On the Drama Club:
The drama club is a great way for non-majors to get involved and try new things that they might not otherwise be exposed to. We plan events and work on independent plays, give people the opportunity to act, direct and work backstage. We also have fun with our mentor-mentee program, our 24-hour play festival, and trips to see local shows and a Broadway show in the spring. We also represent Saint Michael's College at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
On interning at the Saint Michael's Playhouse:
Playhouse internships are amazing. I've interned twice and made incredible contacts, from people working in the shop to directors like Keith Andrews and Kathryn Markey who work everywhere and are well known in the theatre world.
Working at the Playhouse also helped me solidify and build on many of the skills necessary for someone (like me) who wants to work behind the scenes. As one of two stage management interns, I rotated working in the scene shop to working in rehearsal, and during load-ins for each show, I would work on lights or with the scenery. The Playhouse is an professional, Actors Equity summer stock theatre, so the internships were great ways to get professional experience.
On TH 331, Scenic Design with Professor John Devlin:
Scenic Design was my favorite class. I learned so much! The class had fewer than 10 students and was a mixture of drawing, writing, reading, and conversation. We read plays, books written specifically on inspiration and methods of design, and we drew objects and wrote about them. We also worked with each other’s pieces and commented and critiqued them.
The class had five projects that each became more challenging as the semester went on. We chose from a series of plays and designed the scenery for them, starting with paperwork and sketches and eventually moving up to building a model in the end, with a public presentation of our work. It was intense and fascinating all at once.