By Kate Flexter, ’10, A&E Section Editor
Kate: How did the arts at CCDS prepare you for the arts in college? Did you feel prepared or not? What are the arts like at Princeton?
Veronica: In college theater, everyone has different priorities. I work on a show and some of my cast-mates want to pursue theater professionally, while others have only acted in one or two shows before, and others have always done theater, but they will stop as soon as they graduate and go on to become neurosurgeons and politicians—so, the experiences vary, and as with most things, you get as much out as you put into it. As in high school, it’s up to me to balance my time and energy. Being in a show and keeping a little busy helps me stay on top of my work better than if I were left to my own devices.
The difference is, in high school, if I were rehearsing until 2 or 3 in the morning, my mom would’ve called in and complained. I certainly didn’t have the option to put theater above my academic classes … It’s funny because college theater makers are not professional, and in some senses the attitude need not be so intense; however, oftentimes precisely because we are not professional and have no professional contracts, we can do things like start rehearsal at 10 p.m. and put on productions for which the actors are the entire design and tech crew. We live in a gray zone that can be the most rewarding and the most frustrating.
Our biggest obstacle is scheduling. When everybody juggles a full class load and generally also a few extracurriculars, getting more than three people in a room at once can be a serious challenge. I prefer to work on shows with smaller casts, and of course the most rewarding experiences come when everyone involved really cares about the project.
Kate: Is it difficult to get involved in the arts at college? And how do you go about doing it? Would you say that it is more personal initiative or otherwise?
Veronica: How difficult it is to get involved depends on where you are, who you are, and what you want to do. I’ve heard from friends at other schools who have had real difficulty breaking into theater … because their programs were too small or too competitive. At Princeton, theater happens on many different scales. Whether you’re involved with the theater department itself or one of several student-run organizations, whether you’ve got a big budget, small budget, or no budget, and whether you’re doing original work or classical work—if you like and want to perform, chances are you can work something out.
If acting or directing isn’t your thing, on this campus at least, production teams are always on the lookout for stage managers, student designers, and technicians. In my experience, if you like to help, you will be very, very popular.
I’d say it’s all about personal initiative. When I first came to Princeton, the upperclassmen told me that I should audition for anything and everything, which I did. Eventually I got into something, and then people remember you from this or that show and the ball begins to roll. There are two sides to every coin. On the one hand, you want to get involved, and you have no experience—great! Fresh blood! Jump on in, no pressure, new experiences, blah, blah, blah. But then on the other hand, when you’re up for that big role, or when it came down to the wire last spring and all the juniors were applying for performance slots in the department’s mainstage season as part of their senior theses…
In so many ways, the college theater scene becomes a microcosm of the business beyond. It comes down to who you know, who you’ve worked with, and who your friends are—which can be a little discouraging, if somehow you weren’t in the right place at the right time and you think, well, I was only a sophomore, I was spending my time in Econ 101!
In that sense, I’ve gotten very lucky here at Princeton. The permanent theater faculty isn’t so large, so instead they bring in guest professionals from New York and elsewhere to teach for a semester or two. I’ve been exposed to some very inspirational artists who were willing to take the time to work with me. Also, I had no idea when I came that there was so much theater happening … I’m challenged even to see just the pieces my friends are working on.
The flip side of auditioning for anything is that you can’t do everything. Now that I’m a little older, I try to pick my projects. With the thesis looming, I have to be more selective. I’m majoring in English, specializing in dramatic literature, with a certificate in theater. Basically, I’m majoring in plays and minoring in performance. For my senior thesis, I’m adapting Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland to the stage and performing in a four-person production of the script with puppets in the spring! Weirdness of weirdnesses, my production opens the same day as Tim Burton’s new Alice movie. I guess something’s in the air. I could not be more excited for this project.
Kate: What did you do this summer? Was it a good experience? What did you learn?
Veronica: I spent the summer taking what amounted to a semester at [New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts] undergraduate conservatory. I spent two months in Amsterdam at [an experimental theater workshop], training with 23 students from NYU. Eight hours a day of clowning, singing, and postmodern dancing made for the summer of a lifetime. The work was physical, fun, and personal. I learned to pursue pleasure in my work. If there’s no joy, then where is the love? I try to have fun with whatever I’m doing. They encouraged us to start from where we are, so to speak. You’re feeling a certain way: don’t ask why. Ask, what can I do with this? How can I use this? The more I learn about acting, the more I find it applies to life in general.
My experience overseas solidified my desire to apply to MFA programs in acting. Cattle call auditions come in January/February, so we will see how it goes!
Kate: Do you prefer playwriting or acting? Why?
Veronica: I came to Princeton thinking I wanted to pursue playwriting and then for a whole host of reasons spent my first few years acting. For a while, I thought, hey, I can act while I’m young and write when I’m old and have lived a little and have something to say. I kept separating the two in my mind. But what I’ve really learned after three years in college is that the more I don’t separate the two, the better. My favorite theater classes have been interdisciplinary: the ensemble of students writes and performs material, each discipline informing the other. If you’re pursuing theater arts, you can always do both. I feel most inspired to write when I’m working with good actors and feel most like acting when I read an awesome play.
I think I am going to focus on acting for a while because I like the physical aspects, but you’re never locked into one thing. My dad asks me, Dear, what are you thinking of doing after you graduate? If you do go to graduate school, what are your plans after that? And I say, well, the unfortunate and beautiful thing, Dad, is that I just have to be in the right place at the right time.