I am a theatre artist and administrator. Raised in California, trained in Indiana and Florida, with early career jobs in Georgia, Colorado, and Vermont, since 2002 I have been based on the east coast. I live in Wilmington, Delaware, where I worked for seven years with Delaware Theatre Company. In 2009, I transitioned into the freelance arena, working mainly in the greater Philadelphia region while building relationships nationally.
I was trained as an actor, but several of my first professional jobs carried with them educational components and I found my satisfaction was just as deep after finishing a great workshop as after a terrific performance. I became proud to add “teaching artist” my artist’s toolbox, and education will always remain a core value of my work in the theatre.
Teaching work confirmed a suspicion that I enjoyed being part of building an audience’s experience with a production at a much earlier point in the timeline than is typically afforded to actors. I began to search out directing work. In 2005, at the tender age of 29, I made my LORT directing debut at Delaware Theatre Company.
My artistic ethos was formed by three summers of work at Creede Repertory Theatre. Creede, CO (pop. 350, alt. 8,852) is a mining town gone bust. In order to create a new economic engine, the town leaders started CRT and the company is now the backbone of the county. I have never seen a community so vibrantly embrace a theatre company, or a company so dedicated to serving its community. In my heart I have never really left Creede and to this day my prime reason for being a theatre artist remains to serve the community in which I live.
The how of my mission to serve my community is “to challenge and to affirm.” It is not enough just to question, to tear down. One must also champion the good, the hopeful, the possible. Only by doing this can we provide our audience with a way forward.
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