After learning to dance at five years old, Patsy Collins Bandes dreamed of being a ballerina.
Her plans eventually changed after she sustained an injury in high school. However, she quickly found her passion in theater while performing in plays at school. She went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in theater with an emphasis in directing from the University of Northern Colorado.
“It’s really been home since I was a kid, the arts and the stage,” said Collins Bandes, who is the new chair of theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
After graduation, she joined Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, Tennessee. A year and a half later, she returned to her hometown of Denver, where she balanced working at the Denver Center Theater Company, the National Theater Conservatory and freelance projects.
One of her most memorable plays was working on “The Laramie Project” at the Denver theater. The story followed the murder of University of Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepard and its aftermath.
“Walking into that theater with the original artists, where many of those people who were portrayed on stage came to see it, was incredibly powerful,” said Collins Bandes.
After seven years in Denver, she moved to Massachusetts to become a production stage manager at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2004.
