First Professional Theatre experience

#1

First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/22/06 at 12:13pm

I am in the middle of the summer season of my first professional theatre experience and I just graduated from Mars Hill College with a degree in musical theatre. I am now working in Horn in the West which is a historical outdoor drama and I am in the chorus and PR Quartets as well as a soloist and an understudy. I am also stage managing Where the Wild Things Are and I am in a dance concert. What was your first professional theatre experience?

#2

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/22/06 at 2:53pm

Good News! at a local civic light opera. Not the biggest professional show ever, but it was the first show I got paid for, so it was a big deal. Plus, I was working with a few Equity members. I was in the dance ensemble and got to work with a choroegrapher who had worked with legends like Gene Kelly. Needless to say, it was an amazing learning experience and I can't wait for more like it.

#3

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/22/06 at 3:39pm

Williamstown Theatre Festival

---

"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

#4

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/22/06 at 3:54pm

Timber Lake Playhouse in Illinois.

#5

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/22/06 at 4:13pm

"The Music Man" at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan.

I was in the ensemble and understudied the barber shop quartet (which was a BITCH, because I had to learn all four parts to all three of their songs).

---

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

---

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#6

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 12:38am

My first professional Company was Northern Lights Playhouse in Wisconsin as Musical Director.

I had a lot of paying jobs at Community and High School theatres (I Musical Direct, not act) - but the first professional company for the summer was NLP.

---

You learn to play the straight man, the lines become routine - never really saying what you mean - but i know the scene will change :)

#7

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 12:40am

Just recently I did a reading of a musical my friend wrote and I got paid for it...does that count?

---

RIP Natasha Richardson. ~You were a light on this earth ~

#8

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 12:43am

mine was also Timber Lake Playhouse as well!

---

"Have a child for warmth and a baker for bread and a prince for... whatever!"

#9

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 12:59am

My limited "professional" experience was doing shows at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan. Never made it on stage, I was a techie. I ran lights for several shows and was ASM. As a typical apprentice I also worked box office, costumes and played for the bar show. It was one of the best summers of my life. I loved it and learned so much!

#10

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 2:02pm

A few weeks after I graduated from college, I got a show in the Women of Color Festival. It was a small gig, but it was a good start.

#11

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 3:49pm

THE LOST COLONY directed by Broadway legend, Joe Layton in 1984.

---

"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds." ~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns

#12

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 5:52pm

My first professional gig was impersonating Hank Williams Sr. at the Grand Ole Opry.

---

http://www.glamsmash.com/ - Glamsmash Productions, a video production company in the heart of New York City

#13

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 7:39pm

Stage crew - moving sets, setting props, etc. - at a dinner theatre in Omaha while I was in high school. I was also a busboy before the show.

#14

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 7:44pm

Chorus for shows at the Houston Grand Opera

#15

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 8:08pm

I was one of those boy dancers with jazz hands behind the girls in The Miss Indiana Scholarsphip Pageant.

---

"Love Life. Live." Michael Bennett

#16

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 8:14pm

I did ensemble for a musical my voice teacher's writing and got paid.

#17

re: First Professional Theatre experience

Posted: 7/24/06 at 8:15pm

Directed a play I wrote a few weeks ago. Wasn't paid or anything but it still felt amazing.