Equity. Imagination. Joy.

These were the three values that we as an ensemble would live in. Marya Sea Kaminski, the director of the Seattle Public Works Odyssey, would call upon these values every day and she led by example.

When Marya first brought me into this project, I had no idea what it was, though I had vague recollections of what she had mentioned to me in passing while stage-managing Iphigenia and Other Daughters at the UW. I distinctly remember her saying that it was “a massive project that requires a lot of heart.”

Flash forward to about a year later, I joined the project and I was thrown into the most intense stage-managing experience of my life.

It sounds like an easy out - but I really didn’t have any specific expectations coming into the project. All I knew was that Marya was our captain and that I was going to be interacting with a room full of 125 people who may or may not have acted before, let alone on a professional...

After graduating this June, I will be moving to Chicago to start my new life as a comedian, improviser, and writer. I’ve known for a very long time that I’ve wanted to be a comedian, and so when I had to pick my topic for my thesis for Comparative History of Ideas major, the choice was obvious. I wanted to learn the ins and outs of political satire, the ups and downs, how it affected audience members and how has changed throughout time. Then, the ambitious side of me kicked in, and I remembered my other major. Not only did I want to research and write about my findings as a paper, I wanted to write a play in which I could develop my own audience relationship. I wanted to hone all of the skills I acquired and solidified at UW into one massive research project that produced two separate products: a 35 page research paper acting as my CHID thesis and a 40 minute play written, performed, and directed by myself as my Drama Capstone. The project started as me developing my own story as a...

Before graduating with her BA from the School of Drama back in 2012, Shaudi took full advantage of her time at UW. Along with acting in several UTS production, Shaudi was the creator of Feast Your Ears, a curated night of musical performances that benefited Northwest Harvest, and directed Working, The Musical in her senior year. Since graduating she has performed with companies like Washington Ensemble Theatre and Book-It Repertory Theatre among others, and is also a founding member of The Horse in Motion. Through her projects with The Horse in Motion, she has learned the delicate balance between being an actor and a producer at the same time. 

How did you get involved with The Horse in Motion? 

SV: About a year or so after I graduated from UW, one of my former classmates, Mary Hubert, got in touch saying there was a cool script that a...

In spring of 2008, Jessica Martin was getting ready to graduate with her Bachelor’s Degree from the School of Drama. But before she left the halls of Hutchinson, she wanted to try her hand at one more thing: producing. She spent her last couple of months in undergrad organizing, rehearsing, and performing a one-woman show in collaboration with peers and faculty at the School of Drama. Now, almost ten years later, Jessica is in the processes of writing, directing, producing, and acting in her first feature film. We asked Jessica a couple of questions about her upcoming project, Abby and Tabby: Alone in the Desert, and her journey as an artist and entrepreneur. 

BR: Can you tell us a little bit about the story of Abby and Tabby: Alone in the Desert? 

JM: At its heart, it is a story about the power of female friendship. It's also a weird little comedy. The film starts with Abby on the road escaping her abusive...