Rachel E. Flynn ’09

An amazing voice and outstanding performing faculty are some of the qualities that earned Rachel E. Flynn ’09 the Radcliffe Doris Cohen Levi Prize for achieving excellence in an extensive repertoire of musical theater.

“It was such an honor,” she says. “The OFA has been such a tremendous organization of support who have been so wonderful in coming to our shows and being behind us. It was lovely to get this prize.”

A college-long member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club, she recently starred as Luisa Contini in the New College Theatre production of “Nine” and as Mrs. Lovett in last year’s Loeb Mainstage performance of “Sweeny Todd.” Of all her roles, Flynn cherishes this one the most.

“It was an incredible experience. We were lucky because the movie was just coming out and President Faust, who is such a huge supporter of the arts, came to watch along with many of the faculty,” Flynn says. “We had sold out shows and it felt like you got to be a rock star for a little bit. It was a crazy show to be a part of.”

Flynn relishes performing in musical theater for its combination of the best of two worlds: singing and acting. At an early age, Flynn was influenced by the presence of music and theater in her household. Her father is a guitarist and her older sister is an actress and a playwright.

Flynn started singing in elementary school and began performing later on, taking part in community and school theater; she also participated in singing competitions and performed at weddings and other smaller occasions.

Unsure that she was going to continue pursuing her interests in the arts, Flynn decided to enroll in the Harvard orientation Freshman Arts Program (FAP); she ended up sticking with it as a leader for the next three years, holding the position of senior proctor this year and serving an instrumental role in running the program and organizing the events for the incoming freshman.

“The ones that I’m leaving with the most memories of and the ones who have shaped who I am both as a performer and as a Harvard person are the shows through the HRDC and my experience [with] FAP,” Flynn says. “I’ve been involved with both for four years, and I’d be a very different actress and singer if I wasn’t involved in those two organizations.”

Flynn realized halfway through her first year at Harvard that she was going to pursue a career in musical theater, and now she will be “creatively unemployed” next year, as she will move to New York City to try her luck in making it on the big stage: Broadway.

Flynn has come a long way from her beginnings as an irresolute freshman, and it all started with a change of perspective: “Realizing that going to Harvard and doing theater weren’t two separate things was important, because seeing that that was a possibility made me say ‘Ok, I guess I can do this for four years.’”