As the Spring season draws to a close and we gear up for Summer Intensive and graduation in June, we want to take a moment to recognize some outstanding acting students who embody the TK Studio spirit. Our TKS Faculty has nominated a select group of students who have shown exceptional passion, commitment, and excellence in their work.
Without further ado, let’s give a big round of applause to our Students of the Season: Eko Amadi Gray, Solayna Coreas, Esmé Brachmann, Vivienne Vicuna, Wayne Wells, Rory Cullen, and Fernanda Sumita! These students have stood out in their classes with their dedication and hard work, and we’re proud to have them as part of our community!
After notifying these notable students of their nominations, we asked them to share some insights on their time at TK Studio with the following prompts:
- How has your training here at TKS supported your understanding and pursuit of artistic excellence?
- Describe a moment in your training journey that you recall as having had a clear and lasting impact on you?
- What does being a part of the TKS community mean to you?
Let it be known that those recognized continually bring the utmost courage, joy and authenticity to the room day in and day out. We’re so grateful to honor their hard work and dedicated over their time with us! Help us send them some much-deserved love and congratulations!
Second-Year Conservatory Student, Vivienne Vicuna
There are times where I must reframe or shift my narrative of my work and that is my own responsibility, especially when I’m not sitting in those orange chairs. Every one at TKS is generous with this and every teacher here is masterful at this. It’s the most impactful practice that’s allowed bountiful grace and freedom for myself when I feel like I’ve stretched too far or sat too long in the discomfort. Now I have a relationship with myself that I can fully advocate for who I am now and will become. I have a core faith in myself that is lovingly radical and that is the kind of excellence that’s worth pursuing.
Second-Year Convervatory Student, Wayne Wells
Being a part of the TKS community means to me that I’m not alone. Whether it’s the “Hey Wayne” or “Ouuuuu Wayne” while I’m sitting waiting for class or a rehearsal, or having a full shame-attack in class and Celestine or my classmates stop what they’re doing to find out what I’m dealing with. I struggle with shame like many people do; afraid people won’t like us if they know the truth about who we are, where we come from, what we believe, and how much were struggling. At TKS they let you know you’re not alone. We all struggle. We’re a family here no matter where you come from or believe. TKS lets you know that you can be the most unapologetic version of yourself and the truest you you can possibly be!
First-Year Conservatory Student, Fernanda Sumita
One of the most important lessons that I continue to learn at TKS is to own myself and my feelings, while actively listening and being wholeheartedly with somebody else moment by moment. This expands itself not only to acting, but to the amazing people I’ve met at the studio – friends I will have for life – and to the faculty members, who I have the joy of working with. I am extremely grateful for the discoveries of this in-between, for being able to remember parts of myself, which were forgotten, and for sharing that with my fellow classmates, who are also committed in their own artistic journey. What an experience to keep striving for excellence and being your full unapologetic playful unique self!
As Terry said in class, if you bring your 100% and the other person does as well, there is 200%. A thought of abundance I always want to bring into my work.
Second-Year Conservatory Student, Rory Cullen
The training at TKS taught me that the path to excellence is a choice; a series of choices, actually. A parade of promises we make for ourselves and commit to with an underlying adherence to gentle consistency. In time, these choices move from conscious to habitual. It take honesty, a steady ease into the primordial goop of our hearts and souls, and embracing our failures with the same warmth we do our successes. No matter where we are on the way, whether the wobble or the win, we can sustain our excellence with that unflagging faith in our artistic integrity and innate goodness. If you stick to it, the work sticks to you.
Spring Intensive Participant, Solayna Coreas
Before I came into this program, I remember saying that I wanted a place that would challenge me and push me further than I’ve pushed myself. I wanted to try a technique that I wasn’t so familiar with. Training at TKS really went above and beyond my expectations on what it is like to really move like water as not only an actor, but just a creative person in general. This program has pushed me to places in my journey where I had to sit there and think to myself, “what am I doing wrong”, but reality is that I wasn’t doing anything wrong. This program was helping my creative light that was dimmed for years light up again. This program trains you to speak truthfully under imaginary circumstances. A moment that gave me a lasting impact was the repetition while doing an activity. From that training at TKS, I was able to find other dimensions and other sides of me as an actor that I didn’t know I have and because of that, I am excited to see where I can reach in the future.
First-Year Conservatory Student, Eko Amadi Gray
My training at TKS has shown me that artistic excellence thrives at its best when one is curious, willful, and committed to becoming, not only, masterful at the craft, but a master of oneself. As a student at this studio I have learned that excellence is the result of my freedom, consistency, and ownership of my lived experience, catalyzed by an unapologetic humanity. So to be truly excellent at this work, I must continue to strive for a life lived in its fullness. Honoring both the triumph, and tragedy that provokes my existence. I must remain full and empty all at once – and to know there is no art where there is no life. Excellence then, is a state of being.
First-Year Conservatory Student, Esmé Brachmann
Training here has helped me feel so much more connected to myself and my loved ones. Every class at TKS has helped me break down barriers I thought protected me – but ultimately kept me distant from myself and from others. I think excellence not only means commitment, hard work, and consistency, but also inviting yourself to see your own potential. I’ve learned that I have to trust that I am enough, and that I can be curious and compassionate about everything inside of me.
Being part of the TKS community means embracing all the weird, silly, deep, dark, hurt parts of myself – and helping others embrace those parts, too. It means giving myself permission to show up as my full self as much as I can, as scary as that is, which makes it even more possible to celebrate that freedom in others, too. The people around me exhibit love, acceptance, and daily bravery, and I’m very grateful for the people I’ve met here.
