Alumni Spotlight: Sebastian R. Delta

Theater and Germanic Studies, 2012

My name is Sebastian R. Delta and I graduated with a BA in Arts majoring in Theater and Germanic Studies in 2012. Since I graduated, I moved back to one of my countries - Peru - in order to continue pursuing my career as an actor, which I had already begun as a UMD student. In Peru, I took some other acting workshops to meet new people in the industry, and that served as a gateway for me to start doing real theater in my country. I got cast as the lead (John Merrick) in The Elephant Man, which gave me the necessary press attention to become a known theater actor. Meanwhile, I had gotten a job as a drama teacher at my country's German School, Alexander von Humboldt Schule. My fluency in German and all the literature I knew made my profile extremely interesting for the headmaster, who didn't hesitate to hire me. I created a course that integrated my two majors: Germanic Studies and Theater. That job gave me a regular income that allowed me to pursue my other passion: theater.

Many small plays followed, including The Ladies of Avignon, where I played a young Picasso. After that, the British Theater in Peru saw my performance and gave me an opportunity to play Chris Keller in Arthur Miller's All My Sons, which got awarded best drama in Peru in 2014. Finally, in 2015, Pam Gems' musical Piaf arrived and I got cast to play several roles. Piaf's success in the box office has never been seen before in Lima, and the play is still running even when some of us have already decided to move on and move to other cities. Now I live in Paris and study miming and acrobatics. Nevertheless, I also teach German and English on the side in order to make a living. Thus, my two passions, German and theater, ultimately went hand in hand to help me become the artist/teacher I am now.