Event Article

Sitting in a classroom desk misplaced in the patio area of the theatre arts building, the young man is hunched over homework with a beanie on his head. It is touching the top of his eyebrows and when he pulls it back,. his black, curly hair falls out.

He's been at Fullerton College for two years now. and spends a majority of his time in and, around this area. He's been in seven major FC productions, has volunteered his time to the annual High School Theatre Festival in which dose to 2,000 students take over the campus and received the Leonard T. Albertson Award for his contribution to the Theatre Arts Department last year, just to name a few of his accomplishments.

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Jonny Petersen, a theatre arts major, loves what he does and it shows,I meet so may people that absolutely hate what they do," he says.

His personality is captivating and his.kindness contagious. Peterson comes off as very intelligent and articulate.

Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, he was the baby under three older sisters. ·Petersen came to California when he was 18 arid worked for Disneyland.

Petersen later enrolled at FC because ''I heard that it's one of .the better community colleges and... the scheduling was allowing me to work a lot and still take plenty of schooling at the same time," says Petersen.

He enrolled in a basic acting class his first semester at FC and soon after got his break in the Theatre Arts Department. Someone had dropped out of a production and they asked him to fill their place.

"I didn't expect that at all," Petersen says, "I hadn't auditioned because I thought ... 'I've only had one acting class."'

Although he started out as an art major, the further along in school he progressed the more acting classes Petersen found himself taking. Eventually, Petersen changed his major to theatre.

"I still like art a lot...but theatre is where my heart is and my energy is," Petersen confesses.

Now, he ambitiously attends school five days a week, works weekends for Disney (where he is an illustrator designing full sized art pieces that are reduced and put into watches) and strenuously prepares for, the opening of his most recent endeavor, "Assassins."

"What inspired me [to go into theatre] was how much life there is," Petersen says. "I really like the theatre and I really like the genre of the theatre because it's so intimate, you're right there with people arid it's live and it's, dangerous because anything can happen," says Petersen.

"There's no point in being in theatre if you don't want to communicate with the audience and send a message or tell a story. That's why those people are sitting there," he says.

As his last semester at FC comes to an end, Petersen is in the process of researching where he would like to transfer.

I hope to go to conservatory for a little while and see what kind of training I can get there,'' Petersen replies, "I would like to perform in New York possibly ... but' [overall] I want to be good at what I do." ·

·Theatre Arts Managing Director Bob Jensen describes Petersen as an "extremely well prepared; disciplined and inspired actor."·

''He represents the best qualities of each of the staff members," comments Jensen.

How Petersen sometimes feels about. himself is a bit different.

"I'm very insecure," he admits. "The degree to which you are· insecure and how you are able to get a hold on that arid just say 'okay I'm going to trust myself, I'm going to do this,' is different for everybody. That's a ·pretty constant struggle for me."

Petersen is very passionate about love and giving all that you can to life and to other people.

"I want [the audience] to take home that i did the very best for them that could, I was as honest ,as I could be and that I really focused on what theatre is supposed to be," he says.

"I want people to feel something."