I’m an associate professor of theatre at Murray State University with a specialty in training acting, movement, and stage combat. Yes, stage combat: I’m a professional fight choreographer and performer, dealing with teaching stunt-style work for live theatre and swordfighting. I’m a professional actor and also direct regularly, and hope to see you at a Murray State theatre production soon! I grew up in a NASA family with Florida as my home, but have lived in Murray for around 10 years now. I’m also an obsessive home cook, constantly experimenting with food ideas, and discovered some time ago that making my online social media presence entirely positive (and mostly food-based) made me very happy, and also seems to have a small following as I careen through various kitchen adventures.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your family.
It’s a tight, smaller family, most of whom still live in Florida (which makes for a nice Christmas vacation getaway). In the last year, we discovered the joys of distant family dinner: we pick the same recipe and cook it together via FaceTime, so I can still share dinners once every other week or so with my mother and sister. We are a tight family with waaaaaaaaay more academic degrees between the three of us than are normal, but I’m most proud that my mother and I graduated college at around the same time.
Q: Please tell us about your current, past, or future career. What do you love most about what you do?
I’m a professor of theatre performance, and don’t plan on doing anything else for the rest of my life. I love theatre, I love performance, directing, and choreography, but mostly I love sparking that joy in students. Watching the excitement of a student when they really connect to a role they love, or find that they can do things they never thought they could, or even re-create the swordfight from Princess Bride? I live for that. Also…are you kidding? I’m a professional swordfighter! Doesn’t pay a ton, but that’s a GREAT job title.
Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
I’ve been a bit absent from restaurants over the last year for obvious reasons, but TAP 216, Big Apple, and Jasmine have been perennial favorites. Though honestly, I’m more likely to enjoy cooking experiments at home.
Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
Just shy of 10 years.
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?
I’ve made lots of friends, had wonderful colleagues, befriended alumni who I’ll be close to forever, and also met some extreme characters out socially, but my pick really has to be Lissa Graham-Schnieder. She’s a wonderful friend with a depth of experience and openness that’s a marvel to be around.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
Tough call. Easy answer is to go back to Florida to be with my family, and maybe finally take another trip to Disney World with them. Murray State gave me the chance to be a mentor for an abroad trip, and Dublin stole my heart and ran away with it. I’ve never been to New Zealand, though, and it calls to me for reasons I can’t explain. Oh, and is the moon an option? Mars? Or at least the space station? That one.
Q: What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
Ask a theatre professional this, and you’re sure to make their head explode, but I’ll try to reign myself in. Of course the Princess Bride is a masterpiece, but so is Clue, and the Three Amigos. So is Amelie, and Inside Out. In TV, I love the West Wing, Chuck, and also the original Japanese Iron Chef.
Q: What advice would you give to people?
Two things, neither of which I can take credit for coming up with but tell my students all the time. 1) If you have stress, it’s because there’s a question in your mind that needs to move to your lips. Ask it. 2) If money were no object, what would you do with the rest of your life? Now figure out how to make a living doing that, and you’ll live a fulfilled and happy life regardless of pay, because you’re not needing to buy things to be happy.
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
Get a pilots license and spend a summer as a bush pilot in Alaska.
Q: What is your go to band when you cant decide what to listen to?
It’s a broader genre: Lo-Fi Beats, a great selection of music channels on youtube that are perfect background music. If pressed for a band, Jump Little Children
Q: What current or former local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?
I was close to a lot of the crew from Lucky’s, and the various versions in that space before that.
Q: If you could choose anyone alive or dead today and not a relative; with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? And where locally would y’all meet for this lunch?
Anthony Bourdain, but we’d have dinner at my place where he could teach me a thing or two, and THEN we’d hit TAP 216 for a lot of drinks. I wouldn’t inflict Bourdain on a restaurant I care about here as a dinner guest.
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community?
There’s a family feeling to the community. Yes, we can get into some great arguments (especially over politics), but what group to you argue more with than family? In the end, it’s a caring small community.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
My grandmother has a saying: don’t try to anticipate more than 2 years into the future, because you really can’t predict beyond that, and THAT’S if your lucky (hello, 2020). So I don’t really know. I will always want to teach theatre and performance, and might see myself moving up to administrative capacities at some point, but if you want to pry me away from teaching, bring more than a coupla guys, and remember, I’m a professional swordfighter.
Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
I played chess professionally in high school, and one summer I actually made more money in tournaments that I did in the summer job.
Q: What is the most beautiful place you have ever been?
Toss up, because it’s for wildly different reasons: Disney World (and I have a VERY soft spot for EPCOT), and Glendalough, Ireland, maybe the most peaceful and gorgeous natural environment I’ve ever experienced
Q: Favorite month? favorite holiday? and best single day on the calendar?
I’ve got a real soft spot for Christmas as a season, months with snow as a ‘month’, and April 25th is a personal holiday for reasons too long to explain, but goes back 20+ years
Q: What would you rate a 10 out of 10?
The Princess Bride. That, and the experience of a friend trying your cooking and loving it.
Q: Who inspires you to be better?
My mother. We graduated college the same year, and I grew up watching her go from a secretary to a minor position in a bank and up to a senior VP at a major international bank, all through grit, ethics, and intelligence, all while being kind, generous, and moral.
Q: What is one or two of your favorite smells?
Ok, this one is a mixed answer, but important: Pipe Tobacco. My grandfather and I built model rockets and planes when I was a kid (he was a NASA engineer), and he always smoked a pipe. I quit smoking years ago, but the smell of pipe tobacco will bring a tear to my eye. That Whisky/Tobacco candle I found is heartache and nostalgia in a scent. Ok, I ALSO have a candle scented with the bromine water of Disney World water rides, so that too.
Q: Finally, what 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
Mom, Florida, Christmas
