ASHLEY BLUM
MEET ASHLEY BLUM
I am a theatre director, actor, and dramaturg dedicated to creating collaborative spaces rooted in inquiry, trust, and joy. With a background in Theatre for Health, I prioritize ensemble trust and foster environments where creative risk-taking is supported by shared problem-solving. My practice is informed by Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, which reshaped how I approach collaboration by dismantling traditional hierarchies and inviting artists to actively participate in storytelling through questioning rather than instruction. I am drawn to intimate, character-driven work that allows audiences to fall in love with and laugh alongside characters while feeling compelled to engage with the work's themes beyond the theatre.
I love theater that exists beyond conventional spaces and extends outward through community partnership. When I produced and performed in Proof, the process became an opportunity to transform the production into a living conversation with the world around it. We partnered with female professors from the University of Florida's mathematics department and with Girls Who Code to illuminate the
lived realities of women in STEM. Their firsthand experiences shaped our dramaturgical process, informing everything from the play’s humor to its emotional stakes. The set itself became an interactive space, inviting audiences to solve math problems and write across the walls, collapsing the distance between spectator and story. Proof became more than a staged play, it became a communal inquiry into grief, genius, and how patriarchal systems undermine women’s intellectual authority. This experience affirmed my commitment to theater that meets audiences where they are and expands beyond the stage to engage the broader community it serves.
My work centers on theater as a living, communal practice. During a residency with Y No Había Luz in Puerto Rico, I helped devise immersive performances in towns still recovering from Hurricane María. This work was built with community members, blending movement, visual art, music, and storytelling to reflect lived experiences of climate change, disaster recovery, and hyphenated identities. By blurring the line between performer and spectator, these performances became collective acts of defiant joy and solidarity, expanding my understanding of theater as something that can happen anywhere as a response to urgent, real-world concerns.
As a theatre facilitator in juvenile detention centers, I witnessed firsthand how storytelling can illuminate shared humanity. Through image-theatre workshops, I guided young women in exploring themes of comfort, home, and longing. When one participant shared a tender memory of her mother tucking her in the room transformed, revealing the deep common ground that connected the group despite their different circumstances. These experiences sharpened my ability to listen, guide sensitive conversations, and craft creative exercises that surface personal narratives.
At this stage of my career, I am focused on making storytelling both artistically rigorous and broadly accessible. I am passionate about refining work so its emotional and thematic heart is clear without sacrificing complexity. As theatre makers, we have the power to entice people to question the state of society and encourage them to discover love and hope for a brighter future. Whether directing, acting, or aiding playwrights and creative teams, my goal is to cultivate theatre that provokes dialogue, invites laughter, and ensures community participation.