This Pitt alumna brings her passion for sustainability to the stage

In her junior year at Pitt, Sydney DuBose found herself in a situation no one ever wants to experience: an improv comedy exercise.

DuBose (A&S ’22), then an environmental studies major, was at a group retreat with her fellow Pitt Pathfinders, and a local improv company was leading an activity. But strangely, she didn’t feel nervous like her colleagues. Instead, she was intrigued by the creativity and connection that emerged from the exercises.

Lately, as DuBose’s serious interest and studies in sustainability have influenced her work on stage, she’s also found her experience in the comedy world has helped her grow in her professional roles. Right now, she’s using the storytelling skills she’s developed in the theater as a Climate Justice Fellow at Second Nature, an organization that works to accelerate sustainability in higher education.

“I really love embracing the awkwardness and the failure that can come with improv,” she said. “Because I think it’s not really failure; it’s just, how do we make these things work?”

And make it work she has. Between making up scenes on the fly with fellow improvisers, writing sketches and performing eco-friendly stand-up comedy routines, DuBose now rarely goes a week without appearing on a stage in the city.

Theater always found her at the right time, she explained. Early on in her Pitt experience, she was cast as Minola McKnight in Pitt Stages’ mainstage production of “Parade,” which quickly redefined her college experience.

“It was my first semester on campus, and I was so busy because I was also studying to be a Pathfinder,” she said. All she had to do to feel calm was think of theater.

Inspired by that experience, DuBose added a minor from the Department of Theatre Arts, along with her coursework on environmental science. She also started a “plogging” club, where she and fellow students jogged and picked up litter around the Pittsburgh campus, and was invited to join Pitt Pathfinders, where she had what turned out to be another formative acting experience at that fateful retreat.

So, when she felt the pull of the stage after graduating, DuBose reconnected with the Steel City Improv Theater and signed up for its introductory class. Looking back on the fun and lasting relationships that resulted from it and the support she received from her troupe, “It just felt like I was supposed to find it when I did,” she said.

Before long, DuBose had completed additional courses on scene-building, character work and even musical improv, all while working and performing at theaters around the city. She formed a sketch comedy group, Sisterhood of Slay, and began writing stand-up comedy routines, often informed by her environmental studies coursework at Pitt.

Even as she pursues sustainability professionally, she’s found a way to use her unique talents to carry on the work she did as an undergrad — introducing people to sustainable habits in an approachable way.

When audiences hear DuBose joke about invasive species like lanternflies in her stand-up or watch her sketch about oat milk enthusiasts, “they’re not having a lot of dread about it,” she said. “They can laugh and then be like, oh, that is a thing I should know more about.

“I think it’s so important to, yes, give people data,” DuBose said. “But numbers aren't always going to be like what people hold on to, and I think stories of how it pertains to them or how they connect to other people are more impactful.”

Where to watch

You can catch DuBose as she performs with Well Known Strangers on May 31 and with Barbara, A Mother on June 13. Both shows are at Arcade Comedy Theater in downtown Pittsburgh.

Photography courtesy of Sydney DuBose