ABOUT ME
I am a multi-disciplinary performance artist who focuses on the themes of loss, grief, and longing. I utilize acting/theatrical performance, movement, songwriting, puppetry, poetry, devising, playwrighting, and songwriting/musical performance to build and perform my works.
MISSION
As an artist, I have been shaped by life. Recently, two losses shook my world. Before them, I enjoyed being an actor in a traditional sense. Now I find I must write my own work. These losses, though terrible, gave me my voice. Making art is the safest place for me to process incomprehensible events.
I have come to believe that I have been put on this earth to feel. I have always been subject to deep feelings, often in ways that are all consuming and uncomfortable. I have, in the past, attempted to deny these feelings. After my losses, however, I began to accept that big emotions are not just something I must go through, but a part of who I am. I cannot deny them anymore than I can deny myself. It is my deep emotional life that motivates all I do in my work.
One of my greatest gifts is the ability to channel my emotion into my art. My hope is that by embracing and confronting my emotions, I can reach a person who might think: “This is exactly how I feel. I didn’t know anyone else could feel like that.” I want to create work that is deeply personal and radically honest. Human connection is the most precious part of life. In the deeply personal, the universal is uniquely revealed, creating that connection. I want to address issues humans want to hide from, so as to bring them to the light to shake away our fear. In this way I hope to bring people together, so they know they are not alone.
ACTOR
I have an MFA in acting from Brooklyn College and have been a member of Actor’s Equity since 2008. I have trained with the Moscow Art Theatre, the Shakespeare Institute, Pig Iron Theatre, the Movement Theatre Studio, Red Bull Theater, and in Rasaboxes with Paula Murray Cole and Richard Schechner. My core training is in Stanislavski-based techniques, but I expanded into physical techniques such as Lecoq in the past several years. My credits include regional theater (Milwaukee Shakespeare, Baltimore Shakespeare, Rep Stage, etc), off-off Broadway (La MaMa ETC,, Bushwick Shakespeare, etc), and productions on Bannerman Island (Scotland Road (Halbreach), The Anastasia File (Anastasia), and Always, Patsy Cline (Louise)).
Recently I have focused on creating and performing my own work, beginning with A Hero’s Journey. In addition to Liturgy for Longing, I am also in the very beginning stages of devising a play with actors/theatre makers Elizabeth Audley and Gina Samardge.
One of my motivators is my constant interest in how emotion is experienced and expressed on stage. In my own work I have more freedom to explore multiple ways of approaching emotion while maintaining my safety. I am already an expert in many techniques but have yet to be satisfied. This is what led me to my research at the Shakespeare Institute.
ACADEMIC
I am a part-time doctoral researcher at the Shakespeare Institute. My thesis focuses on the problems actors face when performing emotion in Shakespeare in a culture that prioritizes emotional realism and actor-character emotional identification. I define the problems, trace their roots, and create solutions by developing new techniques for actors to apply in practice. My wider academic focus is to improve the ethics and effectiveness of emotion in actor training and performance.
Actors are at a greater risk for mental health problems and emotional harm than the wider population. Actors often accept personal psychological harm as expected, commonplace, and necessary. As a deeply feeling person, I desire to rework actor technique to give actors safe and satisfying means of approaching emotion, while creating a culture that supports actors in speaking out and asking for help. I refuse to accept that emotional dysregulation, neurodivergence, and mental health struggles should disqualify people from becoming actors.
In Liturgy, this research will help me maintain ethics in audience participation, while protecting my emotional safety. One safety measure I will put in place as a performer is a “container practice,” including the boundaries of warm-ups and cool-downs for each rehearsal/performance.
TEACHER
I have taught acting and performance classes for the past seven years. These classes include voice, acting, devising, and movement as adjunct faculty at Manhattanville College, AMDA, and LIU Post. This year I began teaching acting for adults at the Beacon Performing Arts Center–my favorite teaching job yet. My teaching skills will play an invaluable role as I come to the improvisatory section of my performance. For instance, when I teach, I create and use a lesson plan, but focus on being in tune with my students in the room. I can change and adjust my plan in the moment to better serve their interests and needs. This is the same strategy I will use for the end of Liturgy; I will have several plans in place but will be open to what the audience is capable of and comfortable with, so I can adapt in the moment. My experience has made me very skillful at guiding a room of adults in spontaneous group interaction.
MUSICIAN
I began performing as a singer and bassoonist in school. At Lawrence University I earned a BMus in “vocal jazz studies” in addition to a BA in theater. This self-designed jazz performance major included classes in improvisation and composition. In NYC, I used those skills to perform in and arrange music for an Andrews-Sisters-inspired female trio called The Treats. In 2009, I formed a band with Jonathon Roberts called Spark & Echo, for which I sang and wrote music, while also playing bassoon, baritone ukulele, guitar, clarinet, and percussion. We released four albums over five years. Most recently I have focused on guitar and my own music. Like creating solo theater, approaching music as a singer/songwriter has given me freedom to explore what my own voice is as a musician. I wrote ten songs over the past year, which I may record after completing Liturgy. Like my theatrical work, these songs explore grief, loss, and longing, with a touch of love thrown in. I find music, and especially guitar, to be the most soothing and regulating way in which I can process and share my emotions.