Redshirt senior Spatak Chino wrestles Clarion's Jacob Keller in the Convo. Chino beat Keller 15-7, helping Ohio defeat Clarion 40-4.
Redshirt senior Phil Wellington wrestles with Clarion's Edgar Ruano, on Jan. 16. Wellington won over Ruano in a major 11-1 decision. Ohio defeated Clarion overall with 40-4.
Redshirt senior Phil Wellington wrestles with Clarion's Edgar Ruano, on Jan. 16. Wellington won over Ruano in a major 11-1 decison. Ohio defeated Clarion 40-4.
Student Union members including Bobby Walker, a junior studying women's, gender and sexuality studies (center) and Ryan Powers, a junior studying philosophy (right), gathered in Cutler Hall on Friday to protest Ohio University's handling of staffing at the Survivor Advocacy Program.
Devin Bass, senior cornerback for the Ohio University football team, poses after practice in Walter Fieldhouse.
For the next three years, 10 faces will be a common sight on the Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater and Forum Theater stages. The Division of Theater’s Professional Actor Training Program cycles in one class of students every three years and is welcoming a new crop of graduate students this fall.Some have traveled to all 50 states. One just finished her undergraduate education. One really loves dinosaurs while another enjoys trying his hand at 3-D animation. One is even married to a first-year production design and technology graduate student. Most say their reasoning for coming to Ohio University is due to Shelley Delaney, the head of the program.To introduce them to the OU and Athens audiences, The Post sat down with all 10 graduate actors to see why they enjoy acting and why they wanted to come to OU.
What is your favorite role you’ve ever done?Exit 27 and I played a guy named Brody. It was the most complicated part that I’ve played and still have. It’s just so much going on with it. I enjoyed trying to parcel out all the details and work on it. And it was my first professional full-length show.How long have you been acting?I’ve been acting for about nine years.What do you enjoy most about acting?I could go on and on. The storytelling aspect and the teaching people how to be human beings and being a human being. … As far as how in an artificial environment, like a theater, can transport an audience to a different place if done well. … The teaching human beings how to be human just by showing the ‘mirror up to nature,’ like Hamlet said, and seeing our imperfections and that it’s OK to be a human being … What attracted me to theater initially too was I saw parts of myself that I didn’t know other people felt, so there’s almost a communal aspect to it that was really cool too.Why did you choose to come to the graduate program at OU?Well, I was researching a bunch of different programs that I auditioned for at URTA (University/Resident Theatre Association)… There were 20 schools and based on my research of really laying down a foundation and teaching a really solid core of training that was a big perk for why I wanted to be here. I emailed Shelley and asked her some questions and she was very, very helpful and engaging, and when I actually met her, I felt very comfortable. And that sold it for me.What are you hoping to get out of the program after three years?I am really interested in building a complete toolkit, using techniques that I learned here and that I learned over the years, and just feel confident in my ability to work on a variety of material.What’s a fun fact about you?I performed at Carnegie Hall with my high school orchestra and everybody else was really good and I was not. … The trip, even though it was with the orchestra, was when I decided to be an actor because I saw Wicked.See him as Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing Nov. 11-14, 18-21
What is your favorite role you’ve ever done?I’m sure that there’s one to come. There have always been things that I’ve gotten out of every role for different reasons. But I always like the roles where they seem to be serving this really great purpose of informing the audience of this story. … This fusion of acting and purpose.How long have you been acting?On and off since I was eight. I’m 28 now. Probably, with the intention of wanting to do it as a career, seriously for seven years — studying it seriously and learning what the craft is.What do you enjoy most about acting?There’s a spiritual thing that happens … I had a teacher once say, as an actor you’re a vessel and you open yourself up to let it come through you. … Acting is a mysterious thing and very spiritual. … There’s something sort of out of this world that happens to you when you’re on a stage and you’re cued in to what other people on stage are doing and the audience is with you.Why did you choose to come to the graduate program at OU?I like to say OU chose me. I didn’t even really know about OU before I was applying. … So many times, I go into situations and I know what I want – picking a guy or picking a school and something else emerges and you go, ‘Oh this is so right for me!’ I got a callback, and Ohio was the only one to give me an offer. I didn’t visit and I only met Shelley. Shelley took a chance on me and trusted her instincts in terms of picking a class, and I’m going to trust it too. I was coming in, going all right, I hope they know what they were doing when they picked me. Now, we’re going on week three of class, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else now. The glove fits. What are you hoping to get out of the program after three years?A deeper understanding of when it “works on stage” and why it works. Before, when things work, … it’s like throwing paint on a wall. You have these moments of brilliance. Coming and doing a deeper training program and understand how things work, why things work, what contributes to it, how everything works together: body, voice, emotion … Also I haven’t done any Shakespeare, and it’s a major goal to have that training and I’m going to be in Much Ado … Shakespeare is done more than anything in the world, so I have to know how to do that. Besides the training, which is so important, the business connections, which an MFA can provide for you. All of those things combined are what I’m looking forward to. … And also a community of artists has been my favorite thing so far. We’re already working with the playwrights, and it’s so much fun and we’re going to have these relationships, hopefully, for the rest of our careers.What’s a fun fact about you?I’m a beer geek … When the possibility of me going to OU was a thing, I looked up Jackie O’s … I probably talked to the administrator at Jackie O’s more than the other people in my class … I’m not huge drinker but I appreciate that culture … The culture of down time … and it tells a lot about a town. So when I saw a really active, craft beer culture, that made me excited about the town too.See her as Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing Nov. 11-14, 18-21
What is your favorite role you’ve ever done?I got to be The Mayoress in a new adaptation of (Henrik) Ibsen’s Brand. … That process, more than the specific role, was a really collaborative process. Working with new pages every day and working with this adaption collectively as an ensemble, we really got to create the world of that piece. And not to mention, it was a female authority figure in a time when those didn’t exist. And I love playing strong women.How long have you been acting?Professionally, like nine years. But I’ve acted since I was a very small child.What do you enjoy most about acting?Telling stories. I think the ability to tell stories and captivate an audience and really help them have a different lens for their lives or the lives around them. Enlightenment. Societal lensing is kind of what we do. Holding up a mirror to society and saying this is what we do well and this is what we suck at. And the study of human connection. Why did you choose to come to the graduate program at OU?I wanted to come to OU because of the strength of the pedagogy and strength of the people and the relationships. When I started looking, I knew I wanted a Meisner-based (acting technique) program … From a movement and voice speech tenant, I knew I wanted to study viewpoints and suzuki and study Fitzmaurice Voicework — this program has all of that. On top of that, the people are awesome. The faculty’s interpersonal relationships; the realness of the faculty. I interviewed with Shelley and then we had a phone call for an hour and a half on a Friday afternoon. They’re real people and seemed interested in creating a strong cohort. And they’re invested and supportive of one another.What are you hoping to get out of the program after three years?A myriad of skills. All of that technical everything and a better well-tuned instrument as a whole. It roots down to more of an authentic use of myself. Entering this program, most of my work is very presentational and not as true and not as emotionally centered as I would like to achieve. With that, I would hope to graduate with a skill set that can garner employment across mediums. … Finding that well-rounded balance of skills, filling in some holes.What’s a fun fact about you?My work has taken me to all 50 states. It was with multiple companies … I spent a night or money in all 50 states.See her as Naiad in The Penelopiad Oct. 14-17, 21-24
What is your favorite role you’ve ever done?Cleopatra, in Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare. Because she was … hard. The play itself spans over … 15 years of history wherein she had twins, from falling in love to fighting wars and taking care of these children and add that on top of Shakespeare’s text and knowing the history. … And it’s very emotionally intense. She was passionate to say the least. How long have you been acting?Thirty-three years. What do you enjoy most about acting?I love humanity; the collaboration of the art itself; live performance — interaction with audience. My favorite part is the rehearsal process — the exploration of finding the character, finding the relationships and developing someone who is unknown to you and understanding why they do what they do, why they feel what they feel.Why did you choose to come to the graduate program at OU?Because Shelley Delaney is badass. … She said everything I kind of decided I needed to hear from any school to say yes. … Without any prompt, she laid it all out there. What are you hoping to get out of the program after three years?I want to be a better actor. I’m 36 and I’ve spent all 36 years of my life doing theater, and I decided if I’m doing this rest of my life, I wanted to know as much as I could about it. I wanted to … try to bring as much into a program of my own, so that I could be shaped, guided. So I hope that’s exactly what they’re going to do — say, ‘You have a great foundation and here’s how I’ll make you an incredible artist.’What's a fun fact about you?I'm still scared of the dark.See her as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing Nov. 11-14, 18-21
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