Zoe Donovan: someone I am inclined to call a wunderkind, but that's hardly fair! She is only two years younger than me, but has such a vibrant spirit and novel approach to creativity, it's hard not to acknowledge how wise beyond her years she is.
I was first introduced to Zoe as an artist by watching her in Nightmares Spring From American Dreams, a play in which she performed alongside friend of the pod/mag Will Tway at the First Flight Showcase. While I was blown away by every performer that evening, her and Will stood out to me because of the incredible command they had over their physicality: in addition to the content of their play being incredibly potent and topical, their physical stage presence reminded me of how powerful it can be when actors remember to use the full extent of their physical bodies to take up space both on the stage and within the consciousness of their audience.
It is no surprise that Zoe had the forethought and follow-through to include so much of herself physically and emotionally in the performance, because she has made a constant practice out of probing, challenging, and shaping her artistic identity.. On top of living in an inherently creative household (her mother is an actress and singer and her father is a bassist), her academic and extracurricular environments encouraged her, from a very young age, to challenge her preconceived artistic limits, and on her own terms.
“When I was in fourth grade, I got everybody together to make a play. I directed this chaotic group of fourth graders and I think we did it at a children's hospital. I played a pseudo-Medusa character and stressed about what my costume was going to be. I remember feeling a very acute ownership over that in a way that I hadn't before. That was my first theatre experience.”
Still today, being a creative on her own terms is Zoe’s number one priority; she is dedicated to being an eternal student and researcher, diving headfirst into what she loves and is called to pursue. Along the way, she’s had multiple teachers and peers who have encouraged and played a part in stoking the embers of that curiosity.
“My professor [SAMMUS, aka Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo] spoke at a class that I took when I was a freshman and I saw that she was incorporating academics into her artistic journey. I thought, ‘how do you do all these things at once?’ And she told me, ‘you throw yourself headfirst into one thing, and then you throw yourself headfirst into the next thing. They're all a part of you, you just take turns.’ She later became the adviser for my music capstone.”
“My dear friend Aaliyah was the first person that ever paid me to play bass. She's an incredible French horn player, composer, songwriter, vocalist, businesswoman, everything. She was the first person that made me feel like I have enough to bring to the table; she took me seriously in a way that no one else had.”
As well as being among the most thoughtful and talented people I have met, Zoe is also just cool: plain and simple. Her uniform, which she referred to on our call as “her shield”: an oversized short sleeve button-down layered over a black tank top, paired with Carhartt jeans and her chunky, green Adidas sneakers.
And her essentials? Practical and conceptual, my favorite kind.
Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Swivel Stick
Something olive green
Glasses case
A walk to daydream, ideally by a body of water
When her hair is long
You can see Zoe play bass in Goddess at The Public Theater here in NYC <3