Theater helped me escape my life in West Virginia, where I was the quiet girl in the back of the classroom reading books bigger than my own head. It brought me to New York City where I met my husband and had two of our four children. Being an actor provided me with an opportunity to try on other lives and challenged me in a way nothing ever had before. What's harder than revealing your emotions authentically in front of an audience … and sometimes doing so in old English? Well, I’ve learned opening a theatre during a global pandemic certainly is.
I studied classical acting first at Rutgers University and continued to study in various studios in New York. After living and loving the life of a struggling artist, I decided to “retire” from acting and focus on family. After a 15-year hiatus, four kids, and three moves I landed in lovely Milwaukee, and it was time to rejoin the world of performance. Fifteen years changed the roles available to me, finding myself not old enough to play a hag and not young enough to be the love interest. My first role back was in an all-female Macbeth, and I was so grateful to be back. I looked for as many opportunities as I could and was lucky enough to perform in a number of shows around the city. Then Covid hit.
I saw so many small theaters shut down and I couldn’t stop thinking about the 15 years I was not performing and how it had impacted me. I had to do something to ensure local actors, directors, designers, and playwrights had somewhere to showcase and express their artistic selves, and Sunstone Studios was the result. We wanted to ensure there will always be accessible theater in Milwaukee and that meant looking at the ways certain communities have been historically excluded from theatre, both in the stories told and the opportunities offered, on and off the stage. Over the past two seasons, intentional diversity drives the decision-making at Sunstone Studios. Equity in all aspects of theater creates better art.
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Running a business and being a mom doesn’t leave me with a lot of free time to pursue my own acting, however, the wonderful art created at Sunstone Studios makes it so worth it. Come soon and see for yourself.
“Whirligig of Time” by Rick Bingen, directed by Tim Kietzman at Sunstone Studios MKE, February 3th-18th, 2023
Visit: Sunstone Studios MKE
Photo Credit: Erol Reyal
