Through elementary school, middle school, and high school, Audrey Pettigrew ’28 kept playing out the same scene, telling her parents, a pharmaceutical rep and real estate firm owner, that comedy theater is her life.
The performances had a variety of healthy but critical receptions.
After completing a semester this past summer at Second City Chicago—where legends like Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and Tim Meadows started before their SNL days—this theatre and business major from Arlington, Texas, is undeniably winning over her chief audience.
“I'm the only member in my very big family who does any sort of fine arts, and that can be weird for my full family to wrap their head around,” Pettigrew says. Her family has told her, “‘Wow, that's so brave of you, Audrey. I would never have done something like that when I was in college.’ My parents have been supportive, but I’ve really had to show that I have the drive to make a career in comedy work.”
Trinity University has proven the perfect backdrop for her dramatic dreams. About one quarter of the student body here participates in fine arts, from music and theater to painting, sculpting, and photography. Through the stage, Pettigrew has found a variety of roles to audition for, connected with faculty who in turn connected her with big opportunities, and hasn’t felt pigeonholed into restrictive career tracks.
“At Trinity, I get to audition for big roles and have opportunities like my internship with Second City, but I also get to major in business, because I’m going to need a day job while I’m trying to break out.”
Pettigrew’s steps to her Chicago semester started small. Arriving on campus, she joined multiple improv groups, including a “longform” ensemble full of some of her best friends called Buddy Buddy. She wrote parodies for main-stage productions, and got her first big college break by earning the lead in Cabaret, calling the production “one of the best moments of my life.”
Theatre Professor Nathan Stith, Ph.D., directed Cabaret and pushed Pettigrew to apply to a summer study program at Columbia College Chicago, which partners with Second City to create a 12-credit hour semester away. Pettigrew credits Stith for a “really sweet letter of recommendation,” helping her just beat the application deadline.
“After Cabaret, Second City was another big milestone for proving to my parents that if I can get into this program, there's a future here that they can trust,” she says.
At Second City, Pettigrew found herself immersed in comedy, with classes in improvisation and sketch writing, live performances, and lessons on the history of how America has gotten some of its biggest laughs.
“It was a moment where I realized this is exactly what I want to do with my life,” she says.
Pettigrew's comedy draws on performers she admires, including Tina Fey, Mel Brooks, and Steve Martin. She embraces the challenge of understanding an audience.
Pettigrew lights up in sketches that embrace awkward misunderstandings. One idea, poking fun at the online “manosphere” pairs two men, one who's convinced they're simply best friends, and the other who's convinced they're dating. Another takes the form of an old Hollywood farce, with rival film crews disrupting a movie production through disguises, closet entrances, and escalating absurdity.
But Pettigrew’s journey hasn’t been all smiles. As a neurodivergent student, she recalls feeling apprehensive about the start of college, and fretting about how a small campus would lead to competition for roles.
Instead, Pettigrew discovered a department where students can get involved early and try different roles, from performing and writing to stage management and design.
“At Trinity, you're immediately given the opportunity to get involved in the Trinity theater community and to find what things about theater and about creation you really love,” she says.
For now, Pettigrew is keeping her eyes on the soft stage lights here on campus. She’s got another major production ahead in Trinity's upcoming The Play That Goes Wrong.
It’s made possible in part by the Carlos Alvarez School of Arts and Humanities, which was established in 2025 after the Alvarez family's $25 million gift to the university to name the school.
“I have an overwhelming joy about writing comedy,” Pettigrew says, “and I’ve never felt more serious about my future.”