WSE Performing Arts Club,

Akaysia Sutton

My name is Akaysia Sutton and I am the founder and president of Wayne School of Engineering's Performing Arts Club. Since I was a very young child, I have always been fascinated by acting, whether it be on a stage infront of a live-crowd or on a screen. Although I was greatly intrigued and I wanted to be able to show everyone what I knew I could do, I did not begin any form of the theatrical arts until 9th grade where I then fell in love. I had finally found where I belonged and I knew that it was the right place for me. I started doing the theatre shows that my school was producing and I even became a committed member of our school's drama club. I was overjoyed knowing that I was doing something that made me happy and that I was great at. Little did I know, I would not be able to do the same the next year. My family and I moved to my current location now during the summer of my 10th grade year of high school and I started attending Wayne School of Engineering. Do not get me wrong, I realized that it would not be an "arts school" just by the name, but I did believe that there would at least be clubs for the students attending to join that were somewhat theatre or non-academic based, but there was not. I knew that I had to do something to bring some color into our school and so I would not go insane not having anything theatre wise to do so I decided that our school would put on our very own (and first) theatre production! It turned out that our school had no money saved for any clubs that were not sport or academics based so being able to pay for the rights and such to do a show was definitely out of the picture. Therefore, I decided to write my own musical named "Jazze". I worked with a total of 22 students (25 if you include those helping with tech and our own makeup artist) and less than 3 months later, we performed the show and it was a great success! Myself and others knew that this spark was only the beginning, and indeed it was. Since then, I have been able to write another original musical named "Vaylo and the Parliament Wings" in which I wrote my own songs for and I have created "WSE's PAC" which stands for our school's performing arts club. On top of that, I have also taken theater classes at our community college and I have begun doing community theater as well. I remember so many individuals, including both friends and strangers, coming to me and congratulating me or saying that I work so hard and that they are proud of me for everything I have done for my school and community and I have been confused on why for the longest time. Sitting here and reflecting on all of my achievements, successes, and failures, I have come to realize that I do not do what I do because I want to get all of the credit or because I want others to be proud of me. I also do not think of it as something I work strenuously hard to do. I do it because it makes me happy seeing others finding the importance of teamwork and that love that you received when doing theatre. I do it because it is something that I want to be doing for the rest of my life regardless of it meaning that I am onstage or I am the one putting others onstage. My goal or objective is to do any and everything I can to live out my dream and make it known that theatre has changed my life in ways that are unable to be expressed through words. My goal is to do everything possible to help me and my students reach the stars. My goal is to take whatever I learn from my experiences and spread it along to any others I meet along my journey so that even if I do not make it to where I want to be, I can still be happy knowing that I helped others get to where they wanted to be. Theatre has become my passion and my goal is to always be able to say that and truly mean it. I just need the help of all of you to do so.