Grapes of Wrath

I grew up in Las Vegas, a city full of wild entertainment and plastic values. It wasn’t until I found my home in the theater that Vegas felt anything less than uncomfortable. I tried various avenues to fulfill a need I had for being a part of something larger than myself. I played sports, took music lessons, art classes, and participated in boy scouts, and then almost by accident I stumbled into the world of performing arts. This newfound passion for theater catapulted me on a trajectory towards a professional career in the industry.

But after graduating from high school I didn’t take the path outlined for me. I didn’t apply and audition for prestigious BFA programs; instead I went to the Pacific Northwest in search of a more “practical” future. I was fearful I could never make a career out of acting, and I was also curious if I was meant to do something else. I attended The Evergreen State College, and after my first two quarters at I realized that this school was not for me. The interdisciplinary educational style left me feeling overwhelmed and uncertain of my academic goals. As a young 18-year-old, straight out of high school, I was easily distracted and felt great insecurity about my career path. It was at this time that my insecurities and fears consumed me and I found a deadly and unhealthy escape in drugs. I began a love affair and a battle with heroin that would degrade the next eight years of my life.

I’ll fast-forward through the nitty gritty details and the periods of utter chaos and degradation to the summer of 2009, where everything that I had built up and held together by sheer luck came crashing down on me and I found myself alone in a jail cell. It was at this point in time that I awoke from a very long coma and found recovery. I knew theater was what I wanted to do, and getting an education also became important to me, so I cleaned up my act and went to community college in order to transfer to UC Davis and finish up my degree. Now at another turning point in my life, about to graduate from UCD and possibly go on to graduate school, I have arrived at the amazing blessing of playing Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath.

 

-- Cooper Wise (Jim Casy)

 

It was always my dream to move to New York and pursue a career in theater.  In 2009, newly married, my husband and I moved there. Just a few months after we arrived, my husband was unexpectedly offered a spot in the MFA program at the USD/Old Globe program in San Diego.  We decided to say “yes” to that opportunity and moved back to California less than one year after we'd left. 

Given his intense  training program, twelve hours a day, six days a week, my husband could not work elsewhere. So I put my New York aspirations behind me and set to supporting us for two years. Eventually, I came to a crossroads in my own career, and thought for the first time about quitting acting. It was a 'come to Jesus' moment as things were not working out as I had hoped. Shortly after that, my husband was cast in the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival, and began working with Miles Anderson.

After meeting Miles, and subsequently Bella Merlin, and learning about the new MFA program in the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance, I became hopeful for a new artistic path. The mentorship I have received from Bella has been invaluable. Knowing and working with Miles has been exceptional.  As Steve Jobs said:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path; and that will make all the difference.”

-- Amanda Vitiello (Rose of Sharon)

When I was a child, from

time to time I entertained 

myself with visions of 

grandeur imagining

myself performing in front of an audience. I remember it vividly: I would be sitting in the middle row of our family's van and I would rest my head on one of my grandmother's shoulders before I closed my eyes and retreated into the recesses of my adolescent mind.

It wouldn't take long before I would see myself in some spectacular situation in front of an audience. I saw myself as a musician mesmerizing the crowd with various musical instruments, or as an actor of sorts, performing some piece written by Shakespeare alongside other brilliant actors.

I never imagined that years later, the visions inside my head would come to life.

-- Daniel Ferrer (Ensemble)