I have had a passion for theater since I first chose to try out for a play in High School. I have been involved in several productions since then. My enthusiasm for the theater arts and story telling has given me an appreciation for all that a production entails. All the hours of memorization and practice makes the final product that much more worth experiencing. During my time on the stage, whether I was in a small or large speaking role, I put all my effort into creating the best performance, and in some cases the best material,  possible.

Most of my experience in acting has been in High School, but since then I have studied the art further at Brigham Young University – Idaho. I have learned more about people and characters and how to accurately place myself within the roles of different people with different motivations. I’ve studied theater history and have experienced and enjoyed some of the greatest works to take the stage. As a creative writer, I have also gained an appreciation for the value of playwrights such as Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, and Oscar Wilde. My ability to see the meaning in a story, helps me to understand the motivations behind it’s characters.

I have also had training in diction and in stage dialects. Through the use of IPA, I was able to learn and understand several different accents. I’ve discovered that different dialects have different attitudes to them. This has helped me to slip into a variety of roles more easily. I have learned a lot about theater and it’s techniques over the last few years. I find that I am now more in love with the stage than I was before.

A particularly special class that I took while in college was called Storytelling. The class focused on story tellers from around the country and taught us how to effectively tell our own stories. Whether we memorized classic tales or talked about our own child hood, we were able to learn how to make our stories entertaining and enlightening. Our class turned out to be the best group of story tellers our teacher had ever had because half of us were English majors and knowing how to write things down well, helps you to speak them creatively and fluently too. I told many stories of my own life but I also got the chance to write a short piece to go along with the Irish song, Danny Boy. I performed the story at the 2010 Celtic Festival where it received a great reception.

Pictures

Celtic Festival (Winter 2010)