A Brief Reflection as an Educator

2023 marks 14 years of teaching acting: 11 in high school theatre and 3 in voice acting.

My B.A. and California Teaching Credential are both in theatre arts education because I'd fortunately learned early on that teaching and directing are happinesses, along with acting.

I have not played a lead role in any production. It doesn't mean I won't audition for them - it simply means I'm walking my path. A journey of a working voice actor, whose path may include opportunities that could lead to those.

The focus is on the walk. Not on the trophies.

My effort as an educator lies in instilling a potential happiness inside the actor - for the actor to recognize acting as a happiness in their own self-awareness, as well as to realize (and materialize) the inherent artistry that is their own human experience. Their own story. The stuff in their bones.

It is a skill I've honed for 14 years, and will continue to hone. Just like acting, which I started in 1996. It is a happiness. I know, in my own self-awareness, that living as a working actor and teacher of acting yields the most amount of happiness when it comes to my work.

I hope you find your happiness. Even better, I hope it's inside a career - whether it's voice acting, carpentry, culinary arts, or accounting. If career and happiness are separate, that's perfectly ok, too.

As long as you're living a life of happiness, or on a path to actualizing one. ??