Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Bresciani.
Hi Chris, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
The story I have chosen to write about is how I got involved in theatre. It all started when I was in the 11th grade at Miami Lakes Tech. I was the class of 2015 and for our junior year fundraiser, the class of 2015 oversaw the haunted house. The haunted house took place in the auditorium and the class of 2015 worked with the theatre students as well. I ended up becoming friends with all the theatre students and that was it for my junior year.
So, skip forward to senior year, I went to the drama club booth and wanted to participate in the haunted house again. I did, and this time I became extremely close with the drama club to the point where I started to have lunch with them and all that. I was never interested in theatre, nor did I know much about it. Then, later in the year I was walking around and leaving home after the era cub (equal rights alliance) and I ran into one of the drama students, they said they held auditions and not a lot of people showed up. The show was “High School Non-Musical”. I asked hey, I can try and help you guys out and coincidently that evening, they were having a drama club meeting. Of course, I stayed and went. The teacher mentioned what the issue was as far as the auditions and stuff. They ended up having the play that day and asked me to be a part of it. I of course said yes just wanting to help my new friends and other departments. So, they started assigning roles and it was a very exciting moment. So, we started rehearsing and doing the thing and I slowly started falling more and more in love with the craft. I remember the moment I was on stage during our final dress, and I had this realization that this is something I can see myself studying and pursuing as my career. So, at that moment I decided to pursue a degree in drama.
So, I applied to Miami Dade College and was a drama major there. Here is where the story gets even better. I remember really wanting to do acting and only acting, that is all I wanted to pursue. I remember my first semester being fall, 2015 I was told by an advisor that acting classes are not offered at this college. I asked him “then what do I do as a drama major” and the advisor flat out told me I’d had to wait till I transferred out. I remember being extremely sad and hurt. I ended up only taking three classes that semester because I was so bummed out. However, I ended up doing some more research and realized that I needed to take theatre appreciation, so come spring semester I added that course to my schedule without the advisor knowing and went on. So, spring semester came, and I was super excited to take some sort of theatre course. I walked into Miami Dade College – North Campus and went into my course. I was so excited! While being in this course, I met a few drama majors and told them what I was told over at the other campus and they looked at me like I was crazy and pointed me to the directing of Andy Quiroga, who at the time was the drama professor. I went into his office that same day, told him my issues and he needed up enroll me in my first acting class.
Little did I know then how much that man would mean to me in the future. So, I was in an acting class. My first ever drama class! I fell in love with the craft even more. So, this same semester they were doing a show and I asked if I can be a part of the show in any way, shape, or form. So, they told me, yes and I became a part of the run crew for this show. The show was called “The Faculty Room”. I remember me attending my first ever Acting class. The class was in our Blackbox theatre, and they had the set from the faculty room up, not the entire set. Just the bare bones of it including some of the furniture and I remember walking in after calling my parents and telling them that I have an acting class and it’s in the drama room. I remember getting so excited just seeing the behind-the-scenes and even the smell, oh my god, the smell was so exciting! But anyway, moving on this semester went great! To sum this up, I remember one time auditioning for our mainstage show “I Hate Hamlet”. this is a few semesters in already, I’m talking end of Fall 2016. I went to the audition, and I remember not getting sides to read but Q asked me to stay a little while that he wanted to talk to me. I said “ok, of course!” So, they went on a break, and I was in the green room minding my own business when Q goes up to me and pulls me aside and asked me if I’d be willing to be his assistant director, I, of course, said yes, and he asked me to join him back in the audience and everyone that was asked to stay and read was confused.
Little did I know this day would change my life for the best. We sat through auditions, and I remember feeling really excited to watch others perform and make decisions as a team with Q. So, auditions were over and we were going to decide over the weekend and send outcast lists that Monday! We didn’t start rehearsals until January of 2017. It was my first time ever directing so of course, I had a few hiccups, but all in all, it went okay. From this show on, I was almost always the assistant director for most shows at Miami Dade College. I started falling more in love with directing, in my last semester at Miami Dade, which was the summer of 2018, I was the 3rd student to ever be able to direct a show for our Blackbox. And the rest is history, I now hold a B.A. in Theatre Studies with a focus on Performance & Directing from the University of Central Florida and plan to pursue my MFA in Theatre Directing in the Fall semester of 2023. I am currently the theatre director of Miami Dade College North Campus.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a pretty smooth road, the only thing was at the beginning, I was not getting cast and felt almost like theatre maybe wasn’t for me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I hold a B.A. in Theatre Studies focusing on Acting & Directing. I am a self-taught makeup artist who has been doing makeup since 2015 and I am also the full-time theatre director for Miami Dade College North Campus. I am also an actor for “The Dinner Detective Miami”.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
That I am an SFX MUA, every time I say that people are always surprised!
Contact Info:
- Email: christiangbresciani@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisgbresciani/
Image Credits
Mike Kitaif for the outdoor photos.
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