The following paper I wrote four years ago for my audition techniques class at SDSU. It’s funny to read it today.
Hello, my name is Alex Matsuo and I am currently a junior at San Diego State University, where I am majoring in Theatre Arts-Performance Emphasis. I grew up acting in a group called Metropolitan Education Theatre Network, lead by Alex H. Urban. In the area of acting, I went to the British American Drama Academy in Oxford last summer and there I was immersed into a conservatory setting of acting techniques and learning Shakespeare and contemporary acting. Some of the guest teachers were residents at the Royal Shakespeare Company and I got to meet Alan Rickman, Jeremy Irons, Fiona Shaw, Julian Glover, Henry Goodman and Deborah Warner. Being in Oxford and being in that intense learning environment was the best experience I have ever had in my life. It also really solidified my dream and passion of being a professional actress and singer.
Where I am now is a transition stage, as I am getting ready to graduate. The way I would describe myself physically would be redhead and overweight. I’ve never dyed my hair or have put any chemicals in it before, so my hair is a virgin. I’m only about 5’5″. And I’m proud to be an average height. I’m not short, but most of my friends are taller than me.
Vocally is an interesting topic. I have had some new discoveries in the past year. I didn’t know I had the ability to sing any soprano part until I started taking voice lessons again. I’ve always considered myself to be an alto and not much of a belter. But as my soprano voice has grown, the stronger my mix has become. I’m really excited to be able to sing more songs. Emotionally, I’m a happy person. I tend to not handle stress well and I’m a very moody person. I’m happy where I am emotionally once I took care of the baggage in my life and learned to deal with my problems instead of drowning in them. A goal I had in my mind was to put more comedy into my life and laugh more often and it has been working.
My hopes and big dreams would be to actually make it in the Broadway world and be able to make a comfortable living doing what I love to do, in the next 10-15 years. I would love to live in New York and be able to do a show such as “Hairspray” or something by Jason Robert Brown and have my whole world dedicated to my craft and not have to worry about taking a job in a Starbucks or a bookstore. I want to finish school at SDSU and I want to go to graduate school at either ACT or UCSD in the next 5 years. I have a few other schools that are really up there such as Yale, NYU and UCLA. I really enjoy teaching and working with kids in a children’s theatre. I love watching them grow from the beginning of the rehearsal process to closing night. It’s really fascinating and a joy to watch the process and to see how many lives are changed because someone believed in them.
Between now and 10 years into the futures, I would like to get married and have a family. I also want to do much more traveling within that time frame. I love taking pictures and I dream of going to Europe and backpacking while taking pictures. All in all, I want to have an interesting life. I want to have an acting career and a family. How I will manage to juggle that, I don’t know yet. I’m sure I will figure it out and cross that bridge as it comes. For now, I’m going to keep working and dreaming so that my hopes and dreams may become a reality someday.