What do Tessa Thompson, America Ferrera, Matthew Lillard, Will Ferrell, and Jason Bateman have in common?

They’ve all been visiting artists at Spotlight@SDA.

Spotlight@SDA is a hidden gem that all USC students should take advantage of, whether you are studying theatre, screenwriting, communications, business, or anything else. Spotlight@SDA is a professional development opportunity provided by the School of Dramatic Arts.

Every semester, the USC School of Dramatic Arts puts on a variety of performances. During the first two weeks of November, they ran a production of Hit the Wall, which I was lucky enough to attend. The play follows multiple perspectives during the night of the Stonewall Uprising in the summer of 1969. Anthony Guerrise, a sophomore who played Newbie during the second week of performances, sat down with me to talk about his experience.

By: Awo Jama ‘22

On September 27th, USC’s School of Dramatic Arts kicked off its 2018-2019 season with its production of “Kentucky,” a two-act play written by Leah Nanako Winkler and directed by Tim Dang. I had the pleasure of attending the show on its Friday performance, and was incredibly enchanted by both the expertise of the performers and the dimensionality of the story they conveyed. “Kentucky” centers around a headstrong young woman named Hiro, who, after escaping from her native Kentucky and the emotional traumas it dealt her, relocated to New York City, where she has been living and working for the past 7 years. After learning that her younger sister Sophie, who in her absence has become a born-again Christian, is to be wed to a man she has only been seeing for 6 months, Hiro storms her old town to talk some sense into her. What ensues is a hilarious yet heartbreaking narrative in which relationships are rekindled and shattered, and wounds are healed and formed.