Before the curtain even opens on The Rogue Theatre stage for the first preview of the season, a young man emerges. The man, unbeknownst to the crowd, is taking the stage in his first professional performance in his career.
Adam Harris, who plays the Boy in The Rogue Theatre’s current production, “Waiting for Godot,” is a student at the UA in his senior year. He is seeking a Bachelor of Arts in theatre arts after a two-year hiatus from performing. In his time at the university, he has appeared in two other productions at The Rogue Theatre: “Mr. Marmalade” and “The Secret Garden.”
“I think its pretty special; not everyone gets an opportunity to [act on stage],” said Cynthia Meier, managing and associate artistic director for The Rogue Theatre and the director of “Waiting for Godot” on Harris’ first professional performance.
Meier said she thought it was great for Harris to have that opportunity and that he’s a part of the cast.
“I’ve been doing plays since I was, like, 3 years old,” Harris said. “So I guess the draw to theater is that I’ve always been doing theater.”
Harris said that theater for kids is expressive and a creative outlet and everything sports could be for him, minus being physically active. He added that after he got into the theater program in his sophomore year, the Bachelor of Fine Arts program does a cut program, and he was one who got cut. Despite this, he stayed in Tucson and decided to do the BA program.
After deciding to do his Bachelor of Arts, Harris took an improvisation class where the professor at the end of the class asked him if he could come and do a reading for a part in Mr. Marmalade. Coincidently, the director for the piece was Matt Bowdren, the same man who plays Estragon in the “Waiting for Godot” production now.
“[Bowdren] convinced me to audition for The Rogue Theatre season because they said they needed a bunch of children — well, not children, but younger people,” Harris said. “So I auditioned and I got the Boy and for ‘[The] Merchant of Venice’ I got Lorenzo.”
Harris said that so far, working with the theater has been great and that it has been a really supportive environment.
“Everyone is super nice and really supportive,” Harris said. “It’s been really nice working with such a small cast for my first show there because you really get to know these people and how they work.”
Meier also complimented Harris’s on his interactions with the cast.
“Adam’s got such great presence and a fantastic attitude,” Meier said.
Meier added that it’s important for castmembers to get along with each other and be good team players, and that Harris is. She said that could help Harris in his desire to be a high school teacher. After graduating from the UA, Harris said he wants to get a teaching license to teach theater to high school students.
Harris added that he learned to be better in every facet of his life through theater, and that he feels high school students are not taught by people who know theater, but by people who know literature, and he wants to change that.
“When I was in high school — not just middle school, through high school and growing up — teachers, theater teachers, were the ones that instilled professionalism and self-worth … and pride of my work,” Harris said on his desire to teach.
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