First up, meet XHESICA.
Grade: 11
Hobbies: Soccer, photography, filming, acting, swimming, skiing, joking around and having fun with everything!
What do you like about theatre? I love the acting and directing part of theatre. I like doing the research when I get a role and I learn many interesting new things - it’s like being in history class, which is my favorite subject. When I play a role my main goal is for the audience to see what I see in the text, and to understand what message I’m trying to send. As for directing, I think of myself as an audience member and try to imagine what they would like to watch and understand.
What parts of the MUCH ADO rehearsal process are you most interested in telling other students about? How fun it is! Who would ever think that there’s dancing and singing in Shakespeare? It's so much more modern thank most people think, and Shakespeare writes about issues and topics that occur throughout all of history and still today. It’s fun to see the kinds of dilemmas people were in back in the day, and relate it to something you know about today.
While observing a recent rehearsal, Xhesica had the 
opportunity to interview DAVE, a YC teaching artist and actor playing "Don John" in MUCH ADO.
opportunity to interview DAVE, a YC teaching artist and actor playing "Don John" in MUCH ADO. Xhesica: How do you feel about playing this character (Don John?)
Dave: It's very fun, I think it’s extremely fun to be bad. Shakespeare writes all these really juicy villains and there are some that spend a lot of their time trying to tell the audience - explain themselves, that they are not that bad - everyone else is bad. And there are some characters - like Don John - that are just unapologetically bad: "I'm bad, so deal with it." It's just really fun to give over to the bad side.
Xhesica: How do you get into playing a bad guy? Are you bad in real life?
Dave: I think everyone has a little bad in them. Everyone has a good side and a bad side and it's fun, cause as actors we can just let it loose, let the bad side loose. Don John spends a lot of time talking about how deeply sad he is, and he’s very jealous and upset, and throws temper tantrums, and it's much easier looking at it that way cause you can't play "bad." Bad is in the eye of the beholder, but I think we’ve all had times where we were sad, where we've been jealous and just completely irrational and upset - mad at the world. It's fun to throw yourself into that everyday and then at the end of rehearsal just wash it off.
Xhesica: So what’s the baddest thing you’ve done?
Dave: I don’t think I've ever... I'll get back to you on that.
Xhesica: Tell me about your experience as a teaching artist.
Dave: School of the Future - what an amazing school! I got to work with Ms. Weller's 10th grade English class. The class was so full of smart, energetic students. By the time they did their scenes it was amazing - I learned some things about playing Don John from some of the kids playing Don John. These kids are so smart and so ahead of their time, and I'm a better actor and a better person for having worked with them, and I hope I can do it again some time.
Dave: It's very fun, I think it’s extremely fun to be bad. Shakespeare writes all these really juicy villains and there are some that spend a lot of their time trying to tell the audience - explain themselves, that they are not that bad - everyone else is bad. And there are some characters - like Don John - that are just unapologetically bad: "I'm bad, so deal with it." It's just really fun to give over to the bad side.
Xhesica: How do you get into playing a bad guy? Are you bad in real life?
Dave: I think everyone has a little bad in them. Everyone has a good side and a bad side and it's fun, cause as actors we can just let it loose, let the bad side loose. Don John spends a lot of time talking about how deeply sad he is, and he’s very jealous and upset, and throws temper tantrums, and it's much easier looking at it that way cause you can't play "bad." Bad is in the eye of the beholder, but I think we’ve all had times where we were sad, where we've been jealous and just completely irrational and upset - mad at the world. It's fun to throw yourself into that everyday and then at the end of rehearsal just wash it off.
Xhesica: So what’s the baddest thing you’ve done?
Dave: I don’t think I've ever... I'll get back to you on that.
Xhesica: Tell me about your experience as a teaching artist.
Dave: School of the Future - what an amazing school! I got to work with Ms. Weller's 10th grade English class. The class was so full of smart, energetic students. By the time they did their scenes it was amazing - I learned some things about playing Don John from some of the kids playing Don John. These kids are so smart and so ahead of their time, and I'm a better actor and a better person for having worked with them, and I hope I can do it again some time.
