After Lewis & Clark
Majoring or minoring in theatre and dance at Lewis & Clark opens up many different paths for future work or employment. We want our students to go in whatever direction and however far their imaginations, their training, and their talents might take them.
Former students have gone on to study acting or playwriting in graduate school, pursue a PhD in theatre or go to law school. Others have become professional actors, designers, stage managers, teachers, dancers, and arts administrators. Some have even found their own theatre companies in Portland and beyond!
We are true to our liberal arts environment: we’re interested in broadly educating our students, inculcating habits of critical thought and life-long learning, and creating opportunities for experiential learning and leadership. Our outlook and the habits of mind we foster prepare our students for the future, but not a future narrowly defined. Our outlook and the habits of mind we foster prepare our students for the future, but not a future narrowly defined.
1976
- Jay Johnson - Retired in 2010 after teaching high school English, forensics, and drama in the Reynolds School District in 1976, earning an MAT in 1979, and subsequently teaching in Minnesota, Iowa, and Oklahoma.
1984
- Ted Rooney - Currently resides in Portland (after many years in LA) Ted is teaching and coaching new and seasoned actors out of his own studio space, as well as teaching on-camera acting at Portland State University. Ted has an extensive portfolio including TV, film and on Stage both locally and nationally. https://www.tedrooney.com/about
1985
- Lisa Mount - facilitates audience engagement and community development as the Director of Artistic Logistics. Artistic Logistics is a cooperative of independent consultants who provide a variety of services to arts organizations in urban and rural areas throughout the U.S.A. Led by Lisa Mount and based in Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia (one of the “100 Best Small Art Towns in America”), Artistic Logistics offers a working relationship that’s personal, participatory, egalitarian, artist-centered, and fun.
1987
- Phil Lowery - a free-lance stage director, actor, production/stage manager, and theatre educator. He was the Founding Artistic Director of Berkeley Contemporary Opera, where he directed his first Candide (the 1974 version) in 1993, and he has been directing opera and operetta in the Bay Area ever since, with companies like Lamplighters Music Theatre (where he is production coordinator), Pocket Opera, Berkeley Opera, Composers Inc., North Bay Opera, San Francisco Parlor Opera, and Lyric Theatre of San Jose. Phil is a Resident Artist with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and by day he teaches Middle School Theatre for Children’s Day School in San Francisco.
1988
- Mark Woollett - Artistic Director, Actor, and Director with Advice To The Players. Previously directed four professional/community/youth productions. Planned and hired staff for three seasons. Guided marketing efforts, including web design, social media, etc. Director and mentor for 2-week Shakespeare camps. Currently the finance assistant for The Barrow Group Theatre Company & School, and administrative assistant at Rockafeller University in NYC.
1991
- Michael Healy - Became an attorney with Wagner, Falconer, & Judd, Ltd. in St. Paul, MN (“after spending more than ten years on stage primarily in NYC and Minneapolis”).
1992
- Laura VanZee - owner of Laura VanZee Film & Video, LLC, Laura has produced entertainment and marketing video content for artists, social media and corporations. debut feature, I AM MARIS, was acquired by NETFLIX and streamed from April 2019-April 2021. It is distributed globally, domestically, and on the educational market by Oscar-winning RO*CO FILMS and can now be viewed on APPLE TV and AMAZON PRIME. After the Netflix premiere, the film was licensed by LULULEMON ATHLETICA for a 5-city theatrical tour and speaker series. https://www.lauravanzee.com/
1993
- Andrew Lieberman - Associate Arts Professor and Head of Set Design at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts from 2008-2019. Andrew is an American designer, based in Paris, whose opera and theater designs have been seen throughout the world. https://andrewlieberman.zenfolio.com/about.html
1996
- Andrea Stubbs - Cardiac nurse at Emanuel Hospital in Portland.
- Ever Carradine - An American actress known for her roles as Tiffany Porter and Kelly Ludlow on the ABC television series Once and Again and Commander in Chief, respectively and as Naomi Putnam and Janet Stein on the Hulu original series The Handmaid’s Tale and Runaways, respectively.
2002
- Willow McCormick - All School Equity Coach at the Oregon Episcopal School and an ensemble member at Curious Comedy Theater (improv)
2003
- Zackary Ross - Associate Professor of Theatre at Bellarmine University in Lousiville, Kentucky. In addition to teaching a variety of theatre courses (History, Literature, acting/directing/dramaturgy) I regularly direct productions and have also begun to work as a fight director.
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Katy Alexander - Middle School Special Education Teacher and the advisor for the drama club a few years ago. Now I get my creativity out in writing!
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Katrina Thatcher - Counselor and Play Therapist
- Eric Sammons - Associate Producer and Director of Production for Prague Shakespeare Company.
2004
- Kotaro Kawashima - 1st Assistant to Mario Sorrenti. Currently working on a collaboration with Tiffany & Co and Yoann Bourgeois.
- Usman Ally has starred in theatre premieres around the country, including an adaptation of Disney’s The Jungle Book, Disgraced, and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. Television credits include Damages, BOSS, and Madam Secretary. He is the recipient of an Obie Award—the off-Broadway equivalent of the Tony Awards— for his performance in the play The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar. He was most recently seen as the Hook-Handed Man in the new and highly-anticipated Netflix program, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
2006
- Glenn Fujimura - Architectural Lighting Designer with Luma Lighting Design.
- Pondie Taylor - A teacher in St. Paul, MN. on two theater boards in the Twin Cities. History Theatre and Steppingstone Theater.
- Nicole Seeley - Currently taking classes in sketch writing and stand-up at Portland’s Curious Comedy Theatre, along with performing in her own improv troupe.
2007
- Herman Watson - A trial Lawyer in Bozeman, MT
- Jason Robertson - Self-employed writer, investor, and sometimes clerk at a bookshop in Seattle, WA
- Kestryl Cael Lowrey Earned a Master in Performance Studies from NYU and now resides in Brooklyn, from where he writes and performs full-length solo pieces ( XY(T), 348, Radclyffe) in theaters and other venues across North America. His work has been published by Indie Theatre Now. Most recently, he was commissioned by Baltimore’s Centerstage Theatre to contribute a monologue for their MY AMERICA project.
2008
- Abigail Kurfman - Online middle school math teacher.
- Leslie Lura-Smith - Lighting Designer in NYC. Working as a lighting designer primarily in theatre and dance, as well as display windows for Ralph Lauren and assisted on the Tiffany & Co. displays. I also teach the Stagecraft (and lighting design) class at Juilliard Dance. You can see my portfolio at: leslielurasmith.com
2009
- Anna Crandal - High School English Teacher in Portland, OR. Also directs plays with students at the school.
2010
- Virginia Loomis - Parenting two children while planning and aspiring to pursue a career that supports abuse survivors and their families.
- Sylvia Battram - Professional kid wrangler (aka mom), flower farmer, and Co-owner of Circus Cascadia. Follow @sunshinecreekfarm on IG
- Alexandra Ramirez - Continuing to build her acting career locally, she recently seen in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at Portland Playhouse (where she spent the 2011-12 season in an acting apprenticeship). She has also performed with other local companies ( The Peter Pan Project with The Working Theatre Collective, Tis Pity She’s a Whore with Compass Repertory Theatre, Children’s Games with The Mouth Theatre, Songbird - an original one-woman show - premiered at The1Festival, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Post 5 Theatre) and will soon be seen at Milagro Theatre’s Dance for a Dollar.
2011
- Rachel Cole-Wilkin - Tour guiding, Photography, Morris dancing, Occasional theatre. “Creative professional” on my tax returns and “professional eccentric” on my business cards. Lives in London, England. @rachelcolewilkin on IG
- Annie Fassler - I co-own a small podcast production company called Puddle Creative. I primarily produce a podcast for REI Co-op.
- Grace Wedgwood - I now teach high school Spanish and coach new teachers in a school in South Seattle.
- Petra Lamberson - in a PhD program at UC Berkeley in South Asian Studies (Sanskrit & Buddhist Studies)
- Rohaan Mehta - I have my own Psychotherapy Private Practice in Mumbai, India
2012
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Louise Trueheart - I’ve lived in Berlin since 2013 and work as a freelance dancer, writer, and curator. I am also part of a queer feminist collective called COVEN BERLIN, and I edit and run our online magazine. At the moment I am working on a text through which I am trying to explore how belief operates in the body and in the world. What kind of an inner movement is a leap of faith? How is belief coopted by market forces?
- Nikima Jagudajev - I work as a choreographer and a writer, devoted to dance and activism. I recently had my first solo exhibition at the Bergen Kunsthall in Norway titled Basically and I am currently writing a story called The Backstreet Boys, named after my group of ten friends from college that I continue to move through life with, mostly virtually, sometimes irl. Trueheart is one of these ‘forever soul friends’. The story focuses on kinship and mothering; kinship as an antithesis to the institutionalization of family, pedagogy and identity, and mothering as an un-gendered political practice; a social responsibility towards the future of this planet.
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Kemi Coutinho - Forbes Africa 30 under 30 recipient, Kemiyondo Coutinho has been writing and acting for the African woman since age 17. She graduated with an MFA in Acting from The American Conservatory Theater but still vehemently pursued her writing and content creation through her production company Kemistry Klass. She is the inaugural recipient of John Singleton’s Filmmaker’s Fellowship and other Awards and Honors include Kevin hart’s Laugh Out Loud filmmaking fellowship Shadow & Act Rising Star Award & OKAYAfrica100 Women of Africa to watch. In the spirit of promoting Ugandan Female Filmmakers, she started the initiative #fivefor5 which gave a grant to five Ugandan female filmmakers to make a short film of their own.
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Caitlin Fisher-Draeger - Concurrently pursuing a US law degree with New England Law Boston, and a remote Scottish law degree with Robert Gorden University. My plan is to work in immigration between the US and the UK: business immigration for money and humanitarian immigration for meaning.
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Nazneen Joshi - I run the Mumbai branch for one of India’s largest independent digital media agencies called RepIndia. Previously worked in the Creative Department at Bang Bang Films (Mumbai) following her internship at Ogilvy and Mathern in advertising.
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Kaye Blankenship - Currently the first ‘design mentee’ at Portland’s Third Rail Repertory Theatre where she supports all production activity in the current season and will design the Mentee Show this coming June. She is also designing for several local productions in a variety of design capacities (Scenery: Stop Kiss; Props: Mother Courage, The Road to Mecca; Lighting: The Clean House, Fall of the Band, La Celestina).
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Terry Fletcher Teaches middle school in West Harlem NYC, finding time to “do improv and theatre here and there”. He recently published (print) (free eBook) a collection of devised plays created and produced with other LC students and alumni.
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Collin Lawson - Currently employed as the master carpenter at Portland’s Miracle Theatre, he acted in Theatre Vertigo’s production of Mother Courage.
2013
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Marissa Fenley - PhD candidate in English/Theater and Performace Studies at the University of Chicago.
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Nate Cohen - Teach theatre at Northwestern University, work as a teaching artist for Lookingglass and Northlight Theatre, and direct plays! I also work a guide for a kayak company in Chicago during the summer, which is super fun!
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Devan Wardrop-Saxton - Her play, One Without the Other, featured in the Fall ’13 One Act Festival on campus, is now a national semi-finalist in the John Cauble One-Act competition a national semi-finalist in the John Cauble one-act competition.
2014
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Shanan Wolfe - I’m a Sailor. On sailboats. Everything to yachts, educational tall ships, tourist day sailors, racing. Sometimes I’m a deckhand, sometimes delivery crew or race crew, sometimes I captain.
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Andrea Hite - Applied to grad school to become a mental health counselor/therapist, and had a baby!
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Hannah Brunner - Bartender in Chicago, IL
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Maddy Nibble - Working artist in Seattle, WA. Currently in The Fifth Wave at Macha Theatre Works.
2015
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Emmy Newman - living and working as an actor in Los Angeles. She is represented by Eris Talent and has recently wrapped an independent film in New Orleans as well as a workshop for a feature inspired by Visions of Cawdor.
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Robert Amico - Working Puppeteer and Puppet Wrangler. Has worked on Oregon Children’s Theatre’s production of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar show” and as Puppet Designer for “Danse Macabre: The Testament of Francois Villon) Was able to remotely participate in the National Puppetry Conference and the 48 Hour Puppet Film Festival, take workshops from my favorite puppeteers, and even perform for virtual Puppet Slams across the United States and Canada.
2016
- Hannah Edelson - Quality Specialist at Squarespace to pay the bills, but also local theater and voice over.
2017
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Rosie Lambert - Administrator with Apple Retail. On the side I sketch and paint with watercolor and gouache. I’ve been obsessed with painting little houses in remote corners of the world.
2019
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Sydney Owada - I am currently a PhD Candidate in English Language and Literature at University of Michigan. I specialize in medieval literature, and will soon being a dissertation that focuses on movement, embodiment, and identity in Middle English texts. I am discovering a passion for teaching, though, in having taught undergraduate writing courses the past two years!
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Aria Ballance - I am chemistry research graduate student at the University of Utah working towards a PhD in chemistry.
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Natalie Rich - I currently serve with City Year, a division of AmeriCorps that supports students academically and socially/emotionally in underserved and disadvantaged schools. I am serving in an eighth grade English and History classroom at a school in Sacramento. My job includes supporting students 1:1 in the classroom, in small study groups, and supporting the whole K-8 school with events and presentations like a ‘pie a teacher in the face’ contest, a spirit week that ended in a Zoom movie showing, and a week of dress days.
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Mia Convery - Associate Producer at Opus Agency, (Live Events Agency)
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Simon Schiller - Currently in law school.
2020
- Momoka Kato - Hotel worker in Nagoya-City Aichi, Japan
2021
- Arielle Scena-Shifrin - Working actor, singer and dancer. Studying through the National Theater Institute and performing in Portland as Nelly Nailor in The Adventures of Dex Dixon: Paranormal Dick.
Calling all theatre and dance alumni! What have you been up to since graduation? Start an interesting job? Discover a hidden talent? Used your liberal arts experience and degree to better the world? Adopt a cat? We’d love to know!
Theatre is located in Fir Acres Theatre on the Undergraduate Campus.
MSC: 54
email theatre@lclark.edu
voice 503-768-7491
fax 503-768-7671
Chair Rebecca Lingafelter
Theatre
Lewis & Clark
615 S. Palatine Hill Road
Portland OR 97219