She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theatre design and technology, with concentrations in stage management, props and set designs, and a minor in German.
Hunter was born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her parents are Wright State alumni who moved to Colorado in 2000: Jill (Tonkin) Simpson received a bachelor’s degree in education in 1992 and Joseph Hunter received a bachelor’s degree in material science and engineering in 1993.
“In high school, I had no interests beyond theater,” Hunter said. “It was the first activity I did that I connected with.”
Her interest was not as a performer but in the props used on stage to help tell the story. When it came time for college trips, she visited Colorado schools but none of them were quite what she wanted.
Then she joined her mother on a trip to visit family in Dayton in summer 2019.
“She wanted to take a walk down memory lane,” Hunter said.
After taking a campus tour of Wright State, Hunter returned later that summer to attend a Wright State open house and learn more about the theatre program.
What made the open house noteworthy was the attention she received.
“I hadn’t been to a campus yet that paid that much attention to every single student,” she said. “That was the most individual attention I’ve received at any other university.”
She also was impressed by the attention to props in the theatre program. Witnessing an exchange among those in a theatre production crew, she said, “They were looking for a wheelchair, and the question was asked, ‘Modern or vintage?’ They wanted vintage. ‘Good or bad condition?’ I was impressed by the attention to detail.”
As a first-year student at Wright State, she was required to take acting and dance classes but then shifted to design and technology.
“I was very, very lucky that in high school we had a student-run theater, and we did pretty much all the work – set building, props crafting, handling budgets and painting. I got a lot of hands-on experience in high school,” she said.
That experience came in handy for Hunter, who served as a stage manager and prop master and designed the sets for “Kelly the Destroyer,” “A Doll’s House” and “A Doll’s House, Part Two.
Credit: Courtesy of Wright State Univers
Credit: Courtesy of Wright State Univers
Designing and building a set is like producing a 3D picture, she said.
“It’s sculpture. It’s construction. It’s drawing. It’s painting — a lot of different art forms,” Hunter said.
Hunter also developed a distinction unique among her classmates. She has been the only student involved in planning and producing the three past ArtsGalas, the College of Liberal Arts’ annual scholarship fundraiser for fine and performing arts students. Other students volunteer and perform the night of the gala, but Hunter’s involvement starts months before.
Her academic career is not quite over. She is going to Germany next month in a student Ambassador Program. She minors in German, as a nod to her mother, who has been a longtime teacher of German.
“It’s valuable to know another language,” Hunter said.
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