‘Theater is a community, a family,’ and this actor and Spider knows it.

If you look at the resume of Nancy Boykin, W’72, you’ll find irreverent satire, antiwar drama, and Shakespeare. Such a list could come only from this Philadelphia-based actress who devotes her life to the art of embodied storytelling.

“I’ve always loved literature, I’ve always loved storytelling, and I enjoy engaging with people, so I was ripe for being an actor,” Boykin said.

Her love for the theater began as an undergraduate initially studying mathematics and piano. While discontented with both, she took a dramatic literature course at UR with a professor who paired readings with performances, cementing her path to a master's in acting. Her career then expanded beyond the stage, including professorship at Temple University.

One of her current offstage endeavors is as board president of PlayPenn, an artist-driven organization that supports the development of new plays. In its signature program, the New Play Development Conference, playwrights spend three weeks working with a director, a dramaturg, and a cast to workshop their plays, including one performance with audience feedback followed by a second performance that incorporates revisions. “[PlayPenn] is a way of giving back and also keeping something going that I truly think is important and should not be lost,” she said.

Back on the stage, Boykin recently held a satirical mirror up to the legacy of slavery in the United States through her role in The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, a play that showcases the power of storytelling and the importance of PlayPenn. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames brought the show’s first draft to PlayPenn’s conference — a testament to the significance of a robust group of artists like Boykin who love bringing these stories to life.

“Theater is a community, a family,” she said. “I love the connection between storytelling and people that are hearing the story, as well as the camaraderie of a cast that’s close and have to trust each other every night on the stage.”