Jeffrey Bigman/Contributing Photographer

Wesleyan is definitely known for putting the liberal in liberal arts schools, but what about the arts? Not a shred of doubt there, either: Wesleyan students are just about as artsy fartsy as they come. Their interest in all things theater, music, and film related is certainly not limited to the boundaries of campus. Meet these 11 Wesleyan students who spent their summers putting their creative genius to good use. Whether they were making something new in their bedroom or learning the ropes from the big names in film and theater, these Wes students honed their crafts to bring us back the impressive results.

Keelin Q. Ryan ’14
I was interning at a casting agency in Austin called Vicky Boone casting. She did “The Tree of Life” and “Parkland,” which is coming out this fall. I was working on a Charlize Theron movie that’s shooting in Louisiana right now. My favorite part about the internship was that no two days were the same, and I got to meet a ton of directors…. It wasn’t just dumb clerical work; we would actually look at people’s auditions, and [our boss] really wanted our feedback…. I was in the gym [at Wesleyan], and we cast this Chase commercial over the summer that took place at a barbecue, which is why they were shooting in Texas. I was on the elliptical and I looked and it was the commercial.

Sarah Corey ’15
This summer I interned at Tribeca Productions with Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal. The Wesleyan film department gives such a strong foundation for understanding film, but it was also really exciting and rewarding to get some first-hand, real-world experience in the industry.

Hannah Rimm ’15
I did two art-related things this summer. The first was interning at a production company in Boston, which basically meant doing office grunt work and also being a production assistant on local commercials. Look out for the new CT lottery commercial; I brought the director of the commercial so much coffee. The second thing I did was a lot cooler. I was the script supervisor [in charge of continuity] on a recent Wes alum’s [Michael Steves ’13] first feature, a horror comedy called “Clinger.” I got to work with a bunch of Wes people and also meet people from all over. It was a crazy month, and there was very minimal sleep, but it was awesome to get to be on a movie set.

Coz Deicke ’15
My play, “Yawn a More Roman Way,” that I wrote this summer is a very fascinating concept in that every line of dialogue is made entirely of palindromes. I really wanted to take a different approach; I really wanted to be inspired by the language as much as I could. I was looking at the words and I was thinking, “Wow how could this random-ass phrase make sense in any context?” And then I tried to create characters that I thought would relate to a lot of the phraseology. [Editor’s note: “Yawn a More Roman Way” will be performed this fall as a Second Stage production.]

Beanie Feldstein ’15
I spent my summer in New York City doing what I like to call a DIY musical theater conservatory. I have been to many musical theater summer programs in the past, and while I loved my experiences, I wanted something more flexible, so I had the ability to go on auditions when they came about and spend more time with my friends and family. So, I took dance lessons at Broadway Dance Center and voice lessons from Liz Caplan, who teaches Broadway stars such as Neil Patrick Harris and the cast of “Book of Mormon.” Also, I completed the first two levels of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade’s Improv classes, a comedy school started by Amy Pohler. I also watched the entire season of “Orange is the New Black” in two days. I feel that is important to my arts experience, too.

Jacob Musinsky ’15
Half of Bonnaroo is the experience of being at Bonnaroo, more so than the music…. You make friends, everyone walks around, and everyone wants to talk to you and hang out with you and invite you to their campsite for some sort of party or cookout or something… I had [a] really fun experience at this show, Django Django…. I was front row, center, dancing to Django Django, jamming out so hard. That was my standout; they were awesome and it was so much fun.

Helen Handelman ’16
This past summer, I had the opportunity to be assistant director on Alex Timbers’ production of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” at Shakespeare in the Park in NYC. It was a musical modernization of Shakespeare’s lesser-known comedy, and it was irreverent, brilliant, sexy, and joyful. Wesleyan was actually mentioned in the opening lyrics of the first song. It was an unbelievably special experience for me to have, especially since I’ve grown up going to see shows at the Delacorte [where Shakespeare in the Park is performed], and have had a fascination with Joe Papp [who founded the Public Theater and Shakespeare in the Park] for the past five years, so the fact that I got to work on this incredibly smart, youthful, and fun production was kind of insane.

Matthew Catron ’16
I interned at this children’s theater back in Roanoke. I didn’t really know what to expect, because I just emailed them and applied and they were like, “Yeah yeah, that’s great! Be an intern!” But they actually gave me a lot of stuff to do, a lot of free rein on things. Each week they would have a performance at the very end, so the kids would work all week on a play. I adapted two scripts, and I directed some scenes, and they put them all together…. We directed Pinocchio and Peter Pan. My favorite was Peter Pan; our Pinocchio had a diva meltdown.

Ward Archibald ’17
I’ve been playing music for a while, but this summer I decided, kind of as a pet project just to give me something to do, I wanted to write and record. It started out as kind of like an EP, like four or five songs of original music, and then it just kind of started growing until now to the point where I have 11 or 12 songs written that I just have to kind of piece together. I started playing with a bunch of my friends downtown in Athens [Georgia], which is a great music scene where R.E.M. and the B-52’s and all of them got their start. So we would just play on the streets and make a little money…. It’s kind of turned into what it is now…. The album kind of spawned out of leaving high school and leaving people and some things ending…so when I started writing it the first song was a heavier, darker one, and the last one is kind of hopeful. So that’s where the [working] title came from: “Everything Must End” just kind of stuck.

Jeffrey Bigman ’17
I spent the summer doing a bunch of paintings. I had tried painting things that were realistic and I was really, really bad at it…. So I figured I could do something abstract, and it would be easier…. I really like the [shapes of] organic chemistry…so I [drew] one of those. I was looking at my friend’s allergy pill bottle, and I was like, “Alright, I’ll do [acetaminophen] for you,” and I gave it to him. He’s actually colorblind, so he kept complaining that he couldn’t see the pattern.

Sara Feldman ’17
I participated in the Bates Dance Festival.  I especially enjoyed meeting and dancing with people from around the world, and learning about how somatic practices influence dance. Performing in the Festival Finale was a highlight. I took a rhythm studies class, in which we developed a percussion arrangement to present at the end of the festival. The arrangement included two rhythms in particular: Bembe, which originates from West Africa, and Samba, which originates from Brazil. Learning the different rhythms and having the opportunity to perform them with dancers brought a new level to the dance.