I’ve always been blessed to have a strong foundation pointing me toward an educated future, but I haven’t always been so driven. The moment I knew I would spend my life as an actor was after another failed semester spent studying Biochemistry at CSU East Bay. I drove 5 hours for my Cellular Microbiology final just to show up to an empty lecture hall. I missed it, I missed my final for my undergraduate degree. It was then that I knew I needed a change in my perspective, and to point myself in a direction I wanted to go in, not just taking the career I thought I should have. I again went to performing arts to seek guidance.
In that giant concrete concert hall I discovered a music in myself I always knew was there, but never had the ability to tap into. It feels like a train I put myself on to pull me through a scene. I don’t control the train when I’m on board, the scene takes me. I found beauty in plucking an orange off an imaginary tree in Cabaret, the serenity that comes from working from a state of relaxation, and a peace to the tormenting grief I have for my late family and friends.
I failed pursuing a degree I was neither interested in nor good at, so I thought I would focus my career toward something I knew I loved and was good at. After all, why try to become something I don’t want to be? A decade later and I’m finishing my MFA in Acting at The Academy of Art. I couldn’t feel more like a puzzle piece that’s found its place.
It’s been challenging finding the genuine energy that comes out of a really great scene with another actor since San Francisco closed in March. The adjustment time over Zoom was strange, however comforting every step closer to “normal” we took. It’s not forever, but I’m building skills that will last that long. I’m building my back catalog of audition material and monologues to fill the time between work and class. In addition, I started editing my own stay-at-home audition material, which can be found under the, “Audition Material” tab. Check it out and let me know how you felt, dm me on my facebook page or shoot me an email: blakeweaver13@gmail.com
