STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

            When I performed in my first play at the age of 12, I did not know I was joining a lifelong, complex, collaborative, and magical artform. Over the past 9 years, as I have grown in my knowledge of theatre, I have also fallen deeper and deeper in love. Theatre is, to me, the greatest work of art that artists can create because of its collaborative nature. No play exists in a vacuum; even if a work is self-authored, self-designed, and self-acted, it must be shared with an audience to be fully brought to life. Theatre insists on being shared and given, and a director nourishes this relationship.

            One of the main ways I seek to do this is to express my creative interpretation of a play while honoring the playwright’s original vision for their work. David Ball writes that actors must be analytic readers who “illuminate, not violate, the script.” I believe this is even more true of directors because it is they who guide and oversee the entire work. Directors choose what lens, metaphor, or approach they will use for each script they direct, but to be a truly collaborative artwork, each artist must be respected and supported.

            As a director, I am drawn to plays that question or challenge ideals, philosophies, or social constructs. While I find value in plays that are solely for entertainment purposes, I find productions that push their audiences just as much as they do their actors more personally fulfilling. Theatre is an artform that literally transcends time and place. My directing purpose is to bring these times and places to life in an environment that allows actors and audience members to be vulnerable and question their own perspectives.

            Ultimately, I strive to guide the creation of productions from which audiences will leave feeling they have been a witness to, or even a part of, a work of art. This artwork may not always be beautiful in the traditional sense, as sometimes theatre reveals the ugliest parts of humanity, but it is moving and meaningful nonetheless. I want to create theatre full of purpose, theatre that does more than entertain but also challenges, enraptures, and inspires. I know that to do this requires hard work and dedication. John Steinbeck writes, “The theater is the only institution in the world which has been dying for four thousand years and has never succumbed. It requires tough and devoted people to keep it alive.” I am one of those people.