This summer I received a grant from the Frank Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry and a Carnegie Mellon Graduate Small project Help (GuSH) Research Grant to support my travel to eastern PA to take two wilderness survival courses at Coalcracker Bushcraft! These classes were immersive research for my Bunker Cycle, a series of full-length plays about American Survivalism and doomsday preppers.

Classes included learning how to start fire numerous ways, building shelter, procuring clean water, navigation, and food deprivation! It was hard but really fun and I learned a ton about life in the woods and survival as a mentality, which I’m working into a new Bunker play, READY FOR ANYTHING.