Jesseca Kusher

Recently, I’ve learned a few hard life lessons. 1) Never finish a whole pineapple and jalapeño pizza on your own in one sitting and 2) It’s about time we broke down the dominance hierarchy within the performing arts community.

I’ll admit it, I have benefitted from nepotism — especially within the arts — but I think I owe it to others to break down some of the cliques that dominate our world as producers of the arts.

Please, let me explain. Last fall, while taking what would become the most challenging course of my Kenyon career (“The Actor” with Jon Tazewell) I became close friends with another student in the class. Little did I understand at the time, but my friendship with my then-scene-partner, Sarah Dailey, would lead me into a spiraling — I’ll admit, however — exciting hunt to become a better artist and producer of art within the Kenyon community.

Although the bonds formed in that class were but a small shadow of the larger problem in the theatre community, I realized over the duration of the course that little cliques had broken out within the class of students. About half of the class seemed to consider themselves “better than” or more invested in the curriculum, and so they conveniently only scene-partnered within their ranks. For some reason or another, I found myself with the other two film majors taking the class on the other side of their iron curtain: we were dubbed “less than” their crowd and so we had to partner among ourselves. In all honesty, it was a blessing in disguise, primarily because it taught me to examine the very intense hierarchy and often exclusionary social system that prevails within the arts. Just like my dear friend Sarah (and so many others in the community) — who found herself getting called back over and over again only to discover that friends were casting friends — I learned to create what I could and to commit to my work even though I was on the outside.

There’s something wonderful about being a rebel.

Over the course of the semester in The Actor I learned quite a bit about human nature and working artistic dynamics. It is because of my love for Sarah and my incredible frustration that she was not getting cast that I embarked fall semester of 2018 on a mini series script that I am supremely proud of.

Second Week of October, 2018