You know...

As much as I complain about the life of academia and the simple fact of being a student, I have already learned endless amounts of knowledge about acting--things that will not only benefit my performance as an actor, but also as a singer and dancer as well. (Note: I say this having just had 12 hours of sleep and a day away from the awful week of midterms, so I might not always feel this way.) It's so interesting... I'm actually having to defend my education right now. (And I'm also surprisingly happy to do so.) Someone is gabbing about how they resent the fact that SMU students are being cast in Dallas Theater Center productions--namely Dallas Theater Center. You know what? I actually hear that they are fantastic and I have absolutely no doubt that it's the truth. (I hope to see the show this evening.) Here's the quote from Lawson Taitte's review:
"Three of the four young lovers are Southern Methodist University students. No problem. In fact, Matt Tallman's Demetrius and especially Abbey Siegworth's Helena are real discoveries."
Yep. Abbey is pretty fierce. I now understand why (it appears) all the SMU students seemingly have this air of "I know better than you." Maybe it's not always the case, but sometimes it is. It's probably the most thorough theatrical training in Dallas, if not in Texas. If you can stick it out and have the professors harp on you every day amidst reading 100s of pages of Uta Hagen/Stanislavski/play after play after play and constantly learning new monologues and scenes and dissecting them to unbearable degrees, there's something pretty impressive to be said for that.

Yeah, it's an entirely different skill to "get the job" to learn how to audition, and to function in the incestuous skewed world of Dallas theatre politics (and this is a skill that most SMU students probably don't have...) but there's also something to be said for those who have done their homework and know how to approach the material once they have the job. Maybe the students process all the info differently and they will all have varying levels of success, but the fact of even coming out of that training (if you treat it as you should) is pretty incredible. You know how you can have an epic experience learning in a master class? Imagine having that master class every day...or rather, four times a day. Kim Grigsby, music director of Spring Awakening and Light in the Piazza worked with us all this last week and all the coming week--and the students didn't eve think twice about it. Totally normal. I mean, really--who else has that kind of opportunity?

Anyway, this is the end of my rant. Still sorting out my thoughts. Still frustrated and annoyed at the bitter resentment.

I mean I see where you're coming from, but get over it.

...maybe I should turn this into a potential TJ.com piece....I'm on it.