Biography

Most recently…

I’ve been zooming forward with work at the Second City Training Center (‘21-present), where I work and direct in the Writing, Improv, Conservatory/Grad Revue, and Acting programs. My big project has been the creation of my first short film, Honor the Governor’s Honor. It’s only a 12-minute short, but I’m the director and writer, as well as a co-executive producer. It’s taken me away from some of my theatre work, but I’m still active in the Chicago comedy scene and was the producer for BIO-DAD, a new audio play, with A Theater in the Dark. In 2023 I produced and directed a season of 3 original full-length audio plays through A Theater in the Dark, which has reached listeners in over 40 states and a dozen countries.

In 2022 I was the Production Manager for local Chicago gem A Red Orchid Theatre on its excellent 2022 production of THE MOORS, which won several Equity Jeff Awards, including “Best Production - Midsize.” This production was first Chicago theatre production of its size to open after the Covid shutdown occurred; partially because our team had been in prepared to enter rehearsals just as the the COVID pandemic struck, when I was also Assistant Directing for the Second City’s National Touring Company and directing with its prestigious Advanced Directing program.

In fall 2019, I produced and directed Three Stories Up // A Theater in the Dark, a noir mystery set entirely in the pitch black. Earlier in 2019, I’d completed a commission from the Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre to write, direct, and co-produce Murder! at The Strand II: Dark Matters (2019), an “interactive interdimensional murder-mystery” which placed the audience squarely in the role of Detective. Previously I’d received similar commissions from the historic art deco theatre to co-create Murder! at The Strand (2018), an 'immersive theatrical whodunit' involving twenty-two actors and all four floors of the Strand's beautiful art deco interior. The initial production of Murder! was so successful the Strand commissioned a remount only two months later.

During my three year “tenure” as a graduate student at the University of Southern Mississippi, I helmed mainstage USM productions, including my M.F.A. thesis production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, as well as smaller studio productions and department projects. During this same period of time I was twice an invited guest at the nation’s prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; first, as a 2015 SDC National Directing Fellow through the Kennedy Center American College Theatre National Festival, and then as an invited participant for its 2016 Summer Directing Intensive. On the academic front I took First Place (Arts & Humanities) for my dramaturgical presentation for Moby Dick Rehearsed in the 2016 Susan A. Siltanen Graduate Research Symposium, and received both the 2016 USM Emerging Artist Award and the 2017 USM Outstanding Graduate Student Award (Theatre) from the College of Arts & Letters.

Prior to graduate school, I was Co-Founder and Producing Artistic Director of The Collective Project Inc., a small professional ensemble dedicated to new play creation. Over five years the company successfully produced almost a dozen new plays (including both devised and scripted work) and helped cultivate Atlanta’s reputation as a growing arts hub through its successful partnering with midtown’s Goat Farm Arts Center. For my energy in new play development and theatre arts edcucation, I was awarded the 2013 Emerging Artist Award from the City of Atlanta's Office of Cultural Affairs.

Teaching Positions: The Second City Training Center, Kennesaw State University, University of Southern Mississippi, the Alliance Theatre, Stagedoor Manor, the Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre, and Atlanta Children's Theatre.

Associate Member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society (SDC).

Education

Master of Fine Arts, Directing (Theatre)--University of Southern Mississippi
Bachelor of Arts, Theatre & Performance Studies (Performance Concentration)--Kennesaw State University

Additional Training

Second City Training Center (Chicago), Alliance Theatre, Kennedy Center M.F.A. Playwright's Workshop, Kennedy Center Summer Directing Intensive, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Festival, Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre.