'When my friends and I put on a show, it is everything to us.'

Tess Lovell: English & Performing and Media Arts

5/15/2025

Tess Lovell

English & Performing and Media Arts
Brooklyn, N.Y.

What was your favorite class and why?

So, so hard to choose. But I’ll say Directing I with David Feldshuh. The word “favorite” seems to suggest that my experience in this class was entirely pleasant — it was not. David teaches his students how to make theater come to life, how to analyze a scene and figure out what makes it sizzle, and how to guide a group of actors toward a thrilling performance, but it is not easy work. We were on our feet for two hours straight every class. There were many late nights and early mornings spent in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts agonizing over a flat moment in a scene and then deliriously cheering when it finally clicked. In class, there was no time to overthink — we were churning out new scenes every 10 minutes, falling on our faces when we performed them for the rest of the group, then getting back up and doing it again a few moments later. Learning that craft not only required the acceptance of mistake-making, but the embrace of it. It was a totally humbling and exhilarating experience.

What is your main extracurricular activity and why is it important to you?

I auditioned for the Whistling Shrimp improv comedy troupe during my first semester at Cornell. I went to a performing arts high school, and on a couple of random days each semester, they’d have us get up and do improv; I did not shine on these days. But I had the utmost reverence for it, so I auditioned for Cornell’s oldest comedy group as soon as I got here. We practice three days a week, and after each one, I would call my mom in total crisis. I was surrounded by juniors and seniors who were thick as thieves and effortlessly funny. They spent a lot of time gently nudging me back on track when I was flailing onstage. But I kept learning from them and I kept bombing and slowly, slowly, I got better. I’m now the group's director, alongside my best friend, who sat next to me at auditions. The moments when we can make 200-seat theater explode in laughter are pretty fantastic, but there is a special kind of trust that you build with another person when the two of you go out onstage and play a pair of troll brothers or talking dogs to a silent audience of nine. Improv is a daily practice in listening, letting go and taking yourself as un-seriously as possible. I’m pretty lucky that I get to spend six hours a week making my friends laugh.

How have your beliefs or perspectives changed since you first arrived at Cornell?

Cornell has given me a lot more trust in my own strength. I think this school attracts a particular kind of person who can bear down and get the work done — just living through these brutal winters requires a certain amount of grit. Every semester, I’ve thought to myself, “there is no way I’m capable of doing everything I’ve committed to.” And every semester, like so many of the people around me, I’ve just done it. After going through enough 20-page papers and hard talks with friends and 19-hour school days and student-run musicals, I’m just beginning to understand that I’m capable of a lot more than what I try to convince myself of. And also, I still really don’t know very much at all.

Who or what influenced your Cornell education the most?

I am very proud to say that I have performed in eight full-scale productions in my six semesters at Cornell. I’ve put on at least 35 improv shows with my comedy group, and I joined the cult of acapella as a junior. It’s the hilarious, driven, openhearted people that I’ve met in these circles who have shaped my Cornell experience. I am constantly overwhelmed with gratitude for my mentors in PMA — Beth Milles, Theo Black, David Feldshuh, J. Ellen Gainor, the list goes on and on — around whom I frequently have to remind myself that it’s not normal to be starstruck in front of your teachers. It’s easy, at a place like this, to feel like live performance is just a tiny speck in the shadow of other, more important disciplines. But when my friends and I put on a show, it is everything to us. It is serious work. I have learned the most about myself in these settings, when, in the midst of all of the big and significant business of the world at large, we are all fully invested in creating something with our imaginations, together.

If you were to offer advice to an incoming first year student, what would you say?

Do the thing that scares you. Invest in a great winter coat. Get your distribution requirements done early. The 10 meals a week plan is not practical if you live in Collegetown. Hydrate. Spend some time at ClubFest (make sure you go to every table). See a show! Audition for a show! Do the readings for class. Seriously, you’ll feel better if you do the readings. You might want to delete Instagram for a little bit. Comparison is the thief of joy. Your BRBs do not carry over into next year.

Every year, our faculty nominate graduating Arts & Sciences students to be featured as part of our Extraordinary Journeys series.Read more about the Class of 2025.