Origins

How exactly does one find themselves going to school for a degree in theatre? I guess the best place to start the story of this production is to look at where I came from and how I got to the point of picking this project as my capstone thesis for my Bachelor of Arts, Theatre, degree.

I have loved and been involved with theatre and the arts for as far back as I can remember. All through grade school, middle school, and high school I was involved in theatre, music, and art in some form or fashion. The first production I remember ever really doing a sufficient thing for was a production of Bye Bye Birdie in middle school, and ever since then I've been hooked. I guess I could blame my director at the time, which was also my high school director, for all this. But truthfully there are home movies of 2nd grade Dustin in the school play rockin' the stage sitting at home.

If you would have asked me in high school if I wanted to pursue theatre for a living I would have said honestly yes, but it will never happen. I loved theatre all through high school, it was something I was passionate about, but my family scared me into thinking I would never be able to go anywhere as a theatre artist. So in my senior year of high school I decided that I was going to get a degree in Information Technology at CTU. About 2 weeks before the semester started I decided that I couldn't live with out theatre, so I decided to take a semester off and really figure out what I wanted to do with this life of mine. Eventually I came to the decision that I was going to go to CSU and get a Business degree with a theatre minor. That plan flopped my second semester when I dropped business and made theatre my full time life. It wasn't until my junior year that I decided to add photography as a second major, which I also am passionate about.

My experiences in theatre in the CSU program have had their ups and downs, but one this for sure, I've learned and grown so much its unbelievable. My freshmen year I was the lights operator for James and the Giant Peach. I then did acted in How I Learned to Drive and The Odd Couple (Student Projects). My sophomore year I was the Assistant Stage Manager for Waiting for Godot and then was cast in Cyrano De Bergerac as Montfleury, the Baker, and the Monk. After Cyrano I had the privilege to do a photo and film projection design for The Laramie Project, which was one of the most memorable productions ever. The summer between my sophomore and junior years was spent working on the summer production of the Miracle Worker where I co-stage-managed with another student, that show was bitterly painful for a lot of reasons, but I really learned a lot from it. My Junior year I was asked to play the lead role of Mickey in Tom Dudzick's Greetings! at Bas Bleu Theatre Company, I was thrilled and honored to receive this part and absorbed tons of knowledge from all the talented people I worked with over the six week rehearsal period and thirty two performance run. It was then that I realized that, yes I could act, and do it well, but my true passion laid in stage management and directing. After Greetings! Holly-Anne Peterson was gearing up to do her senior thesis project, Low Level Panic, and asked me to Assistant Direct and Stage Manage. That was a whole other learning experience because the student shows rely so heavily on the students and the faculty take a back seat, it was an amazing experience to see how we grew and learned as a cast and crew. After that we had a change in faculty in the department PhD. Laura Jones stepped down from the program chair and a man by the name of Walt Jones from UCSD came in and the department completely turned around, it new fresh and alive. At the end of my junior year I was cast in Walt's first main stage show that was also a world premiere of 33 Swoons. The summer in between last year and this year I spent in Europe with Eric Prince studying theatre. That has probably been the most influential and life changing experiences of my life. I not only realized that theatre was and is what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I got to see how it was treated outside of the US, and I found a new found passion to raise theatre here to something more than an elitist dieing art form.

Whew... well that pretty much brings us up to date. So how did I get to pick this piece for my thesis.... Well, my junior year I saw the film version of Bent, and as the credits began to role I say a like that said "Based on a play by Martin Sherman". I read the script and decided that I HAD to do the piece. I proposed it to the faculty, they approved it, and here I am today directing Bent, by Martin Sherman.