Spend a moment listening to Katie Marie Walters and you can feel that she’s an artist. “I am from Pittsburgh, but I grew up in a small suburb of Etna,” she says. “My grandparents, Carmen and Dolly Venezia, raised me. I loved it there, waking up every morning to my Grandma frying bacon and making my Pappy coffee, two creams and two sugars, and then eating on the porch while listening to the birds sing. When it rained, we would watch the storm from the porch, the street below like a river, and my grandmother would whisper in my ear: See how the fog rolls from the mountains? We Cherokee believe that those are souls rising from the hills to heaven. It was a beautiful place to live.”
Walters found her second home at Chatham. “I came to Chatham during the winter of 2010 for the World Ready Women Scholarship Day; the snow and how the gas lights looked made me feel like I was in a Charles Dickens novel. Then I was interviewed by Dr. Lenz; we chatted about puns and Freud.” Walters loved the school immediately, but she didn’t enroll right away; a family decision led her to another university for a year before she chose to be a Cougar. “I personally raised $900 for myself and got in to Chatham. I love it; I could not be happier.”
Walters is no stranger to change. “Last year I either wanted to be a neurologist or a nun,” she says. “I went to convent camp and everything, but through praying to God I decided that I would love nothing better than to be an English teacher.”
Now that she knows what she wants to do, the English and Secondary Education double major is focused on the future. She hopes to be accepted to Teach for America, an intensely competitive program that places passionate college students in the public schools of rural and urban communities. “Over the summer while I was working 40 hour weeks, I also had a teaching internship in which I helped develop lesson plans for adult morality courses with the Diocese of Pittsburgh. I also am a teaching aid at St. Mary’s of the Assumption in Glenshaw; I am doing everything possible to make sure when I graduate I can get into this program.”
Earlier this year, Walters started in on her newest project: a production of Death of a Salesman featuring city school students. “I brainstormed with my British Writers TA, Leah Brennan, for a while about possible ways to get into Teach for America, and during one of our conversations we developed this idea together.” Walters certainly isn’t new to theater. “For the past 4 years, I have been cast as the lead in St. Mary of the Assumption productions…the money from ticket sales went to global charities.” But producing? “I have never done this before in my life.” The project is a challenge, but Walters isn’t intimidated. “When the play is performed and each teen is applauded for his or her brilliance, it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
Why Death of a Salesman? “It was originally going to be ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ by Washington Irving, but after my director, Max Kondziolka, and I looked at the script we decided against it. We had a video chat…and I just started listing possible plays; Death of a Salesman stuck.” Walters and Kondziolk are going all out for the production. Maria Shoop connected Walters to the Theater Club; the organization is offering full assistance. Chatham student Kayla Mento created the audition flyer and Stephanie Welling, class of 2014, is handling set design. “We wanted an original score to go along with the play,” Walters adds, “so our friend, Mathew Breslof at Penn State, is composing music for the play.”
Walters will donate all proceeds to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. “I am like Ronald Dahl’s Matilda,” she says. “I have always loved books and loved reading. There is nothing better than getting lost in a library, finding yourself behind a stack of books and disappearing for hours inside a story. Everyone should have that experience, and I want to help make it that way.”
Auditions are January 7th, and all teens from city schools are invited to go out for a part. “Anyone who is not cast is encouraged to join stage crew, makeup, costume, etc.” she says. “This is supposed to be a chance for teens to be able to express themselves and build confidence, and I want to make sure this possibility becomes an actuality.” Knowing Walters, there’s no doubt it will.
“The night of the performance they can expect a full house and the nerves of the teens, the director, and I flowing through the air,” she says. “They can expect [a] great set, amazing actors, and a play that not only contains drama but an immense amount of heart.”
Email kwalters@chatham.edu if you’d like to get involved. For more information, check out the event page on Facebook.