Being an actor in college is fantastic. You have a large university filled with auditions all throughout the school year giving constant work to try and do. However, the summer tends to be something different. I learned that this year, trying my best to branch out to other theatres. Towards the end of last year, about the same time as Into the Woods closed, I was a part of “Songs for a New World” at Raleigh Little theatre. It was a musical unlike any I had done before. I still remember when I got in. Before my first rehearsal Casey Watkins said “Be good and remember what we taught you”. At the time I thought nothing of it but when the show got started I realized how much University Theatre really had helped me fit in. This was my first time acting with people who weren’t students. NC State students are lucky that UT strives to run as much like a professional theatre as possible.
I was surprised to learn that a lot of the things that we do at UT are understood at theatres everywhere. For example, I thought the “thank you 5” response to the Stage Manager (when they notify the cast when to be ready) was something we just did. Call it ignorance but it totally caught me off guard when I found myself saying it at RLT, too.
“Songs for a New World” went fairly well. Later on in the summer I was looking for a show to do when I got a call from a good friend, Andrew Payne. He suffered a terrible accident to his leg and was unable to perform in his role during UT’s TheatreFest production of “Murder on the Nile”. It wasn’t hard for me to say yes to help him out. He was a friend after all and it was a UT production. Doing a show at UT is like playing a sport on home turf for me. UT is my home field. Anyway, this was my first chance to work with actors who would consider themselves professionals and I have to say I ate that up.
After TheatreFest I wanted to squeeze in one more show. Get something on the resume with a theatre that I hadn’t worked with. I decided to go and audition for a friend of mine from “Songs for a New World.” He is a director for Cary Players, a local group of playwrights and actors based out of Cary. They were putting on a show written by a local playwright called “Ruby Red.” Going into that audition I noticed I was once again the youngest person in the cast like the two shows prior. However it was an entirely different feel. This time I got a chance to work with the writer. I mean I actually got to sit and watch a scene with the writer of the play sitting next to me. It was unbelievable. I always remember John McIlwee saying things like “we will never know what the writer was thinking when he wrote this.” Well for this show I knew. It was a lot of pressure really, being the first to perform the writer’s words and not wanting to let him down. However, the show went well and I made a whole new set of friends and had the ability to rub elbows with some of the other directors in Cary.
I continue to come back to University Theatre because I love it. I love being around everyone there, and the professionalism that it presents. I love that I get the ability to play roles that at some of these other theatres I wouldn’t be able to. At UT I CAN play a 60 year old man, whereas another theatre would just get a 60 year old man. UT provides a constant set of auditions and shows so I know I can always try and keep something on my plate. Not to mention through the web of staff and students at NC State, I am always learning something new to hone my craft and make me a better actor. I could never ask more than that.
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