Brand new FIU Theatre alumna Stephanie Sandoval premiered BACHELORETTE at this year’s Alternative Theatre Festival on June 27-29 and July 4-6 – to great success!
Sandoval, who graduated just this past May, was thrilled to direct her first show for the Alternative Theatre Festival.
Sandoval on BACHELORETTE:
“I was very dedicated to this show choice very early on. During the fall semester I used an excerpt for my Directing final. Once I read the play back in the fall, I fell in love. The script transcended what I had come to learn about life, more specifically, my life and people in it. It became an exploration of why people do, act, say in relation to others around them.”
On developing her directorial voice:
“I’ve known that I enjoyed sculpting the world the audience comes to be indulged in early into my theatrical education. Back in South Miami Middle School under the direction of FIU alumnus Madeline Marchant, I watched with amazement how she molded a scene or a musical number and I always understood her vision. Eventually when I would sit in the sidelines, I at times assisted her; pointing out possible ideas or details she might’ve come to miss in the first time around. Then in Coral Reef Senior High, I took off my abilities and choreographed many numbers for Thespian competition, slowly gaining more confidence in something that I really enjoyed doing. Finally, at FIU I had the privilege to Assistant Direct a show from the FIU season, under Professor Wayne E. Robinson Jr. It was here that I finally saw that I was good at directing and that it came naturally. So, developing my voice came from just taking the opportunities presented and trusting in my abilities to see the show in a creative perspective.”
Having a student directed piece in the Alternative Theatre Festival is something that Departmental Chair Marilyn Skow feels brings a fresh voice to the program, and Sandoval’s show has been an amazing success.
BACHELORETTE cast and director.
About Stephanie:
Stephanie Sandoval began her career at FIU in the fall of 2009 after having graduated from Coral Reef Senior High. She has been performing since the age of three in dance recitals and has been seen in theatrical performances since the age of ten. Upon entering FIU she took part in the Hispanic Heritage Showcase that was organized by an FIU Theatre student (now alumni) Michelle Christina Moreno in which she performed West Side Story’s “America”. She made her first appearance on the FIU Mainstage in the production of Twelfth Night, directed by Prof. Wayne E. Robinson Jr. as one of Olivia’s entourage, Fiorella. Next, she was Asst. Director to Prof. Robinson in Swimming in the Shallows. Finally in her senior year, she was seen in Prof. Marilyn Skow’s adaptation of Medea as Kaliope, a Village Woman, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as Fabiana Aziza Cunningham, and in her one-woman show Charcoal portraying Louise Brooks. Stephanie graduated in May 2013. She hopes to continue both acting and directing within the community and then eventually taking off to the Big Apple and/or Los Angeles.
