Meet the Board Members

Describe your background and career – where did you go to college, what degrees, and career roles? 

I graduated with a BA in Theatre from Berea College in 2022 with a concentration in directing. While in college, I interned with Looking for Lilith Theatre Company, a feminist theatre company in Louisville, KY, where I worked as a devising teaching artist for their summer girls’ camp “GirlSpeak/Ellas Hablan” for Hispanic girls aged 12-16. I have also worked for Berea College Theatre Laboratory, Looking for Lilith Theatre Company, Three Witches Shakespeare, and Community Players as an intimacy director and informed consent-practice production consultant. I strive to cultivate safety and openness in the rehearsal room for all actors to have a voice and feel free to explore artistically without fear of their boundaries being crossed. In September 2024, I accepted the position of Associate Artistic Director at Community Players in Beatrice, where I direct four productions a year, design lighting for three, and oversee our education, DEIA, and outreach programs. My directing credits include The Addams Family, Hadestown:Teen Edition, She Loves Me, and others with Community Players. I also serve as an Adjudicator with the Nebraska Theatre Academy, offering feedback and scoring on High School and Middle School performances across Nebraska. 

Describe a meaningful moment from your career in theatre. 

While directing Hadestown: Teen Edition, I was blessed with many unforgettable moments throughout the process. The most memorable being our second rehearsal, where we discussed the social, political, and artistic themes throughout the musical. I, as I tend to be before table work, was apprehensive that the actors wouldn’t speak up or wouldn’t follow me on the somewhat nebulous journey these conversations take us on. I, however, was met with a group of 14-19-year-olds with wisdom and intelligence far beyond what I had expected. We spoke for 3 hours straight about themes of oppression, poverty, tyranny, climate destruction, and most importantly, the role their characters and the actors themselves play within those issues we face every day. I knew from then on that this was not my rehearsal process, but theirs, and I was blessed to steer the ship. I followed their lead for the rest of the production, where we discovered exhilarating highs and heartbreaking lows together to create an unforgettable performance. The most meaningful part of the whole experience was this message I received from one of my actors after the show had closed, “I’ve always had deep frustrations about the way the world is that no adult around me seemed to be able to answer. It made me angry that the world operates unfairly and everyone acts content with it and tells me “that’s just how it is”. I’ve felt like my voice doesn’t matter. Like whatever I do, I’m incapable of changing the world as a person. I am so grateful to have been given a voice, a chance to challenge the unfair “normal”. You helped me see that there ARE things I can do, and that it does matter. That I’m not stuck in a broken system, and that it can change. I’m really happy I got to see that.” 

What type of arts do you like to be involved in or arts events you continue to support?

Of course, I support theatre across Nebraska at the educational, community, and professional levels. I also have a passion for music as a vocalist and dabbling instrumentalist, and love to support local music performance and education. 

You are an advocate and proponent of how the arts helps us express who we are as individuals. Would you share how important it is to use the arts to express our diverse backgrounds and to share our individual stories? 

Art is an infinitely human way to express our inner experience outwardly. Each person has the capacity, and dare I say the duty, to create art that shows the world what it is like to have their singular life experience. In this way, we can take a step into another’s world. Artists who boldly thread their culture, lives, and experiences into their art allow us to truly know the injustices, joys, fears, pains, and freedoms that people of different races, genders, regions, and other backgrounds face. Art allows the lives that have been subdued into silence to be allowed to sing their creed again. It is a blessing for my inner artist to know yours.  

Please share anything else you would like about yourself.

I have grown to know what a great gift life is, surrounded by my exceedingly talented partner, the best theatre dog anyone could ask for, and a circle of incredible people as my family and friends. I am grateful to be able to foster advocacy and a respect for the arts with the board of Nebraskans for the Arts.