Chico State musical theater alumna Katie Morrill will be performing one of her original scripts at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest art festival, in Scotland.
Morrill took a risk by going to her dream school in London after earning her bachelor’s degree.
“I’ve been acting since I was 4 years old,” Morrill said. “It was sort of a family thing. I thought becoming an actor as my profession would be something I fought against.”
During Morrill’s time at Chico State, she also painted and helped design sets in the eight plays in which she performed. She was heavily involved in the theater program and developed lasting relationships with some of her professors before graduating in 2013.
“I had an amazing professor at Chico State,” Morrill said. “Katie Whitlock introduced us to the world of theater outside of America.”
After graduation, Morrill attended auditions to get into a theater masters program. She had to prepare a three minute performance for her audition and give judges from different schools everything she had.
“You are only given three minutes to perform two contrasting monologues,” Morrill said. “Including the minute your name is called and walking up the stage. Sometimes all you need is 30 seconds for people to see if you got it or not.”
After the auditions, if the judges liked what they saw, then you would be asked to schedule an appointment, she said.
Unfortunately, Morrill did not get an appointment from her dream school, East 15, but that did not stop her from showing its judges they would be a perfect fit for each other.
“When I got callbacks, I went and performed in this hotel. I did not get callbacks from East 15, but I found their room,” Morrill said. “I left my head shot and a note telling them how I could be a great addition to their school.”
That one bold move got Morrill into her dream masters program in London. One of her first assignments at East 15 was to write an eight minute monologue, which lead her to create a written piece she will be performing in at the Fringe Festival.
“I tried to write scripts in the past, but I never thought they were any good,” Morrill said. “This assignment was a little nudge to continue. My director really liked my piece, and when I performed it, the audience had a positive response.”
One of the scripts Morrill will be performing in is called PiTh. PiTh is about a woman named Izzy who finds herself constantly traveling through time. She finally realizes it when she sees an audience staring right at her.
“Izzy was the seed of the monologue,” Morrill said. “It is about a woman traveling through time, but it is about humanity slowly losing our context through time. We are a bunch of individuals going through life.”
The festival will be going on throughout August, and Morrill will be part of two performances.
This will be her first time attending and performing in the festival.
“I remember saying, ‘I’m going to go there someday. I’m going to be a part of it,’” Morrill said. “Writing that note has been one of the best decisions I ever made.”
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DJ Morris can be reached at [email protected] or @djthejournalist on Twitter.
