Theatre & Dance Alumni Residency
Bringing Alumni Back to Colorado College
The Theatre & Dance Alumni Residency celebrates the talented artists, designers, performers, educators, and creative thinkers who began their journeys at Colorado College. By welcoming alumni back to campus, the program creates opportunities for mentorship, artistic exchange, and meaningful collaboration between graduates and current students.
Whether developing new work, conducting research, leading workshops, or sharing professional experiences, alumni residents strengthen the creative community while inspiring the next generation of Theatre & Dance students.
Launched in 2025, the Alumni Residency reflects the department's commitment to maintaining lifelong connections with its graduates while creating meaningful opportunities for artistic collaboration, professional mentorship, and creative exploration.
The Residency Experience
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2026 Alumni Resident
Abi Walls '21
Abi Walls is a multi-hyphenate theater artist based in New York City with roots in Colorado and California. As a playwright, their work focuses on the transition from our current world to an imagined one, bridging the gap between a descriptive fiction that articulates living within oppressive systems and visionary fiction that imagines an alternative to them. They're interested in memory, history, docudrama, speculative fiction, how to engage with fear and grief, and translate that engagement into caring for each other and the planet. Their work explores complacency, survival, and resistance and is influenced by their queer, disabled lens.
At Colorado College, they studied writing for performance with Idris Goodwin and Monica Sanchez, who encouraged them to bring their poetic voice to solo performance and writing for the stage. While writing their theatre thesis, they developed a writing process that decenters the authorial ego and explores the tension between individualism and our collective experience, both in writing and thematically in their work. They bring this practice to their writing and collaboration in devised work, both of which have been selected and recognized at various festivals across the U.S. Their theater career extends to work as a performer, lighting designer, stage manager, producer, and dramaturgical and literary collaborator in the New Work Development theater and dance scene in New York.
2025 Alumni Resident
Lena Engelstein '16
Lena Engelstein '16 is a dancer, performer, choreographer, and educator whose work has been described as "The High Weird" and praised for its inventive, interdisciplinary approach to performance. A Colorado College graduate with a B.A. in Mathematics and a minor in Dance, Lena has built a dynamic career creating and performing original work while collaborating with artists and companies throughout New York City's contemporary dance and theater communities.
As the inaugural participant in the Theatre & Dance Alumni Residency, Lena returned to Colorado College to reconnect with students, share her creative process, and develop new artistic work. Through workshops, conversations, and mentorship, she offered students an inside look at the realities of building a professional artistic career while demonstrating the value of curiosity, collaboration, and interdisciplinary thinking.
Lena's return to campus exemplifies the mission of the Alumni Residency Program: strengthening connections between alumni and current students while creating opportunities for artistic exchange, professional mentorship, and creative exploration.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Apply for the Alumni Residency
The Theatre & Dance Alumni Residency is open to Colorado College alumni whose creative practice aligns with the department's mission of artistic exploration, collaboration, and student engagement.
Residents are selected through an application process and are invited to spend time on campus developing new work while connecting with students and faculty.