art.

artist statement + biography

I think of myself as a writer, musician, and theatremaker, in sort of strange and overlapping configurations. I am interested in work which demonstrates and imagines a different, radical kind of hope and care for humanity as a species, through the concrete lens of our individual and otherwise ordinary relationships, platonic, romantic, or otherwise. I think one of the greatest powers of storytelling is allowing other people to see themselves in our worlds, and I am particularly interested (perhaps selfishly) in the development of queer, Asian narratives and narratives about untraditional families.

In all my work, I think of myself primarily as a producer and curator of sounds, whether in the rhythm of dialogue I’m writing or the phrasings of a musical score I’m conducting. I am also a firm believer in the power of collaboration and of giving opportunities to new voices, having learned a lot from my collaborators and the overabundance of artistic opportunities I’ve been given in my time.

Originally from Rapid City, South Dakota, I attended MIT in Cambridge, MA, where I received my SB in Writing and Computer Science in 2023, and where my dual paths of writing and music finally collided in the world of theatre. I will be moving to the Seattle, WA area in August 2024.

You can find more detail about my work as a playwright here, more detail about my work as a musician here, and more information about my work as a writer and general theatremaker here.

accolades

At MIT, I received the Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Award for Student Art for outstanding contributions to the arts at MIT, with particular emphasis on work in music direction and arranging, poetry, and playwriting.

I also received the Alan Brody Prize for Excellence in Dramatic Writing from MIT’s Music and Theatre Arts Section, as well as the following prizes from MIT’s Writing Department for individual works:

• 1st Prize, Boit Manuscript Prize in Drama for Hold Me (But Not Too Close)
• 1st Prize, Boit Manuscript Prize in Essay for “Although Eventually You End Up Becoming Yourself”
• 3rd Prize, Boit Manuscript Prize in Poetry for “and then we all fell down again”