Answering the casting call of chance

Senior Sam Encarnación attributes it to chance. His friend wanted to go. The casting director wanted an African American who spoke Spanish and liked Encarnación's look. He was hired.

In the following weeks, Encarnación saw his face traveling down the streets of Montgomery County on the side of Metro buses. He saw himself on Telemundo and Univisión interacting with a family on a television commercial. He was featured in radio segments. His smile was selling safe sex for a Transit campaign geared at teens in the Hispanic community.

When he first caught a glimpse of himself on a poster in a Metro car, Encarnación was astonished. "I just stared at my picture for what seemed like forever. I just couldn't believe it,” he says with a smile.

At that moment, Encarnación joined thousands of teenage actors and actresses in the race to fame. Encarnación had always enjoyed the arts, but he never imagined the whirlwind of training, auditions and rehearsals into which his first casting-call would send him.

Encarnación has now performed in La Tango and Black Wedding, two major productions at the Gala Hispanic Theatre in Washington, D.C., a professional company that exposes Hispanic culture through bilingual theatre. Gala has produced 100 plays in Spanish and English in an effort to provide a diverse program of theatre, poetry, music and dance to a large audience.

Once again chance"and perhaps a touch of destiny"landed Encarnación in the audition room the day he got the part for his first professional production. Encarnación originally became involved in the company through its teen workshops on acting techniques. One day, an acting teacher heard him speaking Spanish to another student and encouraged Encarnación to audition for a teenage role in Gala's newest performance. He got the role and became the first teenager to act in a Gala show.

Acting with a professional company has forced Encarnación to cope with the pressure and time commitment of the strenuous profession: school from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., work at a lawyer's office until 6:00 p.m., rehearsal from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. and finally, homework until 2:00 a.m."only to start all over again the next day. "But I knew through that whole experience that this was one thing I was willing to lose sleep and free time over. That's when I knew this was for real,” he says.

This past summer, Encarnación attended a six-week program at the New York School of Film and Television, where he received contemporary training in acting techniques. The most significant lesson Encarnación learned during this program was the importance of understanding how to channel a character's spirit. "You just know it's right when you've felt the emotions. You lived it,” he says. "You were there, but you were actually someone else.”

While he was in New York, Encarnación auditioned for the New York School of Film and Television's conservatory program and was accepted with a $10,000 scholarship.

During his summer training program, Encarnación was fortunate enough to have the vibrant city of Manhattan at his disposal when he wasn't rehearsing nine hours a day. But while New York City is the motherland for theatre actors around the world, Encarnación ultimately has his heart set on film-acting in Los Angeles.

In the meantime, Encarnación is itching for his next performance, though he has no set plans on what it will be. "I've been settling in with school, but I have to act again!” he says. "I have to start!”