{"id":60927,"date":"2013-04-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2013-uri-actress-wins-scholarship-to-study-acting-at-brown-universitytrinity-rep-program\/"},"modified":"2013-04-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2013-uri-actress-wins-scholarship-to-study-acting-at-brown-universitytrinity-rep-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/04\/commencement-2013-uri-actress-wins-scholarship-to-study-acting-at-brown-universitytrinity-rep-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2013: 溏心vlog免费B站 actress wins scholarship to study acting at Brown University\/Trinity Rep Program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 1, 2013 \u2013 When she was a little girl, Olivia Khoshatefeh would create a makeshift stage in the basement of her house and perform for family and friends. She was a Spice Girl.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cEveryone who came over had to sit down and watch me,\u201d said Khoshatefeh. \u201cI even served popcorn.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThat was her first role on stage and she\u2019d go on to wow crowds in high school and at the 溏心vlog免费B站, where she\u2019s graduating this summer with a bachelor\u2019s in fine arts in acting. <\/p>\n


\nNext fall, she\u2019ll step into an even bigger role when she starts a rigorous three-year master\u2019s in fine arts program at the prestigious Brown University\/Trinity Repertory Consortium.<\/p>\n


\nOnly 14 of about 700 applicants are accepted into the program. What\u2019s just as impressive is that Brown is offering Khoshatefeh a generous scholarship that covers nearly all of her tuition.<\/p>\n


\nShe\u2019s eager to begin. \u201cI love acting,\u201d she says. \u201cI love being the one telling a story. I love being on stage. It\u2019s called \u2018suspension of disbelief.\u2019 You stand in front of an audience and say we are in Scotland and the audience believes you for two hours. It\u2019s exhilarating.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nKhoshatefeh grew up in Mansfield, Mass., where she roamed the woods with friends and went on long bike rides. She credits her mother, Phyllis, with getting her started on the stage \u2013 a real one. The ninth-grader was trying to decide between ceramics or acting as a high school elective.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019ll never forget this,\u201d Khoshatefeh recalls. \u201cMy mom said, \u2018Are you going to be a potter for the rest of your life? Pick something more productive. Pick acting.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n


\nShe took her mother\u2019s advice and appeared in high school productions, as well as plays at the Mansfield Music & Arts Society, where her role as the heroine Antigone in the tragedy \u201cAntigone\u201d triggered not just a fondness for acting, but a passion.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI loved it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was probably the most nervous I\u2019ve ever been, but I think at my age we\u2019re waiting for something to strike that moves us. It was so refreshing.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s theater program was a perfect fit. She thrived in the small classes with convivial teachers, always accessible. She also appreciated the opportunity to take courses in all aspects of drama, from set and costume design to theater management.<\/p>\n


\nAll her roles at 溏心vlog免费B站 were memorable, but her favorite was Dorine in \u201cTartuffe,\u201d a French farce. \u201cEveryone was wearing these huge dresses and running around,\u201d says Khoshatefeh. \u201cI never realized how physically challenging theater could be until that play.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHer role as Ariel in \u201cPillowman\u201d \u2013 a play that explores how violence affects society \u2013 was her most challenging, not surprising considering that the part was written for a man. \u201cHe was the bad cop,\u201d she says. \u201cI had an entire fight scene – choreographed, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAt 溏心vlog免费B站, she blossomed as an actor. \u201cI became more comfortable with myself and my body,\u201d she says. \u201cI learned more about what it is to work on your craft. Talent is such a small part of being an actor. A lot of it is hard work, ambition, and education. We\u2019re storytellers. It\u2019s important for us to know about history, philosophy, politics, and psychology.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nOthers seem to recognize her talents as well. Last year, she participated in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Competition at the American College Theatre Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2012, she advanced to the final round of 16 in the competition.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe thing I\u2019ve loved about Olivia is that she is an open-hearted spirit,\u201d says Claudia Traub, an adjunct professor of acting voice and movement at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cShe\u2019s intensely aware of her craft and who she is and how she fits in the world. It\u2019s a joy to work with her.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe Brown\/Trinity program is a homecoming of sorts for Khoshatefeh. For the last several years, she\u2019s taught at Trinity\u2019s children\u2019s summer camp for budding thespians. The thought of stepping on that stage to act is thrilling for her. Her dream is to be a professional theater actor, but she\u2019s trying not to plan too far ahead.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cYou can\u2019t really have a five-year plan if you\u2019re an actor,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a scary way to live, but it\u2019s also exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above:

\nOlivia Khoshatefeh, a 2013 graduate from the 溏心vlog免费B站 who is heading to the Brown University\/Trinity Repertory Consortium to study acting.

\nPhoto by Michael Salerno<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 1, 2013 \u2013 When she was a little girl, Olivia Khoshatefeh would create a makeshift stage in the basement of her house and perform for family and friends. She was a Spice Girl. \u201cEveryone who came over had to sit down and watch me,\u201d said Khoshatefeh. \u201cI even served popcorn.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60929,"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-60927","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\/60927","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=60927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}