Dawn Alden, Treasurer

For the Porters: The Countess of Rousillon in All’s Well that Ends Well, Katharine in All is True or Henry VIII, Baptista in The Taming of the Shrew, Belarius in Cymbeline, or the Trials of Imogen

Dawn Alden received her MFA in Acting from the University of Pittsburgh when we were all a lot younger. While at grad school, she spent her summers acting with the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, and co-founded their successful Young Company. To supplement her studies while completing her thesis, she spent over a year performing improv with TheaterSports, wrote and performed her own bilingual one-person show, and toured with Shakespeare in the Schools, an outreach program bringing Shakespeare to students K-12. She also co-founded and performed with the stage combat/commedia/movement theater group GREX.

After receiving her MFA, Alden moved to Chicago, where she worked as a professional stage actress for 16 years. She performed with a number of award-winning and critically acclaimed theatre companies, and for five years was a company member of Chicago’s premiere women’s company, Footsteps Theatre. In 1997, Alden spent a summer studying at the Royal National Theater in London, and the following summer performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.

While at Footsteps, Alden became the first female theatrical Resident Fight Choreographer in the Midwest (and possibly the country). During her years there she also founded Babes With Blades Theatre Company, the first all-female stage combat theatre company in the country. Since 1997, BWBTC has been creating new works and producing shows that explore the martial aspects of women, and has won enormous critical and audience acclaim.

After stepping down from the artistic directorship of Babes With Blades Theatre Company in mid-2007, Alden began planning her move to LA to explore the worlds of television and film.

Once in LA, she founded Vicarious Films, whose byline is "Where Women Move the Action." Under the Vicarious banner, she has produced, written, and acted in short films and web series, and has many other projects, including her first feature film script, under development. In collaboration with 34 Circe Media, she has co-hosted the "Make Matriarchy Great Again" podcast for three years and counting.

Alden has also worked behind the scenes in the non-profit space as an administrator, worked in Development and Fundraising for various arts organizations, and runs a successful bookkeeping business.