I’m a geek. Star Wars, One Piece, Lord of the Rings; comics, anime, movies. I love all of it. Give me something to obsess over and chances are I’ll love it for the rest of my life. Seriously, I have the Jedi crest tattooed on my left shoulder.

But, my first obsession—and the one that brought me here—was theatre. After my friend spent the entirety of our seventh grade year trying to get me into musicals, I finally caved and listened to Hamilton, and oh boy did the flood gates burst from there. Every idle moment of my day got filled with musical theatre, and cast recordings were the only thing I ever listened to. Eventually, right before starting ninth grade, I broke onto the stage in the leading role of “Male Ensemble and Altar Boy” in my middle school’s production of Sister Act, and I haven’t looked back since.

I performed throughout high school, and while I always loved being on the stage, I began to discover all the other ways I could create theatre: designing and building sets, helping in the lighting booth, even managing my high school’s open-mic nights. Eventually, I discovered my love of writing, and even produced and directed a self-written play at the end of my junior year. Then, my first semester at Penn State University, I discovered dramaturgy. And everything changed.

Suddenly, my geeky, obsessive personality had a purpose beyond memorizing random facts about niche characters from my favorite television show. I was able to spend hours diving into a hyper-specific research topic and have it actually mean something. And to make it even better: I could use this to help others love theatre just as much as I do…