About Face Theatre’s Artistic Intern Tyler Greene conducts our second Friday MEET AFT interview, wherein he speaks with a member of AFTs staff or associated artists group and features that interview in both video snippets and text. This week? Alex Meda.
TYLER: Who are you?
ALEX: I am Alex Meda.
TYLER: What do you do at AFT?
ALEX: I am the new Director of Grants and Individual Giving.
TYLER: Where else do you work your artistic magic in Chicago?
ALEX: A couple of places. The main place is Teatro Luna – I’m the Managing Director over there. I’m also the founding Artistic Director of the Artist Initiative.
TYLER: When did you know that the theatre was one of your homes?
ALEX: I ended up going to a specialized program for high school. I went to this program called Dr. Phillips. It’s across from Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It has this awesome program called the Visual and Performing Arts program. You have to audition for it and get in. They have five different strands – theatre being one – and I was accepted into the theatre strand. It was a really intense program. We traveled to New York, Boston, all over the country. We went to Scotland and performed in the American High School Theatre Fringe Festival there. And ever since then {my love of the theatre] was cemented for me.
TYLER: Why do you love working at About Face Theatre?
ALEX: I absolutely love it. I only started here a little over a month ago. It was kind of a long journey here. It was one of my first internships when I went to the DePaul Theatre School conservatory. I had an internship here my junior year of college and then I stayed. I got a job so I had to leave. And now I’m back and I’m absolutely in love with it.
TYLER: How would you describe a typical Friday night in the life of Alex Meda?
ALEX: Typical Friday night? I am at the theatre – either doing the curtain speech and House Managing for Teatro Luna or going out to see all the amazing theatre that Chicago has to offer.
