Describe yourself or your art in five words.

Compassionate, goofy, extroverted, curious, sensitive.

Where do you imagine yourself in ten years?

Ten years? Hmmmm…married, maybe, and teaching in a Ghanaian secondary school during the summers, teaching sex ed and doing education policy in Washington, D.C. during the year, or working as a doctor somewhere exciting. Or even college counseling or still deciding what I want to do with my life! Who knows? I have a hard enough time planning a semester!

Which do you prefer: performing your own material or acting out a role written by another director?

Performing my own material is fun because whoever is listening knows that this is from your mind and heart, not another writer’s. At the same time, it’s such a cool feeling to be acting out a role written by another director, get into character and have the lines you memorized begin to feel like your own. So there are pros and cons of each. Performing a personal piece can be draining, though, because it leaves you vulnerable; you cannot hide; what you have just shared is by you, not from some other person. Also, a lot of facial expression keeps people engaged, and keeping up a high level of energy is tiring.

What is your most interesting performance moment?

In the eighth grade I was performing a monologue for a History Fair, and part of my backdrop fell and hit one of the elderly judge’s legs! She ended up being carted away on a stretcher and I somehow managed to stop my sobbing long enough to perform the monologue.

—-Vinita Alexander