Cedar Rapids Jefferson Grad Will Get Saturday Night Live Tryout
Two theatre students at the University of Iowa, one a Cedar Rapids Jefferson graduate, are in very select company. They re two of less than 20 students nationwide who have received very sought after scholarships as they look to careers on and off stage.
Jefferson grad Alexi Bolden (above right) found out last month that she was one of just four students in the nation awarded a scholarship that comes from Saturday Night Live and Chicago s famous Second City theatre. The latter has been the stepping stone for many SNL careers. Second City s famous comedians include SNL alums Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Chris Farley, and John Belushi. Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Joan Rivers also performed on the famous Chicago stage. Approximately 1,300 different people applied for the four scholarships.
Broadway Says Black Lives Matter
As the country confronted its long-upheld systems rooted in white supremacy in the wake of the losses of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many other Black lives, the theatre industry faced a reckoning of its own, challenging members to question the systemically racist practices in place. Black artists and theatre workersâincluding performer-director Schele Williams, stage manager Cody Renard Richard, and composer Griffin Matthewsâshared their own accounts of experiences of racism in the theatre. Complicit artistic leaders were called out in pursuit of accountability, and change was demanded. The anonymous collective We See You White American Theater, on behalf of BIPOC theatremakers, released a 31-page document outlining the necessary redistribution of power and funding in the industry. Additional groups were founded and/or mobilizedâsuch as the previously formed Broadway Advocacy Coalition and Broadway