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Hiya, I'm Elyse!
Thanks for stopping by.

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I'm a professional freelance theater artist with a robust career as an actor, director, and educator, proudly rooted in regional theater. My classical actor training from The Guthrie Theater BFA under Ken Washington's tenure informs my work, but my professional journey has led me through a diverse array of experiences—from esteemed regional Shakespeare festivals to national tours, and from gritty contemporary works to comedies, farces, and character roles in musicals, often accompanied by the instruments I play.
 

As a theater artist, my focus is on serving the play and its narrative over any individual performance or extraneous idea. I’m drawn to stories where people are really, really talking to one another.

 

As an actor, whether I’m playing Viola in Twelfth Night or a whimsical mouse in Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, I approach each role with the same craft, preparedness, and care.

 

As a director, I’m interested in theater that challenges our expectations of how a theater space is "supposed" to behave.

 

As a teaching artist, I believe in the reciprocal exchange of knowledge between myself and my students.

 

Personally, I see the world as a place in need of more compassion and joy, and I strive to reflect these qualities in my work.

Edelman is particularly good at playing overlooked and undervalued

women, conveying her characters' intrinsic worth to us even as those characters remain oblivious to it themselves. Her ability to channel her characters' ensuing awakening to the barely believed prospect that they might indeed be special is alternatively funny and poignant. She's the best reason to see this show." 

MIKE FISHER / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL THEATER CRITIC

Upcoming Projects

February 2024

Featured on PBS's The Arts' Page Special for direction of The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe.

Watch on YouTube

January 2022

Madison Ithmus: Best of critic Gwendolyn Rice's 2021 Performances List. Acknowledged for role in 46 Plays for America's First Ladies by the Neo Futurists at Forward Theater Company.

June 2022

Selected for Stephen McKinley Henderson's private class at Ten Chimneys. Nominated to participate by three Artistic Directors in Wisconsin.

2021/22 Theatrical Season

Recipient of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's Ruth Schudson Leading Lady Award for the 2021/2022 Season

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