Though not a Kansas native Caitlyn owes her career in the arts to the Sunflower State. From a young age Caitlyn was always a natural story-teller, as a child with the tendency towards the dramatic her mother referred to her exaggerated tales as her “gift for fiction”. Caitlyn delighted in putting on original works for her parents, with her sisters as forced participants, unknowingly planting seeds for her future work in devised theatre nearly 20 years later. Caitlyn grew up with a deep appreciation for MGM musicals remembering staying up late on Sunday nights watching scenes from Singin’ in the Rain (1952) or Annie (1982) with her father. She also was always surrounded by music from her parents’ eclectic taste to spending afternoons huddled around sheet music singing along as her mother played the piano. Despite all of this, Caitlyn actually saw a future for herself as an author and constantly wrote down different tales, adventures, and poems. She even won second place in the 2008 Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators contest for her ice cream themed comic book starring her and her best friend.

Caitlyn didn’t get to explore her love of performing until her family moved to Wichita, KS when she was seven, where, thanks to an ad in the local newspaper her father saw, she got to step onto a real stage for the first time as Bielke, the youngest of Tevye’s daughters, in a production of Fiddler on the Roof. From that moment on Caitlyn knew the stage was where she wanted to be. Unfortunately, due to a lack of accessible theatre options for children in Wichita, Caitlyn had to wait until high school to really pursue her love of performing.

Once in high school Caitlyn hit the ground running by joining her school’s theatre department and thespian troupe, as well as performing in her school’s choirs. By the time she graduated she was Drama Club president, Thespian Troupe president, a state thespian representative, a member of the elite Madrigal Choir, and had invested over 2000 hours into her fine arts program through performing, costuming, set building, out-reach programing, fundraising, and more. She had truly found her calling and wished to see it through more fully.

After graduating Caitlyn continued her education at Friends University, a local liberal arts college, enrolling in their BA in Vocal Performance program with the promise of helping to reinstate their Musical Theatre program. The fact that Friends did not have an established MT program allowed Caitlyn the unique perspective of seeing first hand what goes into creating a functioning program. While she was receiving her excellent training she also got to work with administrators by testing new courses, speaking on student panels during hiring processes, and giving feedback that was used to create the now thriving program.

During her time in school she studied voice, acting, and dance, and had the opportunity to participate in masterclasses with industry professionals such as Injoy Fountain, William Michaels, Bill Evans, and Kristin Chenoweth. She also competed and was a two-time semi-finalist in the West Central NATS Competition, and in 2021 she was a finalist in the Irene Ryan Scholarship Competition for the KCACTF in Region V for her performance as Aunt March in Little Women. She also performed with Friends University’s internationally recognized choir, The Singing Quakers, for three years and went on two US tours with them. Her honors senior thesis, “The Shows They Don’t Want Us to Produce: A Study of Censorship Through the History of Musical Theatre,” received national attention after she was featured in a segment on NPR where she spoke about the importance of what are often deemed controversial works and their impact in the Musical Theatre canon.

Since graduating with her BA in Musical Theatre in 2022 she has continued her education and passion for the arts by completing summer training in devised theatre and modern/improv dance at Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. Caitlyn has performed with many theatre companies local to Wichita and was a featured choreographer in Smack Dab Dance Lab’s inaugural Emerging Choreographers Showcase in 2024. She has also worked closely with multiple local artist organizations, Harvester Arts, Mark Arts, and Gallery Place Project, which specialize in creating accessible opportunities for art/artists in the Wichita Community.