
“I now feel confident in my ability to create safe and brave spaces for young people to work in the classroom, I know they will walk away a more confident and knowledgeable person at the end of the semester. Reflecting on it now, I am surprised and so proud of my growth over the three years of this program. I am a completely different person today than I was my first semester here.“
With commencement upon us, we spoke to some of CFA’s stand-out 2023 graduates as they gear up to leave LMU and take on the world.
Khaleana Stell, MFA ‘23
Grad program: MFA Performance Pedagogy
Career goal: To help young people grow and create and express stories
How did you come to the decision to get your MFA in Performance Pedagogy?
After receiving my BA in Theater Arts & Dance from Cal State University, Los Angeles, I took a couple years to continue to work on my craft as an actor and was fortunate enough to be given opportunities as an acting coach, teacher and director for the first time. While directing my first production at Los Angeles Harbor College, as well as creating and teaching an acting workshop for all ages at Alva’s Dance Studio in San Pedro, I quickly fell in love with the craft in a new way. It brought me pure joy to see giant leaps of growth with the youth through theater. I immediately knew that I wanted to teach and thought this program was a perfect fit for me at that time in my life.
Why did you pick LMU?
A dear friend of mine and I were in similar stages in our academic and professional lives and decided to embark on the journey of grad school together. She is the one who found the MFAPP program here at LMU and we decided to come to an info session on campus to learn more about the program. I immediately gravitated toward the faculty running the session as well as the student that was currently enrolled in the program.
The program is designed for working professionals which was perfect for me. I was able to work during the day and be a full-time student during the evening. This program can also be tailor-made to each student. It had opportunity to be flexible and lean into any niche you were interested in exploring, I loved that! This is a program where you’re encouraged and inspired to find your unique pedagogy that sets you apart, a program where you can be celebrated and supported just being yourself and creating your own teaching pedagogy.
What did you do prior to beginning the program?
Right before starting the LMU MFA Performance Pedagogy program, I was co-directing at my local community college, a show called The Lively Art. This production is a celebration of Pulitzer Prize nominated and Tony Award winning shows; it’s a collection of various scenes and musical numbers. We were in the middle of tech week when COVID hit and our campus was shut down and moved online. It was a challenge navigating theater in the “zoom world” for the first time. I was also pregnant with my first child. I received my acceptance email after finding out that I was pregnant. I remember immediately asking myself, “Can you do grad school with a newborn?” and with the support of my family, I knew that I could get it done and I’m so glad that I did! It actually worked in my favor that everything was being done online via zoom. My first day of class, I was 8 months pregnant. I was able to give birth to my beautiful son and be back in class only a week later, from the comfort of my home. It was a challenge to say the least, but with an enormous amount of support from my family, professors, faculty and peers it was a beautiful and rewarding experience.
Did you have a particular experience that led you to that path?
My first opportunity to direct at LAHC, I chose to do Wilderness, a play by Seth Bockley and Anne Hamburger. I remember being extremely nervous to do a production where I would be the one “in charge”. Also, guiding a group of young adults who weren’t much younger than me brought its own challenges. I quickly realized that I had no idea what I was doing and knew exactly what I was doing all at the same time.
The majority of the cast was fairly new to acting while the rest were performing for the very first time. I was blown away in their growth both on and off stage. Seeing everyone transform creatively from the beginning to the end of that process was amazing to say the least. Though the end result was great, I found myself captivated in the rehearsal process, serving as a guide for them and challenging them in order to get the best version of themselves out there to share with the world. I knew that was something I cared about. It was important to me. I was both passionate about it and good at it so I chose to focus on that professionally. Teaching what I love became my new goal.
What are your post-graduation plans?
I plan on pursuing a career at the college that gave me my start in theater, Los Angeles Harbor College. LAHC will always be my theatrical home and the campus being located in the South Bay area, where I was born and raised, is even more precious to me. I was not exposed to theater arts at a young age, though I wish I was. I walked into my first theater at the age of 20 because of a general education class I was taking for my AA degree. I walked into that theater and I never left. I would love nothing more than to help grow the theater department at Harbor College and expose my community to the arts as much as possible. To help young people grow and create and express stories that I believe will make them better human beings. The world needs more art! This is me doing my part to help provide education and opportunity.
How do you feel your experience at LMU prepared you for this next step?
LMU made me a professor. It gave me the confidence to explore and narrow down what I truly care about as a pedagogue. To know what I want students to walk away with when they finish a class with me. This program provided me a safe and accommodating space to try things, to keep exploring what makes me tick as a professor and gave me opportunities to practice that in a safe classroom setting with undergrads. I quickly learned what worked for me and where I could grow.
I now feel confident in my ability to create safe and brave spaces for young people to work in the classroom, I know they will walk away a more confident and knowledgeable person at the end of the semester. Reflecting on it now, I am surprised and so proud of my growth over the three years of this program. I am a completely different person today than I was my first semester here.
What will you miss most/what is your favorite thing about LMU?
Other than the BEAUTIFUL campus, I will miss the supporting and encouraging faculty and staff that were always an email or phone call away. I am forever grateful for the relationships I created with these amazing humans. Their chats after class, meeting up for coffee or jumping on a zoom call to listen and share their wisdom with me, hugely impacted who I am as a professor. I will miss passing them by the coffee cart or catching up quickly on the way to class, but I am thankful for the connections made.
What advice do you have for students just starting the program?
Take the leap of faith and jump in with both feet! If you have any reservations about joining the program because you don’t know what your course of study or focus would be, do it anyway. It will be discovered throughout the process. At LMU you have freedom to explore avenues you are curious about, explore them all and try things in a safe environment. Also, to all my parents out there, YOU CAN DO IT! My little Eli was the program’s first baby to be born by a grad student, but I hope he’s not the last. It’s doable, I promise.