Behind the scenes at Saint Michael’s Playhouse, student interns spent their summer working with the pros
By Buff Lindau
Photo Essay by Brian MacDonald
This past summer, while the Saint Michael’s Playhouse delivered its 62nd season of professional theater on campus, it also gave a group of student interns a hands-on learning experience like no other. Working side-by-side with theater pros gave these students a crash course in what it means to stage a summer theater season.
While Broadway and Off-Broadway artists performed, directed and designed the season, 13 student interns went to work backstage, in the box office, in the lighting booth, in the rehearsals and in the wings, along with the pros. The Playhouse internship program provides a rare incubator setting for students to learn from professionals.
Saint Michael’s Playhouse summer interns Keelia Liptak ’12 and Laura Seifert ’10 during set building for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Talley’s Folly.
| “These students get what I think is the ultimate in experiential learning—an opportunity to work one-on-one with seasoned professionals,” Chuck Tobin ’80, the Playhouse’s producing artistic director, said. Competitively chosen, these aspiring theater students from Saint Michael’s and other colleges and universities worked night and day from June 1 to August 8. “Students work alongside and are mentored by theater artists from Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theaters, along with theater educators from prestigious theater programs around the country,” Tobin said.
“I feel physically and emotionally stronger after going through so much stress and hard work—I’ve seen what we can do in one night,” Keelia Liptak ’12 said. “The internship program pushed my limits and showed me I can be a great help to the college theater department this coming year.” As production assistant to the stage manager for two shows, Liptak learned how to plot entrances and exits and how to be sure costumes and props were where the actors needed them for each scene—and she learned to weld and solder, and do electrical work and carpentry. In the end it was stage managing that hooked her, and she plans to pursue that now as a career. |
During a Talley’s Folly rehearsal, actor Abby Lee and director Ken Kimmins get assistance with the script from Liptak.
| “Here’s an 18-year old who just finished her first year at Saint Michael’s,” Tobin said, “and she was helping a professional director and actor (TV star Kenneth Kimmins and New York musical theater actor Abby Lee) through a challenging scene in Talley’s Folly…, These kids find themselves in positions where they’re not just support for these professionals, but they can sometimes guide them, and they’re fully respected.”“Being in an environment with theater professionals has shown me how serious I have to be for an acting career,” said Katie Healy ’11. She was mentored by Equity actor Marc Tumminelli, who directed Playhouse Junior and performed in the season opener Dames at Sea. Healy had roles in both children shows, Cinderella and A Year With Frog and Toad, which features all student and local young performers. “It was such a great experience; Marc is so accomplished; he opened our eyes to what it takes, to how serious you have to be.” She is planning to train in a conservatory next summer.
Liptak and Healy said repeatedly how valuable the experience has been. “…a long hard summer, but so worth it,” said Healy, who also made a point of meeting with each of the Equity actors, who “were more than willing to give advice.” |
Katie Healy ’11 marks her script during a rehearsal for A Year With Frog and Toad,
which she performed with classmate Nathaniel Belliveau ’11 and other Saint Michael’s students as part of the offerings of Playhouse Junior, the summer theater for children.
Laura Seifert ’10 positioning a scissor lift
under the lights during set construction.
| The interns are treated as professionals, not go-fers. “As long as they hold up their end of the bargain as hard-working young theater artists, their work is fully respected by the theater professionals,” said Tobin, who was himself a Saint Michael’s Playhouse intern in 1976. He then earned his Equity membership, acted, directed and produced theater in Washington, New York and Boston, and worked summers at the Playhouse with founders Don and Joanne Rathgeb. He became producing artistic director in 2004.
Eight Saint Michael’s students and five from other universities were assigned to administrative or production internships this past summer, including Nathaniel Beliveau ’11, Jayden Choquette ’10, Katie Healy ’11, Heather Lessard ’12, Keelia Liptak ’12 , Gabrielle Mailloux ’10, Brendan O’Leary ’10, and Laura Seifert ’10. Administrative interns worked with Tobin, the company manager and the box office manager, and witnessed the challenges of staffing, organizing and maintaining professional theatrical productions, including advertising, promotions and box office sales. Production interns worked on layout and construction of scenery, load-in and striking of sets.They learned to analyze technical plans and blueprints, worked on designing, implementing and executing costumes for each character in each show, and worked with the lighting designer, sound designer and technical director. They helped build shows all day, and run shows each night. Students see immediately what kind of focus it takes to build, rehearse and mount a full-scale production in two weeks, and then to create a new show, while performing the first show. “I was very impressed that the actors came in so prepared for their roles, with their accents already almost perfected when rehearsals began,” Liptak said. And at summer’s end, they bring that huge range of experience and intensity of new skills back to put into practice and share in their college theater programs, at Saint Michael’s and around the country. – |
Brendan O’Leary ’10, a theater major, dresses in his costume for
his role in Cinderella for a performance with Playhouse Junior.
Jonathan Hart ’05, the technical director for the Playhouse 2009 season and a former summer intern himself, worked alongside this year’s interns to build sets for four professional Actors Equity shows: Dames at Sea, Talley’s Folley, How the Other Half Loves and Breaking Up Is Hard to Do. “Jonathan is unbelievable,” said Chuck Tobin ’80, producing artistic director and an intern alumnus too. “He’s the best technical director we’ve ever had.”
Liptak assisted with props for the Neil Sedaka musical Breaking Up is Hard To Do,
which featured an Elvis-esque singer and a Catskills summer resort location.
New York actor and director Marc Tumminelli rehearses for
A Year With Frog and Toad with an intern from NYU
along with Nathaniel Belliveau ’11 and Katie Healy ’11.
A dress rehearsal for Playhouse Junior show Cinderella.
Healy paints platforms black as part of set
construction at the Playhouse in mid-summer.
Nathaniel Belliveau ’11 and Katie Healy ’11 prepare for
their roles in Cinderella, which played to capacity crowds
of families over the course of its two-weekend run.
Keelia Liptak ’12 uses a radial arm saw in the scene shop to
create scenery designed by renowned set designer James Wolk.
Heather Lessard ’12, as part of her duties, goes out “postering”
before each show, removing the current Playhouse performance’s
posters and replacing them with the future show’s information.
Laura Siefert ’10 focusing the lights for Talley’s Folly
high above the stage on the catwalk.
Nathaniel Belliveau ’11, a cast member of Playhouse Junior, provided musical accompaniment for the Broadway Workshop training program for kids, which
was held for a week during the summer.
Laura Siefert ’10 follows a cue sheet while running
a light board during a Playhouse performance.
Heather Lessard ’12 and Katie Healy ’11 at work alongside
Jennifer Whitman Scott ‘00 at the Box Office during the run of Dames at Sea.
Collecting autographs from the student actors after the show.
The finale of Cinderella, which featured Playhouse interns
from Saint Michael’s and other colleges around the country.
This story looks beautiful online! Congratulations to all of our interns and the hardworking professionals at Saint Michael’s Playhouse, and to Buff Lindau and Brian MacDonald and Chuck Tobin for making this story possible.