Artist Profile: Claire R. Liu ’26 on Combining Unlikely Interests in the Theater World

Like many students at Harvard, when Claire R. Liu ’26 arrived on campus, she decided to blend her passion for real-world impact and the arts — ultimately deciding upon a joint concentration in Economics and Theater, Dance & Media.

“Money talks in the U.S. so I thought that [economics] could be a good way to create the impact I wanted to see,” Liu said in an interview with The Crimson.

Claire first was drawn to theater through her interests in books and movies growing up. When pinpointing a single moment for Liu, it was upon watching the 2012 film adaptation of Les Miserables with her father in middle school.

“I was in fifth grade or sixth grade and I think that was kind of my ‘gateway drug’ — where I started listening to the recordings and I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s this whole world of musical theater out there.’ So I actually came in through musical theater,” Liu said.

Liu described that she thought she had missed her opportunity to join the theater community.

“I thought I was too late, which I think is hilarious now. Being a 13 year old, I was like, ‘I’m too old for this game,’” she said.

Once she caught the theater bug, Liu became more involved in her high school’s program.

“I had a really great high school theater teacher and he gave me the opportunity to write and direct my first play. And then that ended up taking me down a route of playwriting and directing in high school. Eventually coming into Harvard, I knew that either theater or film — something in the arts — I wanted to make my life into,” Liu said.

As her senior thesis, Liu wrote, directed, and produced an original immersive play: “The Fate of Poetry.” However, her journey into some of these roles — specifically producing — were separately immersive experiences themselves.

“I don’t know if I actually ever officially learned how to produce. But I think what I realized is it’s a lot of just taking ownership of being a team member,” Liu said. “Your entire job is really making sure that the whole executive team, all the designers, all the cast have the resources they need and have the environment, and space, and comfort that they need to really do their jobs.”

Throughout her plays, Liu strives to address real-world themes that are important to her. This approach started with her very first one-act play in high school.

“It was about the upstairs lounge arson attack from the 1970s in New Orleans. So that’s where I think social justice and social impact bled through. and I realized that you could put that story on stage and talk about emotions, and grief, and processes that people really need help with,” she said.

This drive to present meaningful stories on stage continued through “The Fate of Poetry.” The play was inspired by Greek mythological heroine Ariadne and is set on the eve of McCarthyism in 1948’s New York City. The show follows a producer, Aria, on the night of her first show’s preview. Throughout the play, things continually go wrong, and Aria’s commitment to clinging to her hopes and dreams are at the forefront.

The play deals with the overall terror of being an artist in the world, taking inspiration from a variety of works of art including “Black Swan,” “A Chorus Line,” and “Sunset Boulevard,” along with the myth of Ariadne.

Liu’s format for the project was influenced by her experience with many surrealist and immersive works.

“The two immersive shows that I think really inspired me were ‘Sleep No More’ and ‘Life and Trust,’” said Liu.

Immersive theater is not a common formatting for plays; however, Liu was captivated by it, leading to her creative decisions for “The Fate of Poetry.” Liu describes thai performance style as a mix between a traditional play and a haunted house. In this setting, the audience becomes a character within the play, resulting in a certain autonomy and agency not found in a traditional show.

“It creates an experience in a world that should hopefully feel almost seamless — even if it’s absurd, or crazy, or all these hectic things are happening,” she said.

Liu integrated this approach into her play by starting the production in the lobby, where an actress posed as the front of house manager and directed the audience. Upon entrance into the theater, Liu then placed the crowd on the stage.

She finds that immersive plays present their own unique challenges. For Liu, the learning process was a dynamic one, involving a lot of trial and error — but she was ultimately happy with how it was carried out in “The Fate of Poetry.”

Over the year and a half process, she was involved in every aspect of the project. In addition to conceiving the idea and writing the show, Liu also carried out its stage design, stage managing, music composition, and a little bit of choreography.

“I’m really grateful that all the team members I did have were so willing to have this multidisciplinary approach to it, where a bunch of our actors ended up helping out with tech stuff, and preparing their own props, and making sure that they were helping out with some of the magic,” Liu said.

Liu graduated in May 2026, and now she is headed to the West Coast to further explore the ways in which she can continue to pursue her artistic passions.

“I have a day job in consulting to be able to move to L.A., but the goal is really to work on films and more artistic projects while I’m there. Obviously writing and directing is my bread and butter, but the past couple of years — actually at Harvard — I’ve been getting more into acting. So hopefully just auditioning, writing, and creating more projects on my own while I’m in LA,” Liu said.

— Staff writer Caroline D. Cox can be reached at [email protected].