“Saint Mary’s pushed me to be a smart, spiritual, and independent leader.”
Never Grow Up
Alumna Erin Schultz can tell you all about making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Having access to this type of heady information is part of what she does for a living. The 2003 theatre and communication studies major can tell you this and more at live performances of How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, or for the literati, The Adventures of Super Pencil and Lead Lad – the story of, “two superhero pencils who have to save the world from Dr. Mechanical, who wants to turn all the pencils in Graphite City into useless #3 lead.” Schultz performs these titles and more as a member of the Chicago based, non-profit, Child’s Play Touring Theater.
Working with two other actors and a musician, Schultz travels the country performing short plays and poems written by children. The group also conducts writing workshops, and recently appeared at a school in the South Bend area. “I’ve gone to so many places I would have never even thought to go,” says Schultz. “It’s really amazing, after the two and a half years I’ve been here, to drive past a random Dunkin Donuts on the side of the road in Long Island and say, ‘I’ve been there!”
The Mishawaka, Ind., native is the daughter of teachers, her mother a’68 graduate of Saint Mary’s. While at Saint Mary’s Schultz worked under the tutelage of theatre professors Mark Abram-Copenhaver , Katie Sullivan, Tom Boelman, and Susan Baxter. Schultz worked with Abram-Copenhaver on a South Bend Theatre production, and was an intern for him as an assistant stage manager for the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. Schultz says that Abram-Copenhaver’s passion for theatre is, “ infectious and it’s so exciting to study and be nurtured in that kind of environment.”
When Schultz isn’t on the road she volunteers at PAWS, a Chicago-based animal shelter that believes in a no-kill policy. She also admits to enjoying creature comforts she can’t find on the road during her 40+ hour work week – “food, TV, a comfortable bed.”
Schultz considers herself lucky to be a Chicago actor who has the chance to perform everyday. “I felt really confident when I graduated,” says Schultz of the time when she and two other alumnae moved to Chicago. “We knew we were smart young women who had gone to a good school that made us feel invincible. It’s really important to feel that way when you’re trying to kick-start a career in theatre!”
To see Schultz in action, go to www.youtube.com/cptouringtheatre and check out her favorites, “How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, and The Tourist Troll.