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After teaching an introductory acting class during the fall for the first time at Minnesota State, Joey West decided to try a different approach.
He backed off on lectures this semester and has his new section of students taking learning on their feet. The non-traditional techniques and improv activities the MFA candidate in the Department of Theatre & Dance acting program implemented are already getting his students to open up.
"I wasted a lot of time lecturing last semester, so this time around I had to figure out how to get my class going," said West.
West is a graduate assistant and teaches Acting for Everyone biweekly in the theatre lab in the basement of the Performing Arts Center.
Students take their shoes off before stepping foot into the classroom and each session starts with stretching and breathing exercises, followed by a range of improvisational activities and partner and group work that coincides with textbook lessons.
The general education course brought 25 students with varied interests and majors together to perform, so West knew it was important to get the students to feel comfortable expressing themselves in front of each other.
In one of the first sessions, he had students bring in five items for an icebreaker show-and-tell, something freshman Michelene Thompson said was an interesting experience.
"It was kind of like sharing each other's souls," she said.
Thompson brought a few gifts that remind her of people and memories she treasures, but it was West who shared first, including a piano performance and showing the class his ability to project something he would later teach about - vulnerability.
"He's an awesome person and he definitely cares about his students," Thompson said. "It seems much more personal than other classes."
At 33, West has spent years studying music and theatre all over the globe.
He attended college in Wyoming, his home state, for a few years and received a BA in music and theatre from Southern Virginia University. He attended an "acting boot camp" in England in 2006, a post-graduate diploma program at the Liverpool Institution of Performing Arts and has participated in a six-week opera program in Italy. He was also a substitute acting teacher at Rock Springs High School in Wyoming.
"Joey is typical of our grad students in that normally they are older and have more life experiences," said Paul Hustoles, the MSU theatre chair. " He adds a maturity to our dept that we are better off for."
West is an actor, and his passion for performing musical theatre led him to MSU in the fall. While in England, West worked with Nick Phillips, who was busy writing a play with "Phantom of the Opera" mastermind Andrew Lloyd Weber. After coming back to Wyoming in 2007, West wanted to finish his thesis to receive his diploma, but after a few road blocks he knew he had to go in a different direction, so he looked to Phillips for advice, who had turned him on to Hustoles' 400-page musical theatre dissertation.
"I read it and thought, 'Oh my god, who is this guy?' He's brilliant with what he has come up with," he said. "Dr. Hustoles came up with a way to classify musical theatre and look at it from the perspective that this is viable, valuable material that we can delve into."
When Hustoles heard West read his work, he assumed that he only read the title.
"But then he said something and I thought 'My god, he really did read it," Hustoles said.
"A dissertation is something you don't think anyone else will read who doesn't have to. It's way too long, a 400-page tirade about how to direct musical theatre," one of only a few doctoral dissertations on the subject.
Not only did West read it, but it inspired him enough to want to work with Hustoles in Mankato, so he contacted him for the opportunity to audition for the MFA program.
West was admitted in the fall and came to MSU without knowing anyone. He didn't even meet his roommates until he moved in. The graduate student immediately began working when he got here, and has been consistently performing in shows since, starting with his role in "Twelve Angry Men" and contrasting work in MSU's cult-classic rendition, the "Rocky Horror Show," where he played two parts.
"So far he has some pretty varied roles," Hustoles said. "He was in ['Twelve Angry Men'] which was a serious role and then went ballistic in 'Rocky.'"
On top of teaching and coursework, West spends more than 20 hours- and six nights-per week in rehearsal for the forthcoming "On the Razzle" and will play Admiral Dillon in "42nd Street" in April. He spends some of his down time during rehearsals completing coursework, but says as soon as he hits the stage, he has to be in the moment.
"Nothing else should come between that moment. At that time it has to be the most important thing." West recognizes the value of intellect in acting, but says he is more of a "gut person."
"I have to learn to make the head and heart work together," he said. "Am I a brilliant actor? No, I'm not there yet, but by the end of my three years here I hope to become a lot better, I hope I understand it much more than I did."
With experiences like West had on the set of "Rocky," he is reminded of how much he loves his trade and attributes musical theatre to being the "passion [he needs] to get [him] up in the morning"
With seven musicals slated for this year, an unheard-of amount in comparison to other colleges, it seems he has found the right fit at MSU.
"Ironically I haven't had the chance to work with him on a musical because of casting but that time will come I'm sure," Hustoles said.
Nicole Smith is the Reporter editor in chief
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