Full Name:
Michael Massey
Major/Year:
3rd-year Theatre and Dance major
Favorite class in Theatre & Dance and why:
In my second year I took Kirk Lynn’s Directing New Work class. The class was so outside the normal, structural environment of any class I’ve taken. The class was not about learning new skills as it was about learning what kind of work you wanted to make as an artist. I figured out so much about my personal style and reawakened myself to why I fell in love with theatre in the first place. And Kirk cares so much about his students. He knows that there is no one way to do things and takes the time figure out you and your work personally and caters his class to help you achieve your project’s goals. By the end of the semester, the entire class had grown as one ensemble and greatly trusted and valued feedback from one another. The magic of the class was that we all grew together and watched each other over the course of the semester become stronger artists.
Favorite thing about Austin:
Have you ever been to HomeSlice pizza on South Congress? If you haven't, stop reading this right now and get over there. Why haven't you left yet?
HomeSlice is the bomb, seriously, there is no place like it. The atmosphere is great for sitting and talking. I actually have a lot of meeting there for shows. And the pizza there is out of this world. I've been there like one hundred times and it stills tastes like the first bite. It's a really great place to go if you and friend are having a rough day and need to vent.
Favorite place to study:
Okay. Funny story about this one, folks. I was in an Astronomy class with a friend last semester and we were going to study for the final together. The PCL was packed so I recommend going to the Winship Atrium, and she said, "But won't it be really loud in the theatre building?" We went there anyway and she loved how quiet it was, without it being too quiet. It's hard for us to study in complete silence; it's always nice to have some noise in the background. And she also loved the constant entertainment: people will randomly start rehearsing their scene or a giant duck will be carried through the building. I see her sometimes studying in the atrium by herself and she's a Spanish major! And that's pretty much why I love to study in the atrium.
Brief biography (including projects, awards, accomplishments):
Michael Massey is a Theatre and Dance student studying Directing and Stage Management at this fine establishment of UT Austin. He recently directed a show called Drip by Ian Pribyl in the UT Lab Theatre last year in The Playwriting Project, a showcase of four original plays written in a departmental playwriting class written, directed and performed by undergraduate students. He has also performed in productions such as a Casanova penguin named Wallace in the Cohen New Works Festival piece And Then Came Tango, the proud and enthusiastic music teacher Mr. Toot in Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! at the Paramount Theatre and The Phoenix Fringe, a showcase of original student work, where he co-wrote and performed a piece entitled I Wanna Hear a Poem. In addition, he has stage managed Second Hand Theatre's productions of re:PSYCHE and The Zoo Story, Phil Soltanoff’s piece at the 2011 FuseBox Festival entitled Discussing Art in the 21st Century_A mixed media presentation of image demarcations via celebrity representation and theoretical post-functional analysis, sutured with the effects of cheap video technology and critical thought, and worked as an ASM for UT’s Our Town, The Cherry Orchard and The Vortex Repertory Theatre’s production of LEAR.
Current projects/research/interests:
I love to use unconventional devices in performance, sticking to traditional rules but just adding a little twist to them. I'm a huge fan of combining traditional theatre with other elements to heighten performance, especially dance. Dance is purely about the soul and when you combine that with the living, breathing art form of live theatre, you get something truly breathtaking.
I'm in the midst of collaborating on a show about the role of technicians in the theatre. Our goal is to showcase the aspects of technical theatre and use actual technicians (stage managers, costumes designers, etc.) in the department as performers. Through this process, the team wants to explore how the relationships among technicians to other roles in the theatre and themselves influence the performance process.
