City Spotlights Staff Blog | Week 5 | Luz Bustamante Gomez

By Luz Bustamante Gomez, Junior Assistant for Acting

This week, I’ve seen amazing growth from the Teen Leaders in their skills and connections with one another. With the final showcase coming up soon, the teens have directed all their focus on finishing their scenes, songs, and dancing, while finally getting the chance to piece their creations all together for blocking. As the Junior assistant for acting, I’ve watched how the teens in acting specialty have learned to project their voices, invoke emotions into their lines, and take control of the stage with their body language. It’s nice to see the teens utilize the advice that I, their acting assistant Hannah, and most importantly their acting teaching artist, Alexis, have been giving them during the summer to support them in their acting journey.

A huge highlight I’ve seen for this week was when the acting specialty had to come up with a single scene for all of them to be in together for the final showcase. One of the teens suggested implementing one of our acting games/warm ups into the scene, where the teens would all go around and ask questions, but the questions that will be asked during the scene would be focused around the main theme of racism for the showcase. This wonderful idea sparked excitement and engagement from all teens for this one single scene they all got to be a part of. 

Outside of work, I got the chance to spend more time with the teens Thursday during a field trip to the Strand Theatre to watch the play A New Era. Getting the opportunity to connect with the teens and have some fun with them, I saw just how special the community City Spotlights has created is. And even though I’m no longer a Teen Leader, it’s still so special for me to contribute to this growing community as a Junior Assistance.