Elizabeth
Daniels
ABOUT
ME!
MISSION & VISION
I have always loved my life in the arts because of the community, the travel, the camaraderie, the dressing up... It's fun! But as I've grown as a human and as an artist, I've realized that there's so much more behind why I've chosen this life.
I envision a world where people of every skin color, gender identity, body type and background can see themselves represented onstage and onscreen in all of their truthful, complex glory. As Billie Jean King said, "You have to see it to be it." We're living in a time where this is starting to happen more, but we still have a long way to go. I endeavor to be a strong ally for those voices that have traditionally been given less power than mine, and to be my own advocate when it comes participating in and promoting the type of work I want to see. This can happen through creating new work, and also reimagining classics for our modern world.
Service has also become a huge part of my mission, as so many who grow up in underserved communities aren't given the resources or tools to help them navigate the trauma they endure on a regular basis. I believe access to these tools can be invaluable in presenting promising young voices with options - and perhaps a lifeline.
I have worked with Mary-Mitchell Campbell's organization, ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) in India at Shanti Bhavan - a school for low-caste children, and in New York, bringing arts programs to women’s shelters and alternative sentencing centers. In New Orleans, I volunteered with STAR, a crisis center dealing with survivors of sexual trauma and assault.
I first fell in love with theatre when my parents brought back the Les Mis double cassette cast recording after traveling from my hometown in the Chicago suburbs to Detroit to see the show. I heard that music and was instantly transported. I come from a family that pushes back the furniture and dances to West Side Story at every party, so you could say the theatre is in my blood. Having started ballet lessons on my third birthday, I danced and performed all the way through high school in ballets and musicals, eventually coming to New York to attend NYU's CAP21 Musical Theatre program. After earning my degree, I traveled to Asia with The Sound of Music before returning to the States and performing in several NYC and regional productions. In 2010, life took an unexpected turn when I was hired to do a show at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. A three-month contract turned into almost eight years of living in one of my favorite cities on earth. I performed with the Victory Belles, the Museum's tribute group to the Andrews and Boswell Sisters, became a tour guide, took up improv, met my husband, got married, started a wedding-planning business, began doing more on-camera work, and toured for almost five years with the experimental dance/puppetry company, Lightwire Theater, with whom I appeared on America's Got Talent. In other words, life got crazy! As much as we loved our lives in New Orleans, in late 2017, the desire to be back in New York became to great to ignore. We packed up our apartment in the Big Easy and have been New Yorkers again since April of 2018.
