Though Suki Lopez’s first performing arts passion was for dancing, it didn’t take her long to catch the musical theatre bug. “Throughout my childhood I was very focused on ballet and I did summer programs with ABT and Joffrey and all that…it was actually, one of my trips to New York for these summer programs that I sort of fell in love with Broadway and was like oh wait, I can do this… so I kind of switched gears in high school and shifted my focus,” she explains.
Suki Lopez headshot
The Miami-born actress moved to the Big Apple to pursue the craft as a student of the prestigious CAP21 conservatory, and her first job after graduation was as a performer on Disney Cruise Line, an experience she enjoyed immensely. After that, it wasn’t long until she fulfilled one of her major dreams by joining the cast of the national tour of West Side Story as Conseula.
“As somebody who started as a dancer, it’s like the ultimate dance show,” she says.
Lopez also served as an understudy for the powerhouse role of Anita, and being able to strut her stuff as the character was one of her favorite moments of her career thus far. But while she was still thanking her lucky stars for being able to cross WSS off her bucket list so early in her career, the next exciting opportunity she stumbled upon is one that she never saw coming.
“It was almost like, wow, I obtained that goal I’d been reaching towards pretty early on, and after that I was like, I don’t know what I’m going to do next, I don’t know if something else is going to come that’s even better. And then I got Sesame Street, and then I was like, well, this is perfect,” she reflects.
Though she’d never planned that she’d end up on the classic children’s show, or even, given her musical theatre skill set, on television, once it happened, it seemed to make perfect sense.
Lopez and Elmo
“It just felt like, this is so right, in a way that I never expected it to be,” she says.
But her vivacious character Nina was actually the subject of a minor internet controversy shortly after Lopez first joined the cast. Partially because her character was initially shoehorned into scripts that were written for another non-latina character whose actress unexpectedly left the show, the production team missed some of the role’s seeming perpetuation of certain negative Latinx stereotypes.
“It was like, ok, she’s working at the laundromat, she’s working as a babysitter, it looks like she’s being the stereotype, she’s a latina working odd jobs… that’s not necessarily something to look up to,” Lopez said.
Looking back, she regrets not taking a stronger stand on the issue.
“I did say something, but I didn’t demand and I didn’t really push very hard for it, I just mentioned it….when you’re a minority you don’t always know how to, I mean, I was just happy to be there and I was just lucky to be representing so I didn’t know how much authority I really had as a first time cast member. If I had stepped into this now vs six years ago, being younger and not having seen the things that have happened now, I might have been more inclined to say something,” she reflects.
But the Sesame Street creative team was willing to make the effort to set a better precedent once they became aware of their mistake, and Nina is now not only a graduate student but a successful entrepreneur, making her a positive Latina role model that Lopez is proud to portray.
“It’s been really great to see that, that people get heard,” she says.
Lopez, Elmo and Big Bird
1 comment
Suki is a Natalie Wood look alike. Love to see her play Maria on Broadway, off Broadway or TV.