Student Blogger: Austin Watts

I am eternally grateful for my experience in junior high theatre, and appreciate the foundation that it laid for my future pursuits of academic theatre. The value of theatre education from an early age cannot be overstated, and I encourage any tween who is considering giving drama a try to go for it: you never know what you may find.

Having personally experienced the effects of creating theatre on a human’s development, I cannot help but smile at the thought of getting to be apart of that process in any capacity. I find the deepest fulfillment not in my own art, but getting to see the process of others creating theirs.

Brielle's overall goal with stage management and in life in general is to make people feel valued, heard, and as if they matter. She strongly cares about helping people find joy, whether that be because she met them as a stage manager, or just as another acquaintance, she believes everyone deserves to feel fulfilled.

Despite the fact that much of the evolution of the entertainment industry over the last century could easily be attributed to queer artists and their work, it is only in recent years that both audiences and producers seem to have become comfortable with receiving LGBTQ+ stories on a large scale.

Theatre is usually designed to be a collaborative art form, but competitions for high-school thespians give us the opportunity to express our suppressed competitive instincts and use the skills we have developed in a “win-or-lose” environment.

The maintenance of honesty and fairness in all educational endeavors is what characterizes academic integrity. Upholding ethical standards involves creating work that genuinely represents my own efforts and ideas.

Nearly every great performance was preceded by an audition. As an actor, I’ve been through more audition processes than I can count. For many, an audition is one of the scariest parts of the whole process. However, I’ve picked up a few tricks that help me put my best foot forward in every audition.

Burnout. No matter what educational or professional space you exist in, it is probably a familiar phrase. But what is it?

In this interview, I got to sit down with Denver Dickenson Jr., one of my personal role models as a performer. They spent their summer in New York representing AZ at the Jimmy Awards as a nominee before moving there to pursue a BFA in Musical Theatre at Pace University. I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.

'I am a nineteenth century plate spinner, with rods made out of persistence and Lexapro, and plates that look a whole lot like scripts, cash registers, and the AMSCO United States History textbook (Advanced Placement Edition).'

Technicians: often overlooked, yet the very foundation of the entertainment industry. How does this sentiment apply in a high school theatre program?

I have officially arrived at the point in high school that every student anxiously awaits: I am an upperclassman. Doors are opening in the world of the arts, and new opportunities are aplenty.