• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Features
  • Campus News
  • CSUDH.edu
  • Contact
  • People
    • Staff Spotlight
    • Faculty Highlights
    • Alumni
  • Magazine
  • For Journalists
    • CSUDH In The News
    • Press Releases
    • Facts and Figures
    • Find Media Experts
    • Gallery
    • News Reporting on Campus

CSUDH News

The primary source of news and information about California State University, Dominguez Hills, its students, faculty, and staff.

You are here: Home / Archive / Features / Class of 2015: Audrey Edwards, B.A., theatre arts, performer

Class of 2015: Audrey Edwards, B.A., theatre arts, performer

May 12, 2015

Audrey Edwards 2
Theatre arts major Audrey Edwards

For many of the California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) students who will graduate May 15 and 16, being conferred a university degree will significantly help them to find a career, a calling, or even a future.

For theatre arts major Audrey Edwards, the years she spent on stage at CSUDH as an actor and scholar has helped her find a voice.

“When I was little I was super shy, super little and had no voice. But getting on stage helped me find my voice,” said Edwards, a Los Angeles resident who first began performing in middle school. “I wish I could have found the arts when I was younger, but I have it now and I want to use it to help inspire others.”

Edwards likes dancing equally well and enjoys modern, African, and Middle Eastern dance, and dabbles a bit in hip hop. But she’s not always performing. She also enjoys working behind the scenes as a stage manager, a role she performed last year for CSUDH’s Department of Theatre and Dance’s presentation of “Topdog/Underdog,” a play written by African American playwright and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks.

Edwards was also stage manager for assistant professor of theatre arts Sharrell Luckett’s one-woman show “YoungGiftedandFat,” which ran for three days last summer in CSUDH’s Edison Theatre. She will stage manage the play once again, but this time off campus—in fact, Off Broadway in October.

“What’s exciting? I get to work Off Broadway and receive that wonderful experience,” said Edwards. “What’s scary? We’re going to be Off Broadway.”

Edwards, along with fellow theatre arts major Megan Stewart, presented an investigation of the power politics in “YoungGiftedandFat” at San Angelo State University earlier this year, and was invited to get their work published in a top peer-reviewed journal.

Edwards’ passion extends well beyond the stage. She received an internship from Freedom Schools to participate in its Read Lead program and will travel to Tennessee for training this summer.

In The Red And Brown Water-55
Edwards plays “Oya” in Tarell McCraney’s “In the Red and Brown Water”

“After I finish my training, I’ll be helping young kids with reading, literacy and social entrepreneurship here at Cal State Dominguez Hills,” she said. “We are reaching out to young people who are underserved in school to teach them how to read, write and get involved as social activists in their communities.”

At CSUDH, Edwards is also vice president of the Performing Arts Club, assistant facilitator with the Performance Studies and Arts Research Collective in the Department of Theatre Arts, and was a lead Instructor for CSUDH’s High School Theatre Festival. During last year’s festival, Edwards taught a poetry class with a friend, and performed excerpts from the Department of Theatre and Dance’s student production of playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney’s acclaimed play “In the Red and Brown Water.”

“We had students in our class visit an exhibit about border crossing in CSUDH’s Art Gallery, and then come back to class and write a poem about a piece that inspired them in some way,” she said. “When they presented their poems, one girl cried. It just seemed to touch her so deeply.”

Edwards attributes much of her success in the arts to the rigor of the education she received at CSUDH and to the professors in the Department of Theatre and Dance, especially Luckett, who she says is her “absolute favorite.”

“It’s a small program, so the professors are really present for you and always accessible,” she said. “They put a lot of time into you and your work, and in return, expect a lot out of you.”

After she graduates from CSUDH, Edwards will “take a little break from college” to work on her applications for Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) programs, and other projects during the summer.

“I’ve been invited to UCLA in June to check out their MFA program. I’ll also be working in a festival of featured artists hosted by the Los Angeles Women’s Festival,” said Edwards. “After I earn my MFA, I’ll continue my education and get my Ph.D. My ultimate goal is to open a performing arts center for inner-city youth. I want to help build confidence and self-awareness in kids. When you’re confident you get so many more opportunities in life. Performing did that for me.”

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: Art and Design, Commencement, Students

Recent Features

Ricardo Martinez with fellow youth commissioners at an outreach event in 2022.

Toro Makes an Impact as Youth Commissioner

January 12, 2023

At 23, CSUDH junior Ricardo Ortega Martinez Jr. is already a veteran in California politics. “My advocacy and community organizing started at the age of 17,” says Martinez, a political science major whose early experience with foster care growing up in Huntington Park helped shape the focus of his current advocacy ... Read More

Ken Seligson with The Maya and Climate Change book in foreground

New Book Explores the Resilience of the Ancient Maya

December 2, 2022

Throughout human history, civilizations have had to adapt to ever-shifting environments in order to survive—whether sudden, catastrophic climate events, or gradual changes that span centuries. These human-environmental relationships are at the center of The Maya and Climate Change (Oxford University Press, Nov. 2022), ... Read More

Helping Student Vets Chart a Path to Success

November 10, 2022

Tucked away on the third floor of Leo F. Cain Library, the Veterans Resource Center (VRC) may be small, but it exerts an outsized influence on the lives of students making the challenging transition from military service to academic life. “The Veterans Resource Center is the reason I’m here today and about to ... Read More

... see all Featured Stories

Footer

California State University, Dominguez Hills Logo

1000 E. Victoria Street, Carson, CA 90747
1-310-243-2001 • Send Email

Related Sites

  • csudh.edu
  • magazine.csudh.edu
  • gotoros.com

EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Get CSUDH News directly in your inbox

Copyright © 2023 · California State University, Dominguez Hills