The Theatre is indispensable as the voice of the community it serves and cultivates. Theatre serves the community as an expression of collective identity. The theatregoing public joins together in a ritual of mutual compassion. A responsive, responsible theatre company cultivates its community in turn by enabling the development of a conscious mutual culture. When I try to define my goals based on my own desires i find I begin to lose focus. instead, what has most inspired me has been to broaden my understanding of Theatre and its place in the world.
My undergraduate education was a thorough training in Stanislavksy, Linklater, and Laban methods. It was at the University of Tennessee that the works of Grotowski and Artaud inspired me to seek a higher ideal in the Theatre. Since then I have studied the Meisner technique with the Acting Studio in New York and with the BlackBox Studio in Chicago. I have worked as a stage manager, director, and playwright; I have built sets and run light and sound boards; I have studied stage combat from lightsaber to intimacy coordination. As yet my quest has been one of growth and discovery and adaptation in order to find how best I can contribute to a theatre community. Graduate School is the next logical step in that quest, as I can devote myself alongside likewise devoted peers and mentors to invoke that same spirit of growth, adaptation, and discovery.
My goals for graduate school are to find my place a program where actors are trained not only to communicate openly with himself and his fellow actors, but with the community they serve in their art. The Theatre can be a ritual form of group therapy and I’d hope to discover a movement in Theatre dedicated to that ideal.Teaching would be a crucial part of this dialogue. Leading a pupil to original thought is akin to providing those instants of clarity upon which a community and theatre company rely. The Theatre is at its best when it dares the audience to learn something new about themselves, something they never suspected they shared with their neighbor, in a spontaneous moment of mutual discovery.
Those who must act have a responsibility to the community that sustains them. Sharing the process of discovery is an integral part of this responsibility and I am galvanized to take up this mantle. In so doing, I hope that I could play a role in cultivating a culture of compassion in a post-postmodern era.
when I try to define my goals based on my own desires i find I begin to lose focus. instead, what has most inspired me has been to broaden my understanding of Theatre and its place in the world
My undergraduate education was a thorough training in Stanislavksy, Linklater, and Laban methods. It was at the University of Tennessee that the works of Grotowski and Artaud inspired me to seek a higher ideal in the Theatre. Since then I have studied the Meisner technique with the Acting Studio in New York and with the BlackBox Studio in Chicago. I have worked as a stage manager, director, playwright; I have built sets and ran light and sound boards; I have studied stage combat including intimacy coordination. my quest has been one not only to find my community but the best way to build a theatre community, to create that community and to welcome others to join it and contribute to it in a meaningful way. Graduate School is the next logical step in that quest, as I can devote myself alongside likewise devoted peers and mentors to attain that ideal of a New Theatre.