Mako Yamamoto (she/her/hers)
Theatre Major/Dance Minor, Class of 2023

makoyamamoto2023@u.northwestern.edu

Okay. One sentence to describe a typical day in your program. GO!

Bustling!

What is your FAVORITE thing about your program?

The freedom and customizability of your life/classes. There are only four mandatory classes for the theatre major, and they all happen Freshman year. We all take (and by all, I mean literally everyone in the theatre major – non-actors included) an intro to theatre class, a theatre analysis class, a theatrical production class, and voice for performance. Other than that, you can take whatever classes you want to as long as you meet all of the distribution requirements. Some people choose to take a lot of academically rigorous classes, but you can also pack your schedule with a bunch of performance-based classes if that’s more your style. I have taken everything from the Psychology of Personality to Voice for Shakespeare, and they all have benefited my work in some way.

What’s something you would change about your program? Why?

Honestly speaking, I wish that the auditions for the MT certificate program happened before Freshman year. This is because I think that the whole process of auditioning for this certificate puts a lot of unnecessary stress on students every year, and I think that it would be better if everyone knew going in whether or not they’re going on that path. I went into Northwestern having my heart set on doing MT and ended up not getting in. That was soul crushing for me at first and it felt like a huge road bump in the middle of my freshman year, but little by little I’ve learned that it doesn’t really matter in the long run. If anything, not being in the certificate taught me to advocate for myself better. You can get access to most of the MT classes regardless, and there’s always a way to get the training you need (voice lessons, dance classes, etc) – it’s just that these things don’t get handed to you when you aren’t labeled a “MT certificate student”, so you have to be resourceful. Also, whether or not you’re in the MT program does not influence casting decisions! Non-MT certificate students get cast in musicals all the time, and personally I’ve been to many callbacks for musicals.

How would you describe the overall vibe of your program? Competitive? Supportive? A bit of both? Something else?!

Both! Sometimes it can feel competitive because you’re in a pool of hundreds of actors, but it definitely helps when you start your acting sequence Sophomore year and get put in a small cohort of students that you study with for two years. My cohort consists of 13 people, and we’re really close. I think the dynamic of the cohort is really depends on each group of people, but personally I love the supportive environment that we’ve managed to create with each other – we’re classmates, but we’re also close friends.

What was the biggest surprise about your program that you didn’t anticipate as an incoming freshman?

You can choose your acting teacher to an extent! At the end of Freshman year, you get to shadow each acting professor’s class, and this way you can get a sneak peek of each professor’s teaching style. After that, you rank your preferred teachers based on which teaching style you think will benefit you most, and they’ll assign you to a cohort the summer between Freshman and Sophomore year. That being said, there’s no such thing as a bad acting teacher here and everyone seems to love whoever they end up with.

What’s something that you think makes your program unique?

I think I said something similar for question 1, but to me it’s the degree to which you can customize your experience here and go on your own path. Even if two people graduate from NU with the same theatre major on their diploma, they have likely gotten there by taking completely different sets of classes. I think that it is inevitable you’re your perspective as an artist and interests will change at least slightly in college, so the flexible nature of the program has allowed me to explore new interests as they arose. I don’t think this would have been possible if I was in a traditional theatre program with a set curriculum. Also, at NU you have the ability to learn both “wide” and “deep”. By this I mean that you have the ability to go “wide” and take classes on many different subjects, but at the same time you can go “deep” by enrolling in one of the many modules offered or concentrating the classes you take around a few interests.

Real talk: How do the audition & casting processes function at your program?

There are so many shows going on at one time that it almost feels like a mini theatre industry just within Northwestern. There are two categories of shows – Wirtz shows, which are funded by NU and are usually directed by MFA students or directors from outside, and STUCO (Student Theatre Coalition) shows that are produced by the theatre boards run by students. There are a crazy number of theatre boards (12 in total, I believe?). Basically, before each quarter you can submit two monologues for plays or two songs for musicals and that’ll count as your preliminary audition. Then, the shows that are interested in you will call you back, and callbacks last for about a week. After callbacks, you rank the shows you were called back for in order of preference, and the cast lists will come out. Callback week can be a crazy experience and you really need to be on top of your schedule to make sure you’re not double booked, but you’ll get through it ☺ For more in depth info on casting, a website that might be helpful is this one: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nuauditions/. Since there are so many students and productions, casting is really based on who is right for each role rather than the shows being handpicked to showcase specific students. If Wirtz or a theatre board wants to produce something even if the work centers around a certain identity, they’ll likely be able to find people in the theatre community who are right for the roles.

What’s it like outside of performance classes? Is it possible to participate in extracurriculars? Greek life? Are students encouraged to create their own work? Double majors? Minors?

YES. So many theatre majors double major or minor (or both at the same time), and many participate in Greek life and other extracurriculars. Theatre boards, a cappella, dance groups are popular for theatre majors, but there are a lot of other amazing non-performance related extracurriculars that you can be involved in as well. Also, I think that new work is defiantly one of NU’s strengths. Wirtz loves supporting student theatre projects, and a lot of the theatre boards create opportunities to develop new work as well. Personally, this quarter I had the opportunity to participate in a staged reading of a TYA play that had elements of Japanese American culture, which I absolutely loved participating in because I had never had the opportunity to work on something that tells a story from my specific cultural background before. I think there’s something so special about helping develop brand new theatre, and there are so many opportunities to participate in the creation process of new work regardless of what creative area(s) you’re interested in.

Can you travel abroad if desired?

Yes! Personally, I’m planning on going to Prague Film School to study film acting next fall, but I also know that a lot of theatre majors go to BADA in London or study at the Moscow Art Theatre. Also, the study abroad program that you choose does not necessarily need to be a theatre program. To get an idea of what opportunities are available, you can visit NU’s Global Learning Office Website: https://www.northwestern.edu/abroad/index.html

Are there any opportunities and/or resources that you feel are lacking in your program?

The dance program could be stronger, especially when it comes to the number of classes they offer. Every quarter there’s only one section for each level of dance class (Modern I and Modern II, for example). This would be perfect if the scheduling functioned like a BFA program where everyone takes the same classes, but since everyone chooses their own class schedule at NU, I have found that sometimes I just can’t take certain dance classes because they always conflict with another class that is of higher priority for me. For example, I haven’t been able to take ballet all year because it always conflicts with my acting class.

What’s the dynamic like between students and faculty?

Of course its depends on if the class is inside or outside the theatre department, but if we’re talking theatre professors, I have found the dynamic to be casual. All of the theatre professors that I’ve been in class with prefer to be on a first name basis with students, and they’re happy to help you outside of class as if you want to talk about something or want extra help with an audition piece, for example. They will push you, but they’re also very friendly. I especially find this to be the case if you take classes with a professor for multiple quarters, since you get more time to establish a relationship with them.

Can you tell us about some of the faculty you train with who really inspire you? 

I really love my acting professor, Shawn Douglass. He has worked as both an actor and a director, so I have found it helpful to learn from someone who can approach teaching from both points of view. Studying with him, I think that I have gained skills in both the analytical aspects of acting (getting clear about the scene’s structure, setting objectives, making clear character choices) as well of the parts of acting that require you to follow your impulses in the moment. If you are interested in taking dance classes, I would highly recommend taking Nicole Springer for Modern and Erin Barnett for Jazz. They’re both really good at pushing you while being encouraging at the same time, which is the type of learning environment that I personally thrive in. Finally, my voice teacher that I’ve met at NU really inspires me. She technically isn’t part of the faculty (she’s a voice/opera master’s student in the music school) but I’m a completely different singer in the best way after a year of studying with her.

What types of structures are in place for students to receive feedback inside and outside of the classroom? How about for students to give feedback?

It really depends on each individual professor, but for my acting class we get feedback for every scene/assignment that we do from both our professor and our peers. When we have done scene work, my professor usually starts off by asking our classmates what worked well in the scene, adds his own comments/elaborations, and then moves into an exercise or asks the class what we want more of in the scene before running it again. From my experience, the emphasis is put on collaboration rather than telling other people what they should do.

What steps has your school taken/is your school currently taking to promote greater representation for minority communities and to ensure greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of the educational environment? 

I know that the dean of the School of Communication has been organizing listening session specifically for students who are part of minority community, and I have noticed that more of the Wirtz shows that have been getting produced have been focused on telling stories from the perspective of minority communities, especially BIPOC communities. Luckily, I feel like this is an area that a lot of the faculty and students here take seriously. Even when it comes to smaller things like the use of language, most of the professors that I’ve had will apologize and correct themselves if they’ve unintentionally said something that could have been hurtful to someone of a particular identity even if they didn’t get outright corrected by someone else. The majority of students here have the courage to communicate if they do find someone’s language use inappropriate, and I think that there’s a culture of open dialogue between the faculty and the students when it comes to this topic. As a person of color myself, I have felt very seen and supported at NU even though I am definitely still part of a minority group here.

What types of resources does your school encourage/make available for students in regards to mental, physical, and emotional health? 

At NU you really have to be proactive about reaching out and connecting yourself with resources for mental health when you need them, but the resources are definitely there to help. The main ones are: CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services), CARE (an office that promoting a culture of healthy sexuality on campus), and the Office of Equity.

When it comes to physical health, all enrolled students have access to NU Health Services. Hopefully we aren’t in a pandemic while you are reading this, but NU has been really good at establishing a really robust testing and contact tracing infrastructure during the coronavirus pandemic.

What were you most worried about as an incoming freshman that you TOTALLY didn’t need to be worried about?

The MT certificate auditions! Focus on getting to know other people rather than worrying too much about the audition, because the connections that you make will be so much more important in the long run. If you’ve prepped with MCA you’re more than prepared, and the rest of it is out of your hands. Truly, what’s meant to happen will happen ☺

How did you know that this was the right place for you?

I pretty much knew that this was the right place for me when I visited NU the spring of my junior year. After going on a tour, talking with some students, and seeing a couple of shows, I knew that I would be satisfied here in all aspects of my life – not only with the theatre training, but also when it comes to other areas like academics, my social life/peers, and the location. For the other programs that I was considering during the college audition process, I had one or two things that I really liked about each school, but NU felt like the whole package and best overall fit.