Theatre (Performance as Public Practice) Pre-Grad Intern
Karen Rodriguez
The Intellectual Entrepreneurship Internship has been a significant asset in gaining the necessary experience to decipher whether or not graduate school is the next step in my career path. Not only did it give me the experience and practice in the field in which I wished to expand my skills and knowledge on, but it also allowed me to realize whether or not it is truly the profession I want to pursue in the future. For the internship this semester, I was fortunate enough to work with my mentor Beliza Torres Narvaez, who is a doctorate student at UT. We focused on the field of Performance as Public Practice, or PPP, which was an interesting mix considering the fact that I am currently an International Business major at the Red McCombs School of Business. My personal goal at the start of the semester, which I kept in mind throughout my experience as part of the internship, was to reconcile my love for theatre and my intrigue for business and law. For quite some time I had been thinking about double majoring in both fields; however, I felt that they were too different and I wanted to focus only on one. I am now proud to say that I have been officially accepted into the Fine Arts School and will be partaking in a double major in Theatre Studies starting next fall.
Besides reconciling both practices, Beliza wanted to show me what graduate school was truly like for a doctorate student in the PPP program. I didn't know whether or not graduate school was for me; I always figured that I'd just go to law school, but I wasn't fully convinced. Undergraduates are often left in the dark when it comes to the next step in their education, and I was no exception. Thus, it was a good opportunity to not only have an inside look at graduate school, but also to see if a career in theatre academia would suit me. I always looked at theatre from an actor's perspective, never from a perspective of a student. The questions remained: What would theatre as an academic study entail? What would it teach me? Would I even like it?
One of the first experiences that I was fortunate enough to have with Beliza was a sit-down talk with acclaimed performer and writer, Robbie McCauley. It was a lecture in which she discussed her life journey as a black woman who faced prejudice and racism, and what writing about those experiences entailed. She then spoke about the transition from writing solo performances and then translating it onto the stage. It was a fascinating talk and it really plunged me headfirst into what Performance as Public Practice concerns - the idea that theatre can be found within everyday life in all kinds of contexts. Robbie McCauley spoke about how inspiration for her work came from her experiences because that is all she really knew and has seen through her very own eyes. Her work, therefore, focuses mostly on the African American community. However, she has also worked on projects in which she traveled to different communities in places such as, Boston and Louisiana, and interviewed others about their life experiences trying to gather a sensibility to other peoples' perspectives. She, along with a group of colleagues, then took these interviews and translated them onto the theatre stage. Her theatre work focused largely on the relevance and relation to others using her own life experiences as the medium to achieve this. This first experience, sitting in a room with PPP graduate students, was nothing of what I expected. I felt quite at home and comfortable munching on the complimentary cheese and crackers, but at the same it was difficult for me to truly understand the extent and the lengths that the PPP field reached.
The next lecture I attended was one with a queer woman who was a DIY, or Do It Yourself, artist. This experience was completely staggering. It was much more interactive and performative; however, it shared a common theme with Robbie's lecture because all of the performances were inspired by her own experiences as a queer woman. She talked about a DIY project in which she gathered people who were overweight or who were considered different by societal norms, would have them dress up to make them feel glamorous and for once, beautiful, and she would then photograph them and record the event. Her whole view of life as a PPP artist was that everything was an event; thus, why not record it? After this lecture, I began to feel a sense of understanding about what PPP meant as an artist myself; performance could be found in my everyday application of lipstick or the brushing of my teeth if I wanted a performance to be found in such events.
Many of the so- called mundane and mediocre performances of our everyday lives were found by these PPP artists and were somehow turned around and given meaning and/or beauty. It was a beautiful way of looking at life. I felt Shakespeare's familiar quote, All the world's a stage, resonate. However, I still felt I needed to understand what PPP meant as an academic study through a student's eyes.
The most eye-opening first look into graduate school, and by far my favorite, was visiting Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois to attend the Radical Intersections Conference. I cannot express how honored I was in attending. Besides the fact that it was a historical conference for it was the first conference that gathered only PPP graduate students, from the looks of it, I was also the only undergraduate student fortunate enough to attend. At first, I did not know what to expect and to be honest, I was very nervous. However, the experience could not have been more exhilarating; I was enthralled. I expected to be a tad bit bored because, after all, I was going to be listening to graduate students' dissertations for a whole weekend; however, much to my happy surprise, this was not the case at all. The conference really gave me a scope of what performance studies can entail. I networked with so many amazing people of very different and diverse backgrounds. Not only had they been performers themselves, traveled and made it through a journey that planted them right into graduate school, but now they were studying the very thing that they were in love with doing. The most jaw dropping aspect of this was the fact that the more I talked to people, the less I could limit performance studies as an academic study. Furthermore, their dissertations entailed subjects that not only were fitting of the people I talked to, a written manifestation of the person's work and aspirations as an actor, but the subjects were also highly focused on performances that effected social and political change and that questioned societal norms. Talk about inspiring!
One of the best parts of the conference was the fact that the graduate students had such approachability to them that it was easy to bombard them with questions; I got more than 100 different perspectives on graduate school in one weekend alone. Before these talks, I had always felt pressured to graduate and just plunge into graduate school. However, many of these people had taken some time off to explore the world, act, dream, what have you, and then finally settle down a little wiser and a little more experienced into the graduate school setting. It just made me realize how subjective graduate school can be; in other words, I don't have to go right away. I can explore until I feel that it is the right fit in that particular time and that particular place in my life. Also, to see the accomplishments that these students had had before attending graduate school was so incredibly inspiring. It shook me. Honestly, I just wanted to get out of there and do something; something to bring about some kind of change in even just one person's life. There were powerful people in that room and I cannot describe the immense feeling of awe and reverence it brought.
Overall these were the experiences that were the most significant in my mind as I progressed in learning, not only of graduate school, but also of PPP. Ironically, the beginning experiences and the ending experience were the ones that had the most impact. I feel that as someone who has known and loved theatre for a short and yet zealous four years, I had not done it justice. I had only experienced theatre from an actor's point of view, and a very selfish view at that. My experience, although life- changing, was about trivial performances; I could bring joy into a person's life for a good two hours. With the internship experience, I learned about what an amazing and powerful tool theatre can be to truly bring about change.
This, to me, opened new boundaries concerning my aspirations as an actress. Not only did it broaden my horizons as a performer, but I realized I had not allowed theatre to thrive in my life to its full potential. There was a whole academic aspect to it I had yet to explore!
To be honest, this has complicated my life quite a bit, but in a way I feel to be good for me. I thought I had everything figured out- I love acting and I love law; therefore, I should get degrees in Theatre Studies and International Business and send myself off to New York City in the hopes of becoming the next Broadway star, all the while attending law school in a prestigious school such as, NYU or Columbia University. This was my plan. However, now I feel the need to explore theatre for what it is and what it could be for me. After all, I've never believed the saying Ignorance is bliss; I've always wanted to know, despite the consequences.
These days I've been thinking about what graduate school would be like for me if I decided to forego the law school idea, and go to graduate school with a focus in Performance as Public Practice. It has also made me wonder if it will ever be possible to actually find a career path in which I would be able to marry off business law and theatre harmoniously. I have yet to find the answer that appeals to me. I'm not sure what the future holds for me, and although I am such a practical person and not knowing the next step to "the plan" scares me to no end, it also feels exciting. It is as if I have a better idea of who I am as a person, and what kind of career would best suit me. And thus, I leave with just that - a feeling of excitement.
The Intellectual Entrepreneurship Internship has been a significant asset in gaining the necessary experience to decipher whether or not graduate school is the next step in my career path. Not only did it give me the experience and practice in the field in which I wished to expand my skills and knowledge on, but it also allowed me to realize whether or not it is truly the profession I want to pursue in the future. For the internship this semester, I was fortunate enough to work with my mentor Beliza Torres Narvaez, who is a doctorate student at UT. We focused on the field of Performance as Public Practice, or PPP, which was an interesting mix considering the fact that I am currently an International Business major at the Red McCombs School of Business. My personal goal at the start of the semester, which I kept in mind throughout my experience as part of the internship, was to reconcile my love for theatre and my intrigue for business and law. For quite some time I had been thinking about double majoring in both fields; however, I felt that they were too different and I wanted to focus only on one. I am now proud to say that I have been officially accepted into the Fine Arts School and will be partaking in a double major in Theatre Studies starting next fall.
Besides reconciling both practices, Beliza wanted to show me what graduate school was truly like for a doctorate student in the PPP program. I didn't know whether or not graduate school was for me; I always figured that I'd just go to law school, but I wasn't fully convinced. Undergraduates are often left in the dark when it comes to the next step in their education, and I was no exception. Thus, it was a good opportunity to not only have an inside look at graduate school, but also to see if a career in theatre academia would suit me. I always looked at theatre from an actor's perspective, never from a perspective of a student. The questions remained: What would theatre as an academic study entail? What would it teach me? Would I even like it?
One of the first experiences that I was fortunate enough to have with Beliza was a sit-down talk with acclaimed performer and writer, Robbie McCauley. It was a lecture in which she discussed her life journey as a black woman who faced prejudice and racism, and what writing about those experiences entailed. She then spoke about the transition from writing solo performances and then translating it onto the stage. It was a fascinating talk and it really plunged me headfirst into what Performance as Public Practice concerns - the idea that theatre can be found within everyday life in all kinds of contexts. Robbie McCauley spoke about how inspiration for her work came from her experiences because that is all she really knew and has seen through her very own eyes. Her work, therefore, focuses mostly on the African American community. However, she has also worked on projects in which she traveled to different communities in places such as, Boston and Louisiana, and interviewed others about their life experiences trying to gather a sensibility to other peoples' perspectives. She, along with a group of colleagues, then took these interviews and translated them onto the theatre stage. Her theatre work focused largely on the relevance and relation to others using her own life experiences as the medium to achieve this. This first experience, sitting in a room with PPP graduate students, was nothing of what I expected. I felt quite at home and comfortable munching on the complimentary cheese and crackers, but at the same it was difficult for me to truly understand the extent and the lengths that the PPP field reached.
The next lecture I attended was one with a queer woman who was a DIY, or Do It Yourself, artist. This experience was completely staggering. It was much more interactive and performative; however, it shared a common theme with Robbie's lecture because all of the performances were inspired by her own experiences as a queer woman. She talked about a DIY project in which she gathered people who were overweight or who were considered different by societal norms, would have them dress up to make them feel glamorous and for once, beautiful, and she would then photograph them and record the event. Her whole view of life as a PPP artist was that everything was an event; thus, why not record it? After this lecture, I began to feel a sense of understanding about what PPP meant as an artist myself; performance could be found in my everyday application of lipstick or the brushing of my teeth if I wanted a performance to be found in such events.
Many of the so- called mundane and mediocre performances of our everyday lives were found by these PPP artists and were somehow turned around and given meaning and/or beauty. It was a beautiful way of looking at life. I felt Shakespeare's familiar quote, All the world's a stage, resonate. However, I still felt I needed to understand what PPP meant as an academic study through a student's eyes.
The most eye-opening first look into graduate school, and by far my favorite, was visiting Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois to attend the Radical Intersections Conference. I cannot express how honored I was in attending. Besides the fact that it was a historical conference for it was the first conference that gathered only PPP graduate students, from the looks of it, I was also the only undergraduate student fortunate enough to attend. At first, I did not know what to expect and to be honest, I was very nervous. However, the experience could not have been more exhilarating; I was enthralled. I expected to be a tad bit bored because, after all, I was going to be listening to graduate students' dissertations for a whole weekend; however, much to my happy surprise, this was not the case at all. The conference really gave me a scope of what performance studies can entail. I networked with so many amazing people of very different and diverse backgrounds. Not only had they been performers themselves, traveled and made it through a journey that planted them right into graduate school, but now they were studying the very thing that they were in love with doing. The most jaw dropping aspect of this was the fact that the more I talked to people, the less I could limit performance studies as an academic study. Furthermore, their dissertations entailed subjects that not only were fitting of the people I talked to, a written manifestation of the person's work and aspirations as an actor, but the subjects were also highly focused on performances that effected social and political change and that questioned societal norms. Talk about inspiring!
One of the best parts of the conference was the fact that the graduate students had such approachability to them that it was easy to bombard them with questions; I got more than 100 different perspectives on graduate school in one weekend alone. Before these talks, I had always felt pressured to graduate and just plunge into graduate school. However, many of these people had taken some time off to explore the world, act, dream, what have you, and then finally settle down a little wiser and a little more experienced into the graduate school setting. It just made me realize how subjective graduate school can be; in other words, I don't have to go right away. I can explore until I feel that it is the right fit in that particular time and that particular place in my life. Also, to see the accomplishments that these students had had before attending graduate school was so incredibly inspiring. It shook me. Honestly, I just wanted to get out of there and do something; something to bring about some kind of change in even just one person's life. There were powerful people in that room and I cannot describe the immense feeling of awe and reverence it brought.
Overall these were the experiences that were the most significant in my mind as I progressed in learning, not only of graduate school, but also of PPP. Ironically, the beginning experiences and the ending experience were the ones that had the most impact. I feel that as someone who has known and loved theatre for a short and yet zealous four years, I had not done it justice. I had only experienced theatre from an actor's point of view, and a very selfish view at that. My experience, although life- changing, was about trivial performances; I could bring joy into a person's life for a good two hours. With the internship experience, I learned about what an amazing and powerful tool theatre can be to truly bring about change.
This, to me, opened new boundaries concerning my aspirations as an actress. Not only did it broaden my horizons as a performer, but I realized I had not allowed theatre to thrive in my life to its full potential. There was a whole academic aspect to it I had yet to explore!
To be honest, this has complicated my life quite a bit, but in a way I feel to be good for me. I thought I had everything figured out- I love acting and I love law; therefore, I should get degrees in Theatre Studies and International Business and send myself off to New York City in the hopes of becoming the next Broadway star, all the while attending law school in a prestigious school such as, NYU or Columbia University. This was my plan. However, now I feel the need to explore theatre for what it is and what it could be for me. After all, I've never believed the saying Ignorance is bliss; I've always wanted to know, despite the consequences.
These days I've been thinking about what graduate school would be like for me if I decided to forego the law school idea, and go to graduate school with a focus in Performance as Public Practice. It has also made me wonder if it will ever be possible to actually find a career path in which I would be able to marry off business law and theatre harmoniously. I have yet to find the answer that appeals to me. I'm not sure what the future holds for me, and although I am such a practical person and not knowing the next step to "the plan" scares me to no end, it also feels exciting. It is as if I have a better idea of who I am as a person, and what kind of career would best suit me. And thus, I leave with just that - a feeling of excitement.