Student Blog: An Introduction

Hello, BroadwayWorld readers! I'm Brighton (they/them) and I'm a current senior at Marymount Manhattan College on the Upper East Side of New York City! I am studying for my BA in Theatre Arts with concentrations in Directing and in Theatre & New Media.

About myself... this is always such a hard ask because I deeply feel that I am not defined by just a few things... or my college program, what I'm studying... the kind of music I listen to... you know! You feel that way too, I'm sure! We're all multitudinous in our own special ways.

Despite that though, I think the simplest way to describe myself is by saying I'm a theatre artist foremostly, with a goal of producing and directing works in the future! I don't like to limit myself to one skill in my belt, as I have many... I also don't like bragging, but, hey, #HumbleBrag, I can do a lot. I've spent my high school career studying musical theatre performance, moved to directing and technical work in my college years, and have stage managed several shows in my home area back in Connecticut previously. My personal favorite credit is Heathers with GetUp Stage Company, where I stage managed and did a bit of prop design as well as operation of light and sound cues during the show itself.

I established a company of my own around this time last year, actually! We just passed its one year anniversary on October 27th. We had the intention of putting on a winter performance in late 2020-early 2021, but for obvious and glaring health reasons, we were unable to truly do that-- we instead ran a virtual-based intensive, writing our own musical from scratch with just a few elements in mind to guide us in our process. I don't think the end product came out perfectly (we can all critique ourselves to death, right?), but we learned a lot of important lessons about how devising theatre works! We also got to spend a lot of time exploring new skills where we thought we had none, and really had a blast doing so. You can watch our full production on YouTube for free!

Currently, on my nights and weekends off from classes, I work as a merchandise sales associate at various shows in Manhattan. You can catch me working at Stomp, downtown at the Orpheum Theater, at Little Shop of Horrors in Hell's Kitchen, at Freestyle Love Supreme at the Booth, or at Caroline, or Change at Studio 54 (each show, I will say, has very cute merchandise, and no it's not just because I work there). I'm starting to get a handle on things at work and it's a good gig!

Whenever I happen to have time between homework and work-work, I also run a small arts and crafting business out of my home. You can find my work here and here. I love painting and drawing as well as collage! I try to do a good mix of a lot of things in my artwork (which is also part of the reason I love propmaking. It's the best of ALL the crafting worlds!)

What else... student life? I am a full-time student at MMC, so I have a full course load on my plate along with all the other responsibilities that come with adult-ing in New York and being a college student in general. My favorite course right now is probably a tie between Theatre Games and Improvisation (which is actually a weak point for me-- there's always room to improve!!) and Intermediate Playwriting! I chose to go to Marymount because I really enjoyed the vibe I got from my audition process there, and, not the least to mention, they got my preferred name and pronouns right as soon as I made them aware of that. They were the only school to do that relatively smoothly in my application process, and they continue to support me and my trans self currently.

We have a lot of clubs and student-led organizations on campus: there's everything from a Marvel fan club to an a capella group. We have lots of events on campus as well! Some are smaller parties and meetings organized by clubs, others are school-wide events like our annual Apple and Strawberry Fests (basically street festivals with a lot of clubs recruiting and food galore!). I'm a board member on Marymount's Dungeons & Dragons club and we just hosted a Halloween game night this past week!

I'm working on producing a show called All Together Now! from Music Theatre International, and that will premiere in downtown NYC the second weekend of November! It's my first in-person show I've ever produced and I'm really looking forward to it. It's also my company's New York debut! If you're interested, you can find tickets here!

It's a celebration of live theatre returning to stages all around the world. We've selected a rather eclectic mix of songs from the choices they've given us. I will be singing in it as well as wearing many other hats that go along with creating a show. I hope you'll consider joining us if you're in the area, it's going to be a fun evening!

I think that's all that's really going on with me at the moment! Midterms are upon us, and I wish all other students out there the best of luck and good grades! Hope you had a happy and safe Halloweekend, y'all!

Signing off for now,

Brighton <3