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Progress Letter

This is for those people who ask me "How is grad school going?" Well, here's the clearest and most detailed answer I have so far:

"This letter is to summarize our December discussion regarding your work in your first semester. It includes comments from all of your major professors and comments from the MFA faculty meeting that took place at the end of the fall semester.

The faculty agreed that although you came to the program with less formal training than most students, your hard work and strong desire to learn and grow has helped you to make real leaps in your training. You possess a fresh, open quality and do not possess a lot of bad habits. It was noted that you are an intelligent actor and that your sensitivity and emotional accessibility are aided, not hindered, by your keen intellect. Your work at being more fully present in the moment and successfully connecting with other actors is progressing nicely. You need to continue to take risks in your work and embrace the sense of play that will allow you more freedom to explore the possibilities of a character. It was also suggested that you continue to explore being more generous with yourself, allowing yourself the possibility of failure, so that you will continue to grow.

Your excellent writing and analytical skills aided you in clearly communicating your ideas in your script analysis work. This specificity of thought was also evident in your performance classes, as well as your work with guest artist David Frank. You are able to process suggestions quickly and to apply them in the moment. You need to continue to work on your vocal instrument, which is starting to become more dimensional.

Your work as a graduate assistant for the THEA 170 class demonstrated a commitment to both learning and teaching the basic process. You had a good rapport with your students and created a positive learning environment.

Your production work on Good Person of Setzuan was solid even though you played a smaller role. Your positive attitude served both you and the production well. The faculty have assigned Andrew Aguecheek as your practicum role for the spring semester."

Well there you have it. Straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. Overall, things are going pretty well! We started school again, and I'm right back in the thick of it with a new batch of eager freshman to teach, my own intense courses, and a full evening of rehearsal almost every day. Honestly, though, this is the life!

Comments

alea said…
wait...is this some leftist/actory replacement for grades? Where, oh where, is McCarthy when you need him?
Matt Haws said…
There's absolutely nothing leftist or revolutionary about what we do here! Its simply that grades are an archaic hierarchy of the bourgeousise class system meant to reinforce idealogies of inequality amongst the masses. That's all.

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