had the appearance that one had to come from a famous family to get proper recognition. Bustamante didn’t have access to resources or a family that understood the ways of the theater, however, she did have a family who would become her greatest supporters: “My dad, an engineer, had no idea what was going on, but he was supportive.”
Ater found mentors, teachers, and more help. She found places to audition for and what colleges would be best to apply to. She graduated from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University after 4 years and obtained her BFA. Initially, she attended college as a musical theater major, primarily as a singer, and even obtained multiple singing classes.
Throughout her college experience, Bustamante discusses how her college would describe their class schedules, one way being the “schedule slaughter.” She would wake up and, around 8 am, would begin with dance classes. Then along the way, she would attend her other classes and, in the end, continue doing rehearsals until 11 at night.
Along her journey, she participated in an original play called the Ubique Cabaret Theatre, which symbolizes the struggles of immigration and crossing the border. She expressed how being the main character, which consisted of sensitive topics and props such as police violence, guns, and more, was initially complicated. “Imagine a bunch of loud Latinis singing about immigration. look around the theater and [seeing] it’s all white people from the suburbs. It was a sensitive show, and it was scary,” Bustamante describes.
With the production of this play, it was nominated and awarded one of Chicago’s Jeff Awards. A Jeff Award is the Chicago version of a Broadway Tony Award, where theaters all over Chicago come together and receive recognition for their work. The awards differentiate between directors, acting, and more, building diversity in the awards.
Bustamante was ecstatic to hear that the play had won, especially since it is an original production of her theater. However, “The value of the Jeff was less [of] the name, but more so the community itself saying ‘we see you [and] the work you did.’”
With multiple productions of the play, Bustamante was quickly inspired and soon became an intimate director. This is where she could direct more scenes that can be seen as violent or intimate with others. With something more present by the day, Bustamante grew up not knowing how to become an intimacy director and took her chances to become one at the Hot Wing King Theater.
“This will be difficult and uncomfortable at times, but an intimacy director is there to represent the artist as a middleman between them and the hierarchy in regular theaters,” Bustamante explains. Saying how these scenes are present empowers people to learn how to draw boundaries in healthy and proper ways to move the play forward.
Along with theater, Bustamante also came together to create a community named Mi Latinadad to symbolize and inspire those of Latin roots who want to pursue something in the artistic fields. She primarily made this to help promote multiple Latin Americans regarding productions and arts of music.
With Bustamante’s rapid growth, she began her path at PPCHS and grew into a Jeff Award winner, an actor for multiple productions, and an intimacy director. She continues to grow quickly and allows others to build an opportunity to become quickly inspired by all her work to obtain her reputation. As she continues to direct and perform on the stage, Bustamante shows the world that one can follow and pursue their dreams no matter the circumstance.
