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ABOUT

ME

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I came to Trinity Rep in Providence, Rhode Island in 2000 to play Eliza in My Fair Lady & it has been my artistic home ever since.  I became a member of Trinity's Resident Acting Company in 2002.  

 

Some work at Trinity that has been particularly formative to me as an artist includes Tilly in the world premiere of MELANCHOLY PLAY: A CHAMBER MUSICAL by Sarah Ruhl & Todd Almond, Mother in RAGTIME, Mr. Darcy in Kate Hamill's PRIDE & PREJUDICE, The Plant in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, Nancy in OLIVER! directed by Richard & Sharon Jenkins, Sally Bowles in CABARET, Puck in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Warrior One in Dave Malloy & Jason Craig's BEOWULF: A THOUSAND YEARS OF BAGGAGE, Ophelia in HAMLET, Rebecca in the world premiere of Paula Vogel's THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME and creating SONGS OF INNOCENCE, SONGS OF EXPERIENCE with my longtime collaborator & friend Amanda Dehnert.  

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Also here in Providence, I played one of my dream roles--Alison in FUN HOME at The Wilbury Group.

 

For two years, I was also in the acting company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival revisiting Eliza in MY FAIR LADY, playing The Baker’s Wife in INTO THE WOODS & originating the roles of Muriel Humphrey, Pat Nixon and others in the world premiere of THE GREAT SOCIETY by Robert Schenkkan.

 

Other theatres I've worked at include The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, American Repertory Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Cleveland Play House, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hartford Stage Company, Virginia Stage, Goodspeed Opera House and, in my early New York years, the national touring companies of The Who’s TOMMY, CHESS and COMPANY.  

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 as a performer

While I was in college pursuing my dream of being a musical theatre performer, I had a realization that changed my life. There was something missing for me in most of the musicals I saw & I identified it as an imbalance of craft that prioritized singing & dancing over acting.  

 

Musical performers, like me, tend to start training very young as dancers & singers.  That training is rigorous & can become your whole world, & rightfully so!  The art forms of music & dance are vast enough to fill many lifetimes with depth & discovery.  But this art form--musical theatre--is made of three disciplines, not two.  And all three require equal focus.

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Faced with this realization I made the decision to dedicate the next two years of my life to a graduate training program in Acting.  I expected that when I got there I would be far behind.  Very quickly however, in my first Shakespeare class, I discovered that plays are another kind of music...& songs are each their own little play.  I discovered that, with practice, what I already knew about music could be translated into rich acting & script analysis.

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And the reverse is also true--everything good actors know about text & character applies to singing technique.

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We are all actually speaking the same language.

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I have spent decades applying that principle to my work as a performer in both musical & dramatic plays.  It has become my passion to teach singing to actors & acting to singers, allowing them to find comfort & confidence in new theatrical terrain.

as a teacher

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my studio is a safe space for all queer, trans & gender non-conforming artists

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and also

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