Niles resident Kathryn Hein, a St. Mary’s College student, was one of seven students to work on campus in two master classes Monday with actress Sigourney Weaver and her theater director husband, Jim Simpson.
Hein, who is majoring in English literature and minoring in secondary education, theater performance and possibly film studies, attended Niles High School and the Berrien County Mathematics and Science Center.
Hein said she was “so nervous” to just audition to perform in front of the famous couple.
“Both Mrs. Weaver and Mr. Simpson are so well-known and talented in their fields, it’s a little intimidating to put myself out there for criticism,” Hein said. “But it’s worth it to know that you’re learning from the best.”
Hein said she’s never “100 percent happy” with a performance, but that, as Weaver and Simpson pointed out, “there’s always room to improve.”
“Overall, though, I certainly feel like I gave a performance that I can safely say is my current level of performance for the material I used,” she said, “and I don’t usually go with Greek tragedy as my audition material.”
Hein received more than a sheet of “wonderful” feedback from Weaver and Simpson.
“The best personal advice I got on my monologue was to find a kernel of my own experiences and discover a way to apply that to my performance,” Hein said. “In the case of ‘Electra,’ my audition piece, I need to find some time in my life that I felt I was justifying myself against a wrong someone did to me.
“Right at the very beginning of the class, Ms. Weaver said something to the class as a whole that really hit home for me,” Hein continued. “When talking about girls using a high, airy voice at an audition, she acknowledged that, in our culture, society sets an expectation that the heroine of the story or the leading lady is going to have a very dainty sounding voice. However, she pointed out, a lot of power and emotion can come from that natural, deeper register. As someone who has always been self-conscious of my voice, this meant a lot.”
Hein said that every year she has worked with an endowment guest speaker – which have included actresses Glenn Close and Lily Tomlin – it “gets me a step closer to being the kind of performer I aspire to be.”
“Every artist has had different experiences and teachers,” Hein said. “Their passing this on to us only gives us a wider base to grow off of in style, ability and experience.”
Hein said she learned a lot about Weaver’s acting experience. She had seen several of her films — “Holes,” “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Avatar,” “Paul” and “Ghostbusters” — but was not aware of her other credits, including “The Tale of Despereaux.”
“ I love that she can make such bold choices,” Hein said of Weaver. “I used to think, ‘Hey, as an actor, I can be free to do any crazy thing I want and get away with it!’ Honestly, that’s a hard thing to do. I get self-conscious; I get  embarrassed; I get nervous … it’s just not as easy as it might seem. In her movies, though, I feel like she could be doing the craziest thing ever, and it comes off looking spectacular. It’s those extreme kinds of characters that really stick in your mind.”
After graduation, Hein said she plans to teach high school or middle school English and drama in the area.
“While I’m doing that, I can continue to work in local theaters and on independent films in the vicinity,” she said. “Ideally, I would love to act in films. Realistically, that’s not the most secure kind of job. So I’m compromising.
“While I’m working on my aspirations to professionally act in movies, I will continue to try to pass my love of drama and literature on to another generation,” Hein said. “It sounds like such a cliche, but honestly, the arts need to stay alive, in schools and in communities. They’re just a great thing for everyone, and it would be such a shame to lose them.”