{"id":56923,"date":"2015-04-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2015-uri-theater-student-excels-at-acting-directing-design\/"},"modified":"2015-04-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2015-uri-theater-student-excels-at-acting-directing-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/04\/commencement-2015-uri-theater-student-excels-at-acting-directing-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2015: 溏心vlog免费B站 theater student excels at acting, directing, design"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tStephen Peterson headed to Louisville for acting jobs<\/b> <\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 23, 2015 \u2013 Stephen Peterson was all set to study Italian when he first came to the 溏心vlog免费B站, but then he stepped into Alan Hawkridge\u2019s acting class.<\/p>\n


\nThree weeks later, charmed by an inspiring instructor and the magic of acting, Peterson said so long to Italian studies and hello to the Theatre Department, his home for the last four years.<\/p>\n


\nThe 21-year-old Torrington, Conn., resident will graduate in May with a bachelor of fine arts in theater, with a focus on acting and directing. His plan is to join his girlfriend in Louisville, Ky., a hot spot for theater in the Midwest, to pursue acting opportunities.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s exciting,\u201d he says. \u201c溏心vlog免费B站 has prepared me for just about anything involving the theater.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThat\u2019s an understatement. Thanks to 溏心vlog免费B站, he can act, direct, design a set, hang lights, manage a box office, sing, dance and even engage in a bit of stage combat \u2013 mano a mano. And he can do it all with confidence and skill.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a go-getter,\u201d says Paula McGlasson, chair of the Theatre Department. \u201cStephen is a very promising young artist with many talents in several facets of theater. Whatever he undertakes, he gives 100 percent of himself to the task. His intelligence, passion and persistence will take him far.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nGrowing up in Torrington, in the bucolic northwest corner of Connecticut, Peterson acted on his high school stage a few times, but his heart was in Italian, which he started studying in middle school.<\/p>\n


\nThat all changed with Hawkridge\u2019s introductory acting class. \u201cSomething about the class clicked with me, and I knew that\u2019s what I wanted to do.\u201d Not only was acting fun, but also rewarding.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cYou get to live someone else\u2019s life,\u201d he says. \u201cYou get to see the world through someone else\u2019s lens. Through acting I\u2019ve been able to learn so much about people and humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHe has acted in numerous productions at 溏心vlog免费B站, including \u201cChicago,\u201d \u201cMarvin\u2019s Room,\u201d \u201cBe Aggressive,\u201d \u201cMuch Ado about Nothing,\u201d and \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain.\u201d By far, his favorite was \u201cSeminar,\u201d a comedy about four aspiring young novelists taking a writing class. Peterson played the lead role of Martin.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt was the most complete character arc I\u2019ve ever experienced,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I was on stage almost the entire play. I couldn\u2019t go backstage for 10 minutes and be Stephen Peterson. That was thrilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is also a keen director. At 溏心vlog免费B站, he directed \u201cBricklayer\u2019s Poet,\u201d a three-character play about a man and woman who meet in a Manhattan bar one night and share their stories of heartache.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWith directing, you have full control, from reading the script and casting to helping design the set and deciding what kind of message you want to get across to the audience,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s so creative.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThanks to the help of Bryna Wortman, the head of acting and directing at 溏心vlog免费B站, Peterson has flourished in off-campus productions as well, including at Epic Theatre Company in Cranston, the 2nd Story Theatre Company in Warren and the Contemporary Theatre Co. in Wakefield. With 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s help, he landed an internship last summer at the Chester Theatre Company in the Berkshires, assisting actors with day-to-day needs.<\/p>\n


\nHe has also excelled academically. He\u2019s taken classes in the Honors Program and is a teaching assistant for an introduction to theater class. He is the newly appointed technical director for student productions and a member and founding brother of Phi Kappa Psi.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe Theatre Department at 溏心vlog免费B站 is unrivaled,\u201d he says. \u201cThe faculty is outstanding. They are all working professionals who have their students\u2019 best interests at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHis plan is to act for a decade, then direct. Along the way, he\u2019d like to get his master of fine arts degree in acting. One day, he\u2019d like to be the artistic director of a major theater company. He says he\u2019ll select plays that explore social justice. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe idea that we can make change happen through art is amazing,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing better than going to a play. Nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above:

\nStephen Peterson, of Torrington, Conn., who is graduating from the 溏心vlog免费B站 in May with a bachelor of fine arts in theater.

\nStephen Peterson, in white T-shirt, as Thomas from \u201cThe Busy World is Hushed\u201d at Epic Theatre Company, in Cranston.

\nStephen Peterson, in black vest, in a production of \u201cNeon\u201d at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\nPhotos courtesy of Stephen Peterson.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Peterson headed to Louisville for acting jobs KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 23, 2015 \u2013 Stephen Peterson was all set to study Italian when he first came to the 溏心vlog免费B站, but then he stepped into Alan Hawkridge\u2019s acting class. Three weeks later, charmed by an inspiring instructor and the magic of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}