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Meet Reese Britts! Spotlight Teaching Artist

Reese Britts

(he/him)

Performer, actor, singer, dancer

Reese Britts is a theatre performer and educator based in the Twin Cities. He has been involved with Spotlight since high school when he was one of the recipients of the 2015 Spotlight Triple Threat Awards. A graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth, Reese has been seen on stages around the Twin Cities including The Guthrie, The Jungle, Artistry, Lyric Arts, Theatre Latte Da, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, and The Ordway where he is currently a Resident Artist.

How did you get involved in theater?

I started in church when I was a kid, and I did theater throughout middle and high school. And I was a Spotlight kid! My sophomore year of high school, I was playing Seaweed in Hairspray, and I just fell in love with that push and pull of energy between the audience and the performers. After our opening night, I went to my parents and told them I wanted to do it as a career. I won Triple Threat my senior year, and then I went to U of M Duluth to study musical theater. I kept coming down in the summers to help with Showcase, and then I started teaching masterclasses and evaluating productions.

What have you learned from working with young artists?

Students are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. I‘m thinking specifically about hearing them speak on issues surrounding EDI in theater, but also hearing about their programs and how the students educate their directors. We don’t give them enough credit. We don’t need to hold their hands. They got this!

What are you most looking forward to as part of Spotlight’s Teaching Artist cohort?

Since it was so new last year, we did a lot of trying to find our footing. Our meetings were to talk about what Spotlight was and what the trajectory could and should look like. As far as what we’re going to do this year- I want to find better ways to reach more students and bring them to theater, to show them theater is for everyone – not a specific kind of person. I think this cohort is a prime representation of the diversity that we want to accomplish.

What’s a dream show or role you’d love to perform in?

I did Willard in Footloose and that was the most fun I’ve ever had. I’d do that again. I would also love to play Tony in West Side Story. As a Black, POC actor, they don’t usually look to me to play that, but it never explicitly says he has to be white.