About

My name is Elise Thayn. I grew up in a small Utah town with an even smaller theatre scene. I didn’t know much about acting. I had never heard of Stanislavsky, I had barely read a Shakespeare play, and just knowing the soundtrack to Wicked was enough to deem me a theatre buff, but after my high school’s production of Anne of Green Gables (you’ll never guess who I played), I knew I had found my fire.

I spent four years studying at Southern Utah University and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in musical theatre (though I performed almost exclusively in classical plays, oddly enough). There, I deepened my passion for theatre and education, and I finally figured out who Stanislavsky was.

I. Love. Learning. And I love helping others learn. My pride and joy from my time at SUU was a research paper on performance anxiety, trauma, and reconnecting with the body. I was enthralled by everything I was learning, and I was always so excited to share it with the people around me. I realized how much I loved sharing knowledge with others and helping them find new ways to connect to themselves and their art. In a few years, I’ll begin pursuing an MFA (and possibly a Ph.D. later on) in order to eventually enter a career in theatre education.