To go, or not to go. That is the Question.

As the semester comes to a close, and graduation is upon us, the future hasn't really struck me yet. Im planning to take a year off from school and start applying for grad schools this fall. I know a lot of people are in the complaining mood, with finals and long hours. Studying and pulling all nighters. But, i wanna say this, I love school. I love being here and the people i have met, especially in the theater arts department. We become a family. Yes, every year we kinda have to tweak who is the in the family, but even after those people graduate, we are still close. The bond that we develop, after endless hours of rehearsals and shows after shows with each other is nothing but, incredible. If i could take these people and move them with me to grad school, that would be ideal. But, realistically, i will probably be going by myself. I have made a list of schools that i would like to attend to. They all have pros and cons, but are non of the less, amazing.

1. Depaul University- This is my top choice. It is located in an amazing part of Chicago, a town that i have fallen in love with.

2. Florida State University- Many people groan when i say this institution, but it is also incredible. Florida is actually one of the big places to study theater in the US. Part of their program is studying in London, being understudies at the rep theater, and best of all, full rides.

3. ACT- Located here in San Francisco. I feel like this is the only reason i would want to go here. I have seen some of their shows and have not been too impresses.

I'm gonna say these are a few of my top choices. What is great about theater grad school is that many of the universities pay YOU to go. Not all but some. Makes it hard to refuse. Just hard to leave the people that have become my family over the past 4 years.

 

Last week, I finally got cast in a show with a director that I have admired for years, Mark Jackson, whom I spoke about in earlier blogs. The show is called, Wallflower. It will be an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights Dream. But it wont be your normal adoption, it will be a new take on the classical story. If you saw Jackson’s piece last year, Juliet, you will understand what I mean. But if not, I will give you an over view.

Juliet was a play performed by 6 women and 1 man, all playing Juliet. The story covers the life and emotional state of Juliet from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The play covered the more famous and well-known scenes from the classic play, but it also dove into the psychology of the teenage mind in love. Every actor at some point plays a different aspect of Juliet and also the people in her life that affected that fateful outcome.

Every since I audition and didn’t get into Juliet, I told myself that his next show, I would work my butt off to get in. And it worked!

Wallflower is rumored to have inspiration of a Pina Bausch dance piece. It has a resemblance of a 50’s high school dance with many group numbers. We haven’t had our first meeting yet, but I cant wait to see what Jackson has in store for us.

Im hoping in doing this show, he will like working with me and be interested in casting me in future shows. He is a prominent actor/director/play write in the bay area, so hopefully this will open some doors for me in the future.

Hallelujah!

Its good to know that people who read my blog are actually interested in theatre and art. Either that, or you're great lairs. :) 

Anyway, I am in a show that opens this week called, The Barber of Seville, at San Francisco State University. Originally, the music department was going to be putting it on the opera version, but for one reason or another, they were no longer able. Because of this, they handed the show over to the Theatre department. This gave us students another acting opportunity to be seen in the department and work on our craft. I was lucky enough to be cast in the ensemble and working with the lovely and talented, Tracy Ward.

Check out the promo video, created by the BECA Department!

The rehearsal process has been short physically but longer mentally. Because of the switch over between departments, our rehearsal time had been cut short and the creative process had been cut even shorter. We have been trucking through and creating our work as a team. We open this Saturday the 30th and run till May 8th. The cost is cheap, especially if you are a student. So come out and support us and the arts! It will be a great time.

Another show going up is House of Bernarda Alba, which is a classic play by Lorca. I saw this the other night and highly recommend it. Not just because many of my friends and peers are in it, but they have created a wonderful world for this play outside of the original context. 

 For more info about Barber of Seville

For more info about House of Bernarda Alba 

Both shows at around $8 a person on campus!

 

"Art is not a form of propaganda, it is a form of truth" -JFK

The fight for the arts is getting harder and harder. We are still facing extreme budget cuts, especially in the CSU system. Though I am graduation this year and probably wont have to go back into the system, it still worries me to hear how the department I love so much, may not be there in the years to come. Recently, actor Kevin Spacey gave a speech at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC about the arts and how they are being impacted today. He gave many quotes from political figures that have supported and felt deeply about the arts. The government is in the middle of making cuts and they find that the arts is the easiest place to start, that cutting those funds will only make a minute impact on the people who are really involved.

In another interview with Kevin Spacey on NBC, with the way they are cutting the funding for art, we wont have programs such as Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, American Masters, and many more. Kevin states that “It’s not just for the people who are in the arts, its also for the people that go see the arts. It’s for people to learn about themselves what is does for peoples sense of confidence.” He also speaks about President Lincoln and his love for the arts. That in the worst of times during the Civic War, he was constantly found at the theater, because he knew arts would replenish his soul and that he craved poetry.

Please take the time and watch these clips for his speech and interview. He has some wonderful things to say about this topic and it makes me feel so good that he is such an advocate for the arts.

 Clip from his speech

Clip from his interview

What do you do with a B.A. in English?

During the past 4 years, whenever im meeting someone and tell them what I do, the conversation usually goes like this.

“I currently go to San Francisco State University.”

“Oh, that’s nice. What are you studying?”

“Im studying theater. Acting.”

“OH. So. How do you feel about the ‘gays’?” or “OH. So. What do you plan to do with that?”

More often then not, I get both questions but I usually get the latter no matter what. When I first started hearing ‘So what do you plan to do with that?’ it made me a little angry inside. I know a lot of people who aren’t educated in the world of art, English or theater don’t really understand the education process and what going to school for theatre really means. I mean, they write songs about people like us. 'What do you do with a BA in English?' Of course the people who write them, see the topic as a farce. But really thinking about it, no, you don’t NEED a BA in theater to be an actor. What I have learned to tell people is that, when we study theater, we study different methods of acting. Differently styles and types, much like learning algebra or calculus. When we learn about the history. And ultimately, we learn how to find the different types of actors we are. We find our strengths and build those to be better. We find our weaknesses and build those to be better as well.

My usual response to the question is, ‘act.’ I want to be an actor. I have been given a great opportunity to study with so many wonderful people while at school. Some of the people are famous actors like Fiona Shaw, who was in the Harry Potter movies. A lot of people don’t realize that many film stars went to school for theater.

While on stumble upon, I found a site that shows 25 things that a person learns for being in theater and how they can become a major asset to the normal 9 to 5 job. One of my favorites is number 3, More Than “getting it done.” One of the golden rules we learn when doing theatre is that you have 3 options: fast, cheap, easy. Everyone would want to be able to have a project that is all three, but you can only have two. Pick two. Not three. Being a theater major, we learn to do things well. Our work is presented to the public for weeks at a time, and you never know who will be seeing it. So we are taught to have it always be at our best, nothing less.

The bottom line is, theater helps in every sense of a job. So to the people who ask me what im gonna do with ‘that,’ Im gonna be an excellent human being and be a wonderful asset to every aspect in life I can be.

Look at me, look at me...

This semester, I have the opportunity to work with Mark Jackson, who is a noted play write and actor in the Bay Area. He is an innovative artist and pushes the boundaries of the conventional theater outlook. He recently wrote an article in Theatre Bay Area, which is a source for many artists in the area. In the article, he speaks about his experiences teaching students at SF State, where he once attended. He compares the “real world” i.e. the so-called professional world of theatre outside of the walls of a university. Saying that, some of his best work that he has done, has been with students at SF State, that the students are hungry and eager to be a part of this world even thought there isn’t near a well off budget to support what they are capable of.

I can’t do Mark as near enough justice as to how he speaks about our peers and how his words are an inspirations to our work. Knowing that someone is SEEING us.

What's wrong with art?

As all of us know the economy is down and funding for education is far from good. The arts are even worse off. Many people are saying our money needs to be going back to our educators and to help fund new ideas of art and education. But one man believes that the economy isn’t fully at fault for how today’s art world has turned out. Michael Kaiser, President of the John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, believes today’s generations aren’t taking enough risk.

            Before I read this article I would have said. “No, this man is clearly wrong. We aren't being funded and supported enough.” Maybe the reason we aren’t being supported is because we don’t have worthy enough projects to support. Looking back, its true, there use to be great innovative works of art coming into the world. Martha Graham, breaking the boundaries of dance. Tennessee Williams writing our great classics. Taking what they know and pushing the limits. Taking risks. Thinking about it, a lot of the theatre, or film I see is below entertaining. They are doing what they were taught and not striving to be better and more original than when they first started.

            I have seen some moving, shocking and entertaining pieces of art with a budget of nothing. Then I see work being done with muti-million dollar budgets. When I compare the two, sure seeing giant dragons, like the one in Wicked, are pretty cool to see, but the performances are less than engaging. Sometimes a black-box room can capture your eye more than pyrotechnics on stage. Maybe we are too focused on being innovative and lose sight of what art is really about.

            As Kaiser states. “Is the world short on talent? No.” Maybe artist are loosing sight of their own personal art and worrying too much about doing something for shock value. “[They] are so worried about budgets that they forget that bad art hurts budgets far more than risk-taking does.” Maybe if we got rid of all the awards for irrelevant areas of art, people would start creating things for themselves. I’m hoping that our current generation can see past our money problem and strive to create something new, that fulfill what we feed inside.

Full Article. What's wrong with art? 

Losing the Art

Received this link to a site that is trying to post awareness for the extreme budget cuts to the arts funding in our educational system. If you believe the arts are an important part of our eductional system, please take the time and fill this out. Or call.

Go here and simply fill out the form.

An amendment to cut the NEA by an extra $20.5 million (in addition to the $22.5 million cut already included in the underlying legislation) passed in the House this morning with a close vote of 217-209.

The Passion Play

          Theatre and the arts have been a huge part of my life since I was young. Most people get the inspiration when they are younger to trying something new. For me, I had a crush on the boy in my class who did theatre. This caused me to submerge myself in everything theatre and performing arts I could, with the hope that I would get to be around the boy. Instead, I discovered my love for performing and being on stage. The rush you get from knowing that there are hundreds of people watching you and you not being able to see them. Never being able to be invisible.

I continued my learning through high school where I first experienced the lack of support and funding in the arts. We were given minimal amount of funding and support from the school and other faculty. We had to create our own options and make our own experiences with minimal supplies. Eventually, our theatre teacher was fired for not conforming to the conservative outlook of our community. We all thought, how could anyone get rid of someone who has such an open outlook on the arts and it bring all these wonderful ideas to kids who want to learn and widen their knowledge.

            Moving on to college, I thought that I would enter into a better program where money and support wouldn’t be an issue. Then budget cuts hit. Hard. Many of our great programs were diminished. We had to scrounge up what resources we could and you know what, our product was just as good or even better than before we lost our budget. Because it isn’t about how big you can make your set or what crazy special effects you use, its what you put into your art. Your passion, thoughts and love for the art. So now I don’t do theatre to impress that boy from my class, I do it because it makes me happy. Sets me free.

            Because of this, I have chosen to talk about and research theatre in the younger community. From elementary age through the fresh out of college crowd, because the arts are important, and they are slipping away. People outside of the  art world might not see it, but someday they will. When their children are in school and have no means of a release, no way to express themselves. We need to help keep the arts alive, even the puppet shows kids put on in their kindergarten class are just the beginning of something great.