Featured Graduate Students, November 2005
Sarah Chandler and Ashley Sparks

Ashley Sparks Ashley Sparks is a 2nd year graduate student in the Directing and Public Dialogue program. Ashley transferred to Virginia Tech after spending a year at Towson University's Theatre program. Prior to her adventures in graduate school(s) she was the program director for DREAMS of Wilmington. DREAMS is a non-profit after school program offering visual and performing arts classes free-of-charge for underprivileged youth. Under her leadership, this program tripled the number of weekly classes it offered and served over 300 youth annually. Ashley was also directing, acting in, and writing new plays with an all-female performance art ensemble, performing in weekly sketch and improv comedy troupes, and learning how to bake tasty cheesecakes. After graduating from UNC at Wilmington and living by the high seas for several years, Ashley began developing her slight obsession with pirates. She describes this as a "unique interest" and confesses that she "likes to say Arrghhhh! and Ahoy!..alot".

Sarah Chandler Sarah Chandler is a third year Master of Fine Arts Candidate.  She is a 25 year old Capricorn who loves long walks through cow manure.  In all seriousness, she is a Georgia native who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. She has four brothers and sisters and was raised as the middle child.  She has worked in multiple theatres, including Unto These Hills in Cherokee, North Carolina, Theatre Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, Henlopen Theatre Project in Rehoboth Beach, Rhode Island, and Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

About Graduate School

Did your past experiences in life or education help prepare you for graduate school?
Sarah:  I am not sure how I became prepared for graduate school. I actually would not even be willing to admit that I am, after two and a half years, prepared for graduate school now that I've almost finished. I don't really know what being prepared for graduate school means. I feel that perhaps graduate school has helped prepare me for the next path that I will take in my life. 

What surprised you the most about graduate school?
Ashley:  I think even if I had been warned I don't think I was prepared for the lack of sleep and how emotionally difficult it would be. Again, I think for a long time I believed the work was about me making pretty pictures on stage that weren't connected to who I was or what I found interesting. It is a constant challenge to answer and be articulate in what I want and why I want or believe in something. I don't know how much that happens within other departments or fields. I'm not sure that engineering students are constantly asked the personal reasons why they want to do something. At the same time I have heard it said that you go to graduate school to grow-up and to learn how to learn. I believe that I came to graduate school and realized how little I knew and then began to fall in love with the adventure of being curious.

What is your primary motivation for persevering through graduate school?
Sarah:  In all honesty, I wanted to continue developing my knowledge and skills in theatre prior to diving into the unknown world of theatrics.  Additionally, I knew that having an MFA would never be something I would regret. It will always be a positive in my life and will never hold me back from anything I may want to do. Learning as much as possible is a goal of my life and this is just one opportunity that I took. I hope to have many more opportunities to experience life and learn along the way. 

About Theatre Arts

How would you describe your area of study to your grandmother?
Ashley:  I like to be in charge of things. Grandma, you remember, I was a bossy child. As a director for the theatre I get to tell people what to do. (Not really. I just like to pretend that is what I do.) Actually, what I do is facilitate play and the creative process. The ways that I work are different from many of the traditional models used in the theatre. I am not a director who is going to tell a group of actors, designers, or technicians how to do their jobs. Grandma, I ask a lot of questions of all of the collaborators involved in the process of creating a show. I was also a very inquisitive child. I develop games and figure out ways of creating 'play' in order to open the team players. In relation to my current project, the actors are the ones who have generated most of the material and conceptual ideas. I provide structures and they push and play against those. One of the reasons my program is so different from most other MFA directing programs is that there is a strong focus on involving community in both the process and creating conversations about the work. I am not interested in making art in a vacuum. I believe that artists have a responsibility to respond to the world around them and feed their communities. This program demands that I be articulate in how my work affects and creates change.

Sarah:  Granny, how about I give you a day in the life of this particular stage manager in this particular graduate program. I wake up around 8 am in order to get to my first class at Gillie's restaurant at 9 am. It is just my professor and I, and we discuss all of the issues, problems, outcomes, future plans that I may be concentrating on during that given month or so. I then run off to another class with another professor around 10:30 am and we discuss sound design and how that works. Depending on the show, I may have other meetings set up that I would need to go to in order to make sure that the production is staying on task... Rehearsals generally start at 7 pm and we are in rehearsal until 11 pm. During the rehearsal, if I'm stage managing, I keep notes on everything that happens, I write down any tie the director tells an actor where to move on stage so that I have a record of it, I call breaks (so that we can all smoke our cigarettes), I make sure that the atmosphere in the rehearsal stays positive and enjoyable with the tone of hard work... At 11 pm, I usually meet with the director for a little bit, then I have to lock up the theatre and make sure all the lights and everything are off... I like to get to sleep before 1 am, but this is dependent on how much work I need to get done before the next morning. All of this, and I still love every second of stage managing. 

About Relationships

What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Sarah:  I am most proud of the relationship that I have been able to cultivate and build with my family. They mean the world to me and it took me much too long to realize that. Now that I have, I am most proud of them. 

With whom is your most meaningful academic relationship?
Ashley:  Bob Leonard. Anyone who has worked with him understands that the name alone is enough sometimes to bring a person a sense of calm. As my master teacher (the structure of the graduate directing program is studio-based, meaning we meet one-on-one with our master teacher for a few hours each week to discuss our progress) Bob is the reason I came to graduate school at VT. In those moments where I am falling apart from exhaustion, fear, self-doubt, and lack of focus, Bob is able to articulate and bring the issues into a frame of something manageable. Our work as theatre artists is personal — in as much as the personal is political, I believe that the creative is personal and therefore political. This means that as artists in a graduate program we tread on liquid ground between our work and deeply personal things. It is a skilled teacher who can navigate this territory with a student. Bob is that teacher.  

About Comforts, Discomforts, and Life Beyond the Classroom

What is your favorite comfort food and why? How often do you consume it?
Ashley:  I have become a chocolate snob. It has become my comfort food and I eat at least a little piece every day. It's an indulgence that I take time to be still for a moment and just be present in something melting and rich. It started when I began working on 28: A Traveling Menstural Show, my semester project, which opens November 15. When talking about menstruation all the time chocolate becomes a part of the dialogue on a daily basis. It started out as an indulgence with generic semi-sweet chips from the freezer and has now escalated to a snobbish habit involving the Swiss, Belgians, and Italians.

Which field are you most happy that you did not enter?
Sarah: The study of maggots and their mating habits — although now that you mention it…

What is the last book you read strictly for pleasure and how long ago was it?
Ashley:  Harry Potter 6 in July. I finished it in two days. I couldn't put it down and was home alone weeping loudly for the last 50 pages.

About Life With or Without Graduate Education

If you hadn't been admitted to graduate school, what do you think you would be doing right now?
Sarah:  Most likely, right now I would be working at a theatre on the east coast trying to figure out why I didn't take advantage of that opportunity to go to graduate school when I had it. 

What are your aspirations upon graduation?
Ashley:  After graduation I plan on moving to a city in the southeast and starting an ensemble-based theatre company. I will live in one place for longer than nine months and plant tomatoes. I will sleep more than 5 hours a night. The company will work both with and for its community telling stories and providing a space for authentic connection and laughter. The work will be evocative and provide space for actors and designers to develop their skills along with creating dialogue in the community about the work and its purpose. After many years of creating community-based art I aspire to be taken aboard a pirate ship (possibly the Dread Pirate Roberts) and sail the high seas looking for buried treasure on tropical islands and drinking lots of rum.

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