Santa Fe New Mexican — New Mexico School for the Arts student named a YoungArts Finalist for theater
Jasper Keen, 16, of Santa Fe rehearses a monologue from The Comedy of Errors on Friday at the New Mexico School for the Arts. Keen was selected as a 2015 YoungArts Finalist for the National Young Arts Foundation. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New MexicanPosted: Sunday, December 21, 2014 7:00 pm | Updated: 2:39 pm, Mon Dec 22, 2014.
Jasper Keen’s hair looked like a small, out-of-control wildfire on a recent December morning. His smile — a constant fixture — reminds one of a perpetually happy Warner Bros. cartoon character. A slight, limber guy — Keen claims that when people hug him, they can actually clasp their arms behind his back — he was proudly wearing a YoungArts T-shirt despite the morning chill.
The attire was appropriate given Keen has been selected as a 2015 YoungArts Finalist by the National YoungArts Foundation, which spotlights teen artists ages 15 to 18 in various fields, including theater. Since its establishment in 1981, it has honored more than 20,000 young artists with over $6 million in monetary awards and helped facilitate over $150 million in college scholarships. Notable YoungArts alumni include actresses Viola Davis and Anna Gunn, recording artists Judith Hill and Chris Young, and novelist Sam Lipsyte.
Keen, a junior studying theater at the New Mexico School for the Arts, auditioned for the YoungArts honor with two videotaped monologues. The first, from Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, allowed him to display his physical and vocal comedy skills, while the second, from Elizabeth Swados’ dramatic musicalRunaways, allowed him to showcase his serious side. In January, he flies to Miami with other YoungArts finalists for an all-expenses-paid trip to take master classes with renowned theater professionals and work on his monologues.
Not bad for a kid who started his acting career shadowing an actress playing Caliban in a 2010 Theaterwork production of The Tempest. He’s performed in about 20 theater shows, from Into the Woods to Little Shop of Horrors. The latter gave him the chance to play the sadistic dentist and experience the dark side of humanity.
“Being an actor teaches you a lot about what it means to be a person,” he said during an interview at the school on the last day of class before winter break. “It teaches you empathy; you can see where your characters come from.” Acting, he said, allows him to play a lot of different roles and be a bad guy. “If I weren’t an actor, I’d have to try everything … except heroin.” He likened acting to “legalized crime.”
As it is, he considered a career as a con man. “That’s the same thing as being an actor,” said Keen’s theater director, Joey Chavez, who sat in on the interview. He praised Keen’s work ethic and sense of humor and called him very “directable.” He said the YoungArts recognition will help Keen when it comes to applying to acting conservatories and colleges. “They recognize the dedication and hard work you put into it just to get it right. And you gotta have talent, too,” he said. Chavez encouraged Keen to audition for YoungArts and directed his videotaped monologues.
Keen was home-schooled until he entered the state-chartered New Mexico School for the Arts as a freshman 21/2 years ago. That early education included walking the beaches of Hawaii while spouting snippets of Plato’s philosophy, he said. He loves to surf. “Thousands of pounds of ocean around you, and if you mess up, you hit lava,” he said.
He plans to make a career out of acting. To him, success means being one of those performers you see in character roles on stage and on TV without knowing their names. “They take on their roles so well that the public and press don’t recognize them,” he said. “They just think, ‘He’s doing his job. He’s a working actor.’ ”
Santa Fe University of Art and Design student Cabria Scott, a Houston native, was also named a YoungArts finalist, in singing.
Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.