Alysia Beltran scrambled to find stage work after arriving in the Rogue Valley; she’s acting full time now, with a key role at Oregon Cabaret
By Jim Flint
When actor Alysia Beltran moved from California to Southern Oregon in 2018, it was not without a bit of trepidation.
She followed her partner and fellow artist (now husband) Jesse Sanchez to the Rogue Valley when he landed a job at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. A magna cum laude graduate of San Francisco State University, she was known in theater circles in the Bay Area. Would that translate into success here?
The answer is yes, but it didn’t happen overnight.
Until early 2024, she was working a full-time day job as a teaching artist while garnering a role here and there. But in February of last year, she took the leap and is now a full-time actor.
She will begin her third season with OSF this year, and you can see her now as one of the lead actors in “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” the Tony Award-winning musical playing at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland through March 30.
“The theater community here is so vibrant,” she said, “but moving to the Rogue Valley has probably been the most significant challenge I’ve faced in my career.”
Her first contract opened doors
With no local theater network connections here, it took her a while to get her first offer.
“My first contract came from the Cabaret,” she said. “I was an understudy for their production of ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Sign of the Four’ (in 2019). Since then, I’ve had the privilege of working with so many amazing companies in the valley.”
In between contracts, she continues to work as a teaching artist with programs in Medford such as CTP Kids at Collaborative Theatre Project and Teen Musical Theatre of Oregon at the Craterian.
She also works with the Ashland New Plays Festival, where she gets to wear several hats — including casting, fundraising and stage managing. And her voice-over work is featured on Graphic Audio’s dramatized audiobooks.
Beltran, 28, born and raised in San Francisco, now lives in Medford.
“My parents both raised us to appreciate music, classic films and the performing arts, but I was the only artsy kid in the family,” she said.
She grew up dancing and made her first stage appearance as a 4-year-old in a local ballet and tap studio’s dance recital.
“I can remember wanting to keep dancing so I could wear a tutu like the older girls,” she said.
A sister’s obsession
A sibling played a part in Beltran’s growing interest in theater. Her sister was a big fan of the musical “Rent.”
“I remember watching the DVD and seeing Rosario Dawson sing her heart out, showing me that brown girls belong in theater, too. When I was 10, my mom put me in my first musical theater class, and the rest is history!”
That history even includes some work in that inspirational musical. She was a swing in OSF’s 2023 production of “Rent.” And she was understudy for First Witch, Hecate and three other roles in OSF’s 2024 production of “Macbeth.”
In Oregon Cabaret’s “Gentlemen’s Guide,” she plays Phoebe, a character sometimes described as a rich Rapunzel, always reading her books and living inside of them. In the musical, Phoebe is swept up when she meets Monty Navarro, a character from her books. The story begins with Navarro finding out he’s eighth in line for an earldom. He figures his chances of outliving his predecessors are slight. So he sets off down a more ghoulish path. Can he knock off his unsuspecting relatives and still win the heart of his lady love? Stay tuned.
“Though Phoebe is born into a family of wealth and status, she can’t help but imagine a world where she could marry someone who loves her for who she is,” Beltran said.
Dusting off the upper register
She is excited to have an opportunity to put her classical voice training to work.
“I’ve spent the last few years belting my face off in roles like Nina in ‘In the Heights’ and swinging in ‘Rent,’ so I am dusting off that upper register. I cannot wait for audiences to see this show,” she said just before the opening.
Where does she see herself in the next few years?
“I love working with playwrights on new works,” she said. “I hope that one day I can originate a role. To have the space to help playwrights and directors finalize a character in writing and have that preserved forever would be a dream realized.”
For more information about Cabaret productions and to purchase tickets, go to oregoncabaret.com.
Freelance writer Jim Flint’s “Curtain Call” column about people in the performing arts appears on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Email him at jimflint.ashland@yahoo.com.
