{"id":4699,"date":"2012-11-08T13:58:16","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T19:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=4699"},"modified":"2023-05-10T16:06:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T21:06:36","slug":"from-discouraged-to-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/from-discouraged-to-director\/","title":{"rendered":"From discouraged to director"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Layna<\/a>Layna Davis had reached a turning point when she came to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a transfer student in the Peck School of the Arts Theatre program. She arrived from New York, discouraged and depressed about her dream of building a career in the theater, she says. Her experiences at UWM have changed all that.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that I\u2019m here I can see it all happening. I\u2019ve had a lot of doors opening up that were never there before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis, a senior, grew up in Door County, before heading to Drake University in Iowa to study theater, her passion since a summer-school reading camp. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a theater nerd.\u201d However, after two years in Iowa, she decided to move to New York to seek more theater experience outside the academic world. Eventually, though, she became discouraged, says Davis. The city was expensive, she wasn\u2019t finding opportunities or connections, and she felt the need for more formal training.<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had some really great teachers at UWM and I\u2019ve learned a lot from them. They\u2019ve really helped me learn to not get discouraged and work toward a career in the arts.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n

So she headed back to Wisconsin, attracted by UWM\u2019s well-regarded undergraduate Theatre program and Milwaukee\u2019s thriving theater scene. \u201cIt seemed like the logical place to try my wings professionally,\u201d says Davis.<\/p>\n

Unlike many programs, UWM offered opportunities to act in plays and even direct at the undergraduate level, says Davis. Her professors also helped her connect with the local theater community. Since starting at UWM, she\u2019s acted in several plays at the university, done an internship with the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and worked as a teaching assistant at First Stage Theatre.<\/p>\n

This semester, she\u2019s directing a play, \u201cSome Girl(s),\u201d by one of her favorite playwrights, Neil LaBute, as part of the Peck School\u2019s Year of the Arts celebration of its 50th<\/sup> anniversary. \u201cSome Girls,\u201d which runs, Nov. 8-11 at Kenilworth Square East, 1925 E. Kenilworth Pl., focuses on a commitment-phobic writer who\u2019s visiting a string of ex-girlfriends. The play\u2019s style \u2013 a series of vignettes \u2013 and its focus on relationships make it a good fit for university students as well as the general community, says Davis.<\/p>\n

UWM\u2019s many community connections have enriched her experience, says Davis. \u201cThere are a lot of really creative people here,\u201d she says. In particular, the partnerships and outreach with communities of color have helped her tap into her own Latina roots. \u201cI used to think of my ethnicity as something that might bring me down,\u201d she says, but she\u2019s now getting to know the active local Latino community through theater. \u201cMichelle Lopez-Rios [associate professor of voice and speech] has been a really great source of information and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to carrying a full courseload and directing a play this semester, she works at the university\u2019s School of Continuing Education and will be an assistant director of a Renaissance Theaterworks production, working with Lopez-Rios. All of her professors have encouraged her aspirations and made her UWM experience a good one, says Davis. Her goal after she earns her B.F.A.is to head for graduate school to earn her master\u2019s degree, eventually hoping to work as an actor and acting teacher for others.<\/p>\n

Her experiences teaching children through the First Stage program \u2013 a connection she made through the Theatre faculty at UWM \u2013 sparked her interest in teaching, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had some really great teachers at UWM and I\u2019ve learned a lot from them. They\u2019ve really helped me learn to not get discouraged and work toward a career in the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome Girls\u201d is one hundreds of dance, music and theater performance, art and design exhibitions, film screenings\u00a0 and other arts events that highlight the Year of the Arts. More than 50 community partners are involved. See www.yoa.uwm.edu<\/a> for a complete schedule of events and more information.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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