I met Noa Murray ’26 in Kohlberg Hall as the sun started to set on one of the more spring-like days Swarthmore has seen lately. Even as the light outside dimmed, the warmth and brightness Noa exudes lit up the room.
As a performer, Noa has a natural ease with presenting herself, and our conversation flowed effortlessly. For Noa, singing and theatre were not things she had to be taught to love. “My parents would play hip-hop songs in the house and me and my brothers would dance and sing to them … I just loved it, and I felt so free,” she remembered.
She had been dancing since she was three years old, but theatre wasn’t something she considered until a few years later. At age ten, Noa was introduced to acting, but her decision to join a community musical theatre program for the first time didn’t come from a love for the art itself: “I really wanted to [join the program], but I think it was because [my friends] were all doing it.”
But even then, success is a powerful motivator.
“I would get the lead consecutively,” she laughed, “and then I auditioned for a performing arts high school.” Murray attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York City, where she graduated as a drama major. But despite all of this success in the arts, Noa applied to Swarthmore with no intention of pursuing theatre.
“My senior year [show] was a crazy, absurd play … It was so wild and out-there,” she said. The experience of acting when none of her castmates liked or believed in the play created some distance between Noa and the art form she loved so much. Even as she described this growing distance from acting, it was clear that she hadn’t given up on it just yet.
“I feel like whenever I step away from theater, and I’m not in a project, or I’m not [acting], my mind always goes back to it. And then when I actually am [acting], I feel like I’ve arrived at home.”
I asked Noa if there was a performance she had been in or seen that inspired her to keep acting, and immediately she smiled.
“Last spring, I was home, and I watched ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ on Broadway. I was blown away,” she beamed. “The tech was amazing. The acting was amazing, and it just felt like I was immersed in it. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what I want to do.’”
Her excitement was palpable. Naturally, I next asked her if she had a dream role. She giggled a little before responding, “My favorite musical is ‘Hamilton,’ and I think Eliza Hamilton has always been a role that I really love. There’s something really beautiful about her story and also kind of sad, but I love ‘Burn’ and ‘That Would Be Enough.’” At this point, I was smiling right along with her and imagining her decked out in one of Eliza’s signature blue gowns.
Reflecting on whether a Swarthmore education had changed her perception of theatre, she paused for a moment.
“I think it has. I feel like here at [Swarthmore], because I’m taking classes that really make me think deeply about why [a] play is being written, why it’s being done now, and why it’s significant. It makes me really reflect on society and why I’m drawn to certain pieces. It’s opened up my mindset. I don’t want to just be an actor. I want to contribute to the table as much as I can.”
Having performed for most of her life, acting has become almost second nature to Noa, which made me wonder if she could even remember a life without theatre. Nevertheless, I asked her if she had learned anything about herself through acting.
“I think theatre has given me more confidence in myself,” she told me. But, she added, her understanding of theatre has only grown more nuanced the more she explores the art.
“One of my favorite parts in the rehearsal process is just sitting down with the cast and director and talking about what each character wants, what their relationship is with each other. I’m also a psychology major, so it’s one of my favorite parts because we really get to bring the characters to life.”
But Noa Murray is more than just an actress. Through theatre, she explained that she also learned that she really loves to sing. She began taking voice lessons at Swarthmore during her sophomore year. Despite her history in musical theatre and childhood singing along to her parents’ hip-hop favorites, singing did not come as naturally to her as acting.
“I feel like singing, even though I love it, it’s more vulnerable for me,” she admitted. “[Unlike acting], with singing, it’s not limiting, if anything, it’s like it’s infinite.”
Given her sense of openness and uncertainty, I wondered whether there had ever been a character she played that she found particularly difficult to crack. She was immediately reminded of a song.
“Okay, this isn’t an acting piece, but it’s a song. A [Stephen Sondheim] song called ‘I Remember.’ It’s probably one of my favorite songs to sing, but it’s hard for me to contextualize it because I don’t really know the story of the musical, which is maybe my fault.”
We shared a quick laugh before she continued, “I guess in the song, the character is remembering what life was like and just talking about nature and remembering all of these beautiful things. But it was hard for me when I was singing it [because] I didn’t really know who this character was.”
I asked her, in a perhaps overly nosy way, if there was anything personal she imagined when singing the song.
“When I sing this song, I immediately think of my grandma. She passed away a few years ago, but she always encouraged me to do the things that I really like, which are theatre, singing, and performing. And so I think about her, and it’s almost like I’m remembering her life and the love that she had for her family and me.”
Near the end of our interview, I asked Noa if there was anything else she wanted people to know about her. She nodded, “A goal that I have for myself is to be authentic. I feel like it’s super easy to conform or do something because it’s perceived well. It’s really important for me to bring my full self to a project or just to anything, because it goes a long way.”
Noa also wished to share a teaching from her hip-hop instructor Associate in Performance Kyle Clark: “[He] always emphasizes the difference between someone good versus someone great. And it’s not what they do, it’s how they do it. It’s the people who are willing to look foolish and crazy and ridiculous who are sometimes the most successful people.”
Later this semester, Noa Murray will be performing in both an original piece by Perxi Pu ’27, where she will play a stand-up comedian, and a voice recital where she’ll perform “Losing my Mind,” from Sondheim’s “Follies.”
