Playwright leaves finance industry to pursue a life with 'art at the center'

Photo by Abigail Wilt
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series of profiles of notable spring 2025 graduates.
Claire Dettloff, who graduates this spring from the School of Music, Dance and Theatre with an MFA in theatre (with a focus on dramatic writing), is being recognized as an Outstanding Student for Excellence and Innovation in Creative Practice by the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University.
Dettloff said this degree has helped her return to her passion. In 2020, Dettloff graduated with a double major in musical theatre and journalism as well as a minor in classical piano from Central Michigan University.
“It was a really weird year because of COVID,” she said. “I got a job at Rocket Mortgage in Phoenix and lived a whole life in finance in a Fortune 500 company. But I had always dreamed of living a life with art at the center of it, and I had gotten away from that.”
She chose ASU’s program because of its proximity and the expert faculty she knew in the program.
“Logistically ASU made the most sense,” Dettloff said. “I wasn’t ready to do a huge move. And I’d heard great things about the program. A lot of people and professionals knew about ASU, so I knew I had connections there.”
During her time in the ASU theater program, she’s been busy researching, creating and devising new work. This past semester, in addition to having her original play “over my dead body there’ll be a pillow fight (the sleepover play)” fully produced by the ASU theater program, Dettloff also presented a reading of her original play “The Last Sundae” for her thesis.
“I did a lot of research to discover the artifacts of girlhood and all of these rituals that we do that are often discounted as silly,” Dettloff said. “So many of those things hold so much more depth than we are often given credit for. Those explorations, writing from my roots as a young woman, are trying to really highlight a message that has been subverted for so long — the girlhood that we women carry through.”
Her mentor and MFA thesis chair, Assistant Professor Karen Jean Martinson, noted Dettloff’s ability to highlight these stories.
“What is most exciting about Claire is the way her writing seeks to center female voices in a way that crosses generations,” Martinson said. “She wrote her ‘sleepover play’ about young women her age in order to write her applied project play ‘The Last Sundae’ about her grandma’s generation. What she’s found are these timeless truths about the way women work, the way women play and the way women love those around them.”
Dettloff said her time at ASU has helped her to grow as an artist and as a person.
“I have learned so much, and I’m a completely different person,” she said. “I feel like I’ve found my footing in the industry but also as a person in the world in a way I never had before. Coming here and trying to discover my artistic voice and all the introspection that graduate school demands really forced me to get to know myself more than I ever thought I would.”
Question: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study theatre?
Answer: I’ve been a classical pianist for 20 years. I taught myself to compose on paper; I didn’t have formal composition training. For my undergraduate honors capstone project, I had this silly idea that I would write a musical — and then I did. I spent three years writing a musical called “Semantics,” which I later submitted as my application to ASU. It was such a fulfilling experience writing a full-length show with 26 songs. Then I was commissioned to adapt it for a COVID-safe version in 2021 for Central Michigan University.
I always wanted to do theater. I’m the youngest of three. I grew up watching my siblings doing musicals, and my mom would do the costumes so we would all be at tech rehearsals. I always liked music and singing. The first musical I could do was I was in every school show I could be, and I did community theater. And I would accompany my school choirs on the piano and volunteer. Every chance I had, I was doing something theatrical.
There was always this kind of funny reputation I had with all the other very serious musicians that I was “Claire, the theater girl.” But I could also play piano very seriously. That interdisciplinary relationship for me started very early on and felt like a really natural progression then to majoring in musical theater in college.
Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU — in the classroom or otherwise — that surprised you or changed your perspective?
A: ASU gave me opportunities to go and find my voice. For the last two summers, I was admitted to the Valdez Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, with some of the grants from GSA. And my play “Stuffed” was actually a finalist in the Samuel French Off Broadway Short Play Festival run by Concord Theatricals in New York. So I got to go for a week in August and have my New York debut as a playwright, which was so exciting. And I got to meet so many amazing people. Those experiences being in a room that diverse was really helpful for me to discover what I'm really trying to say, no matter who's in the room.
Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU?
A: I’ve been exposed to dramaturgy in a capacity that I never thought I would. That’s thanks to Dr. Karen Jean Martinson. I dramaturged this fall, and method dramaturgy has now been integrated into my work as a writer. It has really helped me in a dramaturgical sense because I have opened more access points in accessing the world of a play. Dramaturgy as a discipline and all of the lenses it provides has been a huge discovery at school.
Also, my colleague Thomas Underdal has taught me so much about research and history — watching him work and lean into what makes him passionate. Witnessing his work and his process and the stark differences in both of our methodologies has helped me discover what makes me tick. I would say Thomas has been a huge inspiration to me.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?
A: I would say move forward with confidence in knowing there are actually no rules. There’s no one right way to do it. There’s no one right way to draft a play or write a conference paper. There’s no one right thing to focus on. For me as a playwright, I’ve felt pressure to diversify my portfolio, but at the end of the day, the work that has been most successful has been the work that’s been rooted in what I love and what makes me excited. It’s brought that joy to other people and other communities. Move forward with trusting your instincts. You will find your way.
Q: What was your favorite spot on campus?
A: I live in central Phoenix, so I commute. I don’t hang out too often. I do love the Secret Garden by Dixie Gammage, and I have spent a lot of time in the library. I like when people buzz around me.
Q: What are your plans after graduation?
A: After graduation, I will be music directing for Phoenix Theatre Company summer camps. At the end of June, Thomas and I will present at the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs conference panel presentation together, and then I will be giving a five-minute presentation about a tough experience I had in a feedback session. I will be posting questions and thought bubbles to discuss the framework and structures around critical commentary: how to root critical conversation about plays in the access point of the playwright rather than where we are all coming from.
One of my big points of research as an interdisciplinary artist writing new musicals is to invite actors and young professionals into the creative process. One of the things I discovered was that I had a great advantage because of my rigorous musical training. That training is time-consuming and expensive. I noticed I had an advantage — I didn’t have to pay an accompanist. I could learn the music quickly and cover more ground. As a music director and composer, I’m working on a method of how to bring fundamentals of music education into the process to build a scaffolding framework for students to get better.
I’m hoping to work in higher education in musical theater so I can continue to do that work to bridge that gap of privilege that makes theatre and arts education less accessible and feel less necessary for students. I want to increase that accessibility so that theatre can continue to grow as an art. I think the more that we can build up an immense and diverse population of new artists to enter the field, the more growth and excitement we'll see in the field as a whole — nationally, internationally, all around.
Q: If someone gave you money to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?
A: As a playwright, all I think about are problems that I'm then questioning in storytelling. I am passionate about the environment and conservation. Theater as an art form can be incredibly unsustainable — the constantly building props and costumes and the amount of resources it takes to put together art. This is something I do try to be conscious of in my playwriting: How can we do things minimally? And definitely, Anthropocene is always on my mind since seeing that show twice on campus. It's a hot topic, and something that artists especially can take action within the field on.
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