Photo courtesy Gemini Anderson
Gemini Anderson, daughter of the late Pete “Pedro” Anderson and Betty Ginsberg Anderson, is heading to the New York City theater district for an invitation-only talent showcase.
Anderson, a 2012 Idyllwild Arts musical theater graduate, is also a 2015 honors bachelor’s degree graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, Wales. Royal Welsh is one of the top-rated theater schools in the United Kingdom, named the top drama college by the Guardian University Guide twice in the last three years. It accepts very few American students annually. Anthony Hopkins is a graduate.
And it is for a first-ever showcase of 18 Royal Welsh graduates in Broadway’s theater district that Anderson is in the United States. The showcase, for an invited audience of U.S. industry professionals — theater and film casting agents and representatives from major theatrical companies — will be held on Monday, Sept. 26 at 1 and 6 p.m. at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theater on West 42nd street in Manhattan. “We previously did one in London, at the Royal Court Theater in the West End,” said Anderson. That resulted in acting work for her on the BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation.
“Each person gets three minutes of time at the showcase,” said Anderson. “I’m doing two contrasting speeches [as they are called in the U.K. — “monologues” in the U.S.] and one duologue. I’m not doing things that are too minimal. I want to showcase my physicality and movement ability. I’ll be telling my stories with my body as well as with my lines.”
Anderson combines elegance, energy and an edgy contemporary style. She is articulate, intelligent and focused on social change. “Theater is a platform for social change,” she stressed. She sings, dances, acts and writes. “While at Royal Welsh, I wrote two shows that were performed — a one-woman show focused on the Iraq war and a five-woman piece centering on sexual slavery. “I restructured text from Shakespeare, from ‘Pericles, Prince of Tyre’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ with my own text into a one-act play called ‘Marina’s Story.’”
Anderson is currently pursuing a doctorate at Royal Welsh with her thesis subject as “Site Specific Theater; Social and Environmental Impact.” She said her goal is to have her own traveling theatrical company, with her partner, Zaceus Emile, that presents plays with classical and political underpinnings. The company’s working title is “Boxless Foxes Theater Company.”
Anderson moved to Idyllwild with her family in 2010 in order to begin training at Idyllwild Arts. “I just loved everything about it — the people, the students, the staff,” she said. “I would not have gone to Royal Welsh had I not gone to Idyllwild Arts.”
And now, it’s on to New York for a showcase that could affect the course of her career and her life. Family, friends and her many Idyllwild fans will watch to see how the career of this highly motivated and extraordinarily talented young artist unfolds.
