UC San Diego

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

UCSD: Troublemakers Welcome

by

Jane Anyanwu

Master of Fine Arts in Theatre and Dance (Acting)

University of California, San Diego, 2013

Professor Kyle Donnelly, Chair

I am a performer. It is what I do. There's a time I believe where I tried to suppress it. I think I lied for a few years in my teens telling my parents I wanted to be a doctor. But I wasn't interested in math and I was really loud. All it took was a student performance of Lend Me a Tenor, and my parents hopes and dreams for their bright eyed middle child to be a doctor, dashed with the lines. See, I come from a Nigerian, well-educated ambitious bunch of arguing intellectuals. My mother is a nurse my father was an engineer who in his youth, fought in the Biafran War. He refers to me as Wahalla or problem maker for seeking a life in the arts. There are not many artists in our family. In fact I think I am the first actually. And so I came to UCSD heart in throat, arms crossed wanting "my education" I got so much more. This is the place where I was basically told all Wahalla are welcome. And so for three years I got to explore the woman, the artist, the black girl, and the African within me. I was taught by the leading troublemakers in the country. And I am a better artist for it. And if I am lucky, when I am out there in real world I too will dash inspire a young crop of in coming Wahalla and keep the cycle moving.