My Artist Origin Story

For as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was be in plays.  I have always loved the theatre.  I cannot remember a time before I knew what theatre was.

I remember seeing my very first play when I was in preschool.  It was on the arena stage at the Alley Theatre in Houston.  What I remember most is looking at a blank stage while the lights faded out.  Pitch black was all I could see as we sat in complete darkness.  Suddenly, the lights came up, and the world of the play appeared.  I vividly remember the big, green caterpillar and all the smoke.  It was magic. I was hooked for life.

In school, I was never the strongest student.  I was a ‘slow reader’ and never finished my assignments as soon as everyone else.  I used to sit in my high school auditorium during theatre class and drum up ways I could convince my parents to let me quit and get a GED.  That was my goal when I was fifteen.  However, my high school theatre teacher saw something in me and cast me in plays.  The opportunity to perform put me on a different path.

I became a theatre kid and started staying after school for rehearsals.  I also stayed after school to paint sets, pull costumes, or do anything else that needed to be done.  I worked very hard.  I loved theatre and theatre helped me believe in myself.

And I did graduate from high school.  And then I went to college to study theatre, and I graduated.  Then I went to graduate school to become a theatre teacher, and I graduated.  Then I was accepted to a doctoral program and completed a dissertation centered on exploring the teaching practices of theatre teachers and how they build group-level confidence in their ensembles.  The kid that was not very good in school now has a Ph.D.

Theatre was my drop-in.