With a love for the stage, Gabrielle Green, junior theater major, has shared her talents of singing and acting with the California Baptist University theater program.
At 10 years old, Green began her theater career at the Christian Arts and Theatre (CAT) program in Corona, California.
“It was right after my parents got divorced when I was 10, and I kind of just found a lot of support there,” Green said. “Everyone there was really kind, and I found that it was something that I really loved.”
Having grown familiar with the theater program at CBU through her older sister, Green took a tour of the campus when she was in high school and says she found the program to be wonderful and felt at home. “(Theater) is a hard field to get into and the people here are very kind and very accepting,” Green said. “I (got) the impression that it would be the kind of place where I would feel loved and accepted regardless of what role I did or didn’t get.”
Since arriving at CBU, Green has performed in five productions, including “Our Town,” “Little Women,” “Twelfth Night,” “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “Life is a Dream.” She is also part of the upcoming spring musical, “Phantom.”
She has starred in more than 50 shows since she began performing and assisted with the Musical Theater Tour for CBU with other theater students.
Some of Green’s favorite roles include playing Nancy in “Oliver,” The Cat in the Hat in “Seussical,” Widow Douglas in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and Sylvia in “All Shook Up,” which is the story of “Twelfth Night” set to Elvis Presley music.
She has received seven Inland Theatre League awards for her performances over the years as well as a National Youth Theatre Award.
Melanie Overton, junior Christian behavioral science major, has been best friends with Green since their freshman year after performing in “Our Town” together.
Overton said what inspires her to push herself harder is watching Green perform.
“Gabrielle always portrays such realism that makes the characters she plays relatable to the audience, whether it be something over the top in Shakespeare or a realistic and young character like Christine (in ‘Phantom’),” Overton said. “She is a true talent with an incredible passion and drive to communicate truths of life through the art of theater.”
Having to put so much emotion and energy into the parts she is casted, Green approaches each role psychologically. She said she loves to read the script and dive into the psyche of her character by exploring his or her motivations for doing certain things.
“Actors have such an interesting job because we look at a page and create a person,” Green said. “We take all this information that’s given to us and then you’re literally creating a human being with quirks and likes and dislikes, and they want things and they need things and it’s our job to portray that all to you in the space of two hours.”