This week’s “Woman to Watch Out For” in Hamilton’s arts and entertainment scene is Ashley Huntington ’20. Huntington is a Women and Gender Studies major from Tiffin, O.H. She is a member of Special K, Hamilton’s oldest all women’s a cappella group, and is currently involved in
King Stag
, this fall’s Mainstage Production, playing Pantalone. Huntington has also been involved with other on campus performance groups in the past including the Hamilton College Choir, and student theater group Untitled at Large.
King Stag
is her first mainstage production, but she has performed in other plays at Hamilton, including
Baby with the Bathwater
, directed by Zach Oscar ’18 and Maggie Luddy ’20.
Of the performance groups that she has been involved with at Hamilton, Huntington feels the strongest connection to her a cappella group. She admires Special K’s focus on empowering women and emphasizes her appreciation for the support she has felt in the group. Huntington noted an example of this love and support: “This past week I had a really hard week, and I felt like everyone in Special K was there for me and giving me a shoulder or a hand or a hug when I needed… Even when I messed up on my lyrics in front of everyone [in our concert] on Friday and I was upset about it at the end, everyone in the group was there for me. The next night one of the members was giving me tips and saying ‘you got this,’ and I try to do the same for others in the group.”
Huntington’s performing career did not begin at Hamilton. She has been singing and acting throughout her entire life, attending musical theater camps, performing in her high school’s plays, and taking voice and guitar lessons. Huntington plans to continue performing when she leaves Hamilton. She said, “I don’t know what [my involvement with performing post-Hamilton] will look like, but [performing] is part of my identity. It’s how I creatively express myself.”
In addition to her passion for singing and acting, Huntington is also passionate about promoting feminist discussions at Hamilton. Currently, Huntington and Ms. Phyllis Breland, Hamilton’s Director of Opportunity Programs and Interim Director of Diversity and Inclusion, are co-facilitating a series of six workshops called “Woman to Woman.” Held in the Days-Massolo Center, “Woman to Woman” works to bring together white women and women of color, along with others who want to be in the conversation, to discuss the block between the two communities. Huntington further explained the workshops, saying, “We talk about privilege, identity, society at large, racism, and how we all hold vulnerabilities and fears that we should all talk about and bring light to and connect more. White women are still the cause for a lot of these systemic problems that we see. For example, 53 percent of white women voted for Trump in the 2016 election, and you often see white women continually not standing with the cause. You have seen that for a long time. The feminist movement in general has been very white, privileged, middle and upper class women, so this program is just trying to confront that history.”
When asked about a woman she looks up to in music or theatre, Huntington did not hesitate to gush about her admiration of Taylor Swift. Huntington said, “I have this emotional connection to Taylor Swift because I’ve been a fan of hers since her first EP came out, and I sang “Our Song” at a recital in a church when I was 10 or 11. I grew up with her. Even though I was in my teens and didn’t know what love was, there was still just this imagination to her words that I could empathize with. I know sometimes she may seem fake to people, but to me she seems genuine.” Huntington also discussed Swift’s recent decision to publicly voice her political opinions, something Swift has been criticized for withholding in the past: “I think it’s great. Obviously, it should have happened a long time ago, and there’s no excuse for that. However, I think it is good that she finally did. She addressed that there is still extreme homophobia, racism, and sexism everywhere, and that we as a people who care about this country’s future and our individual futures need to address those things.” She related Swift’s activism to the groups she is involved with at Hamilton: “We need to confront those things, and that could go in any platform, through Woman to Woman, or through Special K, or through the theatre department. We have to address all of these issues in the craft that we do.”
Watch out for Huntington as she continues to take Hamilton’s music and theatre scenes by storm!
