“I have no idea. It’s an almost impossible question to answer,” he says. Fernando Dente when asked to define himself, to tell who he is. “I don’t know who I am. For many years I felt very comfortable avoiding labels. Everything can change. Many times it happened to me that everything changed overnight. In the experiences I’m having, who I am appears from time to time and it’s like an encounter for me,” he confesses.
Fer Dente, as he is known artistically, is an actor, singer, dancer, stage director and conductor. From a very young age he trained in musical comedy and became known by winning the reality show “High School Musical: the selection” and starring in the film “High School Musical: El Desafío” (2008). Very versatile, he participated in important productions, such as “Spring Awakening”, “Peter Pan”, “The Sound of Music” and “Almost Normal”, among others, novels and television programs.
On his return to the musical stage, after four years, today he gives his best in “Company”which stars and directs. A brilliant production by its production company Club Media, with a cast headed by Alejandra Radano, a live orchestra and the musical direction of Damián Mahler in the theater The National until the end of March.
In addition, he is preparing to direct “Hairspray”with the acting debut of Damián Betular as the protagonist, and the production of Olga and Club Media. The premiere is scheduled for early May at the Colosseum. And he continues with the Argentine Institute of Musicals that he shares with Ricky Pashkus.
News: What is your life purpose today?
Fer Dente: It is always related to expansion. Something that I built and that gives me a lot of joy is my company, this space with my creative team and my partner with whom we put together these shows where we give first opportunities, when the material allows it. Those who are there are because they want to, for us it is very important that they are there by their own desire, commitment and conviction. Today what I like most is generating these spaces where a look, an identity is built, and I feel that I am also contributing a grain of sand to this industry.
News: In short, his purpose is to be an artist in his different facets.
Tooth: Yes, I say that I live on an island, that it is my vocation, and that on the island I like to move everywhere.
News: What is your best version? Its best aspects.
Tooth: I try to generate and build spaces of great well-being. I am very much a prisoner of forms, for me they are very important, of seriousness. I take great care to ensure that kindness is present in everything I do and the people who worked with us have pointed this out to us. That also generates a certain sense of belonging.
News: And what would you like to change? Those aspects of you that you don’t like so much.
Tooth: It’s a little difficult for me to deal with the feeling I get after saying no, although less and less. I set certain limits, I do it and I trust my ways, at least they are always loaded with the best intention, but sometimes it is difficult for me to deal with it afterwards. In many ways I still feel like a child.
News: What moves you?
Tooth: I think the expansion. I am very aware of how lucky I am, of the privileged place I have in the industry. From a very young age I was lucky to work with the best, to have the best teachers, to work with incredible actors. I always felt that I was like yapa, that there was more than I expected to have, and that always came hand in hand with a lot of responsibility.
News: In addition to the luck he may have had, it is clear that he has had a lot of work, preparation and study.
Tooth: Yes, that’s what I mean by responsibility. I was very young, I had a certain popularity, work and so on, and I felt that was when I had to invest the most in my training, learn, understand. Today the same thing continues to happen to me. Now, in addition, I think about what is the best thing I can do for this world. I think about what is the best story to tell and I think a lot about the first opportunities. For example, in “Spring Awakening,” which ends now, I have a cast of 13 kids who came out of an open audition and for 10 of those kids it was the first time they got on a professional stage and in a year they became professionals with discipline, commitment, an ability to read situations. That is my greatest pride. I was fortunate to have Ricky Pashkus, who was always my mentor and who accompanied me, in addition to the great teachers and directors with whom I worked, with whom I learned a lot. Being able to continue that legacy for new generations is very important to me.
News: Are you happy with who you are?
Tooth: I’m always in need of putting on a bigger jacket. All the time I’m looking at what’s next. It is not a question of pure ambition, sometimes, nor of recognition. I feel like I father myself. All the time I am seeing what my son, which is me, needs.
News: How did you get to “Company”?
Tooth: It is a historic musical, a Broadway classic, and it had been almost four years since I had been on stage in a musical, and it was a title that I was really looking forward to. We acquired the rights and it is the first time I have done this adventure of directing and acting at the same time.
News: What is this adventure like?
Tooth: It was more exhausting than other processes, more demanding, without a doubt, but it was equally or more pleasant as well. It was very interesting. Besides, there was no other option. I would have driven an actor crazy if I cast him and I would have upset another director if I directed him. I was very clear about how I wanted the show to be. That also ordered me a lot.
News: A question about the plot of the musical. Is being alone really that easy?
Tooth: Depends. In my case, loneliness is a great space of refuge for me. It’s where I build, imagine, read, work. I really need those spaces to later be able to share with others.
News: Another question about that. Does being with someone complicate everything or give it meaning?
Tooth: I think it makes sense while things are there and work. The links are like this. Sometimes everything is more serious, heavier because of the burden of perpetuity that is asked of the bonds. Being able to be one with another is a feeling and an experience that I recommend with all my heart. It’s super, super cute. Afterwards, the shapes can be modified, they can be changed.
News: How is your bond with your partner, Pablo Turturiello (Uruguayan actor, singer and composer)?
Tooth: He is a very incredible person…
News: In what sense?
Tooth: Because it is very incredible that a person has so many qualities. Her intelligence, her sense of humor, her beauty, her mischief, her emotional intelligence, her ability to read situations, to place herself within those situations, her talent. Pablo is wonderful. It’s barbaric. Also, a great companion.
News: Twenty years ago he learned his true identity when his mother confessed that his biological father had been a priest. How did that news impact you?
Tooth: It was something that marked me a lot, it marks me, it is precisely in my DNA. But for me today it is very natural, it is part of my history, and it is something that I did not choose, I did not even experience it, I am the consequence of something, and the good thing is that I do not have it associated with negative energy. That’s what I got.
News: Were you able to have a dialogue with your biological father?
Tooth: Yes, I met him and decided that was fine for me up to that point. Then he didn’t continue.
News: He has not had a relationship with his brother Tomás (he has two other brothers: Lucas and Guido) for many years. No?
Tooth: I feel less and less comfortable talking about it. We are already grown up, I have nephews and I feel that the focus is on the new generations. There’s nothing more I can say or anything interesting to do with this.
News: Returning to the work issue. Are you in rehearsals for “Hairspray”?
Tooth: I have open auditions this week and the next and on March 23 we start rehearsing.
News: Why did you choose Damián Betular, who is not an actor, as the protagonist?
Tooth: Because he is a character in himself and the play requires someone like that for that role. It has to be done by someone who has something else. It was originated by a drag queen and with that I tell you everything. Actors throughout the world have done it, but also figures who are not actors. The work in some way talks about why not. We all deserve a chance to do what we want sometime. Damián has enormous charisma, I saw him dancing, I saw him singing, and I said we have to do “Hairspray” with him. It was an absolute boost.
News: Does destiny make it each one?
Tooth: It is a co-creation. Sometimes you shoot and respond. Sometimes, destiny pulls and you decide where it fits and you build it there. It’s like a dance for two. Ultimately, we are what we do with what we have. That is where one has autonomy, one can choose where to put the focus.
