Royal Gambit Opens This Weekend

Christopher Graham

Regent's Second Stage season opens this weekend with the production Royal Gambit, written by Herman Gressieker, translated and adapted by George White.  Royal Gambit is the exciting legacy of Henry VIII as told by his six wives.  Hailed by the New York Times as "an original, stimulating and...well-written play..." , Royal Gambit is being directed by 2009 MFA in Acting graduate, Christopher Graham.  Since graduation Christopher has had the chance to perform locally for Virginia Stage Company and multiple productions with the Virginia Musical Theatre.

Here's what Christopher has to say about working on Royal Gambit:

There are not too many characters in history more infamous then King Henry the VIII. From his legendary affair with Anne Boleyn, to his conflict with the Bishop of Rome, Henry helped bring about one the greatest upheavals western civilization had ever known. Surrounding him were six fascinating, yet rather unfortunate, women: “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived” is the rhyme that English school children learn to describe the fate of the six wives of King Henry VIII. Royal Gambit is on the one hand a historical drama, but on the other hand is something else completely. It’s a thinking kind of play. You’ll be rolling along very happily through the middle of the 16th century when all of a sudden you’ll hear Henry reference the Second World War. You sit back and scrunch up your forehead, but you’ll soon realize that Royal Gambit is not just about a man who cannot find rest in the world that he has created, but a mankind who cannot find rest. Henry ushers in an age that is “not to be God’s, but man’s.” This is a far cry from the strictly religious battles of the 16th century, but a battle for the very heart of faith itself. Who is God and what is our relationship to Him? Where does man’s power stop and God’s power begin? How far can we make it without Him? Is there even a God?
These are the questions of the modern man and Royal Gambit uses the story of this very flawed King to ask them. So I hope that you will be willing to put on your “thinking cap”, come with us, and explore. You may even find some answers, but it depends on Who you ask.

Royal Gambit runs October 29-30 and Nov. 4-6 at 8:00pm; October 30-31 and Nov. 5-6 at 3:00pm.  The performance is being held in Com 128 and seating is limited.  Call 757-352-4245 to reserve your tickets now!

Our Town Offers Perspective on Life



L-R: Amy Dunlap, Jared O'Dell, Tiffany Evans



Our Town Offers Perspective on Life

By Rachel Judy

Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town, is no doubt familiar to theater-going audiences for its simple, yet profound commentary on the complexities of human life. Hoping to capture the elegance of the early 20th century while appealing to today's audiences, Regent University Theatre will present Our Town on Oct. 15-17 and Oct. 22-24 in the Communication & Performing Arts Center's Main Theatre.

Divided into three acts, Our Town tells the story of the Grover's Corners, N.H., residents through the eyes of the stage manager. The stage manager's role is to create the scene and establish the character background; the other actors rely on mime to tell stories of daily life, love and marriage, and death.

Regent's production is directed by guest director Marianne Savell, an actress and playwright who previously directed the 2009 Regent theatre production Dancing at Lughnasa. "Our Town may be the great American play," Savell says. "No matter your history with it, this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama has the power to rattle and shake you to the core again and again."

While many will remember Our Town from their required literature classes in middle and high school, Savell's approach with the Regent production is to honor the classical play with a modern twist. "The play sticks with you and yet, reintroduces itself masterfully every time you engage it," she explains. "A friend of mine wonderfully described it this way: 'Thornton Wilder is radical and reassuring in the same breathless breath.' This couldn't be truer."

The opportunity for the Our Town cast to work with Savell is significant, explains Eric Harrell, chair of Regent's theatre department. "Affording our student actors the opportunity to work with highly accomplished directors from the professional theatre is of tremendous educational value," he says. "Their technique work is challenged and refined when they work with an artist of Marianne's caliber. It's important for them to hear the language of craft reflected in the voice of an industry professional as well as resident faculty."

MFA in Acting students Joseph Martinez and Tiffany Evans will perform their thesis roles in Our Town as Doc Gibbs and Emily Webb respectively.

Savell is an adjunct professor at Vanguard University, an associate artist with Taproot Theater Company and a member of Directors Lab West. She received her MFA in Acting from the University of Illinois and has been a guest artist at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She served as producing director of Actors Co-op in Hollywood and on the advisory board of Provision Theater Company in Chicago and was invited to the prestigious New Harmony Project to direct Margaret Hunt's new play And the Ravens Feed Us in 2008.

Purchase tickets for Our Town through the Regent University Box Office.

Our Town Opens This Weekend

Meet Marianne Savell, Director of "Our Town"

Regent Theatre welcomes Marianne Savell, guest director of Our Town and last season's production of Dancing at Lughnasa. Marianne is an accomplished actor, director and teacher coming to us from Seattle & Los Angeles. She is an adjunct professor at Vanguard University, an associate artist with Taproot Theater Company and a member of Directors Lab West. She received her MFA in Acting from the University of Illinois where she graduated with highest honors and was a guest artist at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She served as Producing Director of Actors Co-op in Hollywood and on the advisory board of Provision Theater Company in Chicago and was invited to the prestigious New Harmony Project to direct Margaret Hunt’s new play And the Ravens Feed Us in 2008.

Marianne’s professional directing credits include the critically acclaimed Jeff award-nominated Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Victory Gardens, Chicago), the world premiere and LA Weekly award-winner Gulf View Drive, the StagesceneLA award-winner Wit, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, Shadowlands, the world premiere Yours, Isabel, Angel Street, Translations, the West Coast premiere of As It Is in Heaven, The Crucible, Hamlet, God & Shakespeare and Molly Sweeney.

At Vanguard, Marianne directed the American College Theatre Festival finalists The Lion in Winter and As It Is in Heaven as well as Saint Joan, America’s Broadway and Three Sisters. Her professional acting credits include A Streetcar Named Desire (ACTC), The Seagull (LA Weekly award for Best Featured Actress), As You Like It, The Voice of the Prairie, The Hasty Heart, All My Sons, Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, Bullshot Crummond and Henry V.

Marianne has a few new plays in development and is conducting research in the Virginia Beach area for her new play on generals Lee and Grant. We came to know about Marianne when she directed one of our own MFA in Acting alumni, Dan Roberts (’07) in The Crucible at Actors Co-op, a professional Christian theatre company in Los Angeles. Both Marianne and Dan were nominated for LA Weekly awards for The Crucible. We’re glad to have her here!

Marianne’s Thoughts about Our Town

"So many of us have a history with Our Town. We read it in high school, or we played Simon Stimson in college or we saw it at a community theatre in Clinton, Mississippi. Recently, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-prize winning play has had a resurgence off Broadway with a beautiful production by The Hypocrites out of Chicago. What is striking about this play is that memory softens what is actually a sharply insightful and brutally honest play about our humanity. A friend recently joked with me that Our Town is a zombie play. I had to kind of agree with him. It is a play about what it means to really live, to die, to be the living dead. If we're really honest with ourselves we sometimes feel like we're more dead than alive. And it scares us. But do we change? Do we make the effort to really live? This play delights me and terrifies me. Challenges me to do better. Come with us to Our Town, and stay awhile..."

Working with Marianne

“It was such a pleasure to work under the direction of Marianne Savelle in Regent’s production of Dancing at Lughnasa last year! She worked tirelessly and patiently to turn this sow’s ear into a credible Father Jack. Imagine my excitement, then, to learn that I would have the opportunity to reprise the role of Professor Willard under Marianne’s capable direction! Marianne is adept at bringing out the best in each actor, no matter the size of the role, and integrating each role into the balanced whole of a piece. She also brings such a wide and current connection to the professional world and plugs us into that connection as well. It is equally encouraging to hear her share the many opportunities she has to integrate her faith with her art. She has become not only a director with whom I enjoy working but also, I am happy to say, a colleague and friend” – Mike Salsbury, 2nd-year MFA

“I felt like the entire production (Dancing at Lughnasa) was put together through one big conversation. Marianne has the perfect mix between letting you explore your character freely and pushing you to limits you didn’t even know were possible. Some of my best show experiences have been with her because I felt like I left the process a better, more inspired actor.” – Jeff Fazakerley, 2nd-year MFA

“Marianne has a beautiful grasp of how to communicate the important story of Our Town in a startling, enlightening manner. She has made many subtle choices in blocking and the use of sound to compel thought. She triggers thought within her actors. She challenges and provokes the character but never diminishes the actor. Her goal is the story. She is always asking the question, ‘What is the best choice to honor the story?’ We trust her. We value her insights. If she asks us to do it, we do it with conviction. We are a cohesive group that takes risks and is unafraid to venture into the unknown with Marianne as our guide.” – Brittany Baird, 1st-year MA

Come and see what all the buzz is about! Our Town opens October 15th and runs through October 24th.

Dr. Michael Hill-Kirkland Appearing in VMT's "Man of La Mancha"

Regent Theatre’s own Professor of Theatre and Head of the MFA Acting Program, Dr. Michael Hill-Kirkland, will be appearing as Sancho Panza in Virginia Musical Theatre’s upcoming production of Man of La Mancha! According to the VMT website, Man of La Mancha is “deemed one of the all-time great musicals of the American stage. This is a brilliant theatrical adventure that looks at life not as it is but as it should be. The inspiring score features The Impossible Dream. Winner of five TONY© Awards including Best Musical."

Regent Backstage asked Dr. Kirkland to share some thoughts about the upcoming production…

Regent Backstage: How did this performance opportunity come about?

Dr. Kirkland: VMT sent me an audition notice requesting that I make our students aware of auditions for the production. I told them I would and queried them as to whether they had anyone to handle the combat in the show, if not, that I would be interested. Mark Hudgins, the managing director, responded that they did not and that Jeff Meredith, the artistic director, was interested in engaging me to do so. I had worked with them once before on The Scarlet Pimpernel. I accepted, and informed them that I had done the show six times before…sometimes in the role of Sancho, sometimes as fight director, and sometimes as both. That led to an invitation to audition for the role. I made sure they knew I was a member of AEA before accepting the invitation to audition. I thought it would be pointless unless they were ready to commit to a union contract. They responded that they had not really considered a union contract for Sancho, but that they were open to it. I auditioned…and they offered me the role.

Regent Backstage: Can you elaborate on your past experience with Man of La Mancha?


Dr. Kirkland: My experience with the show is fairly extensive. I’ve done this show more than any other over my career. I’ve performed it in a variety of venues: academic, community, and professional. I’ve played Sancho. I’ve played the Barber. Over the years I’ve staged the fights a number of times under a wide range of conditions both amateur and professional. My feelings for the show are immensely affectionate. It’s a character driven show perfectly made for actors. The plot hinges on a play-within-a-play and serves as an example of the power of theatre to change lives. And the themes. I love the themes. Belief in dreams and in one’s self. Service to the quest—a lofty goal, committing to something larger than one’s self. The belief that some things in life—some dreams--are worth fighting for even when you know that you are destined to defeat; that sometimes you must “march into hell for a heavenly cause.” These are ideas that have profound resonation for me.


Regent Backstage: What do you hope to get from the experience this time?

Dr. Kirkland: The last time I performed Sancho was about twelve years ago. At that point in time I felt that I was probably ending my relationship with the little fellow with a belly full of proverbs. In truth, I was growing a little tired of him. Now, with twelve years having passed, I realized that I had grown to miss this guy. Time has a way of changing our perspective on things. I have a feeling I will see him, and the play, through different eyes. I believe that I have changed a lot on the inside over these twelve years, and I have a feeling I am going to connect with the emotional truth in Sancho, and in the play, in a much more profound way. I think I feel things more deeply now than I did then. Because of that, I have a feeling I’m going to feel this play much more deeply. It has been eight years since I last acted. At Regent, with our sizeable MFA Acting program, it is difficult justifying faculty taking roles in our productions. This makes it a lot more difficult, especially if you are a union actor, to find local opportunities to act. It’s going to be a challenge to scrape off the rust after eight years—but one I feel is both healthy and necessary. I have spent the last eight years primarily in the role of teacher/director. It will be nice to trod the boards again--on the other side of the footlights!

Performances of Man of La Mancha are one weekend only, October 22, 23 & 24

Virginia Musical Theatre’s box office number is757-340-5446.

Break a leg, Dr. Kirkland!

Leaving Iowa Receives Accolades in Veer Magazine

"When Regent University Theatre gets it right - as they most certainly do with Leaving Iowa - their shows belong at the head of the local AAA League, only a notch below the big-league pros."

Read the rest of the review HERE!

Leaving Iowa Offers Touching Journey

L - R: Back: Sharon Biermann, Tabitha Ray,
Front: Zachary Bortot, Sean Cowan

by Judy Baker

For many, the phrase "family vacation" conjures up images of sweltering heat, hours in a car, and an abundance of educational tourist sites. The Regent University Theatre Department captures the nostalgic memories of these annual summer journeys in Leaving Iowa.
In this sentimental comedy penned by stand-up comedians Tim Clue and Spike Manton, journalist Don Browning returns home to Winterset, Iowa, to find a suitable place to scatter his father's ashes. As he journeys across the Midwest, he relives the summer vacations he spent as a boy idly perched with his sister in the backseat of his family's station wagon.

The heartwarming production is set in a cornfield and is told through flashbacks intermingled with the present. "I've joked with the cast that Leaving Iowa is a colorful collision of Hee-Haw and The Glass Menagerie," said director Eric Harrell, chair of Regent's theatre department.

Although it's a comedy, the play poignantly portrays Browning's quest to make peace with his deceased father. "This delightful new play strikes the perfect balance of tender humor as father and son reconnect for one last, grand adventure," Harrell explained. "In many ways, it's a nostalgic ode to days gone by."

The production's message that the journey is often as important as the destination is sure to resonate with people of all ages. "I suspect there won't be a single person in the audience that can't relate to the experiences of the Browning family as they live out their annual summer vacation," Harrell said. "Leaving Iowa will keep our audiences laughing and remembering all of the childhood vacations they've tried so hard to forget.

Leaving Iowa was nominated Best New Play by the American Theatre Critics Association. In Regent University's production, third-year MFA Acting student Sean Cowan performs his thesis role.

Performances continue Sept. 23-26.

Purchase tickets online.

Leaving Iowa Opens This Weekend!

Take a road trip with the Browning family in the new comedy hailed by the Chicago Sun-Times as "simultaneously hilarious and touching." This nostalgic look at family vacations will remind you of a time when we all asked that plaguing question . . . "Are we there yet."

Here are some thoughts from Director, Eric Harrell:

Surely there is a therapist out there who specializes in PTVD: post-traumatic vacation disorder. It’s the ailment that leaves families everywhere emotionally scarred and physically debilitated following the annual summer vacation.

For the most part, my family was spared PTVD. Every July my father navigated the family station wagon to sites my brother and I typically found interesting. There was the trip to the Grand Canyon, the Key West excursion and even Disneyland in fourth grade. But then came 1986: the sesquicentennial of Texas.

To help wish our home state a happy 150th birthday, my dad decided we would vacation stateside that year. The plan? Follow the historical markers and let history be our guide! I discovered rather quickly that water parks and video arcades do not have historical markers. Places like Washington-on-the-Brazos are rife with them.

In our quest to honor the history of our great state, we left no historical marker unvisited. There was Raven Hill (the plantation home of General Sam Houston), the Davis Mill (the first stone mill in Bell County with a carding machine) and the Lampasas River Bridge (a rare surviving example of a Whipple Truss!). It was the longest three weeks of my life. I can still feel my thighs sticking to the vinyl seats of our wood-paneled station wagon. I can still see the coarse stitching running through the middle of the back seat that served as the Great Wall of China between my feuding brother and me. And yes, I can still see (and smell) the many public bathrooms at all those remote gas stations in the middle of nowhere. Were it not for the motel swimming pools, picnics at state parks and the magnetized checker board we played in the car, I think the Texas sesquicentennial would likely have been my undoing.

But I did survive. And the next year my dad flew us all to Cancun.

I guess you made it through your family vacations as well or you wouldn’t be here tonight. And I suspect as you relive those memories alongside the Browning family in Leaving Iowa you may find they’re less bitter in hindsight. In fact, you may remember them as fondly as I’ve come to remember the Texas sesquicentennial. Though if anyone knows a good therapist specializing in PTVD, my kids may be interested. We vacationed in Texas this year. There was a rare example of a surviving Whipple Truss I just had to show them.

Enjoy the show!
 - Eric Harrell

Performances of Leaving Iowa are in the Studio Theater:

September 17th & 18th and 23rd-25th at 8:00 p.m.

September 18th & 19th and 25th & 26th at 3:00 p.m.

To purchase tickets, call 352.4245 or visit the Box Office during office hours, Monday-Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. For further information or to purchase tickets online, visit us at www.regent.edu/theatre.

Regent Featured in Southern Theatre Magazine!

Regent University’s Theatre program was recently featured on the cover of Southern Theatre magazine! 2010 MFA graduate Rob Arbaugh is pictured in his role as "Orlando" from last fall’s production of As You Like It, directed by Scott Hayes. The article by Deanna Thompson, editor of Southern Theatre, is called “Social Media Onstage: Romeo and Juliet Are on Facebook, Orlando Sends Tweets”.

Rob Arbaugh as "Orlando"

Highlighting the current trend of incorporating social media onstage, the article explores the relationship between play production and marketing. Quoting Scott Hayes, it explains how after hearing about a church which sent text messages of Bible verses during a sermon, he “immediately thought of the potential for theatre – using Twitter, ‘footnotes’ could be sent directly to the viewer in real time.” He adds, “We didn’t change Shakespeare’s verse, language or structure, but in addition to Twitter, we incorporated contemporary music, live video, Guitar Hero and other 21st century communication tools.” To read the whole article, click on the link to Southern Theatre magazine, below.

http://www.setc.org/publications/southern.php

Summer C.A.M.P.'s The Wiz

Regent’s Summer C.A.M.P. production of The Wiz, directed by 2010 MFA graduate Ryan Clemens, continued the trend of incorporating social media and contemporary technological elements in production. In this high-tech production, Dorothy used a GPS to navigate through Oz, her Facebook page was displayed on a projection screen and the “iPoz” dancers welcomed her into the Emerald City. Quoting from Ryan’s director’s notes, “In our modern world – our multicultural, mixed-media, global community – teens find refuge in technology. Really, Dorothy wouldn’t require a cyclone to whisk her away. She could simply open her laptop, switch on her cell phone, or plug into her iPod to escape. With this ‘modern’ reality in mind, I looked for fun ways to update The Wiz for a contemporary Dorothy, keeping the show’s funky, soulful flavor while easing Oz into our digital age.”

Regent Theatre continues to rise to the challenge of presenting relevant material to both traditional and more contemporary audiences. Returning to Scott Hayes’ concept of As You Like It, he explains, "The play is about transformation. Characters are forced to change their environments, put on false identities, and their ideas are transformed into noble actions. I hope our 'transforming' of the play into a contemporary setting makes clear the timeless nature of our message."

Regent Students Active in Summer Theater

Many of our current students and recent graduates were very busy this summer working in theaters around the country. Here’s a sampling of what some of them were up to!

Hannah Hughes, (3rd year MFA), spent this past summer in the Apprentice Program at the acclaimed Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, MA. To read more about her experiences, check out her blog!
Hannah's Journey Through the Berkshires

Rob Arbaugh and Ryan Clemens, MFA ‘10, appeared at the well-known Virginia Shakespeare Festival in Williamsburg. Ryan played Duke Frederick in As You Like It, and Rob reprised his role of Orlando in As You Like It, and also appeared as Roper in Man for All Seasons.

Andrew (AJ) Lease (1st Year MFA) spent the summer interning on Broadway with The Nederlander Producing Company of America. AJ created a small archive for the company and worked in the office. At night, AJ worked in 9 lobbies on Broadway signing people up for a free rewards program. He also worked at the National High School Musical Theater Awards and The National Boy Scout Jamboree in Times Square. AJ met some amazing people including: Kathleen Raitt (Producer of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL and THE CIVIL WAR), Tommy Tune, Paul Gordon (The Composer of JANE EYRE: THE MUSICAL), Frank Wildhorn (Composer of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL), Levi Kreis (2010 Tony Award Winner for Best Featured Actor in a Musical), Thelma Pollard (The Phantom's personal make-up designer and longest running make-up artist on Broadway), and James Moye (Currently in MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET.)

Jeff Fazakerley (2nd year MFA) performed The Wreck of the Dictator, a half hour long, one-man show at the beach front all summer. You can read more about his experience by clicking the following link.
The Incomplete Works of Jeff Fazakerley

Diana Coates (2nd year MFA) worked with the African Continuum Theatre Company of Washington D.C. and award winning author Pearl Cleage to bring some of Mrs. Cleage's most famous plays back to the stage including Blues For An Alabama Sky, Bourbon at the Border, and Flyin West. Teaming up with the DC Theatre Festival, she also performed in the original work, Harlem 9/11, a play that highlighted one family's struggles during the aftermath of September 11th. Diana finished her summer writing and directing a show for her church's youth conference where nine young people trusted the Lord as their Savior.

Early in the summer, Brandon Langeland’s (M.A.) original adaptation of The Scarlet Letter was performed on Regent’s campus. The show was directed by Chad Gilliland (3rd year MFA) and the cast included Whitney Rappana (2nd year MFA), Chris Bookless (1st year MFA) and Margaret Beasley (B.A.)

Andy Geffken, Tabitha Ray, (3rd year MFAs) Amy Dunlap, Britain Willcock (2nd year MFAs) and Chris Bookless, (1st year MFA) together with ’10 MFA graduate Kaja Dunn put together a six-person adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The show was directed by our own Shakespeare professor, Scott Hayes. The cast referred the project as the “Blair Witch” Macbeth, as the production made innovative use of the limitations of the library auditorium and very low technical elements to encourage the audience’s imagination.

Regent’s 2010 Summer Theatre C.A.M.P.s provided valuable directing and teaching experiences for many of our students and alumni. Ryan Clemens (MFA ‘10) directed The Wiz. Mike Salsbury (2nd year MFA) directed Mulan, Jr. and music directed The Wiz, joined by Nathan Schmidt (3rd year MFA) on piano. Amy Dunlap (2nd year MFA) choreographed and taught dance classes for both productions. Whitney Rappana acted as music director for Mulan Jr., and played Evilene as the mentor actor in The Wiz. Anna Koehler (MFA ‘10) taught improvisation, Andy Geffken (3rd year MFA) and Jeff Fazakerley (2nd year MFA) taught acting, Chad Rasor (MFA ’10) taught stage combat and headed up set construction. Tabitha Ray (3rd year MFA) assistant directed The Wiz and helped with stage combat, Britain Willcock (2nd year MFA) worked on set construction, and Beka James (B.A.) was choreography intern for The Wiz. Brad Archer (MFA ‘10) and Jared O’Dell (B.A.) stage-managed, and Tianna Yentzer (B.A.) assistant stage managed.

The following link is to a Virginia Pilot article about the process of producing The Wiz.
Yellow Brick Road Comes Our Way

Gene Gray (3rd year MFA) apprenticed at The Shakespeare Company of New Jersey.

Gene describes his apprenticeship as a “life changing experience.” Continue reading for Gene’s personal reflections!

“I was a part of the 2010 Summer Professional Training Program which also involved interns, the next stage ensemble, the junior/senior corps, and Shakespeare Live! For 11 weeks, I was surrounded by 25 other apprentices from all over the country and ranging from ages 19 to 32. Our classes consisted of acting Shakespeare, Catherine Fitzmaurice voice training, Viewpoints contemporary movement training, Laban movement training, unarmed and single sword rapier combat, Shakespeare’s play reading, textual analysis, Sunday seminars, and Master Classes. My favorite classes were Fitzmaurice and Viewpoints. I plan to use both of these techniques as warm-ups and part of my thesis research for my role of “Toby Felker” in The Runner Stumbles this coming January.
We had many projects that we rehearsed and performed in front of the company, family, and friends. In 11 weeks, the entire SPTP and Equity Main Stage produced four main stage productions and 14 SPTP projects. I don’t know of any program that pumps out that many non-equity projects during the summer. Many of the projects include: Shakespeare Scenes, Classical Scenes, adaptations of four Shakespeare plays, three adaptations of classical plays, a late-night cabaret, and the SPTP final project- Coriolanus.
My favorite part of the entire experience was meeting all the equity and non-equity actors and taking some of them home by driving the actor’s van to NYC. I drove the van from Madison, NJ to 42nd street in the “Big Apple” a few nights a week. I was able to introduce myself to many actors by asking them about their beginnings in the theatre, how they got started, and any suggestions for up-and-coming non-equity actors. I never saw myself living in NYC, but now I see it as a possibility.
I would recommend any B.A., M.A., or MFA to partake in Shakespeare Theatre of NJ’s SPTP program. It is very long, very daunting, very busy, but it will be worth it in the long run. You’ll make lots of friends and have the possibility to make a strong connection to a major professional theatre company. I know I did, and I hope to return there and work as a non-equity actor.”

- Gene Gray (3rd year MFA Acting student)