School of Drama ’09
BFA Drama ’09, School of Drama
What are you working on now?
I'm working on a workshop developmental piece at JACK, a performance space in Brooklyn, called Desaparecidas. It’s a musical about the women who disappeared from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. The cast is all Mexican; most of the people involved speak Spanish, and even in the tech room there are Spanish-speaking people. I also have an upcoming project at Signature Theatre Company called A Bright New Boise, which is directed by Oliver Butler.
When you first started your program, what did you think you would be doing?
When I first began studying at the College of Performing Arts, I thought I was going to be a director. I went for acting and ended up switching into directing, and then I took a class called Creative Technologies, which introduced me to video design. That’s when I fell in love with video and projection design. Once I finished, I thought I was going to be able to do both directing and projection design, but I started getting more and more jobs as a projection designer and started really growing in the field, so I continued to pursue that. So, yeah, I thought I was going to be a director, to be honest, but that's not what I’m doing at the moment.
What was a new way of learning that you experienced at The New School?
I took a playwriting class my first year in which we had to look for news stories on the Internet and develop a play based on those stories. I discovered a story about a guy who came to rob a hair salon but ended up confronting a woman there who held him captive for 24 hours before setting him free. I re-created those 24 hours in my play with two actors playing these roles, and I actually produced that show in Argentina once I went back home. To this day, it’s one of my favorites among the pieces I’ve done.
How did that change your way forward?
I think taking diverse classes such as that one helped me dramaturgically. Today, when I approach a piece, I feel that I’m able to understand it and come up with ideas from things I learned in the playwriting classes I took at The New School. These classes gave me lots of new tools with which to approach the pieces I work on. What stood out to me about The New School is that the program was all about finding my own voice as an artist and learning more about the type of art that I want to be doing.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I’d love to do a project at Brooklyn Academy of Music or a project at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Those are my favorite theaters. They do lots of experimental pieces. They bring in a lot of European work, which I’m really fond of.
How do you want to leave your mark on the world?
At least within the theater world, I want people to say, “I really enjoy working with Stefania. She is so nice. She’s friendly. We had a great time together. She’s so dedicated to her art.” I want my collaborators to think back on our work together and say, “We’ve made great art and had a great time doing it.”