Welcome to Our Blog!
Hello and welcome to The Morse Actors Studio Blog!
First off I’d like to share a bit about myself. My name is Amelia Morse Kolkmeyer and I’m the owner and founder of The Morse Actors Studio. The decision to make my own Acting Studio came from my drive and love to teach and help others. I taught at the University of Southern Indiana for four years before I moved to Colorado. More on that here in a bit. Let me start from the beginning of who I am, and how I got to where I am today.
I’m from a small town in southern Illinois. I’m a mix of shy and outgoing - I`m an ambivert. As a child growing up I loved playing and using my imagination. I was turned on to the world of musical theatre at 11 years old in Mrs. Reeder’s class. I found something that spoke to my soul and clicked with me. My former classmates and childhood friends can vouch for me when I say that theatre became my passion around that age.
Over the years I struggled with anxiety and insecurities and didn’t quite understand that’s what my issues were until much later. At the same time I kept pushing myself. The fire, drive, and love I have for this craft wouldn’t allow me to give in to my doubts.
This same drive is what helped me get my Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts at Lindenwood University while I continued to teach at the University of Southern Indiana. When I first started teaching at USI I wasn’t exactly thrilled with teaching non-theatre majors. I wasn’t happy with it because I didn’t understand how one would teach someone who wasn’t a theatre major. However, I embraced my new class and made a choice - I was going to teach my students what acting is about. As my friend and colleague at USI put it - you might inspire a student to want to become an Actor. I also wanted my students to have an understanding and appreciation for this craft that I fell in love with years ago. (I’ll share more on my approach to teaching in a future post.)
Four years into teaching my spouse and I decided to move to Colorado for a variety of reasons - one of them being more and better opportunities for me as an actor and a teacher. A little over a year after we moved here we had our first child. A time when most womxn have joyful bliss I found myself in Postpartum Hell. I had Postpartum Depression and Anxiety. It is not something I would wish on anyone in this world. It took me over a year to adjust to my new life, the new me, and get out of the depression.
My Postpartum Depression experience and my new life as a parent was part of what inspired me to create my studio. I want to share my talents, my knowledge and what I can give to people.
I continue to study and take classes too. I believe we are all students of life. If you’re curious, want to grow, are willing to adjust and be flexible, then let’s work together. I don’t have any intention to change people to fit what I think they should be. I want them to be themselves, but better.
We hope you continue to follow our blog as we’ll discuss a variety of topics related to Acting, Theatre, and Public Speaking. We’ll also have guest posts because we don’t want this to be one-dimensional.
Comment below with what topics you’d like to see here!