Sigma Alpha Iota

4 Spring 2025 • sai-national.org M ackenzie Jungck always knew she wanted to perform. Everything had lined up perfectly—she received a Bachelors of Music Business at Indiana State University, where she was an initiate of the Iota Eta chapter. She had an internship at a theater company in Wisconsin. After college, she moved to New York City to attend an eighteen-month intensive musical theater program with The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). Soon, it was 2019, and Mackenzie's schedule was full: she played the role of Augusta Van Pels in the off- Broadway show Anne Frank—its first English- language performance—and booked a national tour of In the Mood, which was complete with a live big band. She even accepted a position as a performer with the New York Aquarium for their live shows—notably with the sea lions, her personal favorite. It was during the national tour that COVID-19 hit, and performances came to a grinding halt. Like many people at the time, Mackenzie and her husband, Jonathan, quickly found themselves isolated at home. They'd acquired stacks of board games in their New York City apartment, and it seemed a good time to start playing them. They dove into gaming head- first, playing everything from card games to board games. With a renewed love for gaming, they started to share their favorites the best way they could in isolation—online. They started a YouTube channel, TerreDice Games, where they reviewed the games they played. In a small way, it was still a means of performance. Mackenzie and her husband wrote scripts and acted in their videos, doing the voiceover work themselves. But while they continued to play and share board games, one day Jonathan asked, "Why don't we make our own?" They dove head-first into designing their first board game. Based on Mackenzie's experience as a New York City dog walker, Bark Avenue was born—a competitive game filled with the challenges of navigating NYC sidewalks as a dog walker, including route management and tending to the dogs' needs. While board game design may seem a far cry from the stage at first, Mackenzie found herself tapping into her musical theater background. She wasn't alone—as she and Jonathan dug deeper into the game design community, they found many others who were also performers. "When performing in musical theater, you really want to tell a story," she says. "It's the same exact thing in games." On stage, a story has an overarching theme, and performers desire to take the audience on a journey. Board games also allow an audience—in this case, the players—to be submersed in an alternate reality. This can be racing a pawn to the finish line, navigating a fantasy world, or, in their case, dog walking. They discovered just how big the board games industry is, with interest in games especially spiking during the pandemic. Games allow the player to transport to a different world, which is not much different from the immersive experience of attending a musical. Mackenzie was able to utilize not only her love for and skill as a performer, but also her background in business. As a Music Business major, she'd attended classes in both the music program and the business school. As she and her husband started to develop their company, she found she was already familiar with much of the business world thanks to that experience. She was writing contracts for artists and getting people interest in the project through creative marketing. The release of their YouTube channel was strategic as well, where they were gaining followers for game reviews. When the time came to announce their own board game, they already had a captive audience. After years of planning, TerreDice Games launched the Bark Avenue Kickstarter in 2022. It was funded over fifty percent after only an hour. e game was also picked up by a co-publisher in Australia, which made it an international release. TerreDice Games has even more planned for the future. They're working on an expansion pack for Bark Avenue and brainstorming more games yet to be announced. Despite her success as a board game designer, Mackenzie is still a performer at heart. Game design has become her primary career, but she still plans to perform on the side. Becoming an entrepreneur has shown her that you don't have to leave behind a love of music to explore different paths—both careers have allowed her to express creativity and tell a story in a variety of ways. Her musical background helped pave the way for even more opportunities, however unexpected they were. TerreDice Games is found online at terredicegames.com, and is proud to have their games available online and in most local game retailers. Musical Theater and Board Games Above, Bark Avenue box art. Above, Bark Avenue box art. At right, Mackenzie and Jonathan at Gen Con, At right, Mackenzie and Jonathan at Gen Con, the biggest tabletop game convention in the US. the biggest tabletop game convention in the US. Alumnae

• Cover