This winter, we’re continuing our alumni spotlight series, featuring even more of our favorite Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Department alumni!

This week, we talked to Hutch Pimentel ’12. While at K, he/they directed two shows: Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis and Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat. He/they also wrote a Theatre Arts SIP titled Growing Pains: Becoming Queerer.

Since graduation, he/they founded a theatre company called First Floor Theater. There, Hutch serves as Artistic Director.

Read more to learn about what Hutch is up to now!

What was your experience founding First Floor Theatre like? 

I came to be a part of First Floor in a somewhat unorthodox way. The theater was originally founded by a group of folks I met while interning at About Face Theater (which I wrote my SIP about). They were seniors at the University of Chicago and came to see Back of the Throat (the final show I directed at K) and asked me to join them when I moved to Chicago. I started as the producer and became the Artistic Director after our second season. The mission and aesthetic of the company has shifted significantly since then, largely to focus on new work, specifically by queer and POC writers. 

What has being Artistic Director during the pandemic been like?

Running a storefront theater company is everything and nothing you’d think it’d be. I spend a lot more time figuring out where the money is going to come from than what play we should do. During the pandemic my focus has been on keeping the company financially solvent, and beyond that we’ve dedicated most of our time to working on two commissions from playwrights Terry Guest and Ariel Zetina. Since becoming Artistic Director my goal was to found a commissioning program so The Blueprint Commission has really been a dream come true. 

I’m really impressed that First Floor Theatre has an audience base 70% under-40 and 50% BIPOC! How did you achieve that?

This is probably the most common question I get. I think the easy answer is, I program work that I want to see in the world, and Chicago audiences have begun to look to us for cutting-edge, sexy, funny, weird plays about what people our age are going through. In a regular season we typically program two BIPOC writers and one white writer, so that’s helped diverse audiences identify us as somewhere they’ll feel represented on stage. 

What inspires you to do theatre?

The moments that take your breath away, sitting in the dark, surrounded by a hundred other people, watching something magical happen. Whether it’s visual spectacle, great dialogue, or an unorthodox choice by an actor, that’s why I keep making art. Because I want to share those moments of glory with audiences. 

What plays, TV shows, or movies have been bringing you joy lately?

My favorite pandemic theater piece was Circle Jerk Live by Fake Friends (not porn I promise). The play I’m currently obsessed with is Botticelli in the Fire by Jordan Tannahill. The TV show I’m currently binging is It’s a Sin. And the last great movie I watched was Judas and the Black Messiah. 

How are you taking care of yourself during the pandemic?

I am trying to relax as much as possible. It’s so easy to COVID-spiral and so whenever I feel that about to happen I go for a walk or do some stretches or eat some soup. 

What’s your favorite memory from theatre at K?

It has to be the first play I ever directed, 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane. Directing that play changed my life forever and I’ll never forget it. 

Thank you so much to Hutch Pimentel ’12 for answering our questions! To learn more about First Floor Theater, check out their website. And if you want to know more about our alumni, see our Notable Alumni page.

Two Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts alumni have recently been involved with projects which are sparking discussion about Asian-American representation in United States media. Joe Tracz ’04 created the Netflix show Dash & Lily, which is an adaptation of the Dash & Lily book series. Steven Yeun ’05, on the other hand, stars in an A24 film titled Minari.

Read on to see how these works, and the societal response to them, has affected the Asian-American community. We’ll start with Tracz’s Dash & Lily then discuss Yeun’s Minari.

Dash & Lily

The Netflix series Dash & Lily, based off a book series with two white protagonists, features Midori Francis playing a now-biracial white/Japanese-American Lily. Much of the script represents a new cultural perspective: Lily encourages Dash to make mochi (餅); Lily’s grandfather offers her and her brother otoshidama (お年玉) on New Year’s Eve; everyone takes their shoes off in the apartment of Lily’s grandfather. The casting committee also made sure every actor within Lily’s Japanese family, whether monoracial or biracial, was of Japanese descent. 

In an interview with People magazine, Francis said, “This was the first time that I’ve really even been on a set or in any kind of production where they took the time and care to make sure that every single Asian actor on set was of Japanese descent.”

In the same interview, Troy Iwata, who plays Lily’s brother, said, “One thing that our show does such a wonderful job of doing is portraying this mixed family, but not making it so heavy-handedly about the fact that they’re mixed race. It’s two backgrounds coming together, this is just a family. It’s very matter of fact that half of them are Japanese and half of them are white.”

Not only did Tracz ensure cultural integrity and casting specificity, he also allowed Francis herself to make changes to the script so the show would be more specific to her own experience. In a scene from the episode “Edgar & Sophia,” Lily addresses her white middle school bully, saying “I’m tired of boys pulling our pigtails and getting called cute … I wish I could have stood up to all the bullies who made me feel too weird, too different, too Asian.”

This monologue, as originally scripted by episode writer Lauren Moon, did not include the phrase “too Asian.” As she revealed in an interview with Refinery29, Francis wanted to insert that detail. “For me, a big part of being bullied growing up — because I was. Or teased — was the way I looked. Especially at that time, when there was no representation. If you don’t fit that kind of Eurocentric mold, you’re not attractive. I talked to our showrunner, Joe Tracz, about it. I was like, ‘Hey, what do you think about this speech being the time where we bring it up?’…So that was such a special cap for that speech for me. Because me, as Midori, if I was going to stick up to any of my bullies, that would be a part of it.”

Francis also had power to make creative decisions beyond just her own lines. As mentioned in the same interview with Refinery29, “It turns out that Joe was so receptive to everything. He honestly kind of diverted to me whenever he felt he didn’t know [something]. He was able to have talks with the set designer and the directors. Together, we were able to make [my input] a reality.”

Francis also mentioned that she has had opportunities that previous generations were not fortunate enough to receive. “I have an aunt who worked in the industry in the ‘80s and this just couldn’t have happened back then. There were times when I felt a bit of sadness. Like, ‘Why do I get to be the one who gets to have this positive experience? How messed up is it for all these years, people who look like me couldn’t have it?’ And then there was also so much relief and joy and gratitude that I was paired with someone like Joe who really cared.”

This show’s care did not go unnoticed by the Asian-American community. As The Literary Dumpling’s Natasha writes, “2020 has done a lot in terms of furthering diversity and representation, and being able to see a mixed-race family represented on screen as well as [seeing] how Western and Asian culture combines has been really uplifting for me. Whilst there are many ways it could go wrong, the creators of Dash & Lily manage to present Lily’s family in [a] natural way without shoehorning it in. In my opinion, it is never done in a way that requires you to think too much about how the family works, rather you just accept it as it is and overall it’s a great way to demonstrate how Lily’s family works in comparison to Dash’s (which is non-existent), as well as presenting a different kind of family dynamic on the silver screen.”

All that said, judging from the series’ IMDB page, it appears as though there were very few Asian-Americans on the film’s creative team and crew, and even fewer, if any, Japanese-Americans. How much more compelling could the biracial white/Japanese-American representation be if there were more Japanese-Americans in positions of power on the creative team?

Minari

For the Minari, Yeun not only served as the top-billed actor, but also as an executive producer. Set in rural Arkansas, the film follows the story of a Korean family moving to the United States. 

The specific, accurate representation in this film is so important because as Yeun puts it, “This is not a Korean movie, [and] this is not an American movie—as you understand it. This is such a uniquely American tale. And I think the third culture of it, the Korean Americanness of it, that specific lane that it inhabits, hasn’t necessarily been claimed in wider American society. The narrative of Korean America is this—of pizza and kimchi together at the same table. It’s caught between two worlds…but ultimately, it’s its own thing. That’s what we’re trying to get to.”

Even though the film is set in the United States and is specific to an American experience—the Korean-American experience—the Hollywood Foreign Press Association categorized Minari as a foreign language film, supposedly because it features more Korean than English. This barred Minari from competing for Best Motion Picture at the Golden Globes; it has instead been nominated only for Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language. 

As filmmaker Lulu Wang said on Twitter, “I have not seen a more American film than #Minari this year. It’s a story about an immigrant family, IN America, pursuing the American dream. We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterizes American as only English-speaking.”

Author Min Jin Lee also spoke out on Twitter, “#Minari is an American film about new Americans. Everyone in America except for indigenous people came from somewhere else by choice or force. The English language is not an indigenous language. Enough of this nonsense about Asian-Americans being permanently foreign. I’m done.”

Many other Asian actors, directors, and artists criticized the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s decision. Glee actor Harry Shum Jr pointed out that Inglorious Bastards featured more German, French, and Italian than English and did not receive the same treatment as Minari. Actor Daniel Dae Kim said that this incident is “The film equivalent of being told to go back to your country when that country is actually America.”

In regards to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s decision, Yeun suggested that instead of using the phrase “specificity is universal,” artists should adopt the phrase, “humanity is universal.” As Yeun said, “That was the central focus for us in Minari. [The film didn’t say,] ‘Hey, America, this is what Korean Americans are.’ Instead, it focused on being a father or mother or family, or desiring something or striving for something. Or just living. It allowed more people into the narrative to enjoy it, because there wasn’t this wall up of authenticity that people had to scale.”

In an interview with Variety, Yeun said, “I think a Korean audience from Korea will watch Minari and say, ‘that is the story of an American family.’ And I think an American audience will watch Minari and say, ‘that’s the story of a Korean family.’ And that’s the void that we’re caught in. We wanted to profess that this is an Asian American story, where it is American.”

Minari and Yeun’s work in it are critical to the future of Asian-American representation in cinema. While Asian-American films are still treated by America’s predominantly white institutions as foreign, an emulation of the “perpetual foreigner” stereotype, the increased visibility of Asian-Americans in media could be the catalyst for more change. 

As Yeun described, “I’d seen John Cho start popping off, and it was really cool to watch him. He hadn’t gotten the shine that he deserved at the time, and it took a little bit for him over time. I watched him, and I was like, ‘Wow!’ Here’s a Korean American actor that I’ve never seen before, and he’s on the screen, and it’s pretty incredible. He was the first one not to be objectified or fetishized. He was a new version of what an Asian man is seen as. He was something new and fresh and gave me a roadmap to emulate. I thought it was possible for me.”

Yeun’s work in films like Minari could inspire the next generation of Korean-American artists, and Asian-American artists more broadly, to continue the work toward better representation and, eventually, liberation from predominantly white institutions. 

Tracz and Yeun have both been doing the important work of platforming Asian artists and humanizing Asian-Americans through compelling storytelling. Here at Festival Playhouse, we are very proud. But as we celebrate, we also have to ask, “How much more work is yet to be done?”

To watch Dash & Lily, go to Netflix. Minari will be available to stream on various platforms starting February 26. To learn more about our Theatre Arts alumni, including Tracz and Yeun, check out our Notable Alumni page.

This winter, we’re continuing our alumni spotlight series, featuring even more of our favorite Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Department alumni!

This week, we talked to Aly Homminga ’20. At K, she was heavily involved with the Theatre Arts Department, working in the Theatre Arts Office and acting in many shows, such as Fun Home and Silent Sky. She also went to the GLCA New York Arts Program. She directed several productions between New York and Kalamazoo, including Beauty’s Daughter and Wine and Pizza.

Since graduation, she has continued acting and directing. Right now, she directing a virtual production of FantasticLand.

Read more to learn about her time at K and what she’s up to now.

How have you been maintaining your craft during the pandemic?

I have had the privilege to be able to continue doing theatre work throughout the pandemic, usually in a virtual medium. I have directed two virtual shows, FantasticLand at Town Hall Theatre and Waiting for Doggot at Imaginarium Theatre Company. I have also acted in two productions, Care Instructions Not Included at The Grand Theatre (produced by Kate Kriess ’19 and written by Camille Wood ’17) and a short film titled ‘The Prayer’, written and directed by my boyfriend Sean Bogue ’18. For both of the directing positions, I happened upon a call for a director on the internet and decided to apply. I am very lucky that both of the companies put their faith in me and trusted my directing abilities.

Additionally, I have kept my acting skills sharp by taking Method Acting classes online through The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. It has been wonderful to continue to develop my craft and get feedback and tips from instructors, even over Zoom. Since April of last year, I have been crocheting for fun and relaxation, which is also a creative medium. I am grateful that I have taken the craft up again, my grandmothers taught me crocheting when I was young. 

Tell us more about directing FantasticLand! What has that been like?

FantasticLand has been SO COOL! I had the idea of presenting it as a theatrical mini-series before I was hired, and Town Hall has encouraged me to take that idea and run. The whole experience has been extremely professional and exciting for my career. The play explores the events that transpired inside an amusement park when a hurricane traps 306 employees in the park. During the 5 weeks they were trapped, the employees, mostly young adults ages 18-25, split into “tribes” and were pushed to fight each other in order to survive. Think ‘The Hunger Games’ meets ‘Lord of the Flies.’ The story is told through interviews from surviving employees. I am working with 28 actors, each with a unique perspective and story to tell. Two of the actors are K grads! Sophie Hill ’20 and Anders Finholt ’20 are both in the production. I am editing the show myself and two episodes will be presented every week beginning March 11th. Information for tickets will be on Town Hall Theatre’s Website and social media soon.

Are there any upcoming projects or life changes that you’re particularly excited about?

Yes! Sean Bogue and I have a very exciting move planned. We are going to be living in Tokyo, Japan for a year beginning in March of 2021. I am really excited to be immersed in Japanese culture and experience Kabuki and Noh Theatre first hand. I am hoping to be involved in English speaking theatre companies while I am there as well to expand my acting and directing career internationally!

Which plays, TV shows, or movies have been bringing you joy lately?

In preparation for our move, we have been watching a lot of Japanese shows to learn more about the culture and language. Most recently, we finished a live-action drama series called Rookies that follows a high school baseball team. Sean and I also often have long movie nights and the most recent one was a comedy marathon including “classics” like Blades of Glory and Clueless. 

What’s your favorite memory from theatre at K?

I have so many very fond memories of my time at K, it is so hard to choose just one. I really appreciate the time I spent in The Playhouse, The Dungeon, and the office. As nostalgic as it is, my favorite memory has to be the last time I performed live, in Silent Sky, last year in February. There is a tender and emotional moment at the end when my character, Henrietta, wraps the show up with a lovely monologue detailing the ways her astrological discoveries have affected science since her death. She also speaks to her sister, Margret, played by Rose Hannan ’23, from the afterlife. The moment Rose and I locked eyes during the monologue we both choked up every single time.

Thank you so much to Aly Homminga ’20 for answering our questions! To learn more about FantasticLand, follow the production’s Instagram account. And if you want to know more about our alumni, see our Notable Alumni page.

This winter, we’re continuing our alumni spotlight series, featuring even more of our favorite Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Department alumni!

This week, we talked to Cody Colvin ’18. At K, he started out playing football, but eventually gravitated toward the arts, singing in various ensembles and becoming a member of the Festival Playhouse family. A business major, he wrote a Senior Individualized Project titled Analysis of Festival Playhouse Fundraising Opportunities, in which he discussed possible ways of developing a sustainable funding structure for Festival Playhouse.

After graduation, he founded Colvin Theatrical, an executive production company for film, theatre, and broadcasting. Here at Festival Playhouse, we were fortunate to work with him on our livestream of Kokoro and multimedia production of K, and we look forward to working with him again throughout this year!

Read more to learn about his time at K and what he’s up to now.

What has your experience running Colvin Theatrical been like?

Forgive the cliché, but it’s a dream come true. Toward the end of college, I knew I wanted to help people make meaningful art, and I felt in my heart that I could do it on a large scale. At the beginning of quarantine, I reduced my hours at my other business – investment real estate advisory – and just gave myself a chance to really build the company the way I wanted to. To see it blossom, and to continue to receive larger and more complex opportunities to help creative people tell stories, has just reinforced the fact that creative production is a good spot for me.

Are there any upcoming or current projects that you’re particularly excited about?

Yes! I am especially excited to work with the American Association of Community Theatre to help produce their national community theatre festival, AACTFest 2021. My crew and I will be on the road in April and May recording and producing about a dozen theatrical recordings around the country. I had been aware of AACTFest before, so it’s pretty neat to join forces after being in the audience. I am helping coordinate both the tour’s logistics and creative production, which makes for a really fun mix of challenges.

Which plays, TV shows, or movies have been bringing you joy lately?

I recently made my way through 30 Rock, and am now going through Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock are two folks I’d love to work with – there is so much depth to their comedy, and they maintain an incredible pace throughout each project. Though I gravitate toward darker, grittier work on stage, that’s the kind of television I enjoy watching and – hopefully soon – helping make.

What’s your favorite memory from theatre at K?

Without a doubt – dancing, singing and gyrating as Eddie in The Rocky Horror Show. I quit football the end of my sophomore year and didn’t have a great idea of what I would end up doing with my time… I was fortunate to find my way into the performing arts, and it started with that show. 

I find myself increasingly thankful for the education I received at K; I think it’s a credit to the school that I still use everything I learned there on a daily basis, from accounting and negotiation to technical production. I owe so much of my personal and professional development to the school – especially the theatre department – which is why I’ve so loved coming back and working with the students and faculty this year. It feels like being home.

Thank you so much to Cody Colvin ’18 for answering our questions. To learn more about Colvin Theatrical, check out the company’s website and Colvin’s Facebook page. And if you want to know more about our alumni, see our Notable Alumni page.

This fall, we’re doing a spotlight series featuring some of our favorite Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Department alumni!

This week, we talked to Katy Loebrich ’90. While at K, she appeared in August Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata her freshman fall. After that, she filled a variety of production positions, including wardrobe assistant, props master, sound designer, and assistant stage manager. She gradated from K in 1990 with an English major and a double-minor in Theatre Arts and Music.

She has been working in television since the year she graduated, and now, she’s a two-time Emmy Award-winning TV Producer/Director at UNC-TV Public Media North Carolina. She is one of three producers on the Arts Team, and they won the Emmy, both times, for their arts show, Muse, which profiles all kinds of arts and artists across the state.

Read more to learn about her time at K and what she’s up to now!

What plays, TV shows, or movies have been bringing you joy lately?

Ha-ha! What a great question! Binge-watching Netflix and Disney+. So much good television out there—and I love being one of the people who make the good tv! 

What’s your favorite memory from theatre at K?

There are so many!! When I was at K, we were still on the K-Plan with the rotating on-campus and off-campus quarters, and sophomores and juniors were on-campus in the summer. We did multiple main stage shows during the summer terms. Those summer shows were also great because we got to work with professional actors who came in just for the summer season.

During freshman orientation the current theatre majors did a skit for us—it was a spoof of Jeopardy, and the final Jeopardy round clue was Shakespeare & Musicals. The answer was “What are the two things not done in Kalamazoo Theatre?” Spoiler Alert: by my junior year that was no longer true.

There was a production of Othello that summer, and the A/C went off in the theatre. The cast were given the choice to perform in street clothes, and some did, and some went half and half with shorts and doublets, but Desdemona wore her full dress and kept the heavy drapes onstage—and it was the best production I’d ever seen, the energy was so high! The first musical they did during my four years fell during my Senior Individualized Project, and I drove through a snow storm from Toledo to Kalamazoo to see Godspell—it was totally worth it, a phenomenal show! 

I was the sound designer who programmed the house music for a special show: Don’t Bump into Me & Speak Cleary: An Evening with Noel Coward. Which is also when I met Nelda Balch. I became the ASM for the show because the stage manager came down with mono, and the original ASM got bumped up, so I did both roles walking back and forth across the light booth to cue music and lights. That was such a cool thing. Just Nelda’s presence was inspiring.

But the absolute best part was the people—students, professors, alumni, emerti, and friends—we taught each other as we worked together. Making a TV show is a lot like that, except you can edit out the mistakes!

Thank you so much to Katy Loebrich ’90 for answering our questions. To learn more about UNC-TV’s Muse, check out UNC-TV’s website. And if you want to know more about our alumni, check out our Notable Alumni page.

This fall, we’re doing a spotlight series featuring some of our favorite Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Department alumni!

This week, we talked to Kate Kreiss ’19. While at K, she appeared in several plays, including Bad Jews, The Learned Ladies, The Rocky Horror Show, Student Body, and Twelfth Night. She was also co-captain of the improv comedy troupe Monkapult and directed Amber Palmer’s Baby Dyke Whisperer and Robert Davis’s spells/signed by the heart.

Now, she’s the Marketing and Communications Coordinator for The Grand Theatre in Wausau, Wisconsin. Read more to learn about what she’s up to!

How have you been maintaining your craft during the pandemic?

My job has shifted a ton since March, since we’ve had to change from marketing specific shows to marketing The Grand itself. It’s required a lot of innovation from all of us, and for me, has led to a renewed sense of appreciation for the performing arts—trying to find new ways to connect with our community has reminded me how much I care about this work! I guess to answer the question more directly, I haven’t been able to work on “my craft” a ton, but I’m learning to appreciate it more. I’ve also been attempting all the little theatre TikTok challenges in my apartment which has been a deeply humbling and slightly humiliating experience for myself and my neighbors.

What has your experience planning The New Normal been like?

The New Normal is my attempt to recreate TK New PlayFest here in Wausau! We don’t see a ton of straight plays or new plays around here, but there is a really rich music culture– lots of indie artists, lots of new work premiering all over the place. I wanted to capitalize on that and try to start introducing our audience to some straight plays, contemporary dance, etc. Quarantine has been such an emotional time for all of us, and has resulted in some really poignant new work, so I felt like it was important for that work to be seen and heard. It’s been interesting to be in the “producer/curator” role instead of the “performer/director” role, and I’m grateful to my bosses for giving me the green light to try this out.

The New Normal will go live on The Grand Theatre’s Facebook and YouTube pages on Friday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.

Which plays, TV shows, or movies have been bringing you joy lately?

Equal parts comedy and garbage! A little Middleditch & Schwartz, Schitt’s Creek, Michelle Wolf; a little Love Island, Bachelorette, Naked & Afraid. Nothing particularly groundbreaking, but I’m enjoying escaping from the real world.

What’s your favorite memory from theatre at K?

Lots of favorites, but the one that comes to mind is the midnight performance of The Rocky Horror Show. I remember doing the Time Warp (hehe) – Sean Bogue and I (Janet and Brad) were at the lip of the stage, the only ones not dancing… I remember looking around and being literally surrounded by people doing the Time Warp. The rest of the cast was behind us, dancing on stage, and the audience was in front of us, standing up and dancing in the seats… just 360 degrees of people going bananas. I think theatre is a lot about shared moments of catharsis, but this really was a shared moment of absolute mania, and I remember thinking to myself, “I am never going to experience something like this ever again.” I do feel like we’re all experiencing a sort of “communal mania” right now in the world. Maybe that’s why I’ve been thinking about this moment so much lately.

Thank you so much to Kate Kreiss ’19 for answering our questions. To keep up with her work, follow The Grand Theatre on Facebook. And if you want to know more about our alumni, check out our Notable Alumni page.

This fall, we’re doing a spotlight series featuring some of our favorite Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Department alumni!

This week, we talked to Quincy Isaiah ’17. While at K, he appeared as Benny in In the Heights and received an Irene Ryan Award for Performance for his role in A Raisin in the Sun.

Read more to learn about what he’s up to now!

How have you been maintaining your acting craft during the pandemic?

It’s been tough because most acting classes are through Zoom now. Since I already have a role I know I’m gonna play, I just try to keep researching and watching videos on Magic. In addition to trying to look like him in terms of playing basketball and my overall body. Also, I read scripts and I’ve done a few self-tape auditions which has helped keep me busy acting. 

What’s happening with the HBO L.A. Lakers drama (in which you were cast as Magic Johnson)?

We shot the pilot last September and we were picked up in November to shoot the rest of the series. Once COVID hit, it got pushed back a few times and now we’re scheduled to shoot Spring 2021 with a possible release in 2022. 

What’s your favorite acting performance (in a play, TV show, or film) you’ve seen recently?

I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t watched as many shows or movies during the pandemic as I probably should have. But Michael Ward in Blue Story and Top Boy has really wowed me recently. Also, Paul Mescal’s performance in Normal People is amazing.

What’s your favorite memory from theatre at K?

Favorite K theatre memory? Honestly, everything from my Junior Winter until Spring quarter. I was able to do so much in a little amount of time. I was in a sketch show, a classic play (Raisin in the Sun), and an incredible musical. The cast were fun and the material really help me build the confidence as an actor. But if I had to choose one specific thing, it’s probably the third Raisin performance. Two things happened: I missed a line, but a fellow actor picked it up so well no one could tell. I also got a really great response from the crowd that night, too, afterwards.

Thank you so much to Quincy Isaiah ’17 for answering our questions. To keep up with him, follow him on Instagram. And if you want to know more about our alumni, check out our Notable Alumni page. Thanks for stopping by!