Get to know me!
Let’s start at the very beginning…
When I was three years old
I had so much energy my mother didn’t know what to do with me.
She put me in every activity a 3 yr old could be in, and all that energy funneled into the arts. Not surprising, considering I would immediately pose whenever the family camcorder was pulled out. My freshman year of high school, Brach Thomson asked me to choreograph one of the Bigfork Summer Playhouse children’s theatre’s musicals. Choreography became my passion.
I attended Pacific University in Oregon where I “made my own musical theatre program” by graduating with a degree in Vocal Performance and minors in dance and theatre. I directed, choreographed, and performed in my senior capstone. Titled Bach to Broadway, it was a Cabaret Review of Golden Era songs that I hand selected and arranged for a live jazz small ensemble, 10 dancers, and 14 other vocalists.
Two of my favorite musical theatre roles have been The Baker’s Wife in Pacific University’s Into the Woods and Mona in Chicago. My straight play favorite was the role of Gwendolyn in The Importance of being Ernest. Notable choreography credits include Cinderella and A Christmas Story in Chicagoland, Shrek: The Musical and 25th… Spelling Bee among others, and assistant choreographing Elf at Lakewood Theatre in Oregon. I have toured Ireland with my choir and performed the Faure Requiem at Carnegie Hall in New York City. You can find me behind the camera (and on the internet or select cosmetic stores) modeling for the international AboutFace Beauty products or the barefoot minimalist shoe Feet Sutra. I’ve been spotted on screen in the award winning short dance film Alice in Nite Hawk and the Craft Servicing OLCC educational videos. During The Plague, I produced, wrote, and performed my one-woman show Examining in collaboration with From the Ground Up.
While I grew up heavily involved in the children’s theatre and its show choirs, I didn’t realize one could actually go to college for musical theatre. So at Pacific University I decided to get a degree in something sensible, like business. Well… that didn’t work out. So, music education! After a while I couldn’t take it anymore and I decided to pursue what I had always love and what my life had always been calling me towards. While I don’t have an education degree, I still have a passion for passing the arts to future generations and have taught youth theatre and dance classes.
In general, I have a large ambition and a huge personality, which some HAVE described as larger than life. Well, “larger than life” is the perfect thing for musical theatre! I don’t believe that musical theatre performers need to be labeled as a “singer” or “dancer” or “actor” first. I am a triple threat, but first and foremost, I am a storyteller with various mediums. I am a performing artist.
And when I’m not? You’ll find me outdoors in some shape or form - hiking, skiing, paddle boarding, or losing myself in the pages of a different world under the shade of a tree where you know I’ll be petting every dog that walks by. But now that I’m in Chicago, I’m going to explore all the coffee, ice cream, and craft cocktails this city has to offer.
