Senior Leanna Uselton confident AU has prepared her for a theatre career
Senior Leanna Uselton believes Ashland University has prepared her very well for a theatre career even though it doesn’t even have a theatre major anymore.
“Because the program was sun-setted as a major (in 2020), I feel I have gotten a lot more opportunities than I would’ve gotten anywhere else at another college,” said Uselton, a theatre minor who started at AU in fall 2021. “I have been able to do a lot more things like stage manage and act, and I have worked in the costume shop the past four years. With a lot of college acting and theatre programs you have to focus on one thing (usually the performance side or the technical side), and you’re not allowed to go out of that box.”
In addition to stage managing, acting and working in the costume shop for AU theatre productions, Uselton, who will graduate this May with a major in creative writing and another minor in music, also has been able to direct and write for several performances, as well as handle a number of leadership roles in student theatre organizations (Alpha Psi Omega, AU’s theatre honorary; and Drop of a Hat Players, a musical theatre revue troupe; AU Theatre’s PR team) and even work as a dialect coach for theatre productions and as a dramaturg, which is a literary adviser who provides vital research and information for theater productions.
She’s also an Ashbrook Scholar with a third minor in political science.
“She is a young woman who has all these different potential directions of where she will go next,” said Teresa Durbin-Ames, Ph.D., associate professor of theatre at AU. “She’s going to do great whatever she decides to do because she is hard-working, smart and has a passion for theatre. It’s always hard finding that way in with any career, but once she gets that first job and people get to know her, she is going to be invaluable to whatever theatre organization first says yes to her.”
Uselton, an Ashland High School graduate, said she already has started to audition for professional theater programs, mainly in the Cleveland area.
“When I was in middle school and even high school I wanted to be on Broadway,” Uselton said. “If that were to happen someday, that would be fun, but it’s not where I would first go right now because of family and friends. I love the Cleveland area, so I am hoping to move to Cleveland and just audition for everything I can and see how it goes.”
One of her last AU performances will be in “The Sound of Music”
Before that, she will give one of her final AU theatre performances playing the baroness, Elsa Schraeder, in “The Sound of Music,” which will be performed at Hugo Young Theatre, AU Center for the Arts, 331 College Ave., at 7 p.m. Friday, March 21; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, March 22 and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 23.
AU’s Theatre Department and The Ashland Kroc Youth Theatre have teamed up for this production. Tickets are available at the AU Campus Store or at www.ashland.edu/performing-arts-tickets. For more information, call 419-281-8001.
While Uselton will be in only three of the production’s 20 scenes, Durbin-Ames said her role is pivotal and she is perfect for it.
“There’s a maturity about her; she’s strong on stage,” said Durbin-Ames, the artistic director of theatre at AU. “Her stage presence conveys a strength that not necessarily her peers can convey on stage. She is a strong actor, which has allowed her to play some of the more challenging roles that aren’t necessarily central roles.”
Because of that strong stage presence, Uselton said she has kind of been type-cast into diva-ish, villainous roles in many AU productions, but doesn’t mind because she enjoys playing complex characters.
“She always brings thoughtful analysis to every role from her character analysis work and models that in the rehearsal process, asking questions and making good choices,” Durbin-Ames said. “You know she will take direction and then have ideas of her own. That is a good collaborative effort.
“She brings so many things to every role she plays with her creative writing major and her love of language,” Durbin-Ames added.
Directed Shakespeare production for Ashbrook Classical Theater Co.
That love of language came in handy while directing the Ashbrook Classical Theater Co.’s performances of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” in the Studio Theatre in late January and early February. About 30 students made up the production, the fifth presented by Ashbrook Classical Theater and fourth one that has included Uselton, who has performed in past ones and also was an assistant director in one.
“I never thought I would get into Shakespeare; I was always a musical theatre kid,” said Uselton, who will do one more Ashbrook performance in April as Lucrezia in “Mandragola” by Machiavelli in the Student Center.
Sabrina Maristela, Ashbrook Center Student Programs and Creative Projects manager who directed the previous Ashbrook productions and helped with this one, said Uselton did a great job of getting into Shakespeare and directing a challenging play.
“Leanna ran everything from casting to rehearsals to tech, and I’m very proud of what we ended up presenting,” Maristela said. “I’m also proud of how much she grew throughout the process. I consider Leanna an artist because she undertook this project with thoughtfulness, courage and vulnerability, and went after the truth without thinking she was too good to learn.
“I really hope Leanna continues to pursue theatre after she graduates,” Maristela added, “and if she decides to pursue it, I think she could have a long-lasting and varied career.”
How did Uselton get involved with Ashbrook in the first place?
After taking the class Understanding Politics her sophomore year, Uselton said the instructor told her the Ashbrook program would be a good fit for her, so she decided to pursue a political science minor and become an Ashbrook Scholar – something she’s so happy she did, especially with the Ashbrook productions.
“People always ask me why I am (a political science minor and Ashbrook Scholar) because I do all these creative things, but I consider it to be about human nature,” Uselton said. “I really like the ancient political text we have read. That’s what got me into it. I almost see it as an acting exercise at times, getting into the political leaders’ heads or historians’ heads, how they think. I think it relates a lot to theatre and writing.”
Writing theatre scripts, gothic novel and poetry book
In addition to writing for this year’s 24-hour theatre project, which she also directed, Usleton also has written for and performed as a jester in the annual Madrigal Feaste, a form of Renaissance dinner theatre that has become an annual Christmas tradition at AU.
She also is working on a gothic novel for her Ashbrook senior thesis and a poetry book for her creative writing capstone, and has written almost 10 theatre scripts, including one for an AU screenplay class.
While teaching choir to homeschool kids when she started at AU, Uselton was a music education major first because she wanted to teach private lessons but not teach in a public school. When she realized she didn’t need a music education degree for that, she decided to switch her major to creative writing.
Because she then also decided she wanted to pursue a theatre career, Uselton took advantage of any theatre opportunity she could from that time on at Ashland University.
She doesn’t see herself doing anything else beyond AU.
“I love being a part of the community of people involved in theatre,” she said with a big smile.
