An Artistic Journey

By JACK BELCHER staff writer

There comes a point in young person’s life where they feel the need to move out of their childhood house and explore the world. For 19-year-old Griff yn Bellah, this meant studying his passion, theater, in Liverpool, England.

“I realized that I needed to do more than go to school in my hometown, and I needed to zexperience life without a safety net,” Bellah said. “I needed to experience a little discomfort in order to grow and I don’t think I was getting that here. I thought that it would be awesome to go to another country, especially in the British Isles.”

Th eater was something he was familiar with even from a young age, as both his parents have degrees in the subject and would bring him with him to shows.

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Photo by Georgia Mallett, for the the Daily Record Above: Griffyn Bellah will be leaving Ellensburg at the end of the summer to attend the The Liverpool Institute for the performing arts. continued from page 7

“My dad worked as a professor at Central, so I would sit at rehearsals for Central’s plays and watch these college students do this really cool thing called acting,” Bellah said.

Bellah is a guy who likes to play and have fun, which he gets to do a lot of while on stage. Not many professions involve people running around all day pretending to be a giant lizard, but with the career Bellah has chosen, that’s just another day in the life, and he couldn’t be happier.

“Humans don’t play enough. It’s crazy, I mean we go to work for eight hours a day and we sit in a chair. If you tried to make a kid do that, they would go crazy, they’d revolt,” he said. “A job where I get to play every day sounds like the most gnarly thing in the universe.” Once in England, Bellah will begin his studies at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), which was co-founded by Paul McCartney. There he will work to earn a three-year degree in acting, in an honors/accelerated program. Bellah applied to many different universities in the country but kept getting rejection letters. He was beginning to think he wouldn’t be accepted to any of them, especially not one as prestigious as LIPA. “The night before (he was accepted) I was talking to my girlfriend and I was like ‘I have auditioned so much there is no hope,’” Bellah said. “Then I woke up the next morning, checked my phone and I saw that acceptance email. I ran through the house, I screamed.” When he told his “best bud” about the acceptance, the two started to play victory music to celebrate, waking up the rest of their roommates. He said he had received close to seven rejection letters during the year and had nearly lost hope. Being accepted to LIPA was such an impossibility, that he applied almost on a whim. “This was one of the schools I auditioned for where I was like, ‘well you know, it’s a really cool school and it

Photo by Georgia Mallett, for the the Daily Record Griffyn Bellah developed his love for theater and performance by participating in Ellensburg High School productions.

won’t hurt to audition.’ It was kinda like a Hail Mary throw,” Bellah said. “I got the email, and it was the last email I got, and they asked if I wanted to come to school, and I couldn’t stop thinking ‘Yo, no way, that’s crazy dude.’”

Auditioning for different schools was difficult for Bellah, because everything had to be done online. He would have to ask himself questions, and then answer them on camera to send to different schools, and he would do this several times a week.

He first started acting in high school called with a play called “The Drowsy Chaperone,” where he played a character called the “Man in the Chair,”

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continued from page 9 whom he was able to easily relate to over the actor and characters shared love of art. This was also the time Bellah learned how much he loved everything about the theater from the acting on stage to the people he would meet. He said that one performance introduced him with many lifelong friends.

Bellah also understands and values how powerful art can be. He sees its potential as a way to spread ideas and reach people across the world. Being able to influence public opinion through art proves the importance of theater.

This power is something that can be used by an artist to change the world. Everyone can relate to fun characters and the human experience, throwing those characters into a culturally relevant story can cause a large impact in society.

“I love theater as a tool for social change as well. You can get a really subtle idea across to a lot of people very efficiently through theater, and I think it’s cool how you can show rather than tell in theater. You can help people experience a completely different point of view through characters they didn’t know they could relate to.”

This will be a first-time experience for Bellah, because not only has he never been to England, but he has also never been outside the United States. He did admit that he was a little nervous, but any nerves are greatly overshadowed by his excitement and anticipation.

“Yeah man, I am so looking forward to going to Liverpool, I am ecstatic,” he said, laughing.

One of the main things he is looking forwards to is the cultural differences between his hometown of Ellensburg, Washington and Liverpool. He has been reading up on British slang and culture and is excited to experience firsthand things he has never seen or heard before in his life.

Bellah spent a lot of his time in Ellensburg, moving through the Ellensburg School District and graduating from EHS at 17, and then spent two years at Central Washington University.

After he hopefully graduates from LIPA, he hopes to find a career in stage acting, specifically stage combat. He said he would love to act with the Royal Shakespeare Company, because he has heard, if you can do the classics, you can do anything. However, he also said he would be open to working as a voice actor for cartoons.

He has no doubt he never would have been accepted to LIPA if it wasn’t for the help and encouragement of his friends, family and teachers. He said he would never be able to show them just how grateful he is for their help, and their encouragement for him to find and do what he wants to with his life. u We’re here for you whenever your family needs us.

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