Alumni and Careers

How has studying Theater and Dance impacted your perspective (personally, professionally, or other)?

I believe that studying theater (and other art forms) has made me more confident in myself and my work; specific and responsive to details; and more in touch with myself, the world, and those around me. I’ve seen my peers and students on similar journeys. While I have been lucky to build a professional career in theater, I think the more lasting impact in studying the arts is carrying this type of learning, empathy, and creativity into every part of our lives.

What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your time at Bowdoin?

I have many fond memories of Bowdoin, but some of the highlights include Suzan Lori-Parks’ guest lecture, sharing a meal with Edward Albee, and knitting a scarf onstage while wearing a corset during a production of Measure for Measure.

Do you have any advice for current students at Bowdoin?

Remember that you are building your personal and professional support networks right now. There are a wealth of resources in front of you that are not always easy to see at first. Take advantage of the opportunities Bowdoin provides for you, support your peers, and thank people often.

What is your occupation? What is your current job (roles and responsibilities)?

Graduate Student and Teaching Assistant at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s MFA Professional Actor Training Program. Student of acting, teacher of acting.

Resident company member at Playmakers Repertory Theater. Available for all shows cast in season, currently equity performer in world premier of Dairyland. 

http://playmakersrep.org/show/dairyland

How has your Bowdoin education and experience help you and inform the work that you do?

After my theater classes, I entered the Chicago acting community where I immediately found my skills an asset to the organizations I worked with. 

My Psychology classes and liberal arts background meant that I could offer a wider base of knowledge as a collaborator. 

I don’t think I was terribly good in the playwrighting class I took, but in a few years the lessons had settled and when I returned to writing, I found the lessons there and ready to help with some poignant self-started works which were well received.

Has studying Theater and Dance impacted your perspective (personally, professionally, or other)? If so, how?

Theater is a study of humanness. It is perpetual learning, perpetual imagining, perpetual craft of the ephemeral. It is many disciplines, and anyone would be enriched to play a role outside their personal experience and give it the complexity they enjoy in their own lives. It’s a nebulous career path, but it is integral to the person I am today.

Also studying body movement then lets  you analyze how other people carry their frame, and what that might signify for character, so that’s cool.

What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your time at Bowdoin?

It is mostly the friends and the acting  roles I enjoyed while at Bowdoin. Physical Theater with Davis Robinson. Cultural and Literary Theory (!!!)

Do you have any advice for current student at Bowdoin?

Everyone started somewhere. Your world continues after Bowdoin. Enjoy your time, but know that the skills and knowledge you are developing will require attention in the years to follow (if you want to improve). And always: you are challenged with the tension of being curious and expansive while remembering your privileges.

If you want to think about graduate school for theater and don’t want/can’t have loans for it, google the URTAs (UPTAs, too, for those pursuing a career in theater after graduation)

What is your occupation? What is your current job (roles and responsibilities)?

I am a dramaturg, and am currently the Literary Manager at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ. In both of these roles, I work primarily with scripts and playwrights. At McCarter, I manage the database of project submissions that come through the theater, I read scripts and do coverage in the surrounding areas, I serve as the dramaturg on our mainstage productions and new plays in development, and I administer the theater’s commission process. I am also a member of the Artistic Staff, so I participate in season planning and other strategic programming conversations with Emily Mann (McCarter’s Artistic Director and Resident Playwright), and the rest of the Artistic Staff.

How has your Bowdoin education and experience help you and inform the work that you do?

At Bowdoin, I honed my writing, research, and critical thinking abilities; I learned how to collaborate with others, how to manage my time effectively, how to multitask, and how to face complex challenges head on—these are all skills that I use every day in my job at McCarter.

What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your time at Bowdoin?

In my last two years at Bowdoin, I worked closely with my advisor, Professor Kitch, on two Shakespeare research projects that defined much of my studies in the English Department. My major culminated in an Independent Study on the representations of power and kingship in Shakespeare’s Richard II and Marlowe’s Edward II that I completed in the final semester of my senior year. It was through my work with Professor Kitch over the course of my four years at Bowdoin, and my studies of Shakespeare with him specifically, that I discovered my love for examining theatrical texts through a literary and analytical lens. Professor Kitch always encouraged me to apply what I had learned in my Theater studies to my work in the English Department, and it was in combining these two areas of inquiry that I discovered my passion for dramaturgy.

What is your occupation? What is your current job (roles and responsibilities)?

I am a drama teacher in a K-12 public school. I teach a “Literacy & Theater” course, and I run the after-school performing arts program (which includes a main stage play, tech crew, improv troupe, a cappella ensemble, andfilm club).

What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your time at Bowdoin?

Davis’ comedy class. Any modern dance (technique & repertoire) with Gwen or Paul. Judy’s stage design course. Rehearsals! Work-study with Michael, Deb, and Julie. Educational Theater with Libby. Producing with Joan. Noma! “L’Impresario,” an independent study with Anton Handel (Class of ‘07). Suziki/Viewpoints with the SITI Company. Winter holiday parties. Department Passover seders. Production post-mortems. Tech weekends and production weeks!

Between my theater courses and my work-study, I remember my Theater & Dance days to be the most empowering, challenging, stimulating, fulfilling, and loving times of my college experience.

Do you have any advice for current students at Bowdoin?

• Take ALL the courses.
• Work backstage and take a stab on-stage.
• Dance!
• Be kind and respectful.
• Learn from the entire faculty and staff.
• Be responsible (to your castmates, your collaborators, your mentors, your co-workers, the production, the craft…).
• Don’t be a diva; work hard and stay humble.

What is your occupation? What is your current job (roles and responsibilities)?

Director of Dance and Middle School Drama Teacher at the Noble and Greenough School.

I teach modern, jazz, and choreography classes to middle and high school students. I produce the annual Fall Dance Concert and choreograph the winter musical. In the spring season, I teach students how to teach dance by working with elementary aged kids at local schools.

Has studying Theater and Dance impacted your perspective (personally, professionally, or other)? If so, how?

I am still dancing with professional peers in the Boston dance scene. I don’t think that I’ll ever stop dancing, even if that means just taking class and not performing. I very much value keeping my physical body and mind connected. I certainly feel more open minded about the world after studying in this field, and I also feel so grateful to know how the soul benefits from the power of movement. Studying dance and trying to be successful in a field that is always in a fight for existence has made me resourceful and has forced me to think outside of the box in all aspects of my life.