Curriculum Vitae (Course of Life)
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Left: Roger (Samuel Matthews) Right: Jan (Grace Westbrook)
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Left: Doody (Sergio Guerra) Left Center: Roger (Samuel Matthews) Right Center: Kenickie (Max Twogood) Right: Sonny (Keaton Holder)
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Left: Spongebob Squarepants (Taylor Robinson) Right: Patrick Star (Samuel Matthews)
Left: Roger (Samuel Matthews) Right: Jan (Grace Westbrook)
Actor
November 2019 - Present
In November of 2019, I made the hard switch from a lighting technician to an actor on stage. My first ever musical, Elf, showed me what it was like to be in front of an audience and introduced me to the art of performance on a stage like I had never seen before. This eventually lead to me partaking in almost every single show for the rest of my high school career. The stand-out roles of my career were Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, Pulitzer in Newsies, and Patrick Star in The Spongebob Musical. These roles each taught me something about myself and drove me to pursue this craft for the rest of my life. I will be achieving this goal by attending the Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University, St. Louis.
Lighting Design
July 2021 - Present
Ever since middle school, I have always been a lighting technician at heart. For the first one and a half years of my high school career I was purely focused on lighting and how to operate the lighting board itself. However, after I made the bold decision to transition from tech to stage, I began to fall out of focus (pun intended) with the craft. This changed my Junior year when I joined the Lee's Summit West Repertory Theatre. Every student had to put their all into acting as well as tech. So I picked up my speed wrench and got back to work. Ever since then I have been doing some amounts of lighting for class but it wasn't until the winter of 2022 that I finally got to design and program a professional level show. Summit Theatre Group's show, Hands on a Hardbody, was my first "professional" level show and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.
Film Direction / Cinematography
September 2021Â - present
As I started my junior year of high school, I wanted to make sure that film was something I wanted to do and not just a small-time passion. By the time my senior year rolled around, I was sure that this was more than just a hobby and enrolled in both Advance Video Technology and Editorial Leadership. Through these courses, I have learned as much behind the camera as I learned in front of it. As time went on, I found that the shots I was composing became more complex and the directions to my actors more specific.