Reflecting Back on Theatre School

Episode 151:  Reflecting Back on Theatre School Jesse Wilson was born in LA, started acting at an early age and was accepted into Juilliard. He was on track to becoming a traditional professional actor, but twenty years later has found purpose in the education aspect of the arts. In this podcast Jesse reflects back on his time at Juilliard, his expectations of the experience and what really happened, and what do today’s students need to do to prepare for life after school. Show Notes Face the City promotional package Face the City Video Theatre Beyond the Stage podcast  Theatrefolk Blog Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! This is Episode 151. You can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at theatrefolk.com/episode151. All right. Today, we’re looking back. We’re reflecting. Reflection – the great buzzword of education in the 21st Century. “Everybody walk across the room. Okay, everybody, reflect on the experience.” (You know, I’m kidding. I’m kidding.) Actually, I use reflection all the time in our educational materials. I think it’s important. It’s really key to comprehension and connection – good C words. So, we’re going to reflect and we’re going to reflect on theatre school. We’re going to look back on going to theatre school twenty years after the fact with Jesse Wilson. He was accepted into Juilliard and one might think that that alone would be a one-way ticket to a professional theatre life because going to Juilliard is a dream for many theatre students. When I think of theatre school, you know, that’s the name at the top of my list. But, as we all know, dreams are different than reality – in good and bad ways, right? There’s a little teaser for you. You have to listen for good and bad. Okay, let’s get to it. LINSDAY: Hello, everybody! All right, I am speaking with Jesse Wilson. Hello, Jesse! JESSE: What’s up, Lindsay? LINSDAY: Oh, everything is up! Everything is up, nothing is down. Actually, everything is up and everything is down which means we’re all in a good place. JESSE: That’s great. LINSDAY: Or something like that. JESSE: Isn’t that like a She Silverstein or something? “Everything is up, everything is down”? Something like that? I don’t know. LINSDAY: Oh, I like that. I think that’s wonderful. JESSE: It sounds like it. If not, it’s something that should be written. I love it. LINSDAY: It’s a good point of view and we’ll give the credit to Shel Silverstein. JESSE: Yeah. LINSDAY: So, Jesse, you and I talked last year about a wonderful project that you sort of got involved in with theatre in prisons. JESSE: Yes. LINSDAY: We also got a little bit into your beginnings and how where you are is probably not where you were expected when you first started out in your theatre career. JESSE: Not at all. LINSDAY: That’s kind of what we’re talking about this month on...