Smithtown Actress Launches YouTube Channel

SMITHTOWN, NY — The coronavirus outbreak has led to the cancellation of many events, including live performances and other shows. For actresses like Smithtown's Elena Faverio, it's been an extremely difficult time to find gigs. To keep herself occupied, Faverio, 26, launched a YouTube channel in March where she creates videos and short films.

"I wanted to find a way to stay creative during lockdown, so I created 'QuARTantine' where I made different kinds of art on social media for 14 days straight," Faverio told Patch via email.

Her projects include making a wedding dress out of household items, following makeup tutorials, writing a song, juggling and cooking souffle pancakes.

"I really enjoyed those two weeks but found it exhausting to create something everyday…so I sat down and thought about more sustainable ways to generate art, and decided to launch my YouTube channel!," she wrote.

Faverio posts two videos a week — on Wednesday and Sunday mornings. In her Wednesday video, she takes a more relaxed, v-log style approach where she chats about certain topics; sometimes theater or art related, sometimes not. She may also document something fun she does during the day — "like cutting my own bangs! That was terrifying!," she said.

On Sundays, she attempts to make a more creative video. Short films, music videos; she wants to do a "little bit of everything."

"Honestly, I want my YouTube channel to be a place where people can come to relax and laugh and think and enjoy a little bit of art and silliness."

Her channel is her name: Elena Faverio. As of Tuesday, she has over 60 subscribers. Some of her videos include "I made Crumb Cake without a Recipe!," "Self Care in Quarantine," "A Brief History of Long Island," "My Experience in Drama School" and "Doing My Makeup with My Eyes Closed." Her videos typically run somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes, though there are exceptions: Both installments of her "Have You Met?" series ran over 20 minutes.

Faverio, a self-described actor, activist, and general maker of artistic shenanigans, was born and raised in Smithtown. She earned her bachelor degree in theatre arts from Williams College in Massachusetts, studied clown and physical theatre in Tuscany, learned to devise and create theatre at The National Theatre Institute in Connecticut, and most recently, spent three years earning her Master’s degree in acting at The Guildhall School in London.

She began acting at the age of 8. Her first production was a "kiddie version" of Mary Poppins at the Suffolk YJCC in Commack. Before heading to college, she performed almost exclusively in musicals at various theaters on Long Island, including Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts, CM, and Smithtown High School West. At college, she studied acting, physical theatre, clown, mime, devised performance, cabaret, songwriting and play-writing, and solo performance. Her college experience broadened her artistic horizons, she said. Currently, she's most often found in professional plays and developing her solo work on her YouTube.

As a jobbing actor, Faverio has held down many different gigs while auditioning and performing, including work as a server at a Vietnamese restaurant, an assistant teacher in a daycare, a secretary in a hospital’s business office, and the assistant to the artistic director of a national arts conference. Most recently, she was working full-time as a professional actress, although the coronavirus outbreak has led to limited work for performers.

Faverio's full resume can be found on her website.