I grew up in Cut Bank, MT – a small town on the Hi-Line where once a year, a Little Red Truck rolled through town, giving us theatrical kids the best week of the year. My very first theatre experience was as a flower in the Missoula Children’s Theatre show Hans Christian Andersen at the age of 5. Every year after that, I looked forward to the week that the tour actors would come to town.
I performed in the MCT tour for nine years in my hometown. I was also active in every form of art or music I could get my hands on growing up – choir, band, piano lessons, speech and drama, thespian festival, dance, cheerleading, church music. I went to college and grad school in Missoula at the University of Montana, where I was able to combine all of my theatre and music passions into music directing for musical theatre. Once I found that path, I was hooked. I music directed at the University, MCT, summer theatres all over Montana, and became an adjunct professor of Musical Theatre at U of M. I met my husband Scoob at U of M and convinced him to try out for his first musical—a community show at MCT and I got him hooked too!
Since 2017, Scoob and I have been traveling as touring performers with our dog Murphy, who also graced the MCT stage as Willoughby in Mary Poppins and Toto in The Wizard of Oz. So far, we’ve worked on four national tours together: The Wizard of Oz, Anastasia, Hairspray, and currently Six. We’ve toured in the USA, Canada, China, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. I never imagined growing up in northern Montana that I’d be doing what I’m doing today – traveling and performing for thousands of people every night onstage. I credit so much of my success to what I learned while doing theatre in Montana – all the way back to that first show with the Missoula Children’s Theatre at five years old. The Montana arts community is small but has a wide reach in the industry. We work hard. We support each other. We jump at every opportunity that comes our way. We are tough, but we are kind. I’m proud to be an artist from Montana!