Lexi Brines sat staring at a sheet listing her options for elective courses. New to this Texas middle school and capable enough at art, she gravitated toward the art class option. However, art class is full, she is told. She panicked and chose theatre.
Luckily for her, that accident was the “happiest accident maybe to ever happen in my life. It was fully an impulse decision that I had no like thought behind or anything,” Brines said. “I got anxious and I spat the first thing out that I saw.”
As a seventh grader, Brines jumped head first into every theatre opportunity she had, landing a spot as an understudy in One Act, when usually only eighth graders could participate.
Her first middle school production was a comedy she landed a small role in. From the moment she stood on stage, bathed in bright theatre lights, she knew it was her calling. At that point, the path of her future became a heat-seeking missile into theatre, rather than taking the English teacher route she expected.
“I walked out onto the stage with my scene partner for the very first time during the first performance. We only did maybe one performance, and I looked out at the audience, and there was this big bright light,” Brines said. “I was like, ‘This is it. This is what I’m gonna do.’ And that completely changed the trajectory of everything.”
These shows can be a point of impact on audiences, as well. Brines cares about that, even if the viewer learns to now hate the show she helped with.
Brines said she loves seeing the audience “feel something, whether it’s good or bad.” Even if the audience says, “‘Well, I really liked that show before, and now I hate it,’” Brines continued, “that’s still OK with me.”
That blast of drive and passion led her to giving her all at every theatre department she found herself in. This stood true even in small theatre departments. At her Troup Middle School, which is about one-third the size of Hubbard Middle School in Tyler, Brines took part in productions, helped the directors and provided her expertise.
In her high school theatre club, she continued to find any way to participate and earned the role of president. She secured a scholarship to TJC for theatre and hasn’t thought twice about it.
“I almost ended up at a different school, and I’m very glad I didn’t,” Brines said. “I’ve loved TJC so much, and I’ve learned so much.”
She was thrown right in when she got to TJC. Immediately, Denise Weatherly-Greene, adviser to Las Mas, was the first to throw Brines into the thick of it. No time to think one way or the other; forward momentum it is.
“W.G. was one of our directors. She was the first teacher I had, and she grabbed me and she said, ‘Hey, Las Mas general meeting is on Wednesday, you’re going to be there?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I will.’ And I showed up, and I paid my dues and everything, and literally, just got grabbed from day one, but I’m so glad I did.”
Las Mas was where Brines found her footing. For many students, Brines included, Las Mas takes the student experience away from being all about coursework.
“It helped me to find a home in this place, instead of just treating it like a school day and then leaving,” Brines said.
Home can come in many forms, and in the TJC Theatre Department and Las Mas she found those connections and friendships necessary to say she found one. This came in the form of a friendship with Halle Dunn, the student senate representative of Las Mas.
“We were in the same class, and I hated her because she had the same personality as me,” Dunn stated. “But she’s now my best friend, and I adore her.”
Community, engagement and fun are core to Las Mas. They drive a lot of what keeps students coming back and remembering their time with Las Mas fondly.
“A sense of community. I think that’s the most important thing about our program, is making people feel included and bringing people together who might not have been together,” Brines said.
Community needs participation on all levels. So do productions, where the beaming spotlight isn’t everything; it turns out. A lot goes into making a theatre production work.
Although Brines had little experience with tech prior to coming to TJC, she found herself taking part in that pivotal part of show production and enjoying it.
“I spent all my time on tech, and I just felt so accomplished at the end of it. I loved doing it so much,” Brines said. “I think that I’ve done either tech or acting for every show here that I’ve that I’ve been here for.”
In tech, students help put things together in a sort of unseen manner, without that bright spotlight on them. Those lights others bathe in need people to run them. Sets, costumes, props, lighting– there are many roles involved in making sure these productions are successful.
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes into everything, and ultimately, I’ve worked on every piece of our shows,” Brines said.
Going forward, Brines says she will remember her time at Las Mas, in part for the family atmosphere that is created by the directors, and because of the “profound impact on how you end up viewing the world and your career path by the end of it.”
