Name: Isabel BailinSchool/year: BC ’17
1. When and where did your love for theater start? *Written in the voice of Kristen Wiig* I started acting when I was really young. I went to an all-girls, performing arts camp in Massachusetts where I received my first role as Mowgli in the Jungle Book. Playing a boy at such a young age allowed me to understand the enormous differences between the genders — whoa! — and I knew right then and there that I wanted to attend Barnard College where I could bask in pure femaledom. Now, here, I occasionally cross the street and perform with both sexes at Columbia.
2. How has both being at Barnard and being in NYC enhanced it? Going to Barnard was the absolute best decision of my life. I am able to explore all aspects of the world of entertainment in Manhattan while receiving an amazing education. On the stages of student theaters, I was cast in two skits in the Fall 2013 Latenight Anthology. Last spring, I was in KCST’s The Tempest and CUPAL’s special project: A Semi-Improvised Show. Beyond campus, when I enrolled in Improv 101 at Upright Citizens Brigade, the Improvisational and Sketch Comedy Training Center in the Chelsea neighborhood, I fell in love with improv. With my friend, Amelia Arnold, I formed Columbia/Barnard’s newest campus troupe, called Third Wheel Improv. We host an all-inclusive Rehearsal Squad on Tuesday nights from 8-9:30pm for anyone in the Barnard/Columbia community who wants to come play some improv games and practice long-form sketches. Our troupe also performs regularly.
This semester, I performed in the cast of XMAS!9, a student-written musical parody of Christmas. XMAS is a fun and hilarious holiday tradition at Columbia and was by far the greatest part of my semester. I would like to give a shout out to that cast and crew for an amazing show <3
Overall, living in NYC has given me the opportunity to learn from professionals in the entertainment industry and has even made my dream of meeting Kristen Wiig come true!
3. Favorite comedian and their best joke/bit/sketch? You can probably guess, but I’ll give you a hint: her names rhymes with Misten Fig. As a senior in high school, I was cast as Penelope, one of Kristen Wiig’s greatest sketches, so I am biased when I say that is my favorite bit.
Plug for high school…wait for it…Hopkins School presented a compilation of Saturday Night Live sketches which also included her genious Debbie Downer and Sue in the Surprise Party sketch.
4. Besides your performative involvement on campus, you’ve also interned this semester at Women’s Project Theatre, an off-Broadway theatre whose mission is to begin to correct the underrepresentation of female artists, and will head next semester to an internship in the CBS casting department. In 5 years, should we look for you backstage or onstage? Great question! I wish I knew the answer. I hope to have an internship every semester and each summer to further explore all parts of the entertainment industry. I can tell you for sure that whichever career I choose, I will always continue performing improv.