Gi60 Scholarship award recipients.
Sarvin Alidaee
It’s All About Acting…
I was 12 years old, when I saw a play for the first time in
1995. It was "The King Snake" directed by acclaimed Iranian theater
artist Bahram Beizai. The moment the show was over, I knew I wanted to become
an actress. Becoming an actress was an ambitious dream for a girl who was
living in Iran during the 90s. The country had just emerged from the Iran-Iraq
war (1980-1988) and many people were in constant struggle to just meet their
basic needs.
I grew up in a middle class family with educated parents.
Even though my parents love arts, I knew their expectations for me were
different and they wanted me to go to college and have a stable job and a
stable life. I didn't want to let my parents down, so without putting any
thought to it, I did what I knew my parents wanted me to do. Moreover, fees for
drama school were very expensive, so I had to wait until I found a job and
saved up enough money. Even though, I couldn't stop thinking about my dream, I
decided to turn a deaf ear to my inner calling. I let my rational mind shout
down my inner voice and I started listening to my head instead of my heart.
I studied hard at school and university. I received my BA
in English news translation. After graduation, I got a job at a newspaper as a
translator and journalist. During all those years, I didn't give up on my
dream. My instinct warned me that something wasn’t quite right in my life, but
I ignored it. For almost a decade, I just watched plays which gave me a notable
experience and made me more inspired and passionate.
I was successful in my job and had the respect of my peers
and the newspaper's management, but I felt like I was trapped in the wrong job.
I enrolled in a one-year acting class in 2008. I also took a two-year acting
course in 2011. The teacher of the third acting class that I took in 2014 was a
game changer in my life.
The actor who performed in the lead role in "The King
Snake," was our teacher. He changed my life forever. He has spent his
whole life teaching his students not only acting, but also how to follow their
dreams and focus on their goals. One day, he told us: "Never pay attention
to the disappointing comments that are made about your dream by people around
you because they don't realize what a beautiful world we have here in this
class." He was right. No one never understood how much I enjoyed every
second of my classes.
Acting classes gave my confidence a boost. After years of
hard work and practice, my dream finally came true. I got a role in a play
directed by my teacher, in which I acted a transgender boy. From the moment I
stepped on stage, something changed in me. I felt alive. I found freedom in
performance. Acting lessons washed away my shyness and helped me become more
confident. It freed me from those things that had bound me like low
self-esteem.
Some months later I was cast in another play "The
House of Bernarda Alba". I played the role of Bernarda's eldest daughter.
Both plays were on stage for one month and I believe those days were my
happiest times in my life so far.
I came to New York in 2015 to study acting. I am a BFA
acting student now and I think studying at Brooklyn College is one of the best
things that has ever happened to me. Theater is the only thing that makes me
feel alive and special. As I learned, it’s never too late to start listening to
our inner voice. And that's why I am here in New York now. Theater means
everything to me and I wanted it to be part of my life.
Johnathan Dougan
Johnathan is an incoming senior double majoring in Acting
(BFA) and psychology. His recent roles include Samir in Heloise Wilson’s “La
Folie,” the Son types in Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom” by Jennifer Haley
and “Pebble” in Ben Gassman’s “40s and Chestnuts.” Johnathan places immense
value on teamwork and his ensemble as he believes that the strengths of his
craft are based on collaboration. Since the age of 6, Johnathan has been
performing in musicals, plays, films and has been singing as a solo artist. He
studied ballet and modern dance as a child and studied classical voice at
LaGuardia High school as a 2015 graduate.
In his near future, Johnathan sees himself graduating
college and pursuing a career as a performer while using what he has learned in
his psychology major to help find his characters. In addition, he plans to help
people with mental health needs through the arts by pursuing arts therapy.
Johnathan says that If there is one lesson that he will carry with him after
years of performing, is that growth as an individual requires trusting others
and getting others to trust you.
Matt Mozaidze
My name is Valeri Matt Mozaidze, I’m 22 years old and
currently I’m entering my senior year in Brooklyn college, studying BFA in
Acting. I was born in the country of Georgia and I was raised in Brooklyn NY.
Throughout my journey I discovered what it means to be part of two very
different cultures and what it’s like to understand both cultural points of
view. Recently I travelled to Ireland over the summer, studying abroad and I
had an opportunity to immerse in the amazing culture to study Irish theatre.
With these experiences I realized how actors and playwrights tell their
stories, stories they need to tell to bring awareness about certain topics and
problems. Theater really is a vital key in our societies because it
teaches the audience what it’s like to be human. Everybody has a story and
sometimes we don’t understand these stories because we’ve never been on their
journey and that’s why theater is important because it gives us a chance to go
on this journey and to understand these people, understand their stories from
their perspective. I love being in the theater community because nobody makes
judgements based on who you are and where you come from.
Everybody always looks at what’s inside of you. Being part of the Ensemble
that supports you throughout your journey is vital to your growth because
you have to be among people who trust you to be vulnerable and to
take risks. I have that at Brooklyn College; people support me and push me
to do better and that’s exactly what helps me grow as an actor and as a human
being.
Matty Sangare
Matty Sangare is a first generation American. Her parents
are immigrants from Côte d’Ivoire also known as Ivory Coast. Dance is a big
part of her culture so it’s no surprise that West African and modern dancing
became a staple for Matty. She had plans to attend Alvin Ailey dance school in
NYC, but decided not to attend because of her family persuaded her to pursue
something that involved medicine or law. Matty always had an affinity for helping
those in need, so she decided to pursue social work. Even though she began her
schooling for social work, she always found ways to create such as writing
songs, poetry, and creating dance choreography with her friends.
It was while she was doing an internship working with
licensed social workers and case workers, that she was approached by one of the
case workers at the agency, who told her if her heart was set on something else
to pursue that instead of social work. She took that as a sign and signed up
for a beginners acting class at the Barrow Group and that’s when her love
affair with acting began. A year later she auditioned for the BFA Acting
program at Brooklyn College, which is a competitive program that only selects
twelve students each year and she was one of the twelve that was selected. She
is now entering her senior year in the BFA Acting program. Some of her theater
credits include two world premieres, Royal Jelly by Paul Cameron Hardy, La
Folie by Heloise Wilson, and Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom by
Jennifer Haley, in which she played multiple characters. After her
performance in Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, she was invited to perform
at Friends Seminary, a middle/high school in which she and other actors did a
reading of plays that were written by the current students. She appeared in
Gi60 2018 US Edition for the first time, and her next role will be her thesis
in a production called Lear by Young Jean Lee.
