About Me
A middle child who calls Michigan home, but has spent most of her life in Greenville, SC. Clare graduated from Furman University in 2017 with a BA in Theatre Arts.
“You suck at soccer…”
During the final game of the season, my very encouraging 8th Grade Soccer Coach told me I “sucked at soccer” and “shouldn’t play”.
Harsh words, but I owe him my career. Instead of sulking in the wounds that I would not be the next Mia Hamm, I poured all of my attention into theatre which helped me find my passion and calling:
Telling Stories!
I guess you could say it actually began LONG before my 8th Grade Soccer dreams were crushed. My first lessons in storytelling were at the dinner table growing up. Dinnertime was a time to share about your day. That’s putting it kindly… it was more a war zone to make your stories heard and a vocal exercise in talking over one another. I come from a very loud, hilarious, and boisterous family. To make matters worse, I am sandwiched between my two sisters who are excellent storytellers. So on top of the stigma of being ignored as a middle child, I had to really learn how to capture an audience’s attention, even if it was only four people and a snoring dog. My parents continuously told me, “Just hit the punch line, Clare.” Comedic timing was everything. I would wait with bated breath for that brief moment of silence between people yelling stories to snag the limelight to share a moment or create a laugh. I learned to chase and pursue a joke or story. I learned to hit the punch line, edit the parts that were not important, and to share in the art of storytelling.
Nightly family dinners prepared me for my future career in theatre. Watching a room of people laugh or think or feel all because of a story was fascinating to me. I soon found that there was a bigger stage than our dinner table and leapt into the world of theatre. Exploring this new world, I discovered so many ways to share my love of storytelling.
My personal “Sing Out, Louise!” is:
“Just hit the punch line, Clare.”
