My Time at Circle in the Square
What I expected to learn, how to act in difficult scenes, how to sing correctly and maybe a few dance steps. What I didn’t expect to learn, how incredibly supportive actors are and the importance of celebrating yourself first.
When I received my schedule the first things I noticed were the insane amount of classes and long hours to be spent in the basement of 50th and Broadway. To say I was intimidated was a major understatement. I found the Circle in the Square Theatre School Summer Intensive through Eckerd College and hearing about their BFA partnership program through my Eckerd mentors. Back in September of 2018, Eckerd got me in touch with Circle’s Singing Interpretation teacher, Sara Louise Lazarus. Sara became a great friend of mine over the past year and encouraged me to go for the summer program.
I was excited to be the first Eckerd student to explore Circle and experience their summer program. However, once I saw the long hours and amount of dance classes, I admit I almost ran for the hills. The only dance experience I had previously was the repressed memories of dance class in elementary school and 4 grape vines and 2 jazz squares I learned while I was in the ensemble of Mrs. McGee’s production of Music Man my freshman year of high school. And when the dance teacher Kendra asked about our experiences, that’s exactly what I told her. To my surprise, nearly the entire class felt the same way I did. This started everyone off on the right foot (hehe) and thus began my journey with the most supportive people I’ve ever met. The palpable excitement in the room when someone got a combination right made it so encouraging to learn and little did I know this lively energy was only the beginning.
Last day of class at Circle. (Will Dooley, William T Sanders, Abby Zeets, Shaelyn Parker, Roman D’Ambrosio, Zofia Zerphy, Hannah Hockman, Chaney Holland, Sarah Jane Folger, Rendel Kellum, Gabbie Sansone, Marie Fischer, Shelby Christopher)
Our 4th of July Picnic in Central Park! (Rendel Kellum, Hannah Hockman, Roman D’Ambrosio, Marie Fischer, Zofia Zerphy, Sarah Jane Fogel)
When the second week of classes began it was time to present our scenes for Alan Langdon, the wisest person on earth. My friend Rendel Kellum and I volunteered to go first with our scene from Doubt. TIP: If you ever have the chance to go first in a scene study class DO IT! I was never the type of person to volunteer to go first in any situation. My introverted, over-thinking brain is always down to go second or third but not first. I am so thankful Rendel convinced me to gather the courage to go first and be the brave little guinea pigs. I learned so much from Alan in these seven weeks that I could write a whole blog just on his wise words but the most important things he taught me were how to be brave, private in public and the importance of making acting “a party that celebrates you.”
If I wrote about how amazing each teacher is at Circle this would be an entire book. I connected to each class so deeply and believe everything taught here is valuable to actors. From learning the myth of the chest voice and head voice to the importance of “new thoughts!” in songs I am so thankful for the education I got this summer and the connections I made along the way. Circle killed the “performance” side of me and brought out something so much more important, a human being. If it weren’t for this education I would still be on stage just trying to make the “interesting” choices. Thanks to Circle, I know now that being a human is enough to be interesting.