“As I am clean, I cleanse. As I am pure, I purify.” - Tullia, Vestalia S01E01
It’s here! After three years of writing and dreaming and researching, I’ve finally submitted my thesis, the pilot and bible for an eight-episode ensemble drama telling the lost stories of priestesses in Rome. Join me on April 30th, 4:15-5:15 in Hillyer Graham, to hear me infodump about the Vestal Virgins, pitch my show, and defend my work! I’m so excited to share Vestalia with the world and I hope these women inspire you just as much as they inspire me. 🔥
#vestalia #vestaliatvshow #pilotepisode #screenwriting #thesisdefense #televisionwriting #studentfilmmaker #ancientrome #vestalvirgins
The Trip (2024, dir. Sarah Feldman & Ayla Ladha)
Working on this WAS a trip. Rollerskating around Smith College and getting the opportunity to goof off with one of my best friends filled me with such creative joy. Truly one of the funnest sets I’ve worked on and the silliest short film I’ve been a part of. The Trip perfectly captures the hwc experience — complete with caribiners and classes that queer everything and anything — and gave me the opportunity to appreciate my silly little college’s silly little culture with a new lens.
Thanks to our amazing directors and to @dontblinkmedia.sc for this awesome film.
You know how I said I only play two characters ever? Well, here’s an example of Shakespeare Man.
Benedick holds such a special place in my heart. Much Ado is consistently ranked among my favorite Shakespeare plays and it was the first play I ever directed (even though I was 16 and foolish and had no idea what the play really was about or how to do it correctly). So, getting the opportunity to do it again — to PERFORM in it — made my whole year.
Benny, benny, benny boy. He’s a whole complicated mess of a human. He’s obnoxiously loud and witty, yet incredibly insecure — a lot of his more comedic lines try to overcompensate for that insecurity. It’s a shield that he puts up (ESPECIALLY in front of Beatrice) to protect himself. And the show itself is about a lot of things other than him, but his journey is about allowing himself to feel vulnerability and letting himself love Beatrice and learning how to love someone in a way that isn’t performative but in a way that is intensely real.
I’d love to play this silly little guy again someday, but until then I’m incredibly proud of this couch-jumping, phone-tangling, queerness-in-the-80s production I got to be in.
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare - February 2023
Produced by Hampshire College Theatre
Directed by Andrew Webb
So I only ever play two characters ever: 1) Shakespeare MAN and 2) Type-A, no-nonsense 20-something-year-old grieving over the death of a family member and learning to accept art and storytelling. Agnes is most definitely the latter.
When I read She Kills Monsters for the first time a couple years ago, the queer nerdiness and elements of spunky, retro girlhood really stood out to me. And getting the opportunity to explore all those themes, including grief and sisterly love AND 90s DnD, was absolutely amazing.
Everyone who worked on the show had so much fun in this production. I had so much fun in this production! And it means so much to me that everyone gave me so much trust in creating the core of the show. Despite the fact that Agnes is technically the main character, it was really the ensemble that made the show. The connections Agnes has to her sister, her boyfriend, her new-found party members… they’re all what drive the show. And I couldn’t have done it without y’all — all the monsters I was slaying and all the dancers cheerleading with me.
Also I got to sword fight my fake boyfriend to the Cranberries, get hypnotized by a fairy to Sugarplum Fairy on electric guitar, and slay a dragon to Holding Out For a Hero. All in all, best experience ever.
She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen - December 2022
Produced by @smithstc
Directed by Alex Beardsley
Assistant Directed by Lily Sickman-Garner
Photos by @seagullshoots
To relieve the internal tension between wanting to be completely unknown and wanting also to be the center of attention, I’ve decided to create a professional account simply for my art and endeavors. I’ll be starting to post some of my favorite productions and accomplishments from this last year — prepare for a lot of repeats if you’re a follower of my main account and buckle in for some stellar pictures I’ve been sitting on for a while.
In the meantime, appreciate me appreciating Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Judith Beheading Holofernes” and her father Orazio’s “The Lute Player” which I had the honor of seeing this winter in Florence and last month in DC.
If you haven’t heard of Artemisia Gentileschi, dude, you’re missing out. Her work simultaneously defines the baroque period and also subverts it — her depictions of women in biblical allegories are both beautiful in composition and extremely raw and emotional, often depicting more than just the story and expressing a feminine rage that is so relatable to many young women and queer folk today (definitely the reason why she’s had a bit of a renaissance recently).
I also got the opportunity to see one of her pieces in restoration this December at the House of Michelangelo. My brother and I stumbled upon the exhibit — which is only open on Fridays — before realizing serendipitously that it WAS Friday! The restoration artist allowed us to watch her work and I got the chance to talk to her about this amazing artist (first in Italian before both of us realizing we are all in fact American). Fun Fact: “The Allegory of Inclination” was originally a nude fresco before someone (a man) commissioned another painter (also a man) to cover up the figure!! BOOOOOOOO CENSORSHIP OF WOMEN 👎
Anyways her life and career were a wild ride. Maybe I’ll write a miniseries or feature about her one day…
