About Crystal: Crystal is an Associate Adjunct in Theatre Arts and has been at SMC since Fall 2000. In the FA, she serves as the part-time Rep for the Theatre Department and now serves as the Membership Director for the Executive Committee. Crystal has a BFA in Theatre Performance with an emphasis in Classical Theatre. She studied at Oxford with the British American Drama Academy, and is one of only five “Lessac Master Teachers of Bodyvoice” in the world. Crystal is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator with ISMETA.
Crystal trained directly under Arthur Lessac for thirteen years. He was a seminal figure in voice, speech, and body work in the 20th century. Crystal has used her unique education to lead four-week summer intensive training programs at various universities around the US. She has also developed shorter workshop programs, one of which was held at SMC. Attendees include professional performers, theatre, movement and speech professors, speech language pathologists, singers and those in wellness industries related to somatic training.
Before joining SMC, Crystal’s early career was as a performer in film, television, theatre and touring productions. A personal highlight for her was meeting Rosa Parks while working on the film, The Long Walk Home, with Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg.
Crystal is dedicated and passionate about inclusivity, diversity, equity and access. Honoring personal uniqueness while also exploring the human likeness principle has informed how she runs her classes. Students are often surprised that she isn’t trying to correct or fix their voices or dialects, but instead offers awareness, options and agency. She finds that connecting to students about where they are from and their experiences in the world is one of the most exciting things about working at SMC.
Crystal has been married to a Science Middle School teacher for 28 years. At the start of their life together, they chose to elope and then spent three years backpacking around the world in a two-person tent.
A: I was hired to teach one class at SMC as my own mentor, Kathleen Dunn, a longtime SMC associate adjunct now at USC, needed some coverage for a class. I was blessed as both Kathleen and Arthur Lessac himself would drop in and observe and give me guidance and feedback. Mentorship is so key! It is perhaps one reason I am passionate about mentorship. I have always been supported by the SMC Theatre Department faculty who embraced my weekend workshop for professionals on campus, offered me the opportunity to direct, and invited me to do voice/text/dialect coach productions and they sought out funding to help make those extra activities possible.
I wish I had known of the FA sooner. It was a game-changer when the FA began to have the monies available to offer stipends for part-timers to be able to participate. Coming on board as a rep for my department gave me the opportunity to meet people in other departments, and attend FA workshop days, which alerted me to things like retirement choices. In my case, a huge error in my retirement was able to get fixed, and when other issues arose, there was an established support system for me to get the help I needed immediately. Whether one has an issue with a student, administration, paychecks, your department, assessments or needs related to well-being/ and safety, the FA Team is a solid, steady source of help, resources and a listening ear. As a union member with SAG-AFTRA and Actor’s Equity Association, I support the work of the Faculty Association. The commitment this particular team puts out is extraordinary.
I wish my younger self had known to be open to the unexpected in my career path. I hadn’t planned on teaching, or in studying voice, and I resisted both for a while! However, the universe was patient with me and the opportunities kept coming up until I finally said, “Hmm.....maybe this is a gift to explore?” And as it turned out, I loved it. I loved that teaching used all the different skill sets and experiences I have had. Today, I try to make sure my students stay open to how a career in the arts might manifest itself for them. There’s a lot more out there than one might think! I’m proud several of my former SMC students either just became Certified Lessac Trainers or are Candidates for Certification.
A: Without question, the greatest source of optimism is the students! The students are the reason I continue to consider SMC my favorite place to do my thing! They are super-talented, adventurous, curious and make me a better person for knowing them! My favorite assignment is where they use what they’ve been learning to share their passions with the group. I love what I learn! An 80 year old woman who surfs every morning before class? Working artists who generously share best practices learned in their careers with classes? A student who built a business in voice casting and hires his classmates to give them starts (and paychecks) in their early careers? Yes, please.
A: I fight every term to have my advanced classes stay open long enough to gain enrollment. My beginning class is always full with a waitlist, my advanced classes are more specialized and have smaller enrollment typically. But they do fill, and these smaller classes allow the kind of depth of work that allows those students to really excel in their transfers or careers. Quality is always preferred over quantity. I’m grateful my chair always fights so hard to keep my classes open, but we also have extremely talented part-timers across the school who are not so lucky.
I also continue to have concern over whether new hires get all the information they need to make informed decisions about retirement and to learn about what our union does. There have been huge strides in this area recently. This is one reason I’ve joined the executive committee to be a part of the team that sits in on HR new-hire meetings. It is my great pleasure to represent the FA there and get to know our HR colleagues, too.
