Hi, I’m Dawn 👋🏾
I’m a director, actor, acting teacher, singer and cultural curator—and I build spaces where people become more present, more connected, and more themselves.
Sometimes that looks like a rehearsal room. Sometimes it looks like a workshop.
Sometimes it looks like a festival site map and a volunteer plan. Sometimes it looks like a one-on-one coaching session where we tell the truth and choose a next step.
At the center of everything I do is the same question:
How do we become more alive—together—and in real life?
The performing life
I work in theater and performance as an actor and director, and I teach acting with an emphasis on presence, voice, play, and truthful connection. I love the craft, and I love the liberation that comes when people stop “performing” and start actually showing up.
If you want the formal credits, you can find me on IMDb.
The folklife life
I’m also deeply rooted in community culture. I serve as Director of Volunteers for Tucson Meet Yourself, and I’m part of the Tucson cultural curation work connected to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
I care about everyday brilliance—foodways, music, dance, story, craft, and the ways culture gets carried through bodies, families, neighborhoods, and celebrations.
This work matters to me because it’s not abstract. It’s belonging with receipts.
The improvised aliveness life
A lot of what I teach and facilitate lives in the space between art and life: the ability to stay present, to respond instead of react, to take creative risks, to be in relationship, to lead with warmth and backbone, and to feel your own life while you’re living it.
Sometimes that happens through improv, movement, voice, ritual, or laughter. Sometimes it happens through a hard conversation you’ve been avoiding. The method changes. The aim doesn’t.
The coaching life
I’m a trained and licensed psychotherapist who now offers coaching. This isn’t therapy, but my clinical background shapes how I coach: I notice patterns quickly, I ask good questions, and I care about changes that hold up in real life. I tend to work with thinking patterns using practical tools (thought work, parts work, NLP-style exercises), and I also have training in energy healing modalities when that layer fits.
A few human facts
I’m a mom, a dog person, and a nerd with a philosophical streak. I sing karaoke when the spirit moves me and have been known to dance in Trader Joe’s.
If you’re here for the culture, the craft, the creativity, the aliveness—welcome. You’re in the right place.
