Plays for Young Performers: Engaging Contemporary Works.
Contemporary plays for student theatre: inspiring, ensemble-focused works that energize casts and
Contemporary plays for student theatre: inspiring, ensemble-focused works that energize casts and
Salvadoran lighting designer whose expressionist practice turns light into narrative, emotion, and
Japanese costume designer and cultural advocate whose research-driven practice interrogates representation, identity,
German scenic designer whose kinetic scenography builds sets that move with the
Mexican cultural worker, director, and playwright whose practice is rooted in collective
There is a vivid sense of imagination in the way Edella Oroz Westerfield approaches performance, a creative spark shaped by childhood stories, backyard worlds, and the joyful seriousness of play. What began in make believe has grown into a practice defined by detail, curiosity, and a deep commitment to ensemble work. Edella sees meaning in the small choices, the color that shifts a feeling, the gesture that reveals a truth, the inflection that carries an emotion from one heart to another.
As a young actress and singer, she creates from instinct and empathy, guided by cultural connection, lived experience, and a desire to understand the inner lives of her characters. Her work is grounded in questions that lead her closer to herself and closer to the stories she hopes to uplift.
Edella’s journey is growing through honesty, reflection, and color rich imagination in this edition of NEW TALENTS.
When I was younger, I have these vivid memories of these complete storylines my siblings and I would have when we played pretend in the backyard. Abeit being the oldest, I took on a directors hat at times, but we were all the characters of our own story and we told it down to the detail.
I got my start in the arts later on starting in high school. Our drama department was small & mighty and it took a lot of collaboration and commitment. But there is where I found the true meaning of ensemble and found the art of play and once again, finding those small details.
One of my favorite things about collaborative projects is how much thought goes into every single Why is this particular color telling this message? Why does this make up change how this character is perceived? Why does this vocal inflection make me feel this way? I love the little details that show because that’s what catches someone’s eye. The story is what we grab on to follow, but the details are what keep us engaged.
When I was a student in a professional conservatory program, I worked on a show called American Mariachi by Jose Cruz Gonzalez. Professionally, it was first officially paid gig working as an understudy for three characters over the summer break before my final year at the conservatory. Personally, American Mariachi was, one of those experiences that fundamentally changes you as a person. To quote the show, it taught me “amor, familia, y tradicion”. It was the first time I had any part in telling a story that really deeply meant something to me and that I felt connected to. A show about family, where it truly felt like family, who accepted you no matter what. The entire team was the most poised, professional, yet playful & deeply invested. The show follows a daughter’s love for her mother and we see all of the love among the entire family. There was so much love in the room that the love showed on that stage every night. The show was a deeply grounded, deeply powerful example of true storytelling to me.
I’m a “mixed baby” (my mom is Mexican and my dad is white) so my connection to my heritage was always its own journey. Artistically, I struggled with feeling like I wasn’t Mexican/Latina enough to properly tell a story. Fortunuately, I found myself in the embrace of some of the warmest, loving people who accepted me for who I was. One of these people, our director of American Mariachi, Robert Ramirez said to us, “No matter your connection to your Latinidad, you are still Latino/a/x.” That’s something I still think about. It doesn’t matter what you think you are, it’s ultimately who you are that is the most important. It goes for artists of all kinds; who you are as an individual is an offer to the art you are going to create. It’s a continuing experience as “who you are” is a constant question and an ever-evolving answer. But who you are as a person in every way, the people you know and love, and the world you create for yourself, is the biggest gift and the biggest vulnerability that you can ever contribute to your art.
Colors! I can’t put into words, but there’s often a color/color pallete I associate with a particular moment, person, or emotion. There’s scientific evidence and studies on the effects of colors on human psychology & emotion, but I believe that everyone has a different connection to a color and it’s something we create based on our personalities & environments. In my personal work, directors have spoke to me in colors to help me convey what they wanted from me. For example, pink may mean one thing to them, but I’m able to add my own shades and contrasts into the image that I see and that I bring to whatever art we’re trying to create together. I love to mentally map out the colors a character or a story goes through to get a deeper understanding of what the story really is. You can give the same coloring page to a child, but they’re gonna create their own art. The same goes for the grown-up coloring too in whatever medium the artist chooses to use.
You can never really truly know another living person as deeply as you know yourself. When you act, the audience needs you to create a fully fledged person and to know that person intimately.
We’re all looking for patterns, answers, and connections as human beings. Even if it’s a world in which the audience doesn’t belong, they see the truth of the moments of a character’s life. A simple performance may make a fleeting impact and tug at their heartstrings in a moment. But if there’s a moment of connection that they remember that creates an emotional charge that they take with them and makes them think and reflect? That is true storytelling. Whether that reflection be in the story of the character they just witnessed, or better yet, something in their own personal life that they can become better and learn from. My hope is that my storytelling can be strong enough to invite an individual’s curiousity and for them to be able to take that with them as they move forward with their daily life. Being curious, open-minded and open to connection opens doors to new worlds. When you can connect that to your own, it makes the colors of your world so much brighter and opens the door to even more new worlds.
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