Resident Playwright Grace Catan ’26 on Writing a Musical with the Help of her Artist Community

Catan arrived on campus eager to explore and nurture a wide array of interests, from global literature and languages to math and music. Theatre entered the picture during her first-year spring, when she performed a spoken-word monologue as part of the student-led Social Justice Theatre Cabaret, which gave her the confidence to sign up for acting and playwriting classes the following semester. 

In her junior year Performing Musical Theatre class, Catan, who’d only seen a handful of plays in her life, found herself surrounded by lifelong musical theatre fans. 

“I quickly learned to be okay with not knowing,” she said. “Suddenly, I wanted to learn everything I could about the history of theatre. I loved how experimental it can be and how many different structures can exist within the same medium.”

Before long, she was spending most of her time in the theatre, studying the medium, rehearsing for shows, working behind the scenes and even writing on her own. Sitting in the Duke Family Performance Hall one day, she changed her major to theatre over the phone. 

“Music has always been with me,” Catan said. “I’ve played piano since I was six years old, but music directing for theatre has given me a whole new perspective. I love shaping the music around the story. Most of all, I love being in the audience. I try to write the kind of songs I want to hear for the kind of play I’d like to watch.”

This summer, Catan and four other student artists participated in Davidson’s first Summer Arts Residency, an interdisciplinary 10-week program hosted by Davidson Arts and Creative Engagement (DACE) and funded by the Charles A. Cannon Charitable Trust #3 and the Bacca Foundation Visiting Scholar and Artist Program. Catan went into her residency with the goal to begin writing her own musical that she’ll refine and direct her senior year.

Learning from faculty mentors, attending workshops and working alongside the other residents, Catan has learned a lot about her own writing process. 

There’s a little bit of her co-residents in everything Catan has created this summer. Her roommate, Sarah Catalano ’26, and creative writer Ezra Minard ’28 are her storytelling soundingboards, and songwriter Annabel Semans ’26 pitched in with harmonies.

The final product will tell the decades-long story of a couple, from friendship to romance to parenthood. It draws upon Catan’s personal experiences with her queer identity and her early life growing up in the Philippines. 

“I feel very connected to who I am,” she said. “A lot of the experiences I write about can be very lonely, and I’ve learned that if I’ve felt alone about something, someone else has, too. This process has taught me to really trust my inner audience.”