Week 13:
Going Home

August 23, 2018

(Featured image photo credit: John Gary Brown)

This week was my last week at Creede Repertory Theatre, and that is a bittersweet feeling. I am definitely going to miss CRT and all of my friends here, but I am also very excited to get back to Cornell. This summer has been an amazing experience, one of the best of my life, and I am so grateful to Cornell and CRT for allowing me this amazing opportunity. Getting the chance to work in professional theatre cemented my desire to have this be my career. Whatever area of theatre I end up in, whether that’s acting, directing, front of house, or anything in between, I know that I will find good, talented, and positive people wherever I go. CRT has been incredibly supportive of me this summer, and I have learned so much about professional theatre and professional work in general. I’m going to miss it here.

This week involved a lot of goodbyes. Several of my friends left before I did, especially those working in the shops. Most of the actors will leave two days after me, which means I’ll have to say goodbyes to all of them before I leave. It’s so interesting seeing where everyone else is going, either back to school or to new jobs all across the country. I’m going to have a lot of connections at a lot of different theatres across the country, and I’m excited to work in theatre in a lot of different places and meet new people.

All of my supervisors have been very supportive of me, something that I very much appreciate. The fact that the intern program was more formal and organized led to more formal mentorship from company members, meaning that they were well equipped to support our professional development. This week, I was able to work a lot on a monologue that I plan to use for fall auditions at Cornell! My mentor, Bethany, sat me down and ran the monologue multiple times with me. We spent an hour working on specific moments in the monologue, trying to add more nuance and characterization to every line of the speech. I feel very fortunate to have such talented people around me who I can ask for help and advice. That’s actually one of the things that I appreciate most about Cornell- the size of the classes and the focus that the professors have on each class means that they can be amazing resources for each student that they have. This summer has given me a new appreciation for how important mentorship is, and I’m looking forward to being a mentor to an incoming theatre student with Student Theatre Council this next year. I want to share what I learned this summer with all the theatre students at Cornell, both new and old.

I will definitely miss CRT. I formed a lot of friendships within the company and learned a lot about what it actually means to work in professional theatre. It’s not always glamorous (especially not Front of House) and you’re not always publicly applauded for what you do. But the work is important, and I am extremely glad that I was able to do it. CRT was an amazing first foray into professional theatre- one that I hope to replicate in many other summers in my future career. Cornell was instrumental in my success this summer- I learned so much about theatre in my first year at Cornell, all of which I was able to apply to my internship this summer. I also learned the importance of connecting with teachers and mentors at Cornell, as well as how to juggle a full schedule and survive. Even just one year at Cornell prepared me for a full-time job at CRT, and I am hugely grateful to everyone at Cornell who helped me achieve this goal. Thank you.