Portfolio

As a kid playing at the shore, I loved watching my hand press through the wall of the water just before the wave would hammer down on my head, churn me and my limbs, and drag us across the rough sandy floor. In performance, I found a practice that taps into this same sense of immersive roil, that wrestles with the tangle of elemental relationships that I experience in my body.

As a theater-maker, I found a home in the practice of ensemble co-creation. From 2014-2022 I created work as one of the artistic directors of the Wender Collective in Chicago, formerly known as Walkabout Theater Company. I directed a series of original indoor touring performances, outdoor spectacles, and public performance training programs. I was also a performer with the company. Our work was recognized for its multilayered and surreal imagery, daring physical action, and musicality. My strength was in building a rich theatrical language and meaning in our co-presence.

Speaking of a show I directed in 2018, the Chicago Reader said, “The Brink makes fierce poetic sense of love, loss, and media. The physicality of the thing is gorgeous and exhilarating.” This was the kind of experience I was looking to create in performance. For me the show felt like waves crashing.

Below you will find more reviews and info about three of my directing projects at Walkabout Theater. In Outdoor Phenomena, I include highlights of some of the outdoor works I directed with the company in partnership with the Chicago Parks District. In Directing, I include additional projects including productions at Trap Door, Red Tape, and with the MFA students at Columbia College Chicago. And in Performance, I include my recent acting highlights and upcoming projects.