We’re in a different time and now is the time for art. MO: Working with people who are the next theatre makers right after COVID feels like a gift. I have so many other things to make exactly what I want you to see, so I approach it from the story first, and who I’m telling the story to, and then if that excites me- then it’s game on.ĪR: What’s been your favorite part about teaching the theatre students here at BU? What has that experience been like? A director is not changing any words in the play, but I don’t need to. It matters, it matters in the choices that you’re making and matters in the way the story is being told. Who are you telling this story to? It matters. What story am I telling? And who am I telling it to? It’s something that I’m teaching my students now because I’m teaching MFA directing and we forget the audience too much. MO: I’m very story based and very text based. I don’t do that anymore, Alex.ĪR: Do you have a certain philosophy? How do you approach your work as a director? And so, you can be like, ‘Yeah, I write plays and I direct plays and I act in them, too.’ I’ve done that. There was no exploration because you had to solidify yourself, to prove yourself. I will not have to find myself and put me in this box.’ But when I was coming out, hitting the scene, it was like I had this baby face and nobody was letting me direct. There weren’t as many slashes, you know what I mean? Now, artists are like ‘I’m an artist. MO: You can imagine, though, that performers and artists get pigeonholed, not pigeonholed, but you put yourself in a box. (I am most definitely not a performer, and I tell her so). ![]() And I was just like, ‘Oh, well, that’s what I’m supposed to do.’ And that was my senior year of high school.īarely two questions in, Oyetimein starts asking me her own questions. And it was the first time I directed something. And I said f- that, so I stopped auditioning and started this program with my best friend. And I was playing maids and sub characters and side characters. Because I wasn’t being cast in the shows. Listen, like most people, I was a theater baby, right? I used to act and sing and everything and the hard, ugly truth is, I started becoming a director because of racism. As I get older, that question gets more and more daunting. One November morning over Zoom, Oyetimein, a director by trade and artist above all, sat down with me to discuss all things mentorship, Merrimack Repertory Theatre and making her way through the industry as a self-proclaimed unambiguous Black woman.Īlex Ross, CFA: What brought you to your career in theater? How did you first get into directing? Tell me about the start. “It just solidified the type of work that I meant to do, you know? And it gave me my writer’s voice back when I started writing again. ![]() The newly minted School of Theatre lecturer co-adapted and directed Maya Angelou’s famous book for the stage almost immediately after graduating with an MFA from the University of Washington’s School of Drama. By Alex Ross (COM’22) Malika Oyetimein knows why the caged bird sings.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |