Fiercely for discovery of self, career and world: Claire Richardson ’16 establishes performing arts experiential learning endowment

Claire Richardson grew up as the creative and curious youngest of three athletic children. She had shot up to 6 feet, 2 inches tall by age 14 — catching up to her big brother and shooting past her older sister — and had a great passion for volleyball. However, she always felt called by stories — from books, from movies and television, from the stage, and from travel. She spent a lot of time reading and daydreaming, and by middle school, she knew she had a passion for the performing arts. By the end of high school, she knew that’s what she wanted to study.

Richardson’s two older siblings followed in their grandfather’s footsteps as college athletes at Wofford College. However, Claire went her own way and chose Clemson University for its Department of Performing Arts. She wanted a large university with a small but mighty performing arts program that could provide the personal coaching she needed to develop as an actress. She wasn’t the first Tiger in her family, though — her mother, Kathleen Crouch Richardson ’81, and her uncle, Clemson trustee Mark Richardson ’83, both attended Clemson.

Though Claire’s dad, Jon Richardson, went to the University of North Carolina, there were additional special ties to Clemson through football, both collegiate and professional. While Jon played football for the Tarheels, his younger brother, Mark, played for Clemson. The biggest game they played against one another was on November 7, 1981, where Clemson won and secured the ACC title. Clemson would go on and win the National Championship later that season. Fast forward to 1995, Jon was the Director of Stadium Operations for the Carolina Panthers through 2009. During the team’s inaugural season in 1995, the Panthers played all their “home” games at Clemson while the stadium was under construction in Charlotte, and Jon played a big role in coordinating the back-and-forth and making sure everything ran smoothly. In 2012, Claire launched the next generation of the Richardsons’ Clemson Family as a freshman in the performing arts program.

Support in All Seasons

From her Clemson audition senior year of high school through her first productions freshman year, her first leading role as a sophomore and last as a senior, and to this day as a proud alumna, she was surrounded by consistent support from department faculty and staff. Claire’s Clemson Journey was filled with examples of how much the University cares about students, supporting them both professionally and personally and creating safe, healthy environments to learn more about themselves and the world around them.

Theatre professor Kerrie Seymour was especially grounding for Claire and never more so than the summer between freshman and sophomore year, when Claire’s father Jon passed away. Her father had been battling cancer since she was 5 years old, but he had always rallied and been front and center at Claire’s sporting and theatre events. Claire has great memories of growing up with her dad joyfully leading the family through adventures at Disney World and driving narrow roads on the left-hand side on a family road trip in Ireland. However, as Claire entered college, he had slowed down as his illness returned, and his absence was felt strongly during Claire’s college performances and later her graduation. The understanding and protective support Claire received from Seymour and others allowed her the safety and security to still find her joy and herself in her Clemson classes, experiential learning opportunities and study abroad.

Whether it was collecting water bottles in the stadium after game days for the set of “Eurydice,” working to be off book by the first day of class to play Red for “Late, A Cowboy Song” in the first fall production or crushing everyone at volleyball at the performing arts picnics, Richardson’s Clemson Experience provided her with the community, respect and care, friendship, independence, and safety she needed to flourish.

Richardson’s Clemson Journey culminated in four months in London as part of an American Arts exchange program with Rose Bruford College. The Clemson cohort took classes and also lived in a house together with a British student who studied with them in South Carolina the semester before. The opportunity for that experience outweighed walking the graduation stage in Clemson. While her classmates back in South Carolina prepared to throw their caps in the air, she had signed on for several more weeks of schoolwork and a 20-page paper comparing U.S. and U.K. theater. That intensity and focus is perfectly aligned with who Claire was then and who she is now.

“From the moment I watched Claire’s audition for the program, I was struck by her innovative creativity and her bold and compelling choices. During her time as a Clemson student, she continually doubled down on those traits, making herself a leading creator on our stages and in the classroom. Always leading, always delighting and always creating.”

Kerrie Seymour, Associate Professor of Theatre, Clemson University

Giving back to move students Fiercely Forward

Richardson launched from Clemson directly into a Master of Fine Arts program in acting and, by 2019, found herself living and working in New York City. In between productions and projects, Richardson expanded her training with classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade and Comedy Cellar. In 2024, Richardson leapt into screenwriting and her first TV pilot, “Black Sheep,” which she entered into the 2025 Austin Film Festival. Richardson received Second Rounders recognition, meaning “Black Sheep” was in the top 20 percent selected from a field of more than 11,500 scripts entered in that year’s script competitions. In both her performing and her writing, Richardson enjoys blending heartbreak and hilarity. She just completed her second pilot, “Full-Bodied,” and plans on entering it into competitions and studio fellowships later this year.

Through the ups and downs of grad school and moving, the challenges to the arts during COVID, and the new opportunities she has found along the way, Claire’s father was never far from her mind. Jon Richardson always encouraged his children to think about how they might one day give back in gratitude for all they have received. After thoughtful consideration, Claire has established the Jon Richardson Experiential Learning Endowed Travel Grant-in-Aid in her father’s memory. This impactful endowment will support experiential learning opportunities for Clemson’s performing arts students, ensuring that current and future generations of Tigers can have the same transformative experiences that shaped her both personally and professionally.

“Claire’s story is the ideal example of what we intend for our students and embodies the notion of providing the No. 1 Student Experience,” writes Nicholas Vazsonyi, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. “The story about preferring to stay in London rather than attend graduation points to the significance of experiential learning and the transformative power of studying abroad. That Claire is willing to give back and pay forward so future students can have that same opportunity says everything about her and is what we mean by ‘Clemson Family.’”

Additionally, this coming August, The Clemson Players, the University’s student theatre ensemble, will get to attend the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. This festival runs almost the entire month and takes over every stage in the city with performances across all genres, from comedy and musicals to dramas and improv. Special experiences like this would not be possible for most students without the generous support of donors like Richardson.

“Claire Richardson was involved with the department from the beginning of her time with The Clemson Players. She was always present in the building and willing to step in when she saw someone in need of help.  She took risks as an actor that helped her grow and served as an example to those who followed her on how to be persistent and take chances in approaching the art form.”

Matt Leckenbusch, Principal Lecturer, Production Manager and Technical Director for the Clemson Players

The Clemson Players, traveling this August thanks to Claire Richardson’s investment in experiential learning for performing arts students, are already being impacted. “This trip has already offered me many opportunities. This is the first devised piece I have ever gotten to work on. I have been a fan of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a long time, and I never would have thought I would be able to go to the festival, much less bring a production,” writes Caroline Plumb ’28, a performing arts (theatre) and English major from Leawood, Kansas. “Not only have I learned how to market myself, but I have also learned how to build a production from the ground up.  I am incredibly grateful to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel with such a great department.”

“Getting the opportunity to take a Clemson Players production to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is something that will truly change my life,” added Logan Davis ’27, a performing arts (theatre) and criminal justice major from Asheville, North Carolina. “As a stage manager and a first-generation college student, being able to work on a show that will be performed on one of the most renowned theatre stages in the world is an experience I never imagined having. I look forward to being surrounded by artists from around the globe and seeing how theatre connects people across cultures.”

The incredible experiences and opportunities Richardson is providing our current and future performing arts students will elevate the department and move the students and our University Fiercely Forward.

“I am fiercely for students discovering a better understanding of themselves, of who they are and their place in the world. I am willing to invest in Clemson because the staff and the professors actually care about the future of their students — their future professions and just as human beings.”

Claire Richardson ’16