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“Being in the humanities can take a thick skin,” says Jason Kornelis (’11), who regularly performs with some of the top theatre companies in the Twin Cities. “There are times when you think, ‘What am I doing? How am I going to use this degree?’”

Kornelis most recently appeared in the Wayward Theatre’s production of Moliere’s Tartuffe. He’s also the founding member of a company, Conundrum Collective, that stages radio plays. The company recently produced Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds, using 1930s-style microphones and an onstage sound table. The company also has plans to start a podcast.

Kornelis says the Twin Cities theatre community is vibrant, multicultural, and “has a social justice bent.” He’s finding his place there, performing alongside well-regarded mainstays of the theatre world.

“Starting out after college definitely felt like jumping into the deep end of the pool. But I felt prepared—the toolkit was there. And I think that gave me an edge,” he says.