Major(s): Science in Society, Theater
What is your current role? What was your journey in arriving there?
I am currently the Associate Producer at Soho Rep, an Off-Broadway theater in NYC. I began my career in theater at Wesleyan where I cultivated a vocabulary for the work and practice I want to build. During my time at undergrad, my extra-curricular time was dominated by the art scene. In the summer of my Junior to Senior year, I did internships at theaters in Minneapolis. After graduating, I found myself back home at a New York Stage and Film for the summer, and then I headed off to Baltimore to work at Center Stage. A little thing called a pandemic put a pause on in-person work after I moved to NYC to work at Theatre Communications Group, but this remote time offer me the opportunity to build a consulting practice that keeps me engaged with theaters nationwide. When the world began to open again, I found myself here at Soho Rep where I hope to keep building my community for some time.
What do you enjoy about your work? What do you struggle with?
The joy of my work is in its material impacts – It brings me great pleasure to shepherd stories by artists who are creating deeply interrogative work with a lens on civic community. My job is to make sure that their artistic and material needs are met, and I take great pride in my labor as an advocate. It’s nourishing to be in a workplace that is interested in experimenting through processes to keep raising the bar for levels of care in creation. I struggle with time! There’s never enough of it, and this industry can burn you out fast. I’m working on radical rest-making for myself and for everyone who makes the work.
Do you have any advice for students thinking about entering your industry?
My advice is don’t do it for fame, do it cause you believe in the cultural impact of the arts sector. If you don’t want to be a force for microcosmic change as the stories are told, please put your energy somewhere else.
How did your time at Wesleyan influence your career choice/journey?
I figured out what I had a passion for at Wesleyan. The classroom gave me the vocabulary and theory to think about how I wanted to work and move in the world. The activity outside of class gave me a chance to put those values to practice. I spent most of my time producing work through Second Stage, the student-run theater company, and the successes, failures, frustrations, and traumas I endured as a low-income student of color in the space made me realize that I wanted to dedicate my career to the careful creation of stories that support community change.
Updated as of September 29th, 2023
