# data[].attributes.body
I am genuinely restless to learn, through discussion and the execution of works of artistry, how one successfully integrates the devising platform of a purpose into the technical side of theatre. I am eager to investigate the wealth of information that both exists with my classmates repertoires, that exists via the collaborative exploration of all our widely varying histories in theatre, and in the expertise of our professors, of which we have many!

I am particularly interested to raise my awareness within areas and mediums I haven't employed previously. My abilities to show tone or mood through lighting or sound aren't as developed. I think they are the backbone of giving structure and through line from segment of performance to segment of performance. They act as the eye of the audience to give and move focus, to flow the narrative, and set a tone where other areas cannot. My future in collaborative theatre for purposeful change, especially within  any immersive installations will rely on setting a scene that one can immerse themselves in literally. The written word can only do so much, but between the utilization of a creative and fully technically engaged setting, you can really make a substantial impact as you present a message to your audience.

# data[].attributes.body
In the future, my hope is to extend my time in my undergrad career by adding on a Non-Science Major Pre-Med Certificate and then hopefully apply to the Health Design program for my Masters here at UT- a program born from the radical collaboration between the College of Fine Art’s School of Design and Creative Technologies and Dell Medical School’s Design Institute for Health. Finding innovative and collaborative solutions through design thinking and the usage of the arts in communities to discover, address, and formulate problem solving steps and discussions for public health and health care issues is the epitome of my dream when it comes to pursuing a Masters Degree and eventually a career.

I'm currently studying for the EDAC exam, as well. EDAC stands for Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification. It's a qualification one can pursue through The Center for Health Design. This center's internationally recognized EDAC program awards a credential to individuals who demonstrate an understanding of how to apply an evidence-based process to the design and construction of all settings that contribute to health, safety and wellbeing including measuring and reporting results. Having the EDAC certification shows your clients and team members that you have a method for developing design solutions that are rooted in research to help achieve the desired goals and improved outcomes. One of it's study materials even includes a book outlining the Fine Art's influence on the health care (shown above in the image).

# data[].attributes.body
So far, my experience in the arts, if it were to come down to a word, would be: variety
VArieTY  variety vArIety VARIETY v a r i e t y Variety vaaariiettyy VTY

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Marina Weikel's amazing work as a participant in a Paintshoot. 

# data[].attributes.body
Outside of the traditional institutions, I have found ways to bring creative expression to human connection. I called these kinds of works "Paintshoots" for they existed in two parts yet, in the end, they come together for one poiniagnt piece of art.

Part One:
As I use a person's back as our canvas, I engage in activating conversation through ice breakers, provocative questions and follow ups. They share to their form of comfortability and, from this discussion, I identify, with a dialogue open to the participater, which chakra they're mostly in touch with at the time. That directs my painting to a certain position of the back and a certain color.
Part Two:
We then find a location that depicts a place that feels most fitting to their personality and do a photoshoot.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Photo of my time working in the Scene Shop at TPA while utilizing creative solutions to paint. 

# data[].attributes.body
I have a history as a performer, but also doing work off stage such as being a makeup artist or special effects artist (wounds etc.) I have been a stage manager, on a crew for costuming, a script editor, and a social media/marketing director of a show. The most notable experience so far however was the work I got to do building, installing, but mainly painting set designs while employed by the TPA Scene Shop in 2017. We created a texture using sprays of varying liquidation of paint and branches of fake leaves to create a shadowy image of an oak. I committed myself to absorbing as much information there as I could because I was constantly having to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone. The offstage positions I named before were things I was still proficient and familiar with whereas my experience with building sets was more from non-theatrical construction and my painting ability was also from personal visual art experience, but this job offered so many interesting and innovating techniques of creating a magical realm of drama for the actors to step into character within and the audience to get lost in. For example, I learned how to turn any plain board into a a stained piece of beautiful mahogany for the Little Women Set using purple dry brushing and layering of smoothed glaze.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This is a photo of one of my group members from a learning program in the Blanton we worked on together.

# data[].attributes.body
I took two semesters of different museum studies and teaching artistry with Katy Dawson. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the students of Lee Elementary about artistic interpretation and using art integration into education. We also did a docent training program centered around drama-based design thinking techniques to implement for tours, classes, and programs.
I loved the ability to give and take, learn different methods of devising and brainstorming, and practice the art of facilitation for collaboration in a theatrical or artistic manner, for brainstorming or devising purposes in group work or leading a workshop, talk-back, or program of any kind, or honestly in any creative setting. It gave me confidence, as well. I wasn't sure if I had the leadership qualities I desired to pursue holding my own in bringing my ideas to fruition when it involved a group of others to devise or direct, but through facilitation I really got a taste of other kinds of uses for theatre and was able to find my voice as a teaching artist and as an artist myself, in the end.

# data[].attributes.body
As a collaborator, I hold a few things personally sacred: intentionality, moral execution, sustaining the humanity, connection, and, of course, thoughtful and brave collaboration. I am particularly interested in community artistry and public installations that promote artistic activism, education, or upholds a community's identity acting as a place of common ground or unity. My goals as an an artist are to inspire thought and inquisitiveness. I consider myself a creator because I prefer multi-media forms of engagement with my audience.

# data[].attributes.body
What I mean by intentionality is the purpose behind my theatre making. I'm highly driven by injustices and find it important to healthily and safely perform or design a production, experience, or multi-media creation, and to do so with respect to the need for representation and the accurate and appropriate diversity necessary for making the statement or working towards a certain movement.
By intentionality, I also mean working on a production genuinely for the right reasons. Having been in situations before with collaborators who have not been as "authentically there", I've learned how to best state the varying needs for participation when proposing a venture or vision. This wraps up into moral execution and humanity. These are values and continuous mindsets collaborators/crew/actors etc. owe to each other as well as proactively to our audience.  I find it imperative to periodically and consistently do a check on how we are upholding our morality, treating each other as humans and remembering the audience and outside circumstance/state they receive this art amidst. The setting for collaboration creation and setting of the society we're in/institution we're associating with are incredibly important to be courageously and empathetically aware of.

# data[].attributes.body
As an individual interesting in being a collaborator, I believe strongly in the idea of a "brave space". I am a disabled artist and, therefore, do have accessibility needs when it comes to collaborating with other artists. I feel prepared to do because, in the past, I have taken my experiences from my mind, to the pen, to the devising room, to the stage. I am very open, comfortable with vulnerability, and emotionally-available to share with my fellow creators. I think the most important aspect of talking is listening. I enjoy the idea of collective osmosis and reflective returning (to our space, discussion, practice, or performance).

# data[].attributes.body
I am driven by the need to connect the fine arts to something larger than itself because the arts are often a study of the pulse of society consciously interlocked and sometimes both delicately and deliberately entangled with the human experience. What better way to bring the humanity of a subject that is at odds with the structure of an institution, a problematic system, or a set of social norms in dissonance with the heart of individual dignity, than through a form of communication based in empathetic education. Each layer of theatrical performance, in all it's forms, reaches out to connect with a person's senses.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This is an advertisement photo for the experience in front of a Lexus because the event was sponsored by and specifically for certain car brand users. 

# data[].attributes.body
For several semesters I was a volunteer usher at Bass Concert Hall and many times I was given the privilege to support the theater in other ways where I could also employ some of my character acting skills and improvisation. This is an advertisement photo from Bass Concert Hall from when I played the character of a Newsie to funnel specific members attending the traveling Broadway production of Newsies to a complimentary pre-show cocktail and refreshment area with a casual music experience. I had to stay in character and engage with guests of the show. It was a unique and mutually entertaining experience and manner to be involved in this city's theater.

# data[].attributes.body
This course is named "The Practice of Collaborative Performance". This itself is the title of something I hold very dear as a young professional headed into the realm of devising, community development through the fine arts, and co-creation of artistic activism. So far, I have found both solace, inspiration, safety, and a springboard for my enthusiastic hunger for learning and designing to be fed.

# data[].attributes.body
As we continue down this road of educating ourselves in the importance of colliding our diverse background, combining our vast webs of knowledge, constructing a commonly agreed upon structure for our shared venture into a complex creative space, and conceiving of new ideas in which we're equally invested in, interested in, and involved in, I hope to grow in several areas of myself as an artist and collaborator. I'm eager to both learn and share.

# data[].attributes.body
My name is Rebekah Urban. I am a directing and playwriting BA at UT Austin with a specific interest in museum theatre and community engagement. I am, however, more than these mere   titles just as these titles are more than their descriptors. I am an artist seeking the truth of collaboration and the key to co-creation.  I have previously enjoyed the development of learning programs and museum studies through the teachings of Katie Dawson in museum theatre courses. I discovered the importance of recognizing that a piece of art, no matter the kind, is fifty percent the artist and, ultimately, fifty percent the interpretation of the viewer. With this class, I am excited to break that first fifty percent down from artist into "collaborative team" and really feel what that looks like, speaks like, and presents like.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This is an example image of my work in the musical theatre realm of performance as the lead female, Julia, in the musical The Wedding Singer. 

# data[].attributes.body
I am not only a big fan of musicals as a viewer, but I find immense joy in performing in them. This musical specifically allowed me to learn adaptability as we travelled spaces with this performance. Music is a beautiful and also widely accessible way to connect with an audience and create an evocative, lasting impression.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This is a show photo from when I played the female lead, Hope, in the musical Urinetown in the Laboratory Theatre at UT.

# data[].attributes.body
I have experience in straight acting, as well. This is a production of Alice in Wonderland directed by Brandon DeLeon where the show was cut and designed to take a more sadistic, sexual, and ultimately feminist twist alluding to real world issues facing women. Our innocent Alice was thrust into the world of being an adult female in a world where the challenges are far more complex and seeded institutionally. It focused on everything from the bias pressure put on rape victims and domestic violence to the pride women should have in standing together and fighting for intersectional feminism.

# data[].attributes.body
Outside of school, I am an art teacher at Cordovan Art School where I teach youth clay classes, on breaks like Summer/Winter/Spring I teach youth art camps for various mediums, and I occasionally teach private lessons for adults in painting. I love my co-workers, the kids, and the whole studio, especially our "studio cat", Stevie. I do commissioned visual art and Live Art Sessions for events like weddings, concerts, parties, and conventions. I used to love doing live art sessions on Jazz Wednesdays at a local coffee and brew-house. I was paid for my time, but at the end the finished painting was auctioned off and the proceeds went to a different charity each week. I have been heavily involved in philanthropy.
I have always been very committed to public service- through school, church, university, or on my own with friends and family. Before going on medical leave a few years ago, I was in a service sorority. A small organization of girls dedicate to community service. I started my first fundraiser with my sister in elementary school called the Box Project. It's slogan was "Kids Helping Kids" and it was an awareness event sprinkled with plenty of fun to help kids find an accessible and safe way to be able to empathize with homeless youth. All the donations went directly to the Austin Children's Center. My sister and I have always been close. She was also a theatre major, and this project as kids really started a relationship between us built on loving our community, the arts, and so much more. Because of those commonalities, we've been close ever since even after she moved continents. Twice!