Posted December 12, 2023 in Alumni Profile
Lawrence School, 2012
B.F.A. Youngstown State University, 2019
M.F.A. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2022
Since graduating from Lawrence, what have you been up to?
I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from Youngstown State University and then went on to graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where I earned a Master of Fine Arts in Acting (the terminal degree in my field). From there, I immediately moved to Salt Lake City where I currently reside. Today, I run the musical theatre program at Salt Lake School for The Performing Arts.
I really love it here! It’s a booming city. We get all of the national tours and we have a phenomenal professional ballet company, which is great for our students because they’re surrounded by the arts in a similar way to kids in Cleveland.
Between teaching, directing shows, and regularly participating in regional and state theater competitions, my schedule is nonstop, but it’s exciting! And these kids, being at this performing arts school, they’re like little sponges. They're so eager to learn. For a lot of them—and I can relate having gone to Lawrence—they haven't previously existed in educational environments where they felt like they fit in. So watching these high school kids open up and go from super quiet and shy to not being able to keep them quiet is the most rewarding thing I totally was not expecting. We have young people at our school from all walks of life, and it’s incredible!
Tell us about your favorite performances you were a part of during your undergraduate and graduate years.
I loved playing Morticia in The Addams Family at Youngstown State. I saw the national tour when I was a senior at Lawrence and was instantly hooked. Then in grad school, I would say my thesis. That role was in a play called The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. That was a role I was particularly proud of because it's a three-hour show, and the character I played just never stops talking. I was curious whether or not I could do it. I asked myself, ‘Outside of a musical, when I can't sing and dance, am I able to help carry a show with that much dialogue and that much stage time?’ And the answer was yes. It was exhausting, as any thesis should be, but it was super rewarding.
How did Lawrence prepare you for college?
Lawrence taught me how to advocate for myself in a way that is helpful and respectful. I’ve met people who were diagnosed with ADD very late in life, and that skill I gained at Lawrence was life-changing—as some people never learn how to do that. This includes kindness and patience for what people need and meeting them where they’re at, which set me up for success as a performer, director, and teacher.
It’s funny because I've had conversations with multiple faculty at my school now who have said, ‘The way that you teach is so multisensory, and the relationships you build with these students and how you're able to meet them where they're at and frame things in the way that is helpful for them is a nuanced level of teaching some people don't find until decades into their career.’ That’s all credit to Lawrence and its teaching methods. I think everyone should be taught in a multisensory way.
What is your favorite memory from Lawrence?
I have two. The first would be getting a Compass Award for the top of my class in Spanish my freshman year. I can trace back my academic performance changing from that moment of one teacher saying, ‘Hey, you’re working really hard and I see you.’ The other would be the plays and musicals, especially Annie. That show is the reason I do theater. For Mr. Donnellan to cast me as Grace, someone who is beautiful, kind, and a true force for goodness in that story, that was a huge deal to me.
How do you spend your free time?
I don't have a lot of free time, but when I do, I use it wisely. I try to see every movie that comes out. And then, because we have such a thriving art scene here, I go to the orchestra and ballet. I see the musicals that tour, of course, but as a musical theatre teacher, it’s important for me to expand my horizons in the arts outside of just what I do.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years, my hope is for the musical theatre program I teach at to be one that’s known all over the western part of the country, and to be able to compete with these schools in California and Las Vegas.
What advice would you give a new Lawrence student?
One of my biggest pieces of advice is actually words that are not my own, but rather from André De Shields, who won a Tony Award for Hadestown. He said, “Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming.” When I look back on my high school experience, as well as my college experience, the best versions of myself existed when I surrounded myself with those people.
What do you wish people knew about Lawrence?
If you’re a parent on the fence about sending your child to Lawrence, do it! It really is the ideal school. I did Annie again at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre many years after graduating, and there was a family there that told me they had a child who was struggling with dyslexia. I said, “Have you considered Lawrence?”
I speak about Lawrence at the school I teach at now, and I will never stop speaking highly about it because I went from a student who may have had to repeat a grade to a straight-A, 4.0 student. And I don't think I did anything differently. My brain didn't just automatically change because I was in a new building with new people. I had teachers who really loved to teach. It wasn't about the test scores and ‘Oh, we’ve got to get ahead of this school and this district.’ It was, ‘Where are you right now, and what can I do for you?’