about ansley
Ansley (she/her/hers) spent the first 18 years of her life in just outside of Nashville in Franklin, TN. There she developed a strong love for nature, slowness, Dolly Parton, home cooked meals, & the wisdom of those that have lived there longer than her.
In 2018 she moved to Boston, MA to attend Emerson College. She graduated in December of ‘21 with her BFA in Theatre Education & Performance. She initially came to Emerson as just a Theatre & Performance major, but while there found a deep love for fight & intimacy direction and wanted to be able to teach those forms of physical storytelling to those that learn differently from her and decided to add the Education major.
While at Emerson she had the opportunity to hone her skills as an artist in the classroom, studying movement, Linklater voice, directing, acting for stage & camera, drama as education, & stage combat. Outside of class, Ansley was very involved with Mercutio Troupe and RareWorks Theatre Company where she has trained as an actor, fight director & captain, intimacy director & captain, assistant director, sound designer, assistant dramaturg, & whatever else those around her needed to help make the show go on. She also served as RareWorks Theatre Company’s Director of New Works & Interim Artistic Director.
She has her first and second levels of intimacy direction certification through IDC and her first level of stage combat certification in all six disciplines offered by Dueling Arts International. Ansley is a current actor in residence with Boston Playwrights Platform, which gives local Boston playwrights chances to see their in process scripts performed in front of audiences interested in providing feedback for the playwright as they continue to workshop their piece. She has also spent some time teaching Consent, Healthy Relationships, & Sex Ed in Boston area middle & high schools.
Some things that bring Ansley joy outside of theatre are hosting dinner parties, existing outside, listening to audio books, running her D&D campaign for her friends, Star Wars, journaling, her cat Bonnie, water color painting, and spending time with her fiancé.
artist statement
as an artist, my aesthetic has influences from epic stories & heightened language of the Greeks or Sarah Kane, my love of nature & connection to the natural world, the groundedness & fullness of the body & voice that we see in the Linklater pedagogy, and an emphasis on physical storytelling - whether through something as complicated as a 10 phrase sword fight or as simple as being able to stand completely still, while taking up the full space of your body.
I’m drawn to stories with a deeper human truth, a commentary on violence or intimacy, a mix of success & failure, and juicy text. I think as an actor my greatest strength is what happens when I'm able to just leave myself alone and be still and slow and let something real happen and allow myself to be surprised every day by how the words move through me, so I love characters whose words and stories allow me the space to do that. my point of view as an artist is also greatly influenced by my experience as an autistic person, since I don’t experience the world the same way an allistic person does.
teaching statement
the mantra that guides my approach as an educator is “I’m not for everyone & that’s ok”. I love this way of thinking because it de-centers me as the teacher & puts the focus back on the students (where it belongs), as well as reinforces that my job as a teacher isn’t to be perfect or the most liked/respected person in the room. my job is to show up, be consistent, open, generous, patient, & knowledgeable about my craft so that I can share that with others.
because there will be people who see my whiteness or lack of physical disability etc. and might not be able to fully trust me immediately or ever, because that might not feel safe for them & that’s something I have to be prepared to hold space for while still ensuring that they’re given the fullest education possible. and conversely, there will be people who see me & decide that because I’m a woman or because I’m autistic etc., they don’t want to listen to me & those people can’t take away from my individual power.
I am passionate that all of the rooms I lead are actively consent based, anti-racist, & accessible for all. and the only way any of those three criteria are met is through listening to the people in front of me, as they are right now, and offering the resources & space for their experience to be shaped as they see fit.