The stages of H’Nette DeTroy’s dramatic life include theater, dance and even commercial casting

Story and photo by Marc Glass (Spring 2008 issue)

Looking at H’Nette DeTroy’s resume, you might think she suffers from career wanderlust. Since graduating from UMF in 2006, she’s been a nurse, a cheerleader and a bus-commuting business executive—not to mention a disgruntled gas-station patron, a terminally ill hospital patient and a drunk-driving fatality. A southern Maine-based actor, DeTroy takes pride in her many professional personas—whether that means extolling the virtues of an alternative-fuel Mercedes Benz in a television commercial, playing a nurse in a hospital training video, dramatizing the perils of operating under the influence in an MTV-aired public service announcement or taking to the stage in a community theater production of Disney’s High School Musical.

“It’s a lot of fun to lose yourself in a role, creatively making it whatever you want it to be,” said DeTroy on a rare day of downtime away from auditions, teaching children’s dance lessons and rehearsing with the Portland-based hip-hop dance company Rhythm Factor. “When I’m acting, dancing or singing, I lose all concept of time and the trivial stuff in life. This is something I love. It’s what life is about for me.”

DeTroy wasn’t always so sanguine about her stagecraft. While growing up with her mother in tony Norwalk, Conn., DeTroy found early success in an international print advertising campaign for ERA Realty and work as a non-speaking extra in the 1999 Meryl Streep film Music of the Heart. As a teen, she moved to Maine to live with her father and spent a year at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City after graduating from Gray-New Gloucester High School. DeTroy said her decision to pursue both academics (at Borough of Manhattan Community College) and acting in the Big Apple landed her a starring role as an ingénue of tragic proportions.

“New York City basically chewed me up and spit me out. I wasn’t getting anywhere with auditions, I had a cockroach-infested apartment and a roommate who turned out to be a con artist and physically threatened me,” she said. “The academic work at the college wasn’t challenging. Basically, I was surrounded by people and never felt more alone in my life. There was a part of me that wanted to stay in New York, but when you get slammed so many times, it’s hard to get back up.”

Thus, DeTroy returned to Maine to regroup. And at UMF she found everything that was missing.

“I stopped thinking about acting and poured myself into the academic life,” said DeTroy, who earned an interdisciplinary studies degree with a concentration in music and art. “Studying theater and music gave me the confidence that I could perform and perform well. I was in a safe, supportive place where my professors wanted to see me succeed. I grew up a lot just going to UMF. I think that’s the reason I’m getting so much work now. I’m more mature.”

With a new agent, Utobia Model and Talent Inc. of Freeport, and new-found confidence, DeTroy got more auditions and callbacks. The pressure to be perfect in the audition is as intense as ever, but she now takes the scrutiny—of her looks, elocution, carriage and talent—in workaday stride.

“When you go to an audition, you could be up against 100 other actors. It’s easy to get nervous and hyped up with anxiety. Now, I know how to relax and improvise with a cold read of the material. I know how to project well every time I slate,” said DeTroy, referring to the audition-opening ritual of facing the camera and saying one’s name and agency affiliation before turning to the left and right for profiles.

With what she calls her “multiracial” background (courtesy of a German father and Vietnamese mother), DeTroy has been slating of sorts for most of her life.

“People have always asked me ‘What are you?’ or ‘Are you Latina?’ My mom is as third-world as you can get. Growing up in as unforgiving and wealthy a place as Fairfield County makes you aware of your identity. I’m used to defining myself in the first three seconds,” she said. “I remember growing up and thinking ‘there’s no one on TV who looks like me.’ Seeing Jennifer Lopez in the film Selena, a minority actress actually making it, was very motivational.”

With celluloid dreams DeTroy makes sure her waking hours are spent expanding her repertoire (hence the hip-hop company), consulting with her agent and poring over the pages of trade magazine Back Stage for audition information.

“Sometimes I have a non-speaking part. In the Mercedes Benz ad, I had 15 seconds of speaking time, which is a lot for one actor in a commercial. Lately, I’ve been portrayed on the phone a lot,” she laughed, noting how art imitates her life in pursuit of acting jobs. “An agent can help, but in essence you have to look for things. Opportunities aren’t going to find you in this business.”