National call for applications by April 14 is open for ten actors, stage managers, and production personnel to hone their craft during TSC’s 2023-24 Equity/Non-Equity Season
Our newest theatrical endeavor, the Classical Theatre Apprentice Program, is an eight-month-long Program that will begin September 5, 2023, and will run through April 26, 2024. Candidate applications are due by April 14.
The Classical Theatre Apprentice Program is focused on experiential, classical stage performance/stage management/production training and work designed to help emerging theatre professionals launch and sustain their early/mid careers. This apprenticeship focuses on immersive career development opportunities. Apprentices are guaranteed to act and teach, stage manage, or provide production assistance in multiple areas in a variety of shows, including all mainstage productions during our 16th season.
Our season will be announced in late April but will include Education touring productions of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. The performance season will expand to include three to four AEA/non-AEA productions, including two Shakespeare plays and up to two 19th/20th Century classical plays.
TSC and our casting and hiring policies are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and provide equal opportunity to all candidates. Apprentices will work approximately 40 hours per week with at least one day off per week.
“We strive to reflect the diversity of our Memphis community in our productions, “says McCleary, “on our Tabor Stage, in our free Shakespeare Shout-Out productions, our touring performances, and our school shows. We teach and train actors and production personnel of all ages nearly every day. We now look forward to formalizing that training for a skilled, passionate company of diverse classical actors, stage managers, and technicians throughout a full season.”
Program training for performers, supervised by Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary, will focus on developing the classical actor in areas of voice, movement, actor-audience relationship, structure of Shakespeare’s verse, clowning, dance and fight, auditioning, and the business of marketing oneself as a working actor. Training will include master classes, mock auditions, ongoing specialty training classes with TSC teaching and artistic staff, and classes with visiting artists from around the country.
Program training for stage managers and technicians will be supervised by TSC Production Manager Jeremy Fisher, with additional management provided by TSC’s production stage manager. Opportunities to train and work in areas of management, design, lighting, sound, scenic/props, costumes, and all technical aspects will be customized for each Apprentice and will include a range of possibilities from shadowing to running responsibilities.
Apprentices will receive networking opportunities with all visiting actors and directors who work at TSC during the season. The program’s open rehearsal policy will also allow Apprentices to watch the work of visiting artists and discuss their observations in regular mentoring sessions.
We will award a grant of $8,000 to each Apprentice, who will be responsible for their own transportation/room/board in the Memphis area.
Initial applications for actor candidates: please submit resume, headshot, and a letter of interest to Dan McCleary at danmccleary@tnshakespeare.org. Candidates may then be invited to a virtual video audition.
Initial applications for stage manager/production candidates: please submit resume and any website resource, and a letter of interest to Dan McCleary at danmccleary@tnshakespeare.org. Candidates may then be invited to a virtual interview.
All letters of interest should address a candidate’s passion for classical theatre, awareness of TSC’s work and its mission, how previous training has prepared them for an immersive professional theatre experience, and their relationship to commitment, compassion, generosity of spirit, and courage in the theatre.
Initial applications are due by April 14.
For more information, please visit our site here.
Season 15 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, Arts Midwest, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, Independent Bank, Evans Petree PC, First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Charitable Trust, Nancy R. Copp, the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, and Dorothy O. Kirsch.
TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee; and is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534, awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of Treasury. TSC’s projects and productions are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
TSC’s programming and outreach partners include University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, Cities of Bartlett/Collierville/Lakeland/Memphis, Shelby County Election Commission, the Benjamin Hooks Public Library Friends, and WKNO Radio (91.1 FM Memphis).
