Guest Post from PAC Board Member Jeff Gorham

Conservatory Confessions is pleased to start bringing in guest posts from people around the Conservatory. Our last guest post was from Rich Rubin, a member of our playreading group, on his impressions after attending "Crimes of the Heart" at Sandy Actors Theatre. This one is from our newest board member, Jeff Gorham, who you might remember as Mr. Kirby from this season's production of "You Can't Take it With You." He's decided to share his experience of being in the audience for the Second Year auditions.

I had the fine pleasure and honor to be asked to be on the panel of judges for Portland Actors Conservatory's First Year students auditioning to get into the second year of the program. Having auditioned myself for an MFA program, I felt the immediate energy in the room as these First Year students waited backstage while the instructions for evaluating these fine students were given to us. You never quite know what to expect when you are given a task like this, and I have to tell you that I was simply out of my mind, blown away by what these First Year students brought to the stage with their auditions that day. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a couple of the acting faculty and I kept asking them if they were as blown away as I was. The answer was an emphatic yes.

You would have had to be there to feel it, but these students invested everything they had been taught over the past year into this one day of - without sounding to dramatic - destiny.

This was not a day where you sat down and watched a group of actors do a monologue of contrasting differences. This was a day where the students started at 10:00am and finished at 4:15pm. All disciplines of acting were covered and the students did not fail.

What Portland Actors Conservatory is doing here in Portland should be celebrated by the entire city. The craft of acting is far more than taking a role on stage and developing a character and bringing it to life. Acting prepares individuals for something larger than the stage, and that is life. Nothing is more compelling in life than when you have an individual who has the ability to listen, to be empathetic and engaging, and have the ability to present in an impactful manner.

On May 21st, I had joy in my soul watching these students put it all out there on the stage. Every one of these First Year students should stand up proudly whether they made it to Second Year or not. Everyone says this, but in this case it is truer than ever. I celebrate Portland Actors Conservatory and the fine group of First Year students who took the risk.

"You Can't Take It With You" images courtesy Jeff Forbes.