about me

I used to play t-ball as a kid. I did it because my older sister did and I wanted to be like her. Plus my dad was the coach. This is one of his favorite stories. It’s about the moment I made it clear that I preferred performance to sports-balling [sic]. The story is about the one and only time I actually managed to smack the ball off of the tee far enough to run around all the bases. As I ran like the wind with my helmet (which was big enough to swallow my entire head) rattling my tiny brain, I remember feeling the most immense balloon of pride swell up inside me. And, as the story goes, upon reaching home plate, I took a great leap and a gracious bow to my audience.

The rest is history.

I grew up in the land of horses and bourbon (and I guess KFC?): Lexington, KY. My dad was my teacher at school and my mom worked night shifts at the Toyota factory. I went to a Catholic school where I auditioned for the plays. I still remember my first audition, hands shaking so bad I couldn’t read the page. And I remember my first role: woman three in Twelfth Night. What you don’t remember her?

I ended up at Butler University to study Theatre and French. I studied abroad in Besançon in Eastern France, where I had the strange/incredible opportunity to play Hamlet in a production of the eponymous play with a non-English speaking cast for a non-English speaking audience. Performed, of course, in Shakespearean English.

In Cleveland, OH at the CWRU/CPH MFA Acting program I have had the opportunity to originate roles in new work (Meghan in Eric Coble’s These Mortal Hosts), work with my classmates on many exciting productions (including Macbeth and Clybourne Park), as well as work at Cleveland Play House with the amazing Laura Kepley (Shakespeare in Love, The Diary of Anne Frank).

More than anything I am grateful for the people this work has brought into my life and the experiences I have had storytelling with them, here’s to many more to come.

For love of the story.