Kalina Jenkins
When designing the set for “Alice in Wonderland” as her senior project, theatre major Kalina Jenkins ’19 asked herself a critical question:
“Is it wonderful enough?”
After three years of working in the scene shop and playing roles in Messiah productions since she was a sophomore, she knew her way on and off a stage. Through several design meetings collaborating with the show’s director, she created computer renderings through Vectorworks drafting software.
“Everything we design has to be put into construction drawings, and I’m communicating my design for someone else to build,” she explained. “The director wanted a game board feel. We also wanted it to feel like a playground. A lot of brainstorming went into making all these versions.”
The end result was a checkerboard stage that suited Jenkins’ love of abstract sets and the director’s artistic vision.
After extensive work in acting and stagecraft at Messiah, she sought out theater experience off campus. During a January cross-cultural trip, she studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Ireland and then in her senior year spent a semester in Los Angeles, California, working for a casting director as a show runner.
“There are a lot of things I learned at Messiah that set me up for things outside of Messiah,” she said. “Because I was a senior with a huge list of things I’d done already at Messiah before I went to L.A., I was a leader when I got there.”
What’s next for her? She’s applying to theater apprenticeships in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
“They’re mostly yearlong. And most are paid in some way,” she said. “The goal is to be in L.A., to be in a city where entertainment is everywhere you look. I feel blessed to already have a network and community built in L.A., which puts me a little ahead of the game.”
--Anna Seip