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Aug 02, 2016 Exploration Programs

Meet Tess from California

With a polka dot dress and a smile on her face, Tess radiates good energy wherever she goes.

Mari Armei

With a polka dot dress and a smile on her face, Tess radiates good energy wherever she goes. Whether it’s walking around her friends or performing on stage – she’s doing what she loves and it shows.


I love it here [at Explo]. It’s such a nice community to be a part of. The other day, it was one of my friend’s birthdays, and a bunch of us went to the supermarket and bought a lot of snacks. We went to the student lounge and just put everything out and had a little party. It was so cool. I always meet some of my best friends here. I’m going to miss it so much next week. It’s like I love it beyond words.

I love theater because it’s a more mature version of play pretend.

I am taking Acting + Directing and Psychopathology. As my workshop, I’m taking Audition Skills. I’ve been doing theater since I was five. I love it so much and since I didn’t have a chance to do it this summer, I figured why not. I was looking to grow in general. Every teacher has new things to add. I’ve definitely got that out of both of my theater classes that I’m taking. It’s hands-on and the content they give us shows they trust us. I don’t know how to describe it, but they kind of go really in-depth. They care that we could make the best out of the content that they give us.

I started with theater because my older sister was doing it. But I just fell in love with it. I love theater because it’s a more mature version of playing pretend. It’s just so fun being someone else for a few hours. It’s funny, because my sister lost interest in it and stopped doing it, but I’ve been doing it ever since and just haven’t been able to stop. It’s cool because this year I got to start doing shows with my school. And for the musical, I was one of two freshmen who got cast. When the cast came out for the musical and I saw my name in the part I had wanted, it was such a weird feeling. I was just ridiculously excited and happy. My mom was on a phone call and we were in her car, I couldn’t just scream of excitement, so I got out of the car on the parking lot and started jumping up and down with excitement.

If I were to do acting, it would definitely be Broadway. My family goes to see a lot of shows – we are a big musical theater people. It’s just so fun. They always do it so well. I never come out of a show feeling let down. I was actually lucky enough to see Hamilton with most of the original Broadway people. It was so good!

Mari Armei