Post by STRATTON A. BALZARETTI on Jul 13, 2012 20:02:51 GMT -5
Stratton Balzaretti
| [style=width: 200px; padding: 0px;][style=width:198px; font-family:arial; font-size:9px; color:white; text-transform:lowercase; text-align:left; border-bottom:1px dotted white; padding-bottom:1.5px;]full name |
Stratton Alistair Balzaretti
known as
Strat
age
eighteen
hometown
Madrid, Spain
[td]
[style=width:198px; font-family:arial; font-size:9px; color:white; text-transform:lowercase; text-align:left; border-bottom:1px dotted white; padding-bottom:1.5px;]sexuality
heterosexual
major
major in musical theatre, minor in vocal performance
member group
freshman
play by
jamie muscato
[/td][/tr][/table]so tell us about yourself
why, hello there! i am stratton balzaretti, but my friends call me strat. stratton is what my mother calls me when i get in trouble! i'm from madrid, españa--so yes, spanish is my native tongue. musical theatre is my passion, but i've always been interested in performance. it didn't really matter what is was, my mother told me i would make her watch me sing mi burrito sabanero every día de los tres reyes--three king's day! i'd always enjoyed learning in school, too. i went to an international school because my original plan was to go to school to be an ambassador, but after a long talk with my mother i decided to go to school for the arts--my one true love--instead. so here i am, majoring in musical theatre but minoring in vocal performance, since singing was my first love and my greatest strength.
so you have an italian last name, a british first name, and you're spanish? care to elaborate?
yes, of course--the most common american question. you see, my father was a business man from italy that had to work in the madrid offices. my mother, on the other hand, was an artist from england that was living abroad in spain to feed her muse. they met and married and then had me. stratton and alistair are family names on my mother's side. needless to say, i grew up around many different cultures. i remember going to visit my father's side of the family and it being big and loud with a lot of pasta. then i would visit my mother's side of the family and it was a lot quieter and everyone talked posh. and then i would go to school and be surrounded by the spanish culture. i identify as a spaniard, though. none of this "for the homeland!" nonsense. during the six nations tournament, the world cup, and the like, i always cheer for spain. when spain gets out, i don't cheer for anyone. i am neither italian nor british. i am spanish.
obviously you speak english. what about italian?
actually, languages and cultures have always been one of my greatest interests--besides theatre, of course. i learned english from my mother from the time i was a baby and it was also a required course in school. my father and his parents taught me italian. i'm fluent in those two. also, in school, i was required to take another foreign language, so i chose french. since i was planning on becoming an ambassador, i decided that i needed to learn even more, so i started learning other languages on the side. i tackled german and chinese. add spanish and i speak six languages. only three of them fluently, but six languages nonetheless. and my writing is anything by spanish is poor. but now that i'm at university, i'm taking arabic. they offer it, so why not? i haven't lost interest in the languages and cultures of different peoples!
you said your mother encouraged you to study the arts. what about your father?
my father? to make a long story short, he thinks that majoring in theatre is useless. he still doesn't support my decision. ever since i had ever expressed remote interest in culture, he pushed the idea of becoming an ambassador. i would be able to live abroad, experience other cultures, spread my culture, and have a stable job with good money. the "stable job with good money" part was all he really cared about, the rest was just to spark my interest and fluff it up. i know his intentions were good. all he wanted was for me to be able to support a family. but the older i got, the more i realized that i love performing more than i loved learning about other cultures. my father was still pushing for me not to be a theatre major, but my mother encouraged me to chase my dreams. thank god for her, i am much happier now than i think i would have been as a different major.
what are your dream roles?
in musical theatre? well i'd love to play marius in les miserables--or los miserables, if they ever revive it again in spain. raoul de chagny in phantom would be incredible, too! obviously, i'm a tenor and i'm studying classical voice. i can do the more belty, stereotypical "broadway" type singing--spring awakening is another dream show of mine. moritz is such a tragic character and i'd love to play him one day. but classical voice is my strong suit. yes, my accent disappears when i sing and, depending on the language, a new one appears. if i'm singing in italian, i sing with an italian accent. right, dream roles, sorry! i ramble and get off-topic a lot. i'd love to play tony in west side story. anyone in west side story, actually. my dancing would need work though. gabe in next to normal. fiyero in wicked. link in hairspray. frank in catch me if you can. a lot more.
cosette | 5 years or so? | eastern standard time | PM |
