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Sorenson credits theatrical success to liberal arts experience

By Mara Kumagai Fink '11
March 29, 2010

Hannah Sorenson ’10 entered St. Olaf as a pre-med student four years ago fresh off of a pediatric cardiology internship in Sweden. Since then her track has changed a bit. She realized that acting was what she really wanted to do.

And she seems to be good at it. Sorenson recently was accepted into three of the country's top Master of Fine Arts programs for theatre: the Yale School of Drama, Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Hannah Sorenson '10 feels "prepared as a liberal arts student to walk into a new environment ready and eager to connect with people in different fields."

She decided on Yale, where she will start classes in the fall. Sorenson says she liked Yale because it offered the program that most closely resembles her liberal arts experience at St. Olaf. At Yale, she explains, the acting students collaborate with students studying stage management and directing — just like at St. Olaf.

Sorenson says that her liberal arts education has provided her with a strong base not only for acting itself, but for relating her acting to the world. She says that her classes at St. Olaf — whether philosophy, mathematics, Norwegian, biology, or religion — have helped her in auditions and allowed her to interact with the texts that she performs in a different way.

“Everything can connect. Everything is important. No matter what class I take they’ve all made me think about the world in a different light," she says. "I think bringing that to Yale will enhance every experience." In addition to her theatre participation at St. Olaf, Sorenson has been a teaching assistant for classes in directing and acting, danced in Companydance, and worked for Admissions.

“I feel very prepared as a liberal arts student to walk into a new environment ready and eager to connect with people in different fields and blend those talents together to make one cohesive product,” she adds.

Sorenson credits the St. Olaf faculty and her peers for much of her academic success, with the faculty providing important guidance not only as accomplished actors, but also as scholars. “The training we get from them is such a great blend between the intellectual and the artistic, the scholarly approach and the practical. So I was well prepared with all the tools I needed for the audition and for the experience at Yale,” she explains.

After Yale Sorenson hopes to land either in New York or Scandinavia to study intercultural theatrical styles.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.