Theatre Majors Land Impressive Internships for Summer 2019

More than twenty theatre majors have landed an array of summer internships here in Winchester and along the East Coast.

Acting Majors

• Carmen Burbridge ’20 will intern at Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City, where she will read and analyze plays, as well as New York City’s nonprofit New Dramatist, an iconic institution which supports seven year residencies for emerging playwrights who have been selected from a rigorous application process. Alumni artists include John Patrick Shanley, August Wilson, John Guare, Susan Lori Parks, William Inge, Sarah Ruhl, Lynn Nottage and more, for over eight decades. It is a highly competitive internship, usually won by older graduate students and industry working professionals.
• Coleman Campbell ’20 will intern at The Lost Colony in Manteo, North Carolina.
• Alissa Cecala ’20 will work in front of house for the Contemporary American Theatre Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
• Franchesca Contreras ’19 will intern at Developing Artists, a nonprofit organization training diverse teens in the arts in New York City.
• Rachel Louis ’20 will perform the lead role, Lida Dutton, in “All for the Union” for Run Rabbit Run Theatre in Leesburg, Virginia. “All for the Union” is a Civil War-era play that will be presented at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, D.C., and in Aldie, Virginia in August. The play is written by historian and playwright Meredith Bean McMath and is based on the true story of the Quaker women who wrote “The Waterford News,” as a moral booster and fundraiser for the Union troops. They lived in Waterford, Loudoun County, the only county in Virginia to side with the Union. Louis is also pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Design & Production – Stage Management at Shenandoah.
• Kelsey Rene ’20 will serve as the creative development scout for Davenport Theatrical Enterprises in New York City, reading scripts, seeing staged readings and attending workshopping events for new works to report back on what is ready to be produced.
• Avery Sedlacek ’20 will serve as an assistant to the director for Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre in Winchester, Virginia.

Musical Theatre Majors

• Bailey Baker ’20 will be an actor at Highlands Playhouse in North Carolina where she will perform as Gertie in “Oklahoma!” and in the ensemble in “The Buddy Holly Story.”
• Taylor Barth ’20 will serve as an acting and improvisation instructor at Next Stop Broadway Summer Camp, a youth theatre program at Coral Springs Center for the Performing Arts in Coral Springs, Florida.
• Cassandra Clare ’20 will work at Orange Community Players in Hillsborough, North Carolina, performing the lead role of Mary Poppins in “Mary Poppins.”
• Joshua Cody ’20 will be an actor in the in the “Brothers in Christ” production, a three-day shoot where he will play the bad boyfriend.
• Emily Foley ’20 will be a performing intern at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre in Winchester, Virginia.
• Rebecca Forrest ’20 will serve as the assistant to the production manager at Pittsburgh CLO in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she will help oversee and coordinate all production elements of the summer season, including providing help with scheduling, departmental check-ins, development and distribution of notes, attendance at production meetings, managing expenses and more.
• Kaila Friedman ’20 will be part of the summer resident company at the Priscilla Beach Theatre in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• Reilly Lincavicks ’20 will be a performing intern at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre where she will play the leading role Liesl in “The Sound of Music,” and perform in the ensemble of “Ragtime.”
• Danny Martin ’20 will be an acting apprentice at Flat Rock Playhouse in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
• Nisa Mercado ’20 will be an actor for the Virginia Repertory Theatre in Richmond, Virginia.
• Nicolette Minella ’20 will be an actor and dancer at the Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts in Smithtown, New York, and an arts management intern at Theatre Forward, an arts organization in New York City that funds 20 professional theatres around the country.
• Jack Murphy ’20 will serve as a first-year apprentice at Flat Rock Playhouse in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Flat Rock Playhouse is an equity theatre where Murphy will have the opportunity to perform in two main stage shows (“South Pacific” and “All Shook Up”), as well as a children’s show, revues and a gala.
• Lydia Murtha ’20 will be a tour actor/director for Missoula Children’s Theatre in Missoula, Montana, where she will travel with the show “Robin Hood.”
• Erisa Sloan ’22 will work as a production assistant to Pittsburg-based The Blanket for their third project, “Yolk & Grove” at The Carrie Furnaces in Pittsburgh on July 5 and July 6. She will serve as an assistant to Beth Gill, award-winning New York-based choreographer, and Assistant Professor of Modern Dance Matt Pardo, M.F.A., and Caitlin Scranton, co-founders.
• Sami Weathersby ’20 will be a company member at Highlands Playhouse in North Carolina, performing in the ensemble for “The Buddy Holly Story” and “Oklahoma!” as well as the principal character Louise Seger in “Always…Patsy Cline.”
• Meggara Willimont ’20 will serve as a performance intern at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre where she will perform as an ensemble member in all three productions, “Ragtime,” “Young Frankenstein” and “The Sound of Music.”

Musical Theatre Accompanying Majors

• Olivia Ciotti ’19 will serve as a music intern at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. She will exclusively shadow the current music director, Meg Zervoulis of Broadway’s “The Prom.” Ciotti will play piano for dance classes, voice lessons and rehearsals for Paper Mill’s Summer Conservatory, working with young artists ages 10 through 18. At the end of the summer, Ciotti will take part in the two-day New Voices Concert performed by the Summer Conservatory at Paper Mill Playhouse.