Student Blogger: Austin Watts

I am no stranger to a full schedule in the realm of theatre, usually finding myself engaged in several projects at once. My current calendar, for better or worse, is no different.

Theatre is the cornerstone of literally every other art form. While every other art form transports viewers to another world through sight or sound, theatre suspends one’s disbelief by literally creating a whole world right before the viewer’s eyes, unseparated by space, time, or a screen.

My biggest piece of advice to anyone starting the college process would easily be to stay as organized as possible: communicate with your teachers and people who have gone through it before, Google Sheets is your friend, and remember your “Why.” Keep your passion at the forefront and you’ll have and endless supply of all the motivation you could ever need.

Prior to being cast as Hans, I had already been assigned to research him as part of my duties as a dramaturg. Naturally, as soon as I found out I would be playing the role, I consumed every piece of media related to him and his life that I could.

Senior year has already been one like no other, and I look forward to continuing to update my blog with all the exciting events that take place over the course of the remaining 164 days until graduation!

At International Thespian Festival, which I attended this past week, I had the opportunity to participate in a young playwrights professional development intensive hosted by the Dramatists Guild. This experience not only expanded my understanding of the business side of playwriting but also inspired me creatively in ways I hadn’t anticipated.

Today, I share my insider tips on acing callbacks based on years of experience in theatre, film, and modeling. From mastering material to choosing the right attire and staying mentally sharp, I've got you covered. Let's turn those nerve-wracking moments into opportunities to shine!

Junior year of high school is infamous for being the busiest and most intense. In my experience, I had to balance two AP classes, two performing groups, standardized testing, and more. In this blog, I am going to recap all of my theatre-related endeavors month-by-month throughout this school year, all the way from July 2023 to the present.

Playing with Poe’s works and diving into the realm of devising for the first time was a real growth experience for my peers and I. Using experimentation to create a formal script was foreign to all of us, but we ended up creating a piece we were all proud of!

I am eternally grateful for my experience in junior high theatre, and appreciate the foundation that it laid for my future pursuits of academic theatre. The value of theatre education from an early age cannot be overstated, and I encourage any tween who is considering giving drama a try to go for it: you never know what you may find.

Having personally experienced the effects of creating theatre on a human’s development, I cannot help but smile at the thought of getting to be apart of that process in any capacity. I find the deepest fulfillment not in my own art, but getting to see the process of others creating theirs.

Brielle's overall goal with stage management and in life in general is to make people feel valued, heard, and as if they matter. She strongly cares about helping people find joy, whether that be because she met them as a stage manager, or just as another acquaintance, she believes everyone deserves to feel fulfilled.

Despite the fact that much of the evolution of the entertainment industry over the last century could easily be attributed to queer artists and their work, it is only in recent years that both audiences and producers seem to have become comfortable with receiving LGBTQ+ stories on a large scale.

Theatre is usually designed to be a collaborative art form, but competitions for high-school thespians give us the opportunity to express our suppressed competitive instincts and use the skills we have developed in a “win-or-lose” environment.

The maintenance of honesty and fairness in all educational endeavors is what characterizes academic integrity. Upholding ethical standards involves creating work that genuinely represents my own efforts and ideas.

Nearly every great performance was preceded by an audition. As an actor, I’ve been through more audition processes than I can count. For many, an audition is one of the scariest parts of the whole process. However, I’ve picked up a few tricks that help me put my best foot forward in every audition.

Burnout. No matter what educational or professional space you exist in, it is probably a familiar phrase. But what is it?

In this interview, I got to sit down with Denver Dickenson Jr., one of my personal role models as a performer. They spent their summer in New York representing AZ at the Jimmy Awards as a nominee before moving there to pursue a BFA in Musical Theatre at Pace University. I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.

'I am a nineteenth century plate spinner, with rods made out of persistence and Lexapro, and plates that look a whole lot like scripts, cash registers, and the AMSCO United States History textbook (Advanced Placement Edition).'

Technicians: often overlooked, yet the very foundation of the entertainment industry. How does this sentiment apply in a high school theatre program?