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Growing up just outside of New York City, I was lucky to have early exposure to the arts. At my first Broadway show at age 6, I turned to my parents and told them that's what I was going to be when I grew up: one of the people up there on stage. Theatre bug caught!
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I started working toward that dream and broke into the NYC theatre scene, getting to perform at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Signature Theatre, Theatre Row, and on national TV. Bounding through school during the day and darting to my call time in NYC as soon as the bell rang, I was living the life of my dreams.
As I shuttled between suburban sidewalks and city streets, I found the dreams I had settled on so early on were expanding. I knew with increasing certainty that the Broadway stage was the goal that lit my heart ablaze, but also found myself mesmerized with the science of the mind. At 15 I began conducting independent neuroscience research, and became fascinated with the intersection of science and the arts. As I originated roles Off-Broadway, starred in regional shows, and headed my own research, I began to recognize that my art was my science and my science was my art -- and that all of it together was what made me me.
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This belief was the backbone of my college education at Penn State, where I graduated with a 4.0 as the only student in their musical theatre program to ever earn a double major. During my time at Penn State I was fortunate to perform in several mainstage musicals such as Brigadoon (Fiona) and A Chorus Line (Maggie), work on many devised and new works, study theatre abroad in London and Ireland, and even become the voice of Penn State singing the Alma Mater in a national commercial that aired primetime on ABC-TV and has earned over 2 million views online.
While at Penn State I was incredibly lucky to get to dive into my interdisciplinary passions, developing my skills as a playwright and director and producing 4 original plays, starting my career as a songwriter (more about my music & plays under the 'writing' tab!), and truly merging my scientific and artistic passions through an interdisciplinary honors thesis between my musical theatre and psychology degrees in which I wrote, directed, and produced an original play called Lonely Together and ran a concurrent psychological study looking at emotional responses in audience members through my position as a researcher in the Penn State Empathy and Moral Psychology Lab (more info under 'research'!).
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In the year since graduating I’ve been having a blast continuing to follow my passions for theatre and science, performing professionally in New York City and regionally (returning to performing in favorite venues such as Lincoln Center and Theatre Row, and getting to perform for the first time in spaces such as Playwrights Horizons and Culture Lab), working as a performer and artistic associate with the science-theatre company Transforma Theatre, and as a researcher and writer in the University of Chicago’s STAGE (Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration) Lab.
This post-grad year has also brought with it several touring opportunities — first working on a touring Off-Broadway production with Keen Company, then traveling NYC with Only Make Believe performing interactive plays for kids in hospitals, and now preparing to travel the country as the lead in the national tour of the new American Girl musical.
I'm beyond honored and grateful to be telling stories and living out my dreams; these days I find I'm just as giddy as the 6-year-old who yearned to be among the twinkling lights of the Broadway stage.
I'm beyond honored and grateful to be telling stories and living out my dreams; these days I find I'm just as giddy as the 6-year-old who yearned to be among the twinkling lights of the Broadway stage.