by Aria Socratous.
Flavia Sgoifo is a very promising and talented actress. Originally from Italy and Greece is an actress, writer and director based in New York. Her recent Off-Broadway credits include:
‘Sardanapalus’ (Davenport Theatre) , ‘Antigone’ (Theatre Row), ‘Bella Napoli ‘(Manhattan Repertory Theatre) and ‘The Spyglass Seven’ (Theatre 80st Marks). Film credits include: ‘Starling’, ‘Chocolate & Roses’ and ‘The Portrait’. Last year Flavia also shot her first national commercial for ‘L’Oreal’ , she appeared in one episode of the upcoming Amazon Prime series ‘Brooklyn Ties’ and got to work with Steven Soderbergh on set for the online commercial of “Signani 63’. She holds a BFA in Media & Communication from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, a degree in stage acting from Traga Drama School in Greece and in 2014 she moved to New York to attend The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts from where she
graduated with an A.O.S. in acting for film and television in 2016. Flavia speaks fluent and acts in Italian, Greek and English while she works as a freelance fitness model and personal trainer in NewYork.
Recently she was offered a role for documentary series for Netflix by Scorsese and Lebowitz but for bureaucratic reasons concerning her working visa, she was unable to be part of it.
Flavia talked to Writersgang for her goals and aspirations.
- Your passion for acting has lead you to Greece, Italy and in New York, the Metropolitan of arts. How easy or hard is to pursue your goals as an aspiring actress on the other side of the Atlantic?I don’t think it’s easy or difficult, I just think it’s very challenging wherever you are to have a strong motivation to just chase your dreams. In New York life is superfast, people who are going to do the same thing that I do, life is very expensive, but if you are happy with what you do day by day, yes it’s challenging but it’s also the best feeling of the world! New York was for me the best school. I learned to make time when I have no time. I have been on my extremes and taught me the best lesson.
- A Greek-Italian actress, whose passion for acting has lead her to New York, You call yourself an Artist with the mission. What is your mission and how are you executing it?
My mission is to be as creative as I can be. By the age of seventeen I still remember that the first thing I had done was my play. So I guess with the years the more experienced I get by working with people, by attending sports in New York and Athens and by attending seminars and growing as a person and artist. Still my mission is to create work, stories that I think they have a meaning for each one of us and they can be funny or more sad that still interest people and explore humanity and society in a more productive way. I think this is the real mission to tell stories that interest people and people can relate to. I’m doing it every single day by creating content and write it just by meeting other people and attending other performances and just trying to find something always inspiring every single day.
3.You have been directing and starring your own production “Extraordinary Aliens” based on true events, a play that follows the journey of a stressed out alien through the immigration process. Give us more details about it.
It’s the fourth time we are going to do this play. Last year in New York it was sold out and it also went extremely well in LA last June. I cowrote the first one “Extraordinary aliens” with two other actresses I met by working on off-Broadway productions The opening was on March 15th, 2019 at Casa Italiana, the Italian Institute. The play is based on a real story, on my visa story, a dark comedy about the visa struggles all of us, international artists ( people ) have to deal with to be able to stay legally in the U.S.A. It’s actually based on my own visa story/adventure/hustle I went through about 3-4 years ago. Except from my closest friends and family I haven’t really talked about that experience to anyone .It was tough, it got dramatic, crazy things happened, surrealistic things happened, I met some really awful people who put me in trouble, I cried, I had a major breakdown and woke up on the hospital all alone the day after, then I met some really nice people who helped me out, then I smiled again and eventually got the visa…jail and death somehow ended up being part of this story. This year we have Georgia Valenti, a very talented new actress with us who is ‘Extraordinary Aliens’ will be performing again at the ‘Hudson Guild Theater’ in NYC as part of the New York Winter Festival on :
Monday
January 13th 2020, 9.00PM
Wednesday January 15th 2020, 9.00PM
Saturday January 18th 2020, 6.00 PM
- You have worked as an actress, a journalist, a radio producer and recently as a personal trainer in New York city. How would you describe the life of a New Yorker with so many activities?
Yes I do have many activities in NYC but it’s something that most of the people do in NY more or less. I wish theater and acting was enough to pay rent but it’s not and it’s ok because I’m happy to have other activities as well like journalism, fitness. Theater and acting helped go through a very tough period of my life mentally and physically. Now I teach people how to improve their lifestyle through fitness. I also do coaching and personal training and I love it. If you love what you are doing and you keep moving to do what you love, you never get mentally tired
- What are your future plans?
Actually is the first time in my entire life that I don’t have a plan. I don’t know if it has to do with me that I’m turning 30 years old or because my whole life I had these plans and either I found myself being over obsessed with those plans and not living life or those plans did not happened exactly as I have them in my mind resulting in getting me very upset. Some plans that I have is meeting with people from the industry both fitness and acting industry. For sure I want to travel again, spend some time with my family in Greece and Italy and mainly to get some more sleep!
