Growing up in Taiwan, Albert Hsueh knew he would follow his parents and two older brothers into the restaurant business. Just one thing held him back. “I tried it and I was really bad at it,” he chuckled. “I decided to study culinary arts in high school and my teacher would laugh at me and say, ‘Look at Albert.’ I was very easy-going and just cooked the way I wanted to. It was not really my passion.”
That experience did, however, lead Hsueh to find his true passion. “Those were a tough three years for me and my escape was to join a band in high school,” he recalled. “I became a singer in the band and thought it was so much fun.”
LEARNING HIS TRADE
Fortunately for Hsueh, his parents supported his choice to attend a performing arts college in Taiwan. “My dad told me if performing was what I wanted to do, then I should pursue it and do what I needed to in order to succeed,” he recalled. One of his first regular performing jobs was not quite what he expected.
Since 1951, Taiwan (the Republic of China) has held a policy of conscription, or mandatory military service for young males. Though the state has moved toward voluntary military service and only a four-month compulsory service, Hsueh did serve for one year. “I found there was an alternative to actually serving by using your profession. I auditioned for, and got, a job as a performer. That was very different. We don’t have any females in the army so a lot of the guys, including me, had to dress in drag,” he laughed. “I put that on my resume!”
After completing college and fulfilling his military requirement, Hsueh still wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to do. “We don’t have a musical theater school in Taiwan. I did a lot of research and found out about The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City (there is also one located in Los Angeles),” he recollected. “I prepared for a year to improve my English. I had gone to New York once before my army service and couldn’t even order a meal because my English wasn’t good enough. That provided me with motivation to improve. I remember one time leaving a store, the salesman told me to ‘have a good one’ and I said, ‘Which one?’”
Eventually, he did return to New York to study at the academy for two years. “That was very difficult for me. If I had just studied dancing, that would have been easier,” he remarked. “Instead the classes were four different types of dance, plus acting, musical theater, music theory, singing and voice, and speech. We had to talk a lot and discuss the characters, the play, and everything was in English so that was a challenge for me. People would tell me they could not understand me because of my accent. When I returned to Asia, my English just regressed. It was nice to speak my own language again.”
FINDING WORK
Hsueh was able to attend the academy on an F-1 Visa, which allows foreign students to enter the U.S. as a full-time student at an accredited academic institution or place of study that culminates in a degree, diploma, or certificate. After graduation, he would be allowed up to one year’s worth of employment through Optional Practical Training (OPT), as long as it related to his major area of study. OPT can also be used prior to graduation, but post-completion OPT would be decreased by that amount of time.
“I went to auditions for two or three months and I didn’t get anything. I was worried if I stayed there for a year and didn’t get a chance to work,” stated Hsueh, who noted that under OPT, he was only allowed to work as a performer and not take jobs as a waiter or something not related to his major. “It is very tough to survive in New York City, especially if you are struggling to find work.”
His first audition was for Rent. “The process of auditioning was really tough. I thought I was being smart by getting there at 5 a.m.,” he recalled. It was at Pearl Studio and as soon as the elevator door opened, I saw 30 people in line already. I realized how competitive it is in this business. Sometimes they see people slowly and you may not even get seen until mid-afternoon when it starts at 10 a.m. They see you for 1-2 minutes to determine your future. You repeat every day, sometimes doing two or three per day. It is mentally and physically exhausting.”
Hsueh started auditioning in February, but it was near his graduation day in May when he heard good news back. “I got a call from a theater I auditioned for a few months earlier. They called and said, ‘This is the Mac-Haydn Theatre and we would like you to play a role in our production of Anything Goes. I was eating sushi at a restaurant at the time and almost screamed out,” he chuckled.
Hsueh appeared in the Cole Porter adventure in the theater in Chatham, New York in the summer of 2017, playing the role of Luke, a Chinese character. “The show has a lot of tap dancing, which was my weakest dance in school. I tried so hard with that,” he commented. “I am not a great dancer. I didn’t learn it when I was young so it was challenging for me. Fortunately, I realized it is not all about your movement or perfect dance, but it is about the way you present yourself and how you perform. Even though I didn’t tap well, I always put a smile on my face and brought my joy.”
VARIED OPPORTUNITIES
After finishing his run in Chatham, Hsueh went back to New York to audition for more parts. “Luckily in a month, I got a job for the original musical Romance of the Western Chamber, which is based on a very famous Chinese tale,” he said. That was the good news. The not-so-good news was that he was cast to play two disparate characters. “I don’t know why they want me to play such different characters,” he quipped. “I played a monk (Hui-Ming), who is reckless and very bold, loud, uneducated, and passionate. The other character was Lord Cheng-Heng was very rich and narcissistic, thinking he is the best. It was an all-Asian cast and it was super fun.”
His next job was in a play that was performed outdoors in the park in Chinatown in New York. “We had to wear helmets with a camera in front of my face recording all my expressions. It was very experimental and we did this in the middle of the park without stage lighting,” he recalled. “People were so curious and got really close to us, especially Chinese grandmothers, who always tried to interrupt the show. The director wanted us to focus on what we were doing, but we also had to react to the audience as well. It was difficult, but fun. We never knew what to expect. The audience was both weird and interesting.”
Continuing his pattern, he found yet another completely different job opportunity, working a dinner theater production at the Midtown Arts Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. “I love my job and getting to travel to places I would never ordinarily go. When this job was offered to me, I had no idea where Colorado was and wondered if the job was even legitimate,” he said. “I was kind of scared that it was a scam so I was relieved when there was actually a website.”
He was very unfamiliar with exactly what working a dinner theater entailed. “We don’t have anything like that in Asia. We had to be a server and performer at the same time,” he explained. “They wanted us to interact with the guests, but people would always ask me something I didn’t know how to respond to. We had a short time to get orders, serve the food and drink, and give them the check.”
“We would then change our clothes and so the show,” he continued. “At intermission, we had to go back out and serve desserts. Then we went right back for the second act. After the show, we had to go outside and say good-bye to the audience and take photos with them before we went back in and cleaned up. We did this for three months.”
WORLD TRAVELS
Meanwhile, Hsueh was also auditioning for an off-Broadway production in Norway of Made in China, a puppet musical inspired by actual events. “It was amazing and lucky that I had gotten to do so many shows in a year,” he acknowledged. “I flew to Norway and learned more new skills as I had never done puppet theater before. They had done the show before, but needed a replacement for the tour so I was one of the new guys and had to learn everything from videos by myself.”
“You never know what you are going to get in this business, learning new things and traveling to different places,” he added. “I got to go to Norway. We went to seven cities in February and then did the same show in Oslo over the summer.”
Right after the February performances, he did an off-Broadway production of Anything Goes at Theater Row for a company called “Musicals Tonight!” “This time, I played another Chinese guy (“John”) with all equity actors, including some Broadway performers,” he recalled. “I missed two weeks of rehearsal due to the show in Norway and that left me with only nine days to rehearse before it opened. It was so stressful, but I did it!”
After the summer, his Visa expired so he returned to Asia to work on getting it renewed or obtaining an O-1 Visa, which is a specific category for an individual with extraordinary ability in various industries, including the arts.
Seeing that a friend was cast in Mamma Mia in China, Hsueh asked her to recommend him for a part in the well-known musical. “I was thinking Mamma Mia in Chinese is something I would love to do,” he recalled. “I submitted a self-taped audition and I got the position! I had planned to go back to Asia for a month (after Norway), renew my visa, and go back to New York, but then this happened.”
He flew to China and lived in Beijing for two months of rehearsal. “We got to work with the original cast and director from the West End so that was legit. I also learned how different British and American people are,” he noted. “If you don’t have a great scene or audition in the U.S., the director will say something like, ‘That was great, but you can do better.’ The British directors are much more reserved, serious, and direct. They would just say, ‘That was rubbish.’ I gained so much confidence working in the U.S. and it made me brave enough to try new things.”
The Mamma Mia tour, which had already been playing for five years in the country, performed in four cities in China during Hsueh’s time with the show. “Being in Chinese, the lyrics were weird for me at first. Then I realized it is intended for the Chinese audience because we didn’t have subtitles,” he remarked. “By being able to follow the lyrics and lines, the audience enjoyed the show much more. It is very successful there and it is great to see the musical theater industry in China growing so fast. They have done a lot of Broadway musicals like Cinderella, Next to Normal, Little Shop of Horrors, and Cats. They have done them all in Chinese and the market for these shows is really big. They don’t have enough professional performers yet and are still learning how to do western musicals, but eventually they will have enough performers to create a Chinese Broadway musical.”
THE FUTURE
Ideally, Hsueh hopes to work for at least another three years in New York. Although his parents continue to be supportive of his career choice, they still worry about their son’s career and being so far away.
“My mom asks, ‘Why are you going back to New York? You have already been there. That’s enough.’ She even suggests maybe I should become a designer, which makes me laugh,” he related. “They stress about me settling down. I am 28 years old and I don’t want to settle down anywhere before I turn 30. I want more adventures and challenges.”
Like many performers, Hsueh’s long-term goal is to perform on Broadway. At the same time, he appreciates the opportunities he has already seen at such a young age. “I am a very lucky guy. I know how tough the industry is,” he stated. “Many of my classmates are still struggling. We shouldn’t be so competitive with one another. We all know how tough it is and we should support one another.”
Hoping to play a leading role in the U.S. one day, he is encouraged by changes he sees on stage. “It is thrilling to see diversity on Broadway,” he commented. “There is an Asian woman (Ali Ewoldt) playing Christine in Phantom of the Opera and a black woman (Aisha Jackson) portraying Anna in Frozen.”
Whatever his career holds for the future, Hsueh is enjoying his time on stage and the lessons that come with it. “When you are performing, you get to know yourself better,” he closed. “You learn sides of yourself you didn’t even know you had.”