This Is New York—Tess Howsam: Playwright, Actor, and Artistic Director To Be

Tess is 23 years old, originally from Colorado. She moved to New York to study Theater at Bard College, in Upper Manhattan.

ASPIRING: Colorado transplant and Brooklynite Tess Howsam has her sights set on a long career in the New York performing arts scene. Gidon Belmaker/The Epoch Times

NEW YORK—Tess Howsam was standing behind a wide variety of French pastries and gourmet sandwiches at Beny’s Delice, a French bakery shop and cafe on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. At midday on Monday, the shop was not busy and the soft Jazz music gave her some time to daydream. As the front door swings open a small bell jingles and startles her a bit, and she then smiles when asked her story, rather than a coffee or a croissant.

Tess is 23 years old, originally from Colorado. She moved to New York to study Theater at Bard College, in Upper Manhattan.

Theater is her passion. She has performed on the Producers Club in “a fun little show,” and directed a few small projects. She majored in playwriting and did an internship at the Incubator Arts Project, which supports performing artists.

In the future, she will continue to grow as an artist and a playwright. “I would love to act at Rattlestick Theater,” she said. “They do a lot of new plays and encourage new writers to write. As an actor I would be a part of a new piece that I can help create, do a role that has never been done. It is kind of fun to develop a character with the playwright.”

She moved to Prospects Heights in Brooklyn last September, and has been working with Benny’s Delice almost since they opened.

She loves New York and Brooklyn in particular. If things go her way, she will stay here. “I like New York because it is always changing,” she said. “Especially Brooklyn is developing. I like Brooklyn a lot. You have a lot of good artist scenes going around here. Everybody is involved in everything, and everybody cares and supports each other in a way,” said Howsam.

In 20 years, she hopes to still be in Brooklyn, as the artistic director of a theater company she has yet to establish.

It very well may happen. Past records indicate that when she sets her mind to something, she achieves it. In a Colorado Springs Gazette article from 2006, she stated her next step: “Emerson College, Bard College, or Occidental College to double-major in psychology and performing arts.” She made her way into Bard, so we will probably see her around in Brooklyn 20 years from now.