The Educated Actor: Erik Bloomquist ’14 on Craft, Career and Community

Lily Mellitz ’26

Executive Features Editor

Erik Bloomquist ’14, a Connecticut native, is an artist who moves fluidly across mediums. He graduated from Trinity cum laude and has since built an impressive career as a two-time New England Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Director and Writer, an eight-time Emmy nominee and a Top 200 Director on HBO’s “Project Greenlight,” among other achievements.

When Bloomquist discusses his work, he doesn’t lead with accolades; instead, he circles back to the spark that first made him want to perform and the sense of community he found in the arts — both of which continue to anchor him today. That grounding is also why he struggles to pinpoint a single moment that shaped his artistic outlook. When asked whether any single role or moment shaped his artistic outlook, Bloomquist couldn’t point to a specific moment. 

“Just seeing shows, seeing musicals growing up. They inspired me and I was taken,” Bloomquist said. “I just felt what people call ‘a calling,’ and I think that’s kind of what it has always been.”

That early pull toward performance has stayed with him, even as his career has expanded far beyond the stage. A multi-talented artist, Bloomquist works across mediums — acting, directing, writing, producing — though acting remains the center of it all.

“Acting has always been my roots,” he said. “The way I direct, write and produce is influenced by the way I act. It’s that kind of community building and that kind of work that informs the way that I communicate and the perspective I have when I’m wearing other hats.”

That foundation began long before Trinity. Growing up in Newington, performing was part of his daily life, from skits at daycare and impromptu shows at family gatherings to youth theater, pre-professional theater and some professional theater as a child.

By the time Bloomquist arrived at Trinity, that momentum had already shaped who he was becoming. He majored in theater and dance with a performance concentration and minored in music — a combination that felt like a natural extension of everything he’d been building toward.

He also credits a piece of advice from childhood for guiding him there: that the educated actor is the best actor. The insight, shared by veteran actor Nobel Shropshire during his early run in “A Christmas Carol” (in which Shropshire has played Mrs. Dilber/Jacob Marley since the production’s 1998 opening), left a lasting impression.

“Having a holistic education felt important,” Bloomquist explained. “There’s something about the energy of Trinity. Even when I visit, it’s a grounding place to walk around and feel the history and the lineage.”

That sense of grounding followed him into the Austin Arts Center, which quickly became a “home away from home.” He immersed himself in both the theater and dance and music departments, soaking up rehearsals, productions and classes that helped shape him into the artist he is now. One of his most memorable experiences at Trinity was getting the chance to direct the departmental production of “Rent” as a junior. 

“It was really awesome to be trusted with that,” he said. “And that was a good part of the line of dominoes that I can trace to some of the stuff that I’ve been able to do since.” 

Bloomquist had directed other productions before, but “Rent” was the largest-scale project he had taken on at the time. “There was big institutional support,” he recalled. “It was really great. Definitely the biggest I had done up until then.” It also offered an early glimpse of the artistic leadership he would later bring to his film and theater work.

Today, Bloomquist is back on the stage in Hartford — literally. He is currently portraying Fred, Scrooge’s nephew, in “A Christmas Carol” at Hartford Stage, a production he first performed in as a seventh grader.

“I was Peter Cratchit, Tiny Tim’s older brother,” he laughed. “Now it’s my third year as an adult and it’s such a real and very centering experience.”

His return to the show was instinctive. “I loved the show so much. I grew up watching it before I was in it and I would go back every year and watch it once I had aged out,” Bloomquist said. “I stayed in touch with those actors and directors and when they were bringing it back after the Covid hiatus, I just threw my hat in the ring and just made it clear how much the production meant to me, and I went in and auditioned and the stars aligned.”

When asked why A Christmas Carol has remained such a beloved tradition, Bloomquist did not hesitate. 

“There’s something really beautiful and scary and melancholic about ‘A Christmas Carol,’” he said. “There’s this idea of nostalgia and the ghosts that come back to us at Christmastime and the ghosts who haunt us in our lives, and the mistakes that we’ve made and how they haunt us. Historically, there has been a ghostly element to Christmas and I think that part makes it feel very alive and very present.”

Bloomquist also spoke fondly of the production’s “quasi–Wizard of Oz” staging, crafted by director Michael Wilson, where familiar characters reappear across Scrooge’s journey. It keeps the tradition fresh, urgent, and full of “alacrity.”

Beyond Hartford Stage, Bloomquist balances multiple projects. In the past year alone, he released a feature film in theaters this October, directed and devised an immersive haunted attraction for the Essex Steam Train and began developing several new film and theater projects for the coming year. Yet, with all that momentum comes a challenge he’s still learning to navigate.

“I’m very, very dedicated and very, career-minded and thoughtful and ambitious,” he said. “But finding ways to be a human being amidst that and to find ways to nourish your soul and to realize that productivity doesn’t always mean that you’re ‘on’ all the time, has been and continues to be important and a challenge. In some ways, the hardest part is staying sane and safe and healthy between jobs.”

For students dreaming of creative careers, Bloomquist offered grounded advice. “Talent gets you in the door, but being a good person keeps you there.” He also urged students to “think critically about the arts.”

After a moment of reflection, he added: “Being a patron of the arts and an advocate for the arts is really important regardless of what you do professionally,” he said. “It is to everyone’s betterment if you do pursue this. It will also continue to make you a better artist. And never stop learning. I know that’s probably said at the end of so many lectures, but I think it’s true. Never stop being curious.”

More than a decade after graduating, Bloomquist still speaks about Trinity with gratitude and a kind of rootedness. The College shaped him — but he has also shaped it, returning to direct musicals after graduation and continuing to make his mark on the Connecticut arts community.

Whether he’s acting, directing, writing, or ushering audiences into an immersive haunted world, Bloomquist carries with him the values that first drew him to performing: curiosity, care and a belief in the power of storytelling to connect us.

Somewhere in downtown Hartford, under the warm lights of “A Christmas Carol,” a former Peter Cratchit now helps bring that magic to life for the next generation.