About
I have been a practicing theatre artist most of my life: first as a performer, then as a dabbling techie, then as a playbuilder and director, later as a producer, and now, for nearly a decade, a professional facilitator of interactive theatre workshops and performances.
After being nourished by children's theatre through adolescence, I earned a B.A. in Dramatic Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and went on to perform in, develop, and produce plays in New York City. While I loved being a part of a theatre scene bursting with so much talent and creativity, I was discouraged that so much of this theatre only ever reached other theatre people. I soul searched my way back home to North Carolina, where I started teaching adult education in a local community college. This experience led me to a position at UNC's Interactive Theatre Carolina–a theatre troupe that blended scripted and improvisational theatre to open up conversations about health and social justice issues in the community.
I spent 3 and a half years co-leading ITC–designing programs, writing scripts, directing plays, facilitating large group conversations, and training and managing a company of student performers that met weekly. In related work, I partnered with UCLA's visiting Sex Ed Squad to train near-peer educators in interactive theatre techniques, and I continue to work with Theater Delta, a private company, as a scriptwriter and facilitator.
A desire to travel and be immersed in another culture led me to spend 2 years teaching in Madrid, where I was able to tap into the local theatre scene to continue my study of improv, clown, and storytelling while spending a lot of time thinking about the many ways humans communicate. Since returning to the States, I have relocated to Atlanta where I work as a teaching artist at the Alliance Theatre. In May 2021, I completed a Master of Arts in Social Change degree with a joint certificate in Interfaith Chaplaincy from the Graduate Theological Union's Starr King School for the Ministry–the country's most progressive theological seminary.
Want to talk about consciousness raising, culture shifts, ensemble-created theatre, the sacredness of creativity and play, deeply inclusive conversations, or the arts as vehicles and sites for justice and understanding? I do, too.
