Cornish College of the Arts - Theater Department

05/29/2026

Coming soon from Seattle's innovative Dacha Theatre Company, a new work entitled DREAM, CARL, DREAM!
The stacked local cast features Original Works alums Kayla Walker and Quinn Armstrong (who also composes the score), while Theater alums Fantasia Rose (Costumes), Hannah Votel (Associate Producer) and Jasmine Flora (PR Manager) are on staff.
Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University
Cornish Alumni

An immersive, interactive show built in the theatre of the mind.

05/29/2026

Cornish in Houston TX! The HOUSTON PRESS covers the opening of a new play featuring Oriignal Wirks alum Marissa Castillo, who also heloed develop the script through her theater company.
"...it’s obvious Lupe cares deeply for her family and played with depth by Marissa Castillo, she’s a character that expands beyond what is written on the page. A note here about Castillo and this production. That Drive Thru Monterey is the first full production to come out of the Stages’ Sin Muros Latinx Theater Festival. Castillo is not just a performer but also works passionately as the co-founder of a Latinx theater Company, giving an important voice to her community. So it was especially meaningful to see her included in this cast."
Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University
Cornish Alumni.

It’s so interesting when a play’s description isn’t what you end up taking away from it. When you’re unsure if what you feel is the show’s most compelling Review - That Drive Thru Monterey at Stages

05/29/2026

Congratulations to Original Works alum Andrew Lee Creech, whose new play THE QUILTED HEART will be featured at Minneapolis/St. Paul's prestigious Playwright's Center!

Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University
Cornish Alumni

Andrew Lee Creech
The Playwrights' Center

Dead Cops in Little Mekong by Saymoukda Duongphouxay Vongsay is the first reading in Playwrights' Center's new Fridays@4 series.

05/04/2026

Summer Shakespeare is coming into view! Theater alum Allie Pratt is readying her heightened language skills for Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s 2026 season!
Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University
Cornish Alumni

And the next thrilling member of our 2026 acting company: Allie Pratt, returns as Hero in Much Ado and Malcolm in Macbeth! 🎭

This is Allie's sixth season with Santa Cruz Shakespeare. Santa Cruzans have seen her most recently as Marina in Pericles and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her favorite SCS roles include Laura (The Glass Menagerie), Cecily (The Importance of Being Earnest), Suzy (The Formula), and Lizzy Bennet in Kate Hamill's Pride and Prejudice. Other regional theater credits include: Oregon Cabaret, Sierra Repertory, Jewel Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare, Thin Air Shakespeare, Shakespeare by the Sea, Book-It Repertory, Taproot Theatre, & others. Allie is a voice and motion capture actor with 2k Games, featured in the NBA 2k series and Mafia. www.alliepratt.com

04/10/2026

Cornish alum Sara Porkalob, '12, is redefining solo performance with Dragon Mama—a two-hour, one-woman show where she embodies 28 characters.

“I have never seen a young Filipina le***an coming-of-age story that is empowering and hopeful and not tragic.”

Through humor, music, and raw storytelling, Porkalob traces three generations of Filipina women navigating immigration, identity, and survival—building the stories she didn’t see growing up.

Read more about her process and the Dragon Cycle trilogy, work that she first dreamt up at Cornish. ⬇️

04/08/2026

Cornish in the News! The Seattle TIMES's preview of upcoming theater offerings lists several featuring Cornish alums and faculty:

- Musical Theater alums Shannon Johnson and Hannah Votel (understudying Shannon) share a lead role in Dacha Theatre's production of THE NEXT BIG THING;
-Theater professor Timothy McCuen Piggee directs the new show at Seattle Rep, APPROPRIATE;
- The Seagull Project's collection of comic one-acts by Anton Chekhov, titled THE FAINTING SPELLS, features Original Works alums Wayne Rawley (playwright) and MJ Sieber (director).
Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University
Cornish Alumni
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There's lots to see on Seattle stages in April and May, from "Les Misérables" to three new adaptations of Chekhov comedies and more.

04/02/2026

Seattle's innovative Annex Theatre premieres a new play by Yussef Al-Guindi starring Original Works alum Coco Justino (pictured left, below) and directed by Annex Artistic Director and Theater alum/former Cornish staffer Lucien Oberleitner, reviewed by the Seattle Times!
Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University
Cornish Alumni

Annex Theatre

“Wife of Headless Man” is a compelling swerve from one of the city’s finest playwrights, pushing his gift for meticulously structured drama into weirder, wilder places.

04/02/2026

Cornish Associate Professor Sheila Daniels is one of the most respected artists in Seattle’s professional theater scene! You can see her work in the upcoming production of The Aves at ACT Theatre!

Meet the director of : Sheila Daniels 🐤

Sheila Daniels is a multi-disciplinary theatre-maker based in Seattle. Her directing work was last seen at ACT with Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves. Other directing credits include: Seattle Rep (Indecent, Dancing at Lughnasa), Intiman Theatre (The Niceties, A Streetcar Named Desire, Crime & Punishment, Lysistrata), Strawberry Theatre Workshop (Breaking the Code, Lydia, The Bridge of San Luis Rey), Seattle Shakespeare Company (A Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Electra, Macbeth), Seattle Children's Theatre (Jackie & Me) and many other wonderful companies. Nationally, she has worked in New Mexico, Ohio, and NYC. Sheila served as Associate Director at Intiman under Bart Sher from 2007-2009. She is an Associate Professor at Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle U, teaching Directing, Acting, and Devising. Sheila is in the multi-year process of making the documentary "Hidden Bodies: stereotyping and shaming of the femme body in American theater." This one is for Mama and Dada.

Performances for the aves begin on April 18. Get tickets at: www.unionartscenter.org/the-aves/

03/23/2026

Original Works alum and Theater faculty member Rhonda J. Soikowski plays the title role in the current offering at Seattle Public Theater!
Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University
Cornish Alumni

03/23/2026

Cornish on screen!
Original Works alum Drew Highlands is interviewed about the upcoming showing of his new short film THE MRS. WOLF SHOW, featuring Cornish Theater professor Timothy McCuen Piggee and former Theater instructor Annette Toutonghi!
Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University
Cornish Alumni

Driven by bright colors, canned laughter and a perfectly set dinner table, ‘The Mrs. Wolf Show’ invites audiences into a world that feels comfortingly familiar before pulling the rug ou…