Weston graduate Miranda Craigwell learned from adversity

Tommy Cassell Sports Correspondent
Due to a knee injury her senior year, basketball at Brown University didn't turn out the way Miranda Craigwell wanted it to. But she had another plans. COURTESTY PHOTO

Sometimes it takes a little adversity to figure out who you really are.

Just ask Miranda Craigwell.

During Craigwell’s senior year at Brown University in 2004, the Weston alum (’00) went down with a dislocated knee and missed most of the Ivy League basketball season.

So with time to ponder her future, Craigwell finally realized that athletics was a good foundation for who she was but not exactly for who she wanted to become.

"I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do outside of basketball," Craigwell said. "Brown was a great transition because I had the sport and I had the life but it was coming to a close. It wasn’t a tragic injury but it was enough for me to be like well now I can look for other things and see the other side of me."

When Craigwell, 32, graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in literature and cultures in English, she won a fellowship to study anything she wanted anywhere in the world.

A perfect excuse for her to explore that other side.

So Craigwell picked eighteenth century female letter writers and epistolary theory as the anything and London as the anywhere.

It was a far cry from her average fast-break drill at Pizzitola Sports Center (where Brown University plays basketball).

"London was my perfect escape to be able to explore the world of theatre and performance," Craigwell said. "Once I experienced it, I loved it and enjoyed it so much."

While abroad, Craigwell began performing in Slam poetry competitions before being named the Farrago Central London Slam Poet Champion in 2005.

"Slam Poetry was something I never did at Brown or Weston because I was always an athlete," Craigwell said. "I wasn’t able to dabble in arts and it was something I always wanted to do."

So she did, for four years in London, where she received a Master’s degree with Distinction from Rose Bruford College of Drama for both acting and playwriting. But with living in London came a lot of other responsibilities, mainly three jobs just to stay afloat.

So Craigwell returned home.

"It was an expensive city with lots going on and it was exciting but I wasn’t really working like I wanted to," Craigwell said. "If I had my way about things, I wouldn’t have come back but London was a real growing experience for me.

"I wasn’t the captain of the team or the oldest of the family," added Craigwell, who is the oldest of five siblings. "I was able to figure out what I really wanted to do and that’s really intoxicating. I wanted to stay but I knew I had some goals for my career and that really didn’t happen in London so I left."

In 2009, Craigwell moved back to Boston and started working with the Huntington Theatre Company. The transition opened many doors for Craigwell, in both acting and writing. She also has teamed up with her younger brother, Noah, who is the CEO of Beyond MEASURE productions LLC.

"I do a lot of writing and directing for Noah," Miranda said. "He’s the director and knows about all the equipment and writing and I’m more of the story editor, casting director and talent director."

Both Miranda and Noah hope that Beyond MEASURE can someday grow into a company with full-time employees that can make waves in the Boston community.

For now, Miranda is dabbling in all sorts of things, her latest project coming in the Huntington Theatre Company’s world premier of Smart People where she played Valeria, a recent graduate from Harvard Acting School.

Little did she know that her experience at Brown would actually help with her acting roles.

"It wasn’t hard at all (pretending to be from Harvard)," Craigwell joked. "It was nice because I know the Ivy League culture."

Craigwell also said it was nice to receive support from the Weston community.

"It was amazing doing a great local piece and also having some of the Weston community come out to support me," Craigwell said. "A lot of the Weston community came out and saw it. Some people not knowing I was in it. I would get notes from Mr. Hartman, my old English teacher, and Carol Ott who was another old teacher."

Now, Craigwell is working on another show called "Doubt", which some of you may know from the 2008 movie starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep.

Miranda will be playing the role of Mrs. Muller at the Stoneham Theatre, which opens September 11th and runs through the end of the month.

"It’s a great play," Craigwell said. "It’s got a wonderful local cast."

Craigwell has also been casted as Lady Cauplet in Romeo and Juliet (Actor’s Shakespeare Project), Selector in How We Got On (Company One), Shylock in Merchant of Venus (Zero Point Theater), Silvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), Susan in Race (New Rep), and Oya/Shaunta Iyun in The Brother/Sister Plays** (Company One).

She also recently made a trip back to her old stomping grounds to help out with some soon-to-be actors.

"I worked at Weston Middle School for a few sessions in scene studies with Ms. Katz," Craigwell said. "I also did an art camp at the Cambridge School of Weston and was the guest artist of the day. It was great to be in Weston with a lot of talented kids and to be able to talk to them and hang out with them."

And Craigwell hopes her return is a tribute to all of those that helped her along the way at Weston.

"I’ll never forget the little moments," Craigwell said. "Everybody that was in my life and saw something in me, and saw that thing, that thing is now being realized now and I appreciate it. "

Even though it took a little push, or twist of the knee, to get Craigwell to realize it – the former basketball star is now finding her way as a different type of performer.

And she feels right at home.