early experience & training
Growing up in Ohio, I wanted to be an actress from as young an age as I can remember. At 13, I wrote a letter to a well-known director of a popular TV show, and suggested he write me into his series. (!!??) Incredulously, he wrote back, advising me to get an education in theatre arts.
I attended Ohio University's School of Theatre for two years, and then transferred to The California Institute of the Arts for my BFA.
After graduating, I worked in commercials, industrials, and got my SAG card playing a secretary on television's Trapper John, MD, directed by....(yes!)... my director pen-pal, the late great Earl Bellamy.
Later that year, I got my Equity card playing Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream with the amazing Ellen Geer. Though I was thrilled, I felt way out of my element. Luckily, I was cast in another Shakespeare play soon after, and then another...and with the chance to keep jumping back into more of this material, I started to develop some technique. One day I realized that I was acting on the line, and that the language felt integrated with my voice and body. The structure of the language that I had resisted, suddenly felt expansive. I was hooked.
I returned to get my MFA many years later at George Washington University and The Shakespeare Theatre's Academy for Classical Acting in Washington DC. I remain hooked.