Collegiate Theatrics: USC's SALOME MERGIA

Theater's next generation of actors will come from all over the globe, to be certain, but one might find an impressive concentration of artists on the campus of the University of Southern California, where the list of candidates for the Master of Fine Arts in acting rivals any group to be found anywhere.

Take Salome Mergia, for example. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh (where she majored in business while minoring in theater), her resume includes roles at The Guthrie Theater, Harlem Repertory Theatre and Kuntu Repertory Theatre.

Now, from February 6 through March 6, Mergia joins her classmates, her friends, her comrades - his very theatrical family, to be sure - to take the stage during this year's MFA Acting Repertory at the Scene Dock Theatre, bringing to new life onstage productions of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera (adapted by Marc Blitzstein) and Anna Deveare Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Also featured in repertory is The Oresteia Project, inspired by Aeschyus' Oresteia, written and directed by David Bridel in collaboration with the MFA Acting Class of 2016.

Here is your opportunity to get to know USC's Salome Mergia in this week's edition of Collegiate Theatrics. Miraculously, it would seem, she found time to sit down and consider our questions - and to offer some elucidating answers - about her time at USC and how her experiences there have prepared her for the future...

What's been your favorite part of studying at USC? I have a few favorite things about studying at USC. First is the location, I really wanted to be in Los Angeles after living in NYC for two years. I'm definitely a warm weather person so being here is awesome. I also love that the world's best film school is a few feet from the USC School of Drama. It has been an extension of our training being able to work with newest and best filmmakers. Lastly, the faculty and my ensemble; the faculty puts their heart and soul into teaching us and stretching us as actors and people, and my ensemble has challenged me in ways that has allowed tremendous growth within myself the last few years.

Has grad school at USC lived up to its advance hype? Grad school at USC has gone beyond what I could have imagined and I feel that the impact of it will continue to unfold as I leave here May 2016.

What stands out in your mind as the best/favorite/most impactful (I hate using "Impactful," just so you know...but it works here) experience at USC? The most impactful experience here has been working on a solo performance piece throughout my third semester at USC in Luis Alfaro's class. During that class we shared a story that we needed to tell. It was a time to question why I was the way I way and to reveal myself in a way that I hadn't before. It was a beautiful experience.

The most memorable and favorite part of my experience here has been finding the rhythm of my ensemble through the many ups and downs of being together 24/7.

What's been the biggest difference in studying theater in grad school vs. undergrad? I didn't study theater for my undergraduate degree; I studied business. But I can gather that there is a lot more focus on specificity in performance at the graduate level. I also feel that there is a lot of personal growth that happens in graduate school that I feel I was more prepared to undergo than when I was in college.

Have your dreams/aspirations changed over the course of time spent at USC? My dreams and aspirations have expanded over the course at USC. I see myself being able to do more in terms of the different performance mediums. I want to do everything.

Where do you hope to find yourself in five years? In five years I'll be a lead on a sitcom series on a major TV or streaming network as I continue working in theater. I will also have a family.

If anyone could play you in a stage film version of your life, who? I'll answer that question in 50 years.

In addition to the MFA Acting Repertory from February 6 to March 6, USC's MFA Class of 2016 will be featured in a pair of showcases in New York and Los Angeles:

• NEW YORK: Wednesday, April 20, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. at The Ailey Citigroup Theatre at The Ailey Studios, 405 West 55th Street
• LOS ANGELES: Tuesday, April 26, at 7 p.m. and Wednesday, April 27, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Odyssey Theatre, 2055 South Sepulveda Boulevard

For more information about USC's Class of 2016 MFA Actors, who also will be featured in Collegiate Theatrics for the next few weeks, go to www.dramaticarts.usc.edu/showcase 2016/mfashowcase/

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