It is almost the end of 2021, and the Thumbprint Team decided to have a roundtable reflection on the past year: what we loved, what we missed, and what we're looking forward to! This week, April and Jaina sat down with Victoria Melkonyan (Director of Outreach and Education), Emery Lade (Administrative and Education Programming Mentee), Sephra Kolker (Social Media Mentee), and Lauren Heyboer (ProductionAssistant Mentee). Join our conversation and hear about all the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the past year, and what we're excited for in the new one!

Victoria Melkonyan is a West Asian artist based in California. Through the lens of actor, director, and writer, Victoria actively pursues, uplifts, and creates stories for and by People of the Global Majority. They are an alumnus of California State University, Long Beach with a BA in Theatre Performance and have studied with the SITI Company. Through both their art and activism, they hope to increase visibility for SWANA (MENA) and all who are absent from the mainstream in various performance/storytelling mediums. From the very beginning of their artistic career and education, Victoria has made it a point to face systemic issues head on and embraced the art of calling in and calling to action in everything that they do. They are very excited by the awakenings happening currently between the masses and hope to aid in bringing a sense of revolution and radicalization to the spaces they occupy.

Emery Lade (they/them) is a theatre artist and writer based in the midwest. They've done everything from acting to lighting design to producing, and they are a proud multi-hyphenate creator. Their most recent play, Henry and Mae Kill a Cat, was produced in April by their alma mater, Western Illinois University. You can also read their poetry in Touchstone Literary Magazine.

Sephra Kolker (she/her/hers) Currently located in the Southern Plains, Sephra is a multi-hyphenate human being, whose most recent credit includes the role of Laura in Amelia, Once More. Her theatrical interests lie in exploring South-Asian American theatre. Outside of theatre, she enjoys cooking, watching classic television shows, writing in her planner, and podcasting. She recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma with degrees in Public/Nonprofit Administration and Environmental Design. Sephra is excited to be working with Thumbprint Studios, and is eager to learn more about digital content creation, while utilizing her skills to create content that is meaningful and impactful.

Lauren Heyboer is a theatre maker currently based in Michigan. With degrees in theatre, English literature, and writing, she has worked at several theatres in her area as an actor, dramaturg, and ASM. Passionate about vitality and theatre for social change, she is currently working on The Water Project, an original collaborative piece about local water crises and community engagement. Lauren works as a proofreader of scripts and audiobooks and plans to pursue a graduate degree in dramaturgy.

This episode was produced on the unceded ancestral territory of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen, and Miami. This episode was edited by Emery Ann, with original intro and outro music by Marc Young.