St. Joe-Benton Harbor News

Bruno Streck Rodrigues is weary of hearing that “Encanto” song, but let’s talk anyway about the Brazilian’s journey to southwest Michigan in time for SMC’s 2014 50th anniversary, then settling in Arizona for graduate school after making a name for himself in Grand Rapids that included a magazine cover and a billboard.

The skill set the 26-year-old developed since all his firsts at SMC took him from coast to coast as the young teacher Tom in the “Schoolhouse Rock Live!” touring production from January to April, then back to the Grand Canyon State to play Larry the Lobster in “SpongeBob the Musical,” plus the “Meow” voice of the Gary the Snail puppet at Arizona Broadway Theatre June 10-July 17.

When he saw “High School Musical” in middle school, musical theatre did not exist to any extent in Brazil, but he instinctively gravitated toward becoming such a performer.

“I took a significant risk that many immigrants know all too well,” Streck Rodrigues said. “I moved to a new country where I knew I could follow my dreams, leaving everything and everyone I knew behind.”

First, he came for a year of high school as an exchange student living with a host family while at Countryside Academy near Benton Harbor, which, ironically, lacked a theatre program.

“I annoyed the English teacher” with his pestering. Finally, the instructor relented. They staged “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen. Bruno’s acting award “cemented” his aspirations.

After finishing high school back in South America, he applied to SMC.

He had explored video production, studying game design in hopes of writing scripts and voice acting, but disliked computer programming.

“I picked SMC because I knew going to college in the U.S. would be expensive, Streck Rodrigues said, crediting the housing, good things he heard about the theatre program and his best friend at the time also attending here.

“I did a lot of firsts at SMC,” he said. “My very first job (Thomas F. Jerdon Residence Hall assistant), first time touching music — I’d never seen a musical score until joining the choir — first time in a dorm and getting to know how to do college in a new country. A lot of freedom and how to be an adult. I see my career as a stepladder. I wouldn’t have continued at Grand Valley without SMC musical theatre. I was mostly an actor when I came to SMC and got my feet wet in music.”

Streck Rodrigues’ first play was Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker” in October 2014 directed by Paul Mow. He danced with Eliza Carpenter during the Journey tribute concert for SMC’s golden anniversary on stage in the Dale A. Lyons Building. He joined Mow’s production of “The Christmas Schooner” for the Twin City Players that December.

Streck Rodrigues appeared in the April 2015 spring musical, “Into the Woods,” and as a policeman in that fall’s play, “Wait Until Dark,” both directed by Mow. Streck Rodrigues’ second spring musical at SMC was Mow’s “Little Mermaid.”

He knew “being an artist is a very risky career. We never know where our next contract will come from, and the grind is unstoppable. We study our crafts relentlessly, give up comfort, a steady income and our time to try to follow our dreams.”

“Coming from Brazil, I had little access to singing and dancing classes. I had to work hard through associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees to catch up on training I needed to succeed in my career. As an actor in Childsplay AZ’s touring production of ‘Schoolhouse Rock Live!’ I was finally where I wanted to be, entertaining and educating audiences through storytelling, music and dance.”

Scholarships he received at Grand Valley included the Hamlin Memorial Scholarship, the Davis Theatre Scholarship, the Outstanding International Scholar Award, a Shakespeare Scholarship, an International Merit Award and Grand Valley’s 2019 Excellence-in-a-Discipline Award for theatre, given to one student in each program each year.

Additionally, he worked in multiple positions, including being an RA like at SMC, music theory tutor, Theatre 101 assistant teacher and summer orientation assistant. He directed two shows, including “No Exit” by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Streck Rodrigues was part of a “Macbeth” cast that toured Michigan schools, then the Dominican Republic. Although he is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese is his native language.

At Arizona State, Streck Rodrigues earned Special Talent Awards for choral arts and musical theatre.  At ASU he had a housing graduate assistantship, supervising RAs.

“Part of the requirements of being an F-1 student (international student visa) is that you are only allowed to work up to 20 hours a week, and it can only be on-campus,” he said. “There are some exceptions if the work outside of campus is required for your degree, like in the case of internships, which is a huge hoop to jump, as, unlike other businesses, acting internships are not common. Additionally, Grand Rapids didn't have any professional theatres at the time, and most of my time in Phoenix was during the pandemic, so opportunities were very limited.”

“Most of my income outside of theatre comes from being a Standardized Patient. I started at GVSU and currently do at the University of Arizona, Creighton University and Midwestern University. I receive cases ahead of time and portray patients for med students, nursing students, psychology students and social workers, etc., to practice their skills.”

Roles at GVSU encompassed Wreck in “Wonderful Town,” Shere Khan the tiger in “The Jungle Book,” traveling peddler Ali Hakim in “Oklahoma!,” Bobby in “Cabaret” and Stephano in “The Tempest.”

“I’m honestly living the dream” as he tackles progressively bigger projects, such as the “Happy Days” musical, where he will play a jumpy Malachi Brother tormenting Fonzie (and to be his understudy), plays a Leopard and has a cameo as James Dean. Bruno earned his master of music degree from ASU in voice, music theatre and opera.

“My ideal plan is to book a show that would be my motivator” to move to New York or Chicago. In a homecoming of sorts last fall, he was cast as Bernardo in “West Side Story,” a partnership between the South Bend Symphony and the Civic Theatre. He flew from Arizona to South Bend for three weeks of rehearsals and two performances Oct. 8-9 at the Morris Performing Arts Center.

Unlike others who lament the toll COVID-19 took on their plans, “The pandemic didn’t rob me of my education,” he said of “Speed Dating Tonight!” and “Runaways.”

“Those were pandemic projects, one is an opera and the other is a musical,” he said. “For SDT we had rehearsals fully on Zoom and only came to ASU to record. Actors were alone in the room while recording, fully isolated. For Runaways, we had a blended rehearsal, where we mostly rehearsed outside with masks, but also some Zoom rehearsals. We recorded a lot of materials for the show on our own, but also went to ASU a few times to record with professional equipment.”

“Thanks to my being in school, I was able to continue training, doing shows, acting, singing and dancing — something other artists were unable to do. In a sense, being in school during that time gave me a safety net. While the education I received may have looked different from other people's I still felt safe and that I was progressing.”

“I am shooting my first feature film here in Arizona in the upcoming months as well,” he said Aug. 19.

As he posted on his Facebook page May 6, “I can’t believe I’ve been a master of musical theatre for an entire year. I moved to the United State when I was 18 to pursue MT because I knew my education and career prospects were better here than in Brazil. This past year has been all sort of challenging, but I can’t help but be proud of myself that every single dollar I’ve made since graduating was through performing at some capacity. Acting, singing, dancing, modeling and improv, in theatres, movies, commercials, clubs, hospitals and event rooms. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been what I’ve dreamed of. I cannot wait to see what these next few years hold. The future is bright.”

Original source can be found here.