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I have been making theatre for as long as I can remember. From playing with stuffed animals with my mom or grandma to building and creating vast stories in my imagination to acting and designing in high school, all the way to studying theatre-making at the collegiate level at the University of Texas at Austin. There are lots of things that make up who I am as an artist and individual. My culture is something that shapes who I am as a person and who I currently am as an artist. One thing that has really affected who I am is my time spent growing up overseas. In the second grade, my family moved to Hannover, Germany, then in my fourth-grade year, we moved to Doha, Qatar and back to Houston (where I was born) for my freshman year of high school. The experiences I had living and traveling the world are my most valuable. A very relevant component of my identity is as a third-culture kid. I didn't spend my developing years in the country that my parents are from and therefore have a fluid sense of “home." I value interacting with those with different life experiences than me, independence, new knowledge, new viewpoints, and a broad worldview. Music and choir have subtly influenced me since early grade school. I say subtle because even now after being in some form of choir for over eight years, I struggle to consider myself a musician. However, music is very important to me and I am passionate about it. In my practice of performance, learning, and everyday life, I am in the habit of asking lots of questions. When acting I will ask questions about my character or the script, in my everyday life I might ask questions about my own thoughts and feelings, and in learning, I find myself asking lots of questions pertaining to experiences that other people have. I find that I ask lots of questions and that I enjoy learning new things about people and the world. In working with me you will learn that I have a strong sense of self, an unquenchable curiosity, a vocabulary of honesty, a passion for communication, a make-it-happen attitude, and an inclination towards optimism.

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Collaboration is something I have come to truly see and value as an artist. I think collaboration is so so so important. It allows for completely original art to be made that can, not only reflect the heart and soul of one person but be a window into many hearts and souls as well as creative energy that is unique to time and setting. To me, it matters because who are we if not social creatures, as humans and artists we have the ability to create amazing things. In my experience, there is so much joy in finding people you connect with creatively. Flow happens and time melts and not only can it be an incredible artistic experience, but I've found that it can also build friendship and connection. Humans are social by nature and building relationships and connections bring light, color, and joy into life, especially into art. That is not to say that art must only be collaborative but even solo projects heavily involve others to come to life. In my work I strive to find collaborators I click with. A piece of text that has resonated with me is Kirk Lynn’s Thoughts on Collaboration. Lynn outlines his profound, shocking, and sometimes blunt ideas about working with others in this text. Some take a bit of exploration and thought to comprehend and they can all have different meanings to different people. I have tried to incorporate some of these thoughts into my various collaborations of late and have absolutely seen growth in myself and how I view working with others. It has allowed me to go with the flow, trust my collaborators extensively, and lean into our collaborative outcome. Overall I truly enjoy working with people and finding those special people that inspire my best work and the most magical collaborative environment.

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Numbers 6, 18, 26, 28, 29, and 30 move me.

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Very recently in my artistic journey, I have been exposed to many different and interesting new pieces of thought, art, and media. For example, Abstract: Christoph Niemann on Netflix, Manuel Cinema a performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company based in Chicago, IL, Thoughts on Collaboration by Kirk Lynn, Artist Soapbox: Collaboration podcast, Pillars of Intimacy, Far Away by Caryl Churchill, as well as recent exposure to psychological horror in tv, movies, and plays. I have taken away something meaningful from these pieces of thought art and media. Some things that stuck with me are the fact that Christoph Niemann refused to show the camera any of his “ordinary” life and his thoughts on the abstract, how in Far Away the reader didn't ever have flat-out answers and was left to figure out the story and meaning for themselves, and in Manuel Cinema just the intense artistry that goes into creating the mind-blowing pieces of art and theatre. I have been captured by the genre of psychological horror and am actively looking for more chances to explore that form of art and theatre. I have only had the opportunity to dip my toes into the genre and found joy, fun, and fulfillment in the creative expression of horror. I am drawn to the unknown in the genre and the inclination of the reader or watcher to lean in and be curious. Also, I have found as a consumer of that art form it is so fulfilling to get answers to my burning questions but it can also be just as fulfilling to be forced to come to my own conclusions. All of these things now live with me as an artist and I use them consciously and subconsciously in my work to create art in the classroom and everyday life.

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My character Christie McAlister in the horror play Squid Kid by Ben Cervantes 