Greta Kunene’s initial reaction to acting was a negative one. The Missoula Children’s Theatre company was in southeastern Minnesota and was holding auditions for a show. When her mom Brenda Kunene asked if she wanted to audition, Greta said no. Thankfully, her mom made her do it anyway, and Greta found out that she loved it. At that first show, she was chosen to play Wendy in Peter and Wendy. “That’s how it started,” Greta said.
Greta, who is from Fountain, already knew that she enjoyed singing and also dancing thanks to being enrolled in dance class from preschool, but acting gave her even more opportunities. Over the years, she performed at Chatfield’s Wits’ End Theatre, Lanesboro’s Commonweal Theatre, and the Rochester Civic Theatre. During a rehearsal at the Civic Theatre, someone asked her if she’d ever considered applying to go to Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley. She dismissed the idea, but then a year later, a friend of hers mentioned that she was going there and thought Greta would enjoy it, too. Once again, she didn’t think much about it, but then she started seeing ads for it on social media and other places. “It just started popping up so I looked into it,” she said. Greta had attended Chatfield High School for her 9th and 10th grade years, but she was interested in more of an arts program than her school and other area schools were able to offer. The more she looked into it, the more she thought that Perpich would be a good fit for her.
Perpich Center for Arts Education is a two-year public arts school in Golden Valley that accepts high school juniors and seniors. Students from all over Minnesota can grow and learn in their chosen focus of music, theatre, literary arts, media arts, or visual arts. Greta’s focus is musical theatre.
Greta began the application process for Perpich, which started with a written application with essay questions about why she was interested in attending and what her experience in her chosen art focus was. The next step was to record and submit a song and a scene based off of pictures that the school had sent her. After that, she went to an in-person audition and interview. During the interview, she talked with both the musical theatre instructor and the dance teacher who both focused on how dedicated she was to her art. “It’s not about how good someone is,” Greta explained. “It’s about how much you care and how much work you’re going to put into it.” After the audition, interview and a tour of the school, Greta and her mom got ready to leave but before they had even left the parking lot, Greta had received a call letting her know that she had been accepted into Perpich Center for Arts Education. She was thrilled. “It was like one of those things where I walked into the school and thought, ‘this is my place,’” she said.
As Perpich is a public school, the only fees that Greta’s family has to pay are the typical ones she would if she were still attending Chatfield High School. As she lives more than 20 miles from the school, she gets to live in the dorms for free. She is able to come home most weekends to see her family. Greta’s academic classes are held in the morning at school with her arts classes taking place in the afternoon. “It was an adjustment at first,” Brenda said about her daughter being away at school. “But it’s what she loves. It’s a big process to apply for musical theatre programs and this school prepares her for that.” Brenda also explained that as Greta plans to go far away for college; this is good practice for that.
Being a senior, Greta is already working on college plans. “I’m counting down the days until graduation,” she laughed. She’s hoping to get into Long Island University for their musical theatre program. “It’s a lot more than just applying,” she said. The process includes pre-screens, which she explained is like an audition to get an audition. Greta submitted her pre-screens and applications to a variety of colleges in December and January and heard back from most of them in mid-January. She received invitations from two to present at the Chicago Unifieds in February. At the Unifieds, a number of colleges have representatives available to watch auditions and performances as part of their admissions process. In addition to the invitations, Greta was also able to perform for quite a few walk-on auditions as well. She and her mom spent two days in Chicago for that event.
Greta hopes that someday she can work professionally in the theatre and live off of her career as a performer, but she knows the reality is that that is difficult to do so she’s prepared to work other jobs as well so she can continue to pursue her dreams in musical theatre. As of now, she’s already had several paying gigs. She was able to do a professional tour in Minnesota last summer playing Donkey in a production of “Shrek” for ETC Productions with Apple Valley High School and worked with another company called Smart Mouth Comedy last fall. “It’s really nice to be able to have something where it’s fun and, even if it’s hard; in the end there’s a payoff,” Greta said.
Greta has a YouTube channel with videos of some of her performances which can be found by searching her full name, Greta Kunene.