Melissa’s work is focused on the vital role of live arts for the ecological health of a community and its culture.
Born and raised on the South Shore of Massachusetts, Melissa (she/her) was a first-generation student and earned her BA in Theatre from Middlebury College in 2015. She also studied Global Health and completed the pre-med track. Melissa performed for two seasons with the Potomac Theatre Project at Atlantic Stage Two (NYC) before working for three years as a full-time Apprentice with the Double Edge Theatre ensemble in rural Western Massachusetts.
At Double Edge, Melissa trained in the ensemble’s rigorous physical methodology while learning about and engaging with their artistic ethos: to nourish and develop the unique “living cultures” within each community they encounter. She performed in seven large-scale traveling spectacles, assisted on multiple indoor and outdoor touring productions, and created a short immersive piece, Cocktails and Dreams, at DE’s Emerging Artist Studio. Throughout her apprenticeship, Melissa held a variety of roles in the areas of fiscal development and sponsorships, landscape and grounds maintenance, and community outreach and engagement.
After finishing her apprenticeship in 2018, Melissa enjoyed a five-month solo escapade through Latin America and Europe. She returned to Vermont in the fall of 2019 as she began working part-time on a Masters in Cultural Studies at Dartmouth College. Her academic research explores “cultural politics” and the methodologies of artists whose work facilitate the transition out of neoliberal capitalism and into a de-colonized global solidarity economy: for example, concepts such as Degrowth and Buen Vivir. She believes that theatre, which accounts for the immense spectrum of live arts, is an essential tool for cultivating genuine and compassionate dialogue within a community, and for generating shared meaning and culture amongst neighbors.
Melissa’s long-term intention is to establish a community-supported “saloon” somewhere in her beloved rural New England; the bar will serve as a local watering hole and adaptable live arts space to explore, develop and promote philosophies and practices for grass-roots cultural revitalization.
Melissa also works as a fine art model for painters and photographers. She uses this medium to explore and dissolve unnecessary boundaries that have been layered onto the feminine form: engaging with the broad spectrum of shapes, textures and tones her body possesses and expresses. She has supported herself through work as a both a tutor and development consultant.
Melissa has been a dancer and mixed martial artist (primarily Uechi-Ryū , Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Tae Kwon Do) for over 25 years. She focused on aerial rope and stilt-walking while at Double Edge. She loves to sing loudly, is an acclaimed amateur chef, and spends a big chunk of each day walking the woods near her home with her very handsome dog, Clyde, and her equally handsome partner and collaborator, Kean Haunt (he/him, Blue Man Group, Agile Rascal). They live on the traditional territory of the Abenaki people— the traditional and continuous stewards of these forests, lands, and waters, which they call Ndakinna, or “homeland.” —and respect and uplift their connection to this region and remember the violence they have endured at the hands of white supremacy and colonialism. We give thanks for the opportunity to share in this place and to protect it, and acknowledge the complex privilege of residing on stolen land, and urge others to learn more about their own local land’s heritage.
