Welcome Back, Friends!

Hello, my dear friends and family! Most of you are from my home base of Central Oregon, but some of you are currently residing in the Bay Area with me, or in far-off places like Chicago, New York, and even Australia and Indonesia. Although it’s quite unfortunate that I rarely get to see my loved ones all in the same place, I do have this fancy newsletter to stay connected with each one of you! Get ready for a fun ride of my reflections of the year, my ranting, my mistakes, and my triumphs and opportunities! This is also a document that I will carry with me once I move on from Santa Clara University. I want to have these newsletters for myself as well as a record and place to remember the weird, the ugly, and the hilarious everyday moments of my unique college life.

Thank You

I thank you in advance for overlooking all my strange and dyslexic typos that come up in these newsletters. I tend to write these in the wee hours of the night after I wrote my 10-page essay I had to edit for grammar and punctuation issues and I never feel like doing any more editing if I don’t have to!

Also, I would like to thank the men and women who cradled me and took me under their wing this summer. You know exactly who you are, and I could not be more thankful for you. The kind and truthful words you spoke over me the short weeks I was with you all have stuck and greatly impacted who I am as a person. I am so incredibly humbled to have people like you in my life. Thank you.

“Den tooren inder flakken essen neckon freska tudor. Nay benay benessa nay benanka, binta rubalinka sinking hookin’ keep da motor cookin’, anke danke, papa. Love, Daddy.”

Grandpa is Off His Rocker!

It is safe to say that my summer started off with a BANG! From what I remember, I had a very smooth and safe travel back home with many adventures lined up for me, and I managed to not lose a thing while moving! Within the first week of my time back home, things took a sharp turn in the opposite direction, as I got a call you never want to hear: my grandpa had a heart attack. And he needed a quadruple bypass to be exact. The whole family flew in from various parts of the United States and it was as if time passed by very, very, v e r y, slowly. All the sides of the CreachAdams family crammed in our little house throughout the summer because of how much we love our Grandpa Bill. If anyone is wondering, his heart attack was painless and his recovery is going faster than expected! It really puts into perspective that you can lose anyone at any moment. Do me a favor and tell someone you love them. You’ll both have a full heart.

Peter and the Starcatcher, BEAT, and More!

Interested in what that jibberish is in the quote section above? Well, that is the hardest (and funniest) line I had to memorize for Peter and the Starcatcher. It’s Norse code (not to be mistaken for Morse Code) if anyone was curious. Peter and the Starcatcher is a show with music (apparently that’s not a musical) that tells the backstory to Peter Pan. It was a show I auditioned for 36 HOURS after I came back home. 36 hours is not a lot of time to find, memorize, and perform a monologue. I auditioned on a whim and landed the leading role of Molly Aster and was dumbfounded when I got the call. I knew almost none of my cast members at first, but at our first run through I knew we had a family. Through the rehearsal process, the show taught me how to use humor through the tough times and why it’s important, and gave me a glimpse into what having a father might be like. I had no idea what Peter and the Starcatcher was until I did it, and now it is one of the top show I hold closest to my heart. The love and selflessness my cast had was unexplainable. I have never been a part of such a supportive, passionate, hardworking and caring group of people until I did this show and I have an immense amount of respect and admiration for my team of monthly pirates and orphans. Come opening night, it became a huge hit and we basically sold out every show we had. Thank you to those who came, and to those who didn’t you missed out on some summer fun! Shout out to all of my dear PATS brothers and sisters. I love you to the stars and back, and you’ll be a part of my heart for quite a long time to come.

Did I just star in a show this summer? Well of course not! I still have yet to float the river as I go on year 11 of being an Oregonian, but I did indeed finally buy my first pair of Birkenstocks! I reconnected with Westside Church, had so many coffee dates (some of which involved tricycles) I was jittery half my summer, and I had the honor of teaching the art and technique of theatre. I was graciously asked to be a part of creating an audition workshop intensive for Tower Theatre a year or so ago, and this summer we got it up and running. I did many little things like design, scheduling, organizing, and gathering curriculum, but what I loved most was putting on the hat of Acting Coach and working with the students first hand. It was absolutely beautiful to see these students, in just a few long days, find confidence in themselves, express who they are, and learn who they are as an artist. Not nearly as intense, but I also taught a Beginner’s Theatre class with BEAT (Bend’s Experimental Arts Theatre) where we took 6-12 year olds and put on a play with full sets and costumes in 12 hours. It was a feat to do but the proud smiles that both the kiddos and their parent had on their faces were so worth it. Since Kindergarten I knew I wanted to be a teacher, but this summer that idea was truly solidified for me. I have so much compassion for little ones and watching students struggle and grow and fall and then struggle and grow again is an amazing process that I want to be a part of. I also can’t stress enough how important all aspects of the performing arts are for children. It’s a very diverse, specific and unique discipline that builds children’s confidence in themselves as they find a love for their powerful voice before society them tells them otherwise. The reason theatre students are the favorites in interviews and scholarship applications is because they know who they are, and they know how to fight back when the world tells them to change just because it’s the popular thing to do. They know how to fight injustice in a peaceful but meaningful and impactful way – an artist’s job is to not only tell their own story but to tell the stories of those whose voices have been taken away by the oppressor.