UC San Diego

The MFA is often thought of as a pedagogical incubator, within which the actor can receive training at a level and concentration that might take that same actor double the time to achieve on their own. Equally daunted and inspired by this, I entered grad school hoping to gain the skills necessary for artistic discernment. I wanted to make informed choices while acting, have a vastly expanded movement vocabulary and ability to improvise, and to be able to use my voice with aplomb. I was able to use all these facets of my training during my residency at La Jolla Playhouse: Babbitt. In this show I played four different characters of various age ranges. I drew from my voice and speech as well as movement training to differentiate these characters from one another. I used the full vocal warmup before every performance as I would need to oscillate between the high pitched, excited voice of a 7-year-old girl, and the smoky and slightly British affected accent of a wealthy politician’s wife often at a moment’s notice. I also drew heavily from our movement training. One capstone exercise of our second-year training, 7 entrances, wherein we had to spontaneously invent drastically different characters and bring their fullness to bear, was the perfect precursor to my work in Babbitt. These all helped me find new ways of being in response to the other actors on stage so that I was always in the present moment.