Keeley Stanley-Bohn: We are going to put on two shows this summer. Typically with our summer theater company, we produce two shows. The first this summer will be called “Exit, Pursued by a Bear,” by Lauren Gunderson, which is the most produced playwright in the country for the last couple of years. She's a wonderful playwright. Our second piece is called “Nothing But a Good Time,” a music and dance review of 1980s music. So one of the things we do each summer with our review is to try to highlight all of the pillars of our program. We have four in the theater and dance department. We have acting and directing, we have design tech, we have dance studies and music theater. So with our review offerings each summer, those students who are dancers can be part of it. Those students who are music theater majors can be part of it as well as the actors.
Judy Wagley: And a little something for everyone.
KS-B: Absolutely! Something for everyone!
JW: Keeley, how is the way you approach a summer season different than how you approach the main season?
KS-B: That is a wonderful question. One of the ways that we treat this differently is that it is an entire company of 12 students do everything for these two shows that go on tour. Typically, we'll have two students who concentrate mainly on the tech design shop work, and then we have a company of 10 actors who will do some of that as well, but also act in the shows. A typical schedule is they start at 9:00 AM and they'll go till 5:00 PM every day, Monday through Friday, beginning mid-March, and they'll go until mid-July. Half of the day they'll rehearse, while the other half of the day they will be in one of the shops--whether a costume shop or the scene shop building the set. So they are part of a company that does everything-- with the guidance from faculty--of course--helping them know what set pieces to build, what costume pieces to build, but they are busy, busy, busy and once we open here in Mount Pleasant at the end of June. They will go on tour up to Beaver Island first and then they will go to Traverse City for a one-day special alumni event, and then the following week, in mid-July, we travel to Whitehall for another stop on our tour.
JW: I'm thinking of those old movies and shows about “Hey, it's summertime. Let's fix up the barn and put on the show!” And “summer stock,” and “another opening, another show” and all of those things.
KS-B: It very much is like that in the sense that as a company of 12 students, they really do bond in those intense two months together. First, putting the show together or helping to build the show, helping to find the costumes as I said, but also rehearsing the shows. But they are constantly together and working through challenges. And then of course they get to perform. The camaraderie that they build is very much in that that vein of “Hey, let's put a show together!”
JW: What a wonderful experience for those students, and what dedication they have!
KS-B: They really do have such a wonderful experience, and this has been going on with our Department of Theatre and Dance for over three decades. And each summer it does provide not only that camaraderie--not only do they learn a great deal about that rehearsal process and touring with shows, it's their first professional job for many of them because they do get paid. There's a stipend for them. They are truly treated as professionals in the sense that the show must go on. They have to overcome any challenges that come their way and it is an exciting experience for them and a really valuable learning experience.
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