UC San Diego

All aspects of my training at UCSD have been an integral part of my research and growth. From simply listening and noticing in Richard’s class, to the Ana Deveare Smith transformational monologues with Eva, to freeing my voice with Ursula, to Marco being extremely patient as I navigated my way through understanding sustained and living thought, all of my mentors here have strengthened me as an artist. However, one class played a fundamental role in my research. Movement with Stephen taught me so many things: how to find a character physically and how to balance listening to your scene partner and your audience. However, most importantly, it taught me permission: permission to break and fail. It was my key, and I started to give myself this permission in other areas of my research, most specifically the show Ironbound.I played the character, Vic, a 16 year old prep school sex worker. The research in finding this character included watching countless Eminem performances and tons of Breaking Bad. But to actually do the thing was a different story. I wanted to move and act with fierceness, and refrain from doubting myself. In order to achieve this, I had to take the mentality I had during those awful (yet fun) dance warmups. I had to give myself the permission to live fearlessly and boldly in the work. I was by no means perfect at doing this, but all the moments I did give myself permission, added up to my favorite performance of grad school.