Life and Work with Ashlee Elder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlee Elder.

Ashlee, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
At the age of five, I started performing. My mother enrolled me in theatre classes at our community theatres and through my public school system. I won awards through our UIL One-Act play competitions in middle and high school. My senior year of high school, I discovered that I had a skill and a passion for directing. The summer before my senior year of high school, when I began to explore directing, I went to the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska. I met with so many schools and talked about a variety of theatrical opportunities. It was there that I met with Marquette University and learned about their undergraduate directing emphasis in their program and I’d begin to look at Marquette as my top school, a few years later, I had the privilege of recruiting at the thespian festival for Marquette. Although theatre had been the majority of my life for years, I originally thought that I would only minor in theatre and get my degrees in psychology and criminology with a minor in theatre.

By my sophomore year, I was a theatre major and by my second senior year, I minored in philosophy. I also learned that I had a knack for playwriting and I am hoping to self produce a piece I wrote in the near future. Like most people, I had my ups and downs throughout college. I made and lost friends, had a couple failed relationships and faced some of the worst things I have ever been through while being a thousand miles from home. I also met two of my best friends, tasted the love and made some incredible pieces of theatre. I have been in Colorado for almost a year now and I have really come into myself as an artist and a woman. I have found love, inspiration, and curiosity in the environment and people. I started teaching through a variety of local organizations and have found a love for teaching special needs theatre, which is something that I might have never discovered had I not moved here. I plan on getting my masters in the near future and soon after, I might get my Ph.D. which will hopefully put me on a path where I can become a professor and begin my dream job of shaping the future of the theatrical industry.

Has it been a smooth road?
I’m sure that any artist will tell you that being an artist is never an easy road. You’ll put countless hours of work as well as your heart and soul into something that might not be appreciated, minus a very select few individuals the industry does not pay well and more often than not you’ll be picking up extra jobs just to be able to eat and pay rent and finally art is an emotional industry and will often be draining and difficult on your mental health and it is crucial, in my opinion, that artists see a therapist. Look into affordable mental healthcare in your area because there are usually options. My key piece of advice for women who are or are interested in the theatre industry is to make sure that this is your passion because you’re likely not going to make a lot of money, you are going to have to face rejection and criticism constantly and sometimes, you will feel more burnt out than you imagined you would. But if this is your life’s passion, then it will all be worth it when your show is well received, makes an impact and reminds you that there is something to fight for and something to celebrate.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
As a director, I am known for intense and often strange pieces of theatre that question the world around me and often have philosophical undertones. I like things to be odd or unsettling and I often deal with some taboo subjects. I like my audiences to leave the theatre questioning the way the world works in some way and whether or not that is right or wrong.

As an actor, I’m the bubbly best friend, aunt or some sort of villain or antagonist. I am a character actor and my goal is to make the characters that you laugh at or dislike as human as I possibly can with the script. Finding depth in a character is a large part of the actor’s job.

As a playwright, my goal is to create stories and characters that we can identify with and learn from. I draw from real life experiences and do a lot of research into the subject before I even consider writing a piece. It is my job to give a voice to someone and to do it in an accurate and respectful way.

What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
Stay true to yourself. Being young is all about discovering who we are and a lot of people will have ideas and expectations of what you should be and they’ll project onto you and it is so tempting to try to become what they want. Don’t do it. Your individuality is needed and your voice should never be silenced by expectations.

Contact Info:

• Website: ashleeelder.com
• Instagram: @undercoverespionage

Image Credit:
Kasia Myśliwiec, Cassie Gherardini, Matthew Serafin

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