Celebrating Alyssa Fluet

With deep sadness and very heavy hearts, the Salem State University Theatre and Speech community mourns the loss of our dear Alyssa Fluet. 

A rising senior BFA Performance major, Alyssa epitomized humility, grace, and professionalism in every classroom and rehearsal hall she entered.

As an artist she shone onstage and off, loved and accepted all people, and used her incredible sense of humor to lift us up every day. 

Wherever Alyssa went, her lived example of kindness and tolerance inspired students, staff, and faculty, whom she supported and encouraged always. 

As an actor, she demonstrated the values of courage and determination- filling up every role she earned with bold and inventive choices that made her characters dazzle. 

Whether performing musicals, classic plays, or new work, she had an uncanny ability to shift into the production style and world of the play deftly and easily. Backstage she used her wit and clownish persona to keep the cast and crew morale going. Audiences always loved and responded to her because she was consistently vibrant onstage.

An early recipient of the Irene Ryan Kingsley Colton Scholarship and the Presidential Arts Scholarship, Alyssa maintained a 4.0 GPA, attended every class eagerly prepared, worked outside of school to support her career, and donated her time. 

Her abilities were acknowledged this past year at the Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival where she received the VASTA award for vocal excellence and the Region 1 Classical Acting Award, selected amongst 156 other acting students from schools all over the northeast.

To lose such a gifted and generous person at such a young age makes no sense. We will surely be less without her, and the theatre industry Alyssa was sure to impact with her talent will feel her absence for a generation to come. 

We are heartened only by the memory of Alyssa’s joyous spirit, which we promise to carry with us into our work. 

Our deepest condolences go out to the Fluet family, and to everyone whose life was touched by this tragic loss.

-by Prof. Peter Sampieri