In a black box theater at the base of the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center, a New York theater actor sat across from a handful of students this fall, giving measured and helpful advice.

They took a three-day journey together. The students bonded with the material in “Not Someone Like Me” about real-life accounts of sexual assaults and discovered more about their approaches to acting. Across from them was Chris Sarandon—you probably know him as the baddie prince who tried to marry Buttercup in “The Princess Bride”— who saw student actors at work at the same university where he learned the craft. He graduated from WVU with a bachelor of fine arts in 1964.

“This is the place that formed me, and yet it was the beginning of a profound metamorphosis in a way in that I was ready to go out into the world. And that’s what this place did,” Sarandon said.

Over the years, WVU arts students have learned from a variety of proven artists who have risen in the top of their fields. Performers from “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” worked with dance students prior to an area performance. Emmy Award-winning, “Star Trek” composer Jay Chattaway taught and spoke to students about how he approaches composing.

See Sarandon talk about the power of theater in this video.

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