Full Name:
Jennifer Mary Keto a.k.a JennyBird
Major/Year:
B.A. in Theatre & Dance/6th year
Favorite class in Theatre & Dance and why:
Collaborative Performance. Stephen Gerald taught me to do theatre as an independent artist instead of learning theatre as a student. The steepest learning curve is always achieved by doing, by art in action.
Favorite thing about Austin:
Austin is my home and I am proud to have grown up in city with a free-spirited mantra for keepin’ weird. I think that’s why people say that I am “crazy in a good way,” and I take it as a compliment like a true Austinite.
Favorite place to study:
In a theatre. After all, my favorite subject to study is theatre. For all other subjects, my favorite place to study is in my bed. It may not be the most efficient place to study but it is my favorite.
Brief biography (including projects, awards, accomplishments):
I entered UT as a theatre student and promptly left in the first semester. The reason for my rather rash decision to turn my back on theatre was because I had been told several times by my parents, peers, and professors that if I can do anything but theatre then I must do whatever that is. I thought about this advice carefully and listened to fellow freshman talk about how they had wanted to be actors since they were two. I did not feel that way. I had to find out if theatre was the only thing I could do by doing other things. I transferred to the Natural Science Department with a major in neurobiology and in the next semester, I was accepted into the Dean’s Scholars Honors Degree Program. Being amidst so many students who were passionate about science and the prospect of becoming scientists forced me to realize that I am not passionate about doing science. I found myself sitting in the Metro coffee shop counting neuronal cells into an hour so late that my mind shut down and my heart screamed, “Why am I not a theatre artist?!” The next day I found out what it would take to transfer back into the theatre department at UT.
Four years after my first theatre class with Lucien Douglas, I was back in the atrium sitting on those notorious mauve couch chairs as a theatre student once again. I was like a freshman all over again, but older, and this time I knew exactly wanted to do with my life. I think my experiences away from theatre caused me to embrace my love for the art all the more. Since then, I have taken the commitment that “there is nothing else but theatre that I can do with my life” and made theatre my own in any way possible. I have been cast as Camille in “Aisle 7” and Fefu in “Fefu and Her Friends” on UT’s main stage and as Jill Tanner in “Butterflies Are Free” outside UT with the ONSTAGE Theatre Company. I wrote a play called freakLove that I had the opportunity to produce and workshop in the University Co-op presents the Cohen New Works Festival. I am continuing to develop my potential as both an actor and a playwright as I work toward graduating in the spring of 2008. In my last year, people keep asking me, “What do you plan on doing after you graduate?” and I say, “I plan on going wherever theatre takes me,” because I know now that I cannot do anything else.
Current projects/research/interests:
I am currently rehearsing my role as Fefu in “Fefu and Her Friends” directed by Leslie Swackhamer, which has peaked an interest in feminism and feminine culture in the 1930’s as well as classic films. I am also researching graduate schools with the hopes of pursuing an MFA degree in Acting. I applied for a Fulbright Scholarship and if my application is accepted I will travel to Canada in the fall of 2008 to work for Tarragon Theatre, a company that specializes in new play development. Whether or not I receive the Fulbright, I am very interested in going to Canada for an extended period of time and seeing what Canadian theatre and culture has to offer me as an artist.
