A Safe Place To Play
Introducing: Downstage Right
I have a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts, and I am not an actor. Instead, I help young creatives translate their dreams into action through college application and audition coaching at Downstage Right, an emerging drama school based in Naperville, Illinois.
I remember my anxiety, my confusion, and my desperate need for the right answer like it was yesterday. I auditioned for three performing arts programs in acting and musical theater at Carnegie Mellon, Emerson College, and Boston University. I wore the jewel-toned dresses and borrowed soft ballet shoes from our neighbor’s daughter. I wove together words that I wasn’t experienced enough to understand the weight of and did my best to convince strangers of my potential.
Four years later I ended up fresh out of college in Los Angeles, pounding the proverbial pavement and interning at a talent agency in Beverly Hills where I would eventually come to manage over 200 clients in the digital media sphere. Nowadays, I’m a professional life coach and freelance writer who leverages her storytelling background to help others claim the lives they’ve always wanted but have never been brave enough to live. And guess what? I’m happier than I’ve ever been.
If there’s anything I wish I could tell teenage self, it would be that she was already on a path to creative living, and she didn’t need to prove herself to anyone. That no matter which school, which program, and which discipline she chose, she would get to where she needed to go. And finally, that acting is supposed to be fun!
Now, I get to be that gentle voice of reassurance and confidence for emerging artists, thanks to my dear friend and collaborator, Sylvie Mae Baldwin. Sylvie founded Downstage Right (DSR) on the model of acting studios in New York and Los Angeles earlier this year to provide children in the Chicago suburbs a safe place to play and exercise their creative imaginations through rigorous drama classes and audition coaching.
I’ve known Sylvie since we were in high school together at The Northwest School in Seattle, WA. I have watched her grow from my 15-year-old co-star as “Laurey” in Oklahoma! into a wildly capable and profound young artist. Her path to professional actor, teacher, model and playwright has been anything but linear; and yet, she’s accomplished more in the last ten years by sheer force of will than anyone could have predicted. I can’t think of anyone more qualified to teach children how to embrace and feed their artistic ambitions.
A current MFA graduate student at Northern Illinois University, Sylvie’s professional acting credits include roles at South Coast Repertory Theater, Antaeus Theatre Company, Seattle Public Theater, Book-It Rep, Lexington Children’s Theatre, and many others. She is a specialist in movement-based training who studied Viewpoints under creator Anne Bogart, along with Lucid Body Technique with creator Fay Simpson, red nose clown with Chris Bayes (Head of Physical Theatre at Yale School of Drama), and The Brain Dance™ with creative dance pioneer Anne Green Gilbert. At 27, Sylvie is also a proud member of Actors’ Equity and represented by 10 MGMT in Chicago.
From Story Drama to Monologue Workshops, with class offerings for ages 5–18, DSR offers students the opportunity to train with working professionals from across the country. At DSR, we believe in tailoring our teaching and coaching methods to the individual student, so we brought on a diverse and experienced faculty to serve the widest range of backgrounds and talents we could imagine. Joining Sylvie and I on the DSR team are professional director Laura Ferri (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts), diversity specialist Danielle Sather (Montana Repertory Theatre), teaching artist Sophia Arnold (Oak Park Theatre Festival & Indianapolis Shakespeare Company), and audition coach Shayna Freedman (Academy For Classical Acting).
Neither Sylvie nor I got to where we are now by following the traditional BFA pipeline, and neither of us believes that’s necessary to become a professional artist. At DSR we believe an undergraduate degree in the liberal or performing arts can serve as an important stepping stone not only to a professional career as an actor but also to a fulfilling, lifelong, artistic practice and a wide variety of other professions. If it’s your goal to apply exclusively to BFA programs, we can help you do that! If you need something closer to home with financial aid, we’ll be there to support you through individually tailored audition and application coaching. We will meet you wherever you’re at and compassionately shepherd you to wherever you’re going
If any of this sounds up your alley, get in touch! Wherever your unique talent takes you, we’re here to help you on your journey from pre-kindergarten through high school and beyond. We believe great artists are also great humans, great thinkers, and great global citizens, and we know your artistic voice can make the world a better place for all of us.
LOVE,
Leigh & Sylvie
