From Theatre and Arts Administration to Business Ownership

December 18, 2025 | By River Fundock, Student Intern, Department of Communication | Edited by Karen Tibbals, CASSH Communications Coordinator

Victoria Redig, a successful businesswoman with a wide range of talents, credits the University of West Florida’s College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CASSH) with helping her build the foundation for her career.

Redig graduated cum laude from the University of West Florida in 2019 with dual Bachelor’s degrees in Theatre and Arts Administration. Today, she is a partner and senior bookkeeper at The Bookkeeping Firm FL LLC, where she balances the responsibilities of business ownership with motherhood. As a partner, her work includes client relations, human resources, employee training, bookkeeping for a rapidly growing firm, as well as advertising, marketing, and social media. She is also the mother of two young children, Scarlett, age three, and Asher, age one.

Redig credits her CASSH education with giving her the skill set that makes running a business possible.

If it weren’t for UWF, I would not have the skill set that makes running a business possible. - Victoria Redig, The Bookkeeping Firm FL LLC

When faced with challenges outside her immediate expertise, she relies on the collaborative mindset she developed as a student—seeking out other professionals or learning new skills to meet emerging needs.

Before arriving at UWF, Redig was homeschooled and studied ballet at a pre-professional level while also running her own portrait photography business as a teenager. Despite outside pressure to pursue what she describes as a more “socially acceptable” major, she followed her passion for the arts. She earned an associate degree in Acting at Florida School of the Arts before transferring to UWF to pursue Theatre and Arts Administration.

“At UWF, no dream was ever out of my reach,” Redig says. “As I look back on my time at UWF, the one thing that stands out to me most is my relationships with mentors and professors. Those conversations in the halls between classes or before rehearsal, they are the ones that shaped me.”

One of the most influential figures in Redig’s academic journey was Jerre Brisky, instructor and Director of the Center for Fine and Performing Arts. Brisky became a mentor after reaching out to Redig following her audition for the theatre program. The two spoke on the phone for 45 minutes, bonding over absurdist plays—a conversation that marked the beginning of a lasting mentorship and friendship.

However it plays out for a student, the textbooks are great, the material you are tested on is so important, but the professors are the real gems. My mentors taught me that not even the sky was the limit with the right hard work and dedication. - Victoria Redig, The Bookkeeping Firm FL LLC

Brisky also encouraged her to embrace flexibility, reminding her that life does not always follow a five-year plan—and that that is okay.

Redig’s Arts Administration coursework played a critical role in shaping her understanding of how creative work and business intersect. A standout experience was her Arts Administration final project, which required her to write a full business plan. “Seeing how all these different facets of business and art all had to work together to create a final piece was eye-opening,” she says. “Art is a business—learning how it all works together wasn’t unlike directing a play.”

Her Theatre degree also offered transformative, hands-on experiences. Through a class known as “The Farm Project,” Redig collaborated with a playwright to develop a brand-new work from the ground up. The class table-worked, studied, rehearsed, and designed the play—an entirely original production involving three colleges. After the semester ended, Redig was selected as Assistant Director for a staged reading of the play in New York City. The experience continues to influence her creative life and has inspired her to begin writing a play of her own.

CASSH also prepared Redig to open her own bookkeeping business. Her Arts Administration degree introduced her to the fundamentals of bookkeeping, which she has continued to refine through practice and further study. She credits coursework in graphic design with enabling her to design her company’s logo and notes that marketing and business writing skills are part of her daily work. Additionally, the knowledge she gained about nonprofit organizations allows her to better serve clients who are 501(c)(3) organizations.

For current and prospective students, Redig offers encouragement rooted in her own non-linear path. “You never know where your life may take you,” she says. “I went from ballet to accounting.” She emphasizes the value of taking a wide range of classes and applying yourself fully, noting that she uses skills from every Arts Administration course she took. Redig also encourages students to embrace multiple interests, adding, “We are multifaceted humans with many different interests, experiences, and goals. You genuinely have no idea where life is going to take you. Be open to seeing where it goes.”

Learn more about opportunities to begin or enhance your career, through Interdisciplinary Humanities B.A. - Arts Administration.