ESU Theatre Students Earn Summer Internships with Professional Companies

Posted by: admin on May 18, 2015, No Comments

Current students and recent graduates of East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania’s theatre department will enhance their skills through competitive summer internships with prominent professional companies in the Northeast.

Nicholas Chamberlain, a freshman majoring in theatre and psychology from Susquehanna, Pa., and Rebecca Roeber, a junior majoring in theatre from East Stroudsburg, Pa., will spend their summer as stage management interns at the Hangar Theatre, in Ithaca, N.Y.

Founded in 1975, the award-winning Hangar Theatre has achieved national prominence as a professional regional theatre.  The summer program includes main stage productions, children’s theatre performances and cutting-edge productions in the experimental theatre space known as The Wedge.

Interns will be responsible for stage managing the season in The Wedge theatre and will work as assistant stage managers for the children’s theatre performances and as production assistants for main stage presentations.

During the 2014-15 academic year at ESU, Chamberlain was assistant stage manager for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, run crew chief for Eurydice and an apprentice stage manager for Seussical.  He also served as stage manager for many productions in high school.

Roeber’s credits during the 2014-15 academic year include appearing in Seussical and Eurydice and serving as stage manager for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  She is a member of Concert Choir, A Cappella Ensemble, University Singers, Musical Theatre Organization (MTO), and Stage II, the student theatre organization.

Rebecca Regina of Rutherford, N. J., a 2015 graduate of ESU’s musical theatre program, will be a costume intern with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass.

Founded in 1978 by Tina Packer, Shakespeare & Company is one of the largest Shakespeare festivals in the country.  During its summer season the company develops and performs Shakespeare, classics, and contemporary new plays of social and political significance on its 30-acre campus.

Regina appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Seussical during the 2014-15 academic year. Previous productions include The Wizard of Oz, Top Girls, The Diary of Anne Frank, A Christmas Carol and the 2012 Stage II One-Act Plays.  She also was stage manager for Spike Heels, assistant stage manager for Lord of the Flies and The Goat or Who is Sylvia?  She was president of Stage II, the student theatre organization, a shop assistant for the theatre department and a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority.

Brandon Cabrera, a 2014 alumnus of the ESU theatre program, will be a member of the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Apprentice Program which is a hands-on, fully immersive experience designed to be a bridge between educational and professional theatre through advanced classes and a multitude of production opportunities.

Founded in 1955, the festival brings notable American actors, directors, designers and playwrights to Williamstown, Mass. for innovative productions of classical plays, new dramas and musicals and cultural events including cabarets, readings, workshops and educational programs.  The Williamstown Theatre Festival earned the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 2002.

At ESU Cabrera appeared in The Wizard of Oz, Spike Heels, Lord of the Flies, Soul Gone Home, Sold and The Diary of Anne Frank.  He competed for an Irene Ryan acting award at the Region II Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF).  His multimedia designs for Top Girls earned him a certificate of merit from KCACTF.  He also was multimedia designer for The Wizard of Oz and an ESU theatre shop assistant.