Scott Horstein has been a professor at Sonoma State University for over 12 years as the Director of Theater Studies Program, and many more things such as THAR 160 Learning Community: Theatre, Dance, the Artistic Process, and You, and SSU Arts Dramaturg leading the creation of the campus Arts Integration Program (AIP). Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Horstein has had to make adjustments to his profession. Instead of work on live plays and performances, he is now developing plays online.
Professor Horstein described his new way of working on plays as, “the only thing that is available right now in our profession. Some really cool theater artists were experimenting with different forms of online theater for several years now, but now the whole profession is exploring the form together.”
Horstein enjoys the challenge of the different ways in teaching. In November, he worked on a play called “IF I SHOULD WAKE” in Los Angeles.The entire crew and him worked on a zoom call all over the country, including Portland, Louisville, LA, etc. Horstein found the biggest difficulty during the entire process was just agreeing on whether it should be a play or film. The team agreed it should be a hybrid of both allowing ease to both the actors and crew.
Creators and inventors are always looking forward to the next creation of theirs. Professor Horstein looks to find unfinished work and put his own spin on it. Horstein had the opportunity to work on The Great Khan, as a feedback writer via zoom for a test audience.
“This type of work gives me a real risk and excitement Great Khan is a weird weird and wonderful combination of elements – it’s a comedy, it’s also an unflinching look at what it means to grow up as a Black teenager in this country, and it also actually has Genghis Khan as character. I often choose to work on and teach plays that are by, for, or about communities that have been traditionally underrepresented by ‘mainstream’ American theater,” said Horstein.
Horstein is a great example of how a professor should be, a strong role model for his students. As a little kid he always had a fascination into acting, starting in a puppet show in kindergarten and even playing Norman Noun in a 3rd grade part of speech play. Horstein kept acting in school through college and even received internships for it before landing in other positions in the profession like the production side.
As a professor on campus, Horstein’s goal is to help mold and guide young people in the profession and help propel them along. He described his learnings as, “I would say that it’s important to do what you love and let yourself be pulled along by that aspiration. I got into theater and into teaching because I knew they were things I would love to do every day, and I never wanted to go to work and not feel it was what I loved.” Scott Horstein is living by his words and has been given some tremendous opportunities along the way.
