In the Loop
Alumni News : Jan 11, 2016

Samantha Walsh stays busy on stage and in films

In October 2015, Samantha Walsh (BFA Theatre Performance ’09) wrapped up Rush, the debut production by Team Awesome Robot, a theatrical collaboration initiative co-founded by Walsh’s fiancée, Christopher Diercksen, and fellow UF alumna Yvonne Hartung. Rush is a new play written by Callie Kimball and set during the Yukon Gold Rush of 1899. Characters Belinda and Frank stand at a new threshold of life, but only if they can escape the horrors of their past. Walsh graced the stage playing the role of Belinda alongside co-star Christopher Norwood who played Frank.

“There were actually a lot of UF people involved in the production and crew of Rush,” says Walsh.

Around the same time, Walsh also did a reading of Daniel John Kelley’s adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Circle where she played the role of Brenda. Since Rush closed Walsh has taken a break from stage reading and re-focused her efforts on film work.

“I’ve been doing a lot of independent films,” says Walsh. “It is a completely different feeling from theatre. I like both a lot.”

Two aspects of film that attract Walsh are its intimacy and simplicity. “If you screw up you can do it over,” she says. “You can't do that in front of a live audience.”

The first film Walsh ever acted in was Allison Bagnall’s Funny Bunny.

“She (Bagnall) co-wrote a film I really loved as a child called Buffalo ’66, and we met when I moved to New York,” Walsh says. “Since then, we’ve kept in touch and that’s how I got involved with Funny Bunny.”

Funny Bunny has been going around the film festival circuit for some time now and will be released on a bigger platform in January 2016.

In the meantime, Walsh continues to partner with Diercksen and Hartung. The trio’s latest project is a web series titled Jeannie and Mo, which will be released in February 2016.