The goal of my work is to remind everyone that

theatre is an event.

I believe theatre requires only three things: something to say, someone to say it, and someone to say it to.

This principle has guided my work as a director, educator, producer, researcher, and arts leader for nearly two decades. Whether teaching theatre history, directing immersive performances, developing new adaptations, or researching emerging forms, I consistently return to one question: What transforms a gathering into a theatrical event?

Born and raised in Missouri, I began my career at Missouri State University, where I earned a B.S.Ed. in Speech and Theatre Education and founded Springfield 2nd Stage, a 150-seat black-box theatre. Since then, my work has taken me across the country—from founding The Factory Theatre in Portland while earning an MFA in Directing at the University of Portland, to completing a second MFA in Theatre Management at Wayne State University, to leadership positions with Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Film, and other arts organizations throughout the Midwest.

Throughout that journey, I have become increasingly interested in expanding how we define theatre. I do not view theatre primarily as a building, a genre of entertainment, or even a collection of artistic techniques. Instead, I see it as an event: a temporary encounter between people, space, ideas, and attention. At its most powerful, theatre creates a heightened awareness of presence—an opportunity for participants to engage with one another in ways that are instinctive, emotional, and intellectual.

This perspective informs both my creative work and my scholarship. I am particularly interested in immersive, interactive, and participatory forms of storytelling that challenge conventional distinctions between performer and audience. My work explores how theatrical experiences can cultivate investment, curiosity, and agency, transforming spectators from observers into active participants in the construction of meaning.

Currently, I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My research, which I describe as Theatre Without Walls, investigates how performance can exist beyond traditional theatrical structures while maintaining the qualities that make live events uniquely powerful. Drawing from immersive theatre, environmental performance, participatory traditions, and audience studies, I explore how theatre can adapt to changing cultural conditions while preserving its essential function as a shared experience.

As an educator, I embrace the role of a theatre generalist. My teaching spans directing, performance studies, theatre history, dramatic literature, arts management, and contemporary performance practices. Rather than treating these disciplines as separate areas of study, I encourage students to understand theatre as an interconnected system of artistic, social, and cultural relationships. Above all, I want students to recognize that theatre is not simply something we make—it is a way of seeing the world.

Across all of my work, I am drawn to moments when audiences become deeply invested in an experience. Not because a fourth wall has been broken or because participation has been required, but because the event itself has created a sense of shared purpose and possibility. Those moments—when space, story, performer, and audience align—remain the reason I continue to make, study, and teach theatre.