Quick Chat: The 2019 Apprentice Company

Quick Chats are a bi-weekly Q&A with some of APT's excellent company members. This week, we'd like to share the Apprentice Company's personal statements. 

The Apprentices submitted these statements for the program for this year's Apprentice Project, which hit the stage just last Sunday, September 28. Whether or not you saw the performance, we thought you might want to learn a little more about these talented young actors, Kenneth La'Ron Hamilton II, Rasell Holt, Samantha Newcomb, Jennifer Vosters and Noah Yaconelli. 

Kenneth La'Ron Hamilton II

It’s hard for me to talk about this craft without talking about my past. My past is the frame inside of which my craft exists. I want you to have the whole picture, but I have words of decreasing availability, and that is what it’s like to be human. I was raised by my mom and my late grandmother, and everything I am I owe to them. My mom ran a day care in the living room and a salon out of the kitchen. Every spare breath she had was spent telling her kids that we could be whatever we wanted. What I wanted more than anything was to have a destiny, to be a part of a good story. 

When I step on this stage, I am a part of a very good story. I see so many people around me working so hard to make these stories
happen. Actors working to be heard, audiences working to hear, front of house, concessions, stage management, carpenters, run crew, wigs, PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS, everyone has ownership of these words. Everyone is fighting to make these stories happen.

What I’ve learned from this company, this family, is that your fear has no mastery of you. I’ve seen you guys embrace it, laugh with it and make it your dance partner. I chose these pieces because they scare me, either the size of the language or their demands. But that’s what separates hearing about a story, and being a part of it, the fear.

Rasell Holt
[ BE HELPFUL. DON'T BE A DETRIMENT. ]

Samantha Newcomb
Shakespeare and I are dancing. I’m not sure who invited whom, exactly. Though I’ve been known to get the party started. As with any dance partner we are learning each other. It’s fun and sexy and awkward and sometimes I have two left feet, stumbling over his words. Yet I make a point to mention that we are both learning. We are becoming accustomed to, and appreciative of each other’s unique history and rhythm. Throughout this dance I am in pursuit of a mutual respect between the Bard and myself, and in the moments we truly find it- it’s groovy.

There are times he steps on my toes, too. These plays, in truth, were not written for me. I often don’t see myself represented on stage or screen, let alone in the "Classics". Though he is wont to lead, our agreement must be that he makes room for me, too. My mission here has been to find my own voice, body, and identity within these plays, allowing the totality of me to enrich what is already there. I work toward a world where Shakespeare’s work can be as reverent of me and I am taught to be of him.

My deepest gratitude to all at APT for turning up the music and encouraging me to fly. This is for us all.

Let’s Dance.

Jennifer Vosters
"Here I am to speak what I do know."

Of all the impressive quotables in Mark Antony’s (in)famous funeral oration, this line has a tendency to skate by like a scrawny younger sibling: simple, unpretentious, un-fancy. But to me it’s become profound. A kind of thesis statement for the artist I want to be.

Here I am. Taking space, and naming it. Defining it, then owning it. The audacity of saying "HERE I AM!" shows up in the Bible, in Cartesian philosophy, in Dr. Seuss. It is an act of self-knowledge, self-respect, and responsibility. I want to be an artist that knows, respects, and announces herself, just as she is. Only then can I know where I need to go.

To speak. Giving voice, taking action, making a leap. Trusting the power of words and entering the silence with intention. I want to be an artist who speaks up with grace.

What I do know. Taking a stand, making a claim, daring confidence. Speaking to what is known, not just believed or heard. I want to be an artist who trusts herself, trusts her knowledge, and honors where she still has more to learn.

Here we are to speak what we do know. Here you are to see what we have
learned. Thank you for being here.

Noah Yaconelli
There is no way to sum up why I act or what my "Artist Statement" is in 250 words. To be honest, I’m not sure I have any Artist Statement to make now or any time soon. I can only say that to me, at this moment, the question theater asks of both performer and audience, tonight that means us, runs parallel to those famous Mary Oliver lines: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"