GIANNA BURLINI
ELENA SOTO
Hair and Makeup Designer
BA Theatre Design and Technology and French
ejtsoto@gmail.com (515) 802-0091
Elena is a Hair and Makeup Designer from Des Moines, IA. Her areas of focus include beauty, SFX, and body painting. Some of her past show credits include The Gift (Ball State University), The House of Bernarda Alba (Ball State University), Masters and Visionaries (Ball State University). Elena is also a double major in French at Ball State. She hopes to use her knowledge about other cultures, through her studies and travels, in her design and artistry.
Why do you do theatre?
My main goal in life has always been to make people happy. I love seeing the smile on someone's face when I tell a funny joke or the shock when I transform them from their regular self to a strange water creature. I have been involved in theatre my entire life, from performing skits with my three siblings to performing in school productions. Theatre has been a constant for me. It's an anchor, even if I have nothing I have the theatre. I think a simple way to put it is I do theatre because I quite honestly can't imagine doing anything else.
Inspiring moment?
So I was never involved in any backstage work during high school. I was always on stage but had a huge interest in beauty makeup. When I was choosing a college to go to I had no idea what I wanted to do, whether that was on stage or behind the scenes or become a teacher. I figured that maybe that I would figure it out as I went so I just chose a school that had a good theatre program and ran with it. It wasn't until I actually briefly switched majors (for about two weeks) that I saw that I didn't really care what I did in theatre as long as I was in the community. There was a moment during one of my first opening nights at Ball State, where the director Beth Turcotte said this little mantra and I knew that I was where I was meant to be. Holding hands with people that honestly I didn't even know well at the time but we were all experiencing the same thing and there was something about that shared experience that has stuck with me. I'll never forget that feeling.
Community Engagement?
Aside from the theatre world, I actively do community service I would estimate about 10 hours of community service per semester. When I am back home I go to various classrooms in elementary schools to assist the teachers in whatever they may need. During the Summer I am a camp counselor and actively push my agenda to get the younger generations interested in the arts whether it may be singing, dancing, theatre, fine arts, anything creative. At the summer camp, I assisted in leading a theatre day where children come up with their own mini-scenes and they perform them for the rest of the camp. Getting the younger generation interested is super important to me because being involved in theatre was a huge part of my childhood and I want to share that love with as many children as I can.
PORTFOLIO
