USCA actress gets invite to national festival

In her still-brief career as an actor, USC Aiken senior CiCi DeJesus has enjoyed one signature moment.

She's the first one on stage in the recent university production of the offbeat comedy/drama "The Clean House." DeJesus proceeds to tell a joke - in Portuguese. No one in the audience understands a word it, but that doesn't stop them from laughing.

A few weeks later in February at a regional event in Tennessee for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, a national selection team and national director Greg Henry enjoyed DeJesus' performance, too. She is one of three students nationally to get invitations to the festival in Washington, D.C., on April 14-18.

"It's thrilling for CiCi to get this opportunity," said USCA professor Dewey Scott-Wilson. "I never heard of anybody to get hand-picked like this. She'll get to participate in all the activities and can audition for the 10-minute play festival and attend acting master classes."

Not surprisingly, DeJesus said she started screaming hysterically when she heard the good news over spring break.

"I'll get to meet with professional actors one on one and get to see all the (festival) shows that week," she said.

Her mother, Damaris, is from Puerto Rico, and her father, Regino, born in the United States, also has family from there. DeJesus lived in Puerto Rico during elementary and middle school.

Her dad was in the Coast Guard, and the family also lived in Alabama, Tennessee, California, Virginia and Florida. DeJesus' first theater role was a challenge - Helen Keller, the blind and deaf child in "The Miracle Worker." That really started the spark, she said.

Her parents moved to North Augusta three years ago, and, at the time, DeJesus was more interested in a nursing career. But she got a role in USCA's "10-Minute Play Festival," and Scott-Wiley said everyone was wondering, "Who is this girl?"

Two children's plays followed and then the dream role in "The Clean House."

DeJesus called it the hardest role she's ever done. She speaks Spanish but had to get help learning Portuguese. The play was one of four chosen among 200 college productions to go to the regional festival at East Tennessee State. DeJesus admits she was petrified about performing there, but everybody worked together and did well.

"I was so proud to represent USCA," she said. "Our department is so small, but we get this great interaction with all the professors. They have the time to tell us what we're doing wrong and how we can improve."

When she graduates in December, DeJesus will seek professional work. If that doesn't work out, she'll consider a master's degree in theater and a teaching career at the college or high school level. But surely she would like a shot at a Broadway musical. DeJesus laughed at the idea.

"I can't sing a note," she said. "I've done a musical, but that was in the chorus. Of course, my mother thinks I sing like an angel, but that's my mother."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.