Hello. You are listening to Who's That Star On LCC Connect at Lansing Community College. Who's that Star is a behind the scenes show where I sit down and talk with employees at Lansing Community College. This is an inside look at LCC where you will learn about their passions, projects, what inspires them both at work and in their personal life. This show is for you to get to know the great people behind the scenes at LCC. I'm your host, Julianna Blain, but you can call me by my nickname, Juji, which is super fun to say and rhymes with Fuji. Now let's find out Who's That Star? I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a little dancy from that music. So let's just dance on in and meet our star this week. Our star is someone who has worked at the college for 24 years altogether. She teaches here at LCC and is the production manager for the performing arts programs at LCC. She's a person who I've been personally inspired by. All right, the big reveal. Drum roll, please. My guest today is LCC employee Paige Tufford.

Yay.

All right. Paige is highly experienced in many facets of the theater and acting world. She has her bachelor's degree in journalism, her bachelor's degree in theater, and her master's degree in fine arts. She has experience as a newspaper reporter. She's worked with the Boar's Head Theater, a professional theater located in Lansing, Michigan. She's an actor and her recent work includes a one woman show that won many awards. She is on the board of directors at Ixion Theater Ensemble, whose mission includes building and strengthening the community through storytelling. She also volunteers and is active in the community, mentoring new playwrights and supporting student creators. Within her community work, she started Renegade now, which is part of the local Renegade Theater festivals here in Lansing, Michigan, which has captured the interest of people all over the United States and many other countries around the world. Paige is an incredible and passionate teacher and production coordinator here at LCC. I met Paige this year when I wanted to try something new and enrolled in her Intro to Acting class. I learned so much and I really experienced a new level of self expression in the class under Paige's expert guidance. Paige, thank you so much for being here. I'm really excited to have you on the show.

Thanks, Gigi. It's good to be here. Thank you.

Yay. Well, first of all, you've worked at the College for almost 24 years. Could you tell me more about what you do here, what your day to day Looks like.

Sure. I'm mostly busy, you know. Well, I'm busy all year, actually. And as a production coordinator, I produce the music, dance, and theater performances. So all the productions of our regular season and then end of semester music events, mid semester music events, dance concerts, and also teach. Yeah.

So what would you say would be some of your favorite parts about what you do?

Well, I love teaching. You know, I love to see that spark in a student's eye when they're. When they get it, you know, or they have some epiphany or realization that, wow, I can do this, or I'm creative, or I understand what you're saying to me, which is great. And as production coordinator, I have some background in stage management for theater, so I really kind of like bringing the chaos into some type of recognizable process or function. But theater is by nature sometimes chaotic, so I like that. I thrive in chaos.

I was gonna say it sounds like you really wrangle it and pull it together into a beautiful production.

Well, I have a lot of help, but that's also what I like about theater. It's collaborative. So, you know, you're working with a lot of different creative minds, people, and. And I just love that.

Yeah. I've seen you in action with teaching, and as I was a student this past semester, and I just really enjoyed how you. You just taught people how to express themselves. You would coach them when they were stuck. I mean, you just did an excellent job. I saw you allow people to express themselves in greater ways than I had experienced before, and I just found that really inspiring. I think you do excellent at that.

Thank you.

So could you tell me what part of that work really would you say energizes you?

Well, walking into a classroom, especially a beginning acting class, where, you know, people may not have much experience with acting, but they're there because they want to be there. And so, you know, walking into that classroom, I am immediately energized by seeing new faces who want to be there. And I think that what you were saying earlier, you know, allowing people to express themselves in ways that they may not ever have done before. So giving them that freedom to explore that and experience that. And then, like I said, seeing that spark in their eye, that, wow, I love this, and I can do this, and that's super exciting for me.

Yes. Yeah. There's a whole different energy I've noticed in that acting class, and especially, like you said, when people want to be there, and then that spark happens when they really get what you're saying, and then they can implement it in their scene or whatever they're working on that day.

That's what I love about theater classes, not just acting classes. But, you know, my philosophy of going into a class is. And no matter if it's a lecture class or it's an acting class, is you have to create a community, and that classroom is a community, and we're all there to achieve the same purpose, to understand, to learn, to connect with other people. And I think that's super important. And your acting class that you were in this semester was fantastic.

I might say it was the best one.

It was so good. I mean, what was so great about it was that not only did everybody want to be there, but everybody was so supportive and giving and loving and expressive and loved doing it and felt comfortable enough with the other people in the class and safe enough that they, you know, it allowed them to do that, to let go of their inhibitions. That's hard for a lot of beginning actors.

Mm. You definitely achieved that space in that class, because I felt like what you just said, how it felt safe, and you were able to express and feel encouraged by the classmates. It really turned into a community, like you mentioned, and it was very collaborative. I really. I really enjoyed seeing the different students. It's just so amazing. You see somebody walk in and you have no. You know, you don't know what people can do or anything. And then you see them get on stage and just act, and you're, oh, my goodness, this is incredible. And you get to see that every day.

So, yeah, I do love that. I love, especially a beginning acting class. You know, you go in, like you said, everybody's at a different level or has different experience. Most have none. But going in and watching them blossom and explore that creative sides of themselves, and I can tell, you know, I can watch a student in a couple of scenes and go, okay, yeah, there is some potential here. You know, they've got the seed now. Let's water it. Let's, you know, fertilize it. Let's watch it grow and blossom. And usually it does. And everybody gets to whatever level that they're capable of, and as long as they're growing even a little bit, that's great.

Yeah, yeah. No. Do you mentor students? I know you do a lot of work in the community. Do you pull in students? Do you mentor young playwrights? Tell me about your community projects and how you pull that collaborative experience out into the community.

Well, before we got sent home. Right. As you mentioned in the intro, I work or I volunteered with the Renegade Theatre Festival. And that's really one of my proudest accomplishments. Now, that started a couple of years before I was brought in, but my idea was to start this Midwestern new Playwright festival. And I sent out this idea, this seed of an idea to a variety of local theaters. And then Chad Badgerow and Melissa Kaplan, who were also involved in that festival, reached out to me and said, hey, why don't you kind of start this Renegade now, New Original Works, and we're going to include it in the festival. So I started that, and that went for about seven or eight years, and it just took off. And then I would bring in students to act and direct and really be a part of that whole process, because we'd invite the playwrights in too, and if they could make it, but they're from all over the country and sometimes from other countries, so they couldn't always make it. But having students experience that process of reading and developing and being in new works was really exciting.

Yeah, that sounds exciting. So Renegade now, the N O W.

Stands for New Original Works.

That's awesome. And you said that you had even received subscription. Not subscriptions. You had received submissions from where? At around the world.

Oh, gosh. From Japan, from Germany, from England, Canada. I mean, all over. And it was so exciting. I think the year we had the most submission, our first year, we had about 20 submissions, right? And then by the sixth year, seventh year, we were receiving over 400 submissions. And at one point I said, look, I gotta read all these, so I need people to help me. And let's cut off. Let's, you know, let's make a limit because my eyes are going to fall out of my head. But a lot of talent out there. A lot of talent, and from all over.

And I really like how you can plug in students and let them get that real world, real world experience through this. That's incredible.

And they had a lot of fun because, you know, we wanted a variety of scripts. Renegade now, it was kind of edgy, you know, doing things that you wouldn't see in, you know, maybe community theaters. So giving them the opportunity to do, like, experimental work or just work on the fringe. Stuff that's out there was really exciting. And they were always asking me, you know, by February, hey, you know, I want to be involved in this. Don't forget, reach out to me. I want to act, I want to direct, I want to be involved. Because it just kind of spread, you know, and so they really enjoyed that.

That sounds really enjoyable. Yeah, and it sounds like a Great place to implement the skills and, you know, test the boundaries and see what they can really do.

And they always rose to the occasion. Normally they do, you know,.

So I. I'm curious. What. What motivates you? You really are passionate about this work, and you. I can tell you, I can feel it. And you really like to do it in your work, in the community.

What.

What. Where does that motivation come from?

You know, I don't know. I just. It's. It's just in me. But I've always had that love for theater and the love for connecting and creating with a group of people, you know, since I was in college. It's just something I've always been drawn to.

It sounds like it might be your gift. It might be. I know. I was definitely drawn to it in that class. Like you said, there's just an energy about it. There's a collaborative, a community experience. It feels like a sense of belonging there, and that is something I think a lot of people are looking for and want in their life.

That's true. I mean, an acting class is a little different than a lecture class. Like, I teach Introduction to Theater, which, you know, transfers just about everywhere because it's part of the mta. And in that class, you get a wide variety of people, you know, nursing students, science majors, you know, from every profession, and, you know, focus. And so that class, again, going in saying, hey, we are community. We're going to work together. We're going to support each other. We all want the same thing. And even in those classes, when I see that connection and the students buy into that, okay, yeah, we're a community. Yeah, we're going to work together. And then you see all these little side relationships starting of things they have in common, what they bring to the group, how they collaborate and create on projects. And it's usually, you know, 99% of the time, a positive, energizing experience for them. So that's what. That's what my goal is.

What classes do you teach here at LCC?

I have taught a variety. I've taught almost every theater class, so Shakespeare, movement, voice, Intro to Theater, Intro to Acting, directing. I'm teaching directing next semester. So I'm really excited we're finally getting to have that class face to face, and you really need it face to face. So I'm really excited about that because we have a lot of students who are interested in, you know, not just performing, but also directing, and this is a great beginning directing class for them.

Now, have you seen. Can you tell me about Students that have gone through the program and gone on to be successful in their careers.

We have so many. We have so many. Well, we had Rudy Valdez here last month, I believe, and he is a filmmaker, and he did go through our program. We've got actors in Chicago, in la, on television, in movies, you know, professional actors. We even have students who've gone through our program who went on to be professional stage managers. So it's a real variety of successes.

That's exciting. It's exciting to hear that.

Yeah.

All right. I am curious. So doing this type of work, I'm sure you see a lot of. I mean, you're reading scripts, you're seeing acting, you're seeing people interact. Have you taken or learned any big parts of advice or life mottos from the work you do? Anything that you live by?

Many one liners. Breathe. That's one. Breathe. Just breathe. One step at a time, right? One day at a time.

These are good.

I mean, there are simple things that just sound like words, you know, when you hear them, but then you're like, okay, really? Do I have to, like, stress out about what I have to do next week? No. Let me focus on what's right in front of me right now. Give it 100%. Because if I split my focus too much, I don't give, you know, each project the attention it needs. 100% Is what I'm saying.

Yeah, those are. I'm gonna implement some of those.

Just breathe.

That could be used on the stage. That could be used when you're working on a project. You can just copy and paste that anywhere.

That's right. You could. Breathe, focus, listen. There you go. Breathe, focus, listen.

That's a little mantra right there.

It is, yeah.

Oh. All right, Paige. Well, I have had a great time talking to you and getting to know you a little bit more. Let's go ahead and end our show. Thank you again for coming. I'm so excited to have you here.

Thank you, Juji. I am so happy to be here.

I truly enjoyed our discussion and I can't wait to see what you do next.

Thank you. If you are listening and you're interested in theater classes like I was, or becoming a theater major, you can call Paige in the performing Arts office at 517-483-1122. Again, in case you want to write that down, it's 517-483-1122. Also, you can check out LCC.edu and search performing Arts. Thank you so much for listening to Who's That Star, the behind-the-scenes show where I sit down and talk with employees at Lansing Community College. We spent some time with Paige Tufford today and learned more about what it's like to teach theater and acting classes, what inspires her both at work and in her personal life. We've gotten to know one of the great people behind the scenes at LCC. You're listening to Who's That Star. You can listen to this show and others on-demand at LCCconnect.org. Again, I'm your host, Julianna Blain. Remember, you can call me Juji. Thanks so much for listening to Tune in next time to discover Who's That Star? Have a great day. I'll see you next time.