You’ve all probably seen Miss Congeniality, Drop Dead Gorgeous, or at the very least, the Miss America Pageant. Melessie Clark, on the other hand, is living a life most of us have only seen on the television screen. This 20-year-old musical theater major in Point Park’s Conservatory of Performing Arts/Greensburg, PA native is a member of the Honors Program, The Body Christian Fellowship, IMPULSE hip hop group, a former CF, summer assistant, and upcoming office assistant for Campus Life. Clearly, Melessie Clark stole the spotlight for Campus Celeb this week, and I decided to find out how this real-life Miss Congeniality (with a few more first place sashes than Sandra Bullock) balances her crown with college.
HK: How did you decide Point Park was right for you?
MC: The closeness of the faculty and students. Faculty definitely plays a huge part along with the individual attention they give each student. It was the right distance away from home and I knew several graduates from my hometown who enjoyed their training here in the Conservatory. When I came here to audition, it just felt right.
HK: You’ve landed some big roles in school productions. How do you prepare for those roles?
MC: By using training we’ve been given on how to prepare for auditions along with reading the script and seeing what the role is. A lot of people think you go into an audition with a certain character in mind. For Hecuba I read the play without any character in mind and actually went into my initial audition with the monologue of Polyxena, Hecuba’s daughter.
HK: You’ve won so many pageant titles. What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned from these pageants?
MC: Stay true to yourself. I think pageants easily have a bad connotation. It’s not that some of those things aren’t true – but not trying to focus on what I think the judges [others] want. Just being myself and knowing that I’m enough.
HK: When did you start performing?
MC: I started acting when I was six years old and dancing when I was three. I didn’t start pageants until a little later when I was in seventh grade and was twelve.
HK: Do you ever get nervous on stage?
MC: All the time! People think I never get nervous but I always do. They key is learning how to control the nerves and knowing that you’ve prepared.
HK: How do you manage schoolwork, plays, pageants, and extra-curricular events?
MC: My problem is I like to do as much as I can. I try to be a well-rounded person so I need lots of time management… Which is something I’m still learning. I do a lot of planning ahead. Sometimes there will be a pageant or a show I’m in that will be months in advance, so I have to learn to how schedule and plan for those ahead of time. There’s a lot of late nights staying up to do homework, but it’s all worth it!
HK: So many girls look up to you as a role model. What advice would you give to them?
MC: That work ethic as well as character is very important. Being a hard worker is important, but being a nice person and someone others want to be around matters as well and is something people don’t often think about. There is a lot of catty-ness in both theater and pageants, so you have to keep your morals and values and things that are important to you in mind.
HK: Is there anything else you’d like to add or let people know?
MC: I appreciate everyone’s support! I will be performing in the “May Shows” in a Pittsburgh Playhouse Jr. production of the The Wind in the Willows, a children’s show. Also, I’ll be competing in the Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant through the Miss America Organization in June, which is the preliminary pageant for the Miss America Pageant.