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The Douglas Profile: Aaron Holt (Actor)

A Window’ of
opportunity

By Elliot Chan, Staff Writer

here was a point when

Aaron Holt thought of
having a life offstage. But after
graduating high school and
studying geography at UBC
for a year, he felt homesick.
Longing for the bright lights and
audiences, he dropped out and
returned to his calling: theatre.
Now as a full-time theatre
student at Douglas, he felt his
short departure from the arts

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confirmed what he knew since
he was eight years old: he was
meant to act.

“He's a very outward
going kind of guy,” said Holt,
describing his character for
the school production of Blue
Window. “Griever is very
personable. He loves people and
loves partying. But underneath
that, he has a lot of insecurity.”
Holt has always been trying
to find aspects of himself in
characters. He smiled lightly
thinking of all the similarities,

“The thing about Griever that
is most like me is his need to
entertain.”

Yet Holt admits that
the greatest challenge is the
transformation: “Initially, it was
a struggle to find him and get
inside his head.” Holt has done
many productions since high
school, but has never worked
as hard as he did for this role.
He explains why director
Deborah Neville dedicated a
large portion of rehearsal time to
simply allow actors to develop
their characters. “It’s all about
finding the back story and
taking it to the stage. [Neville] is
really good at helping us bring
it to life.”

Still, even with preparation,
Holt knows that improvisation
skills are incredibly useful
on show days. During a
performance of One Man Show,
a Douglas College production in
May last year, he found himself
on stage with a predicament.
“There was a major slip up
with a prop,” said Holt. “I was
on stage giving a presentation
using a board with paper
on it. | was supposed to rip
them [the paper] off and show
different pictures of costume

ideas. The problem was that

it was in the wrong order.”

He gave a relieved chuckle,
remembering the moment he
recited a monologue describing
a picture of an astronaut only
to reveal a picture of a guy in

a bikini. “There was a split
second of sheer horror,” he said,
“put those can be the greatest
moments in theatre.”

Luck is a large part of
acting, and Holt feels fortunate
for having incredible support
from his family. But if all
things were to go his way, he
wouldn't mind following in
the footsteps of Brad Pitt or
Johnny Depp. “I have dreamed
of playing Sweeney Todd for

Its all about finding the back story and taking it to the stage,
she [Neville] is really good at helping us bring it to life.

a long time,” he turned and
smiled at his co-star Katie
Doyle, who incidentally had

the same aspiration. Acting is a
competitive industry, and Holt is
aware of that. He gave a pensive
glance at the empty Laura

Muir Theatre, his rehearsal and
performance space, and thought
about his fall back plan. “I

want to be a motorcycle racer,”
he said with a laugh, but then
brushed it off and presented a
nobler alternative. “Tf I wasn’t
an actor, I would probably be an

Spring forward with Douglas

March of the arts!

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

A winter semester rolls
along, find there are arts
events popping up everywhere
on campus. The big ones are, of
course, this semester’s theatre
and stagecraft productions of
Top Girls (March 8-16) and Blue
Window (March 15-23), which
we'll be highlighting in The
Other Press throughout their
runs. But there are a number of
other free events happening in
the month of March that may go
under your radar, which would
really be a shame.

Running all the way into
April, Clay Sympostum: Formed
Earth, Earth Formed will be
taking over the Amelia Douglas

   

Billeh Nickerson
Photo courtesy of www.canadianpoets-
pettingcats.tumblr.com

Art Gallery. With works by Judy
Weeden and Ron Crawford, Clay
Symposium features a number of

clay wall and pottery pieces by
both artists. We won't say much
more though, as the exhibit was
extensively highlighted in the
previous issue of The Other Press.
While not necessarily
being a part of the arts, the first
few events students should
keep in mind for this week are
International Women’s Day
festivities. Happening solely
on the New West campus are a
women’s self-defense workshop
on Tuesday (March 5, 2:30-
4:30 p.m., room 2803) and a
workshop on all that is right
and wrong in Canada’s sex
industry on Thursday (March
7, 9:30-11:30 a.m.), room 3343.
Happening on both campuses
on March 8 will be the Women
Who Inspire Us poster exhibition,
along with Douglas’ annual
shoe sale on the New West
campus alone from 11 a.m. to 4

 

p-m.
Back onto the arts, another
pair of events to keep your eyes
peeled for are the Literature
Alive events. Literature Alive
is a Douglas operation that
manages to get a number of
respected Canadian authors to
speak on campus about their
careers each semester, and
following Governor General's
Award-winner Wendy Phillips’
recent stop at the Coquitlam
campus, New West will be
seeing some action as well. On
March 11, Vancouver-based
poet Billeh Nickerson will be
stopping by room 1808 at 2:30
p-m. to read some of his select
works and (most likely) take
questions. Two days later, poet
and essayist Brad Cran will be
making an appearance in the

same room, this time at 6:30 p.m.

and will also be reading some

Aaron Holt | Photo courtesy of Elliot Chan

select works of his.

Last but not least, we end
the month with some musical
performances organized by
Douglas College’s Arts at One
series. Each Thursday at 1 p.m.
a concert is put on by the college
in the Laura C. Muir Theatre,
but with Blue Window just
around the corner, there won't
be any more performances
until the final weeks of March.
The first return concert will
be happening on March 21
with a performance by the
Delta Trio. Following the week
after is the first of two Student
Showcases, where Douglas’ best
and brightest music students
perform with a variety of
musical styling’s from vocal to
instrumental. Come support
your fellow students on this first
show, then see the conclusion on
April 4, same time, same place.

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