Costume & Wardrobe Interns

Our costume and wardrobe interns, while often having a primary interest in either working with the costume shop staff constructing the costumes or assisting the wardrobe mistress or master with laundry and preparing the costumes & wigs for each performance & then helping actors with quick changes backstage, end up depending on each productions needs working both facets over the course of a season here.  Typically we have two interns in this area & they may be working together in the shop or in performance or on opposite schedules for a show.

Erin Benjamin ('09 - '10)  stayed in MI, has her own fashion business, "Scene Ripper" and returned to MBT to design costumes for "Spreading It Around" in spring 2012.  Becky Doster ('09 - '10) moved to NYC where she stage managed productions for several companies and a summer season in ME.  She 's still in NYC but working now for a financial company.  Abby Barker ('10 - '11) also went to NYC when she finished here & worked freelance in costume shop & ran wardrobe off-Broadway.  She's now returned to her home state of TX to work in the banking industry.  Mary Gietzen ('11 - '12) went  to Wayne State to earn her MFA and now is at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant where she's the costume shop coordinator.  Emily Kimball ('11- '12) returned to her alma mater Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, MN where she designs, teaches costume design & manages their costume shop. In the summers, she travels to the New London Barn Playhouse in NH to work for the season in their costume shop.  April Townsend ('12 - '13) since leaving MBT has been working as a product specialist for auto shows and recently relocated to GA.  Izzy Bristow ('13 - '14) worked for the Santa Fe Opera for 2 seasons & spent a year studying costume design & model making for film at the Arts University of Bournemouth.  This year she's been pursuing a Masters degree in puppet design at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (check out some of her work at spinyleaf.wix.com/izzybportfolio).  Thea Peterson (13 - '14) is in NYC studying at the Fashion Institute ofTechnology.   Kiran-Durae  Lambert ('14 - '15) recently has gotten married (now Kiran-Durae Barkey) and almost as recently returned to MI from NC where she worked on the wardrobe crew at Arts Center of Coastal Carolina with Michaela O'Neill ('14 - '15) who is still there as wardrobe supervisor.

Scenery & Lighting Interns

After a long break, here's a continuation of updates on our past seasons' interns before our 50th season ends.  See previous blog entries for earlier updates on acting, prop and stage management interns.

Lighting interns who also spend a good part of their internship assisting in the scene shop as well  - Sara Aurin Finney stayed for a 2nd internship after her 1st year as the stage management intern (see her update in earlier post).  Scott Ross ('10 - '11) stayed in MI working at other theatres including Macomb Center for the Arts and the Henry Ford Community College as well as continuing for us when extra labor was needed.  He then returned to us as the full-time Ass't Master Electrician before returning this past summer to his home state of PA continuing to work in the theatre industry.   Joel Behrman ('13 - '14) and Dani Hamm ('14 - '15) are both off travelling the world working as theatre technicians aboard cruise liners.

Scene Shop interns - Casey Hibbert also returned for a 2nd year as the stage management intern (see his update in previous post).  Eugenia Yee ('10 - '11) was a MI resident who after her internship spent a summer as ass't scenic charge artist with Des Moines Metro Opera & then spent a season at Henry Ford Community College with fellow intern Scott Ross (see above).  Since then she been studying architecture at University of Detroit Mercy graduating with a Bachelor of Science, Architecture just this spring with plans to receive her Masters degree once her thesis project is complete.  Chris Nelson ('11 - '13) stayed for a 2nd year as an intern & then joined the scene shop full-time staff.  He has recently relocated back to his home state of IN to switch from theatrical to commercial enterprises.  Corey Boughton ('14 - '15), another MI native, after his internship has continued to work here when we have the need for extra labor as well as working for other theatres in MI.  He's spent several summers at the Barn Theatre in Augusta as lighting or sound designer & this summer will be stage managing for their season.

Stage Management Interns

In an earlier post, we mentioned that several of our past stage management interns have stayed or returned to become part of our full-time staff - Sarah Lin Warren '98 - '99 as Production Manager/Ass't Stage Manager, Casey Hibbert '10 - '11 as part of our box office staff (& also serving as webmaster) and Daniel Morency '14 - '15 as Assistant Master Electrician.

Stage management interns were the first interns that Meadow Brook Theatre officially had starting in 1996 and in those earlier seasons we had two as we had 2 stage managers each with their own intern.  Now we function with one stage manager with his intern and an assistant stage manager when we have a production in performance simultaneously with one in rehearsal.  Those interns that first year were MI native Stacy Grutza who is still active in local theatre and Rochan Olson who joined Actors' Equity Association as a union stage manager & returned the following 3 seasons as SM at MBT before going off to work for cruise lines and then relocating to the West Coast.

In more recent seasons our SM interns have been:

Josh Lau '13 - '14 left here for Bristol Valley Theatre in Naples in upstate NY where he'd also previously interned stage managing 2 shows in summer '14 and in summer '15.  He's also become the Production Stage Manager (now in his 2nd year) for the Opera Dep't at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY which produces 4 operas each school year.

Erin Edelstein '12 - '13 who returned to her native PA and joined Actors' Equity to SM at Fulton Theatre, 

Sara Aurin Finney '11 - '12 stayed for a 2nd season at MBT as the lighting intern and joined Actors' Equity to serve as ASM for our production of "The Constant Wife" in 2014.  She then relocated to Las Vegas before returning to her home state of KS.

Casey Rebecca Nunes '09 - '10 moved back to home state of CA to SM at Western Stage in Salinas for 2 seasons, worked as a technical theatre mentor for Foxcroft Academy in ME and then back to the San Francisco area to work with Ray of Light Theatre and Cutting Ball Theatre before joining the company of "Beach Blanket Babylon" (the longest running musical revue - began in 1974) as technician.  In non-theater news, she was a Top 100 Finalist for season 6 of television's "Master Chef" and has recently begun a dual career as a chef during the day while still working theatre at night.

Male Acting interns

All our acting interns have appeared in "A Christmas Carol"; Dan Amboyer & Adam Carpenter (see previous post) acted in "...Carol" as children and then later as adults during their internships.  Below is what other male acting interns have been doing since leaving MBT.  Look for the female acting interns' updates in an upcoming blog post.

Matthew Pecek from last season returned as Fred in this year's "...Carol".  Since his internship he's also starred in "As You Like It" for Water Works Theatre Company in Royal Oak, MI and filmed a webseries for elitedaily.com.  In 2016 he'll directing "The Light in the Piazza" for his alma mater Adrian College and planning a move to NYC.

Dave Roy ('13 - '14) performed at Greenfield Village the summer after his internship and is now a product specialist for Chevrolet and can be seen at auto shows around the country.

James Busam ('12 - '13) returned for a 2nd year of "...Carol" with us and has also acted since his time at MBT with Water Works Theatre Company, with Uncovered Theatre and at the Detroit Music Hall for Kelly Neiti Productions.  He is now a full-time educator.

Andrew Danner ('11 - '12) received a scholarship to American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco at the end of his internship here.  He then appeared in "Animal Crackers" at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in MA before moving back to CA.  Now in LA he has focused on comedy & among other projects has worked with College Humor, Buzzfeed, Fullscreen & Nerdist, performed on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) and writes & produces digital shorts & commercials.

Christopher Tefft ('10 - '11)  sang in 3 of our productions that season & has focused primarily on musical performances since.  He most recently appeared with the Metropolitan Opera in NYC where he lives. Other recent performances have been at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in PA w/ the New York Orchestra, the Israeli Philharmonic & the NJ Festival Orchestra and at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Theatre, Carnegie Hall & other venues.

Alex Pedica ('09 - '10) is currently the artistic director of the Roeper Theatre Company in Birmingham, MI.  Between his time here & now, he worked there, taught at Matrix Theatre in Detroit, performed with Greenfield Village in Dearborn and relocated briefly to Chicago before returning to MI.

Other interns from longer ago - Rob Arbaugh is now teaching at Rochester College and is artistic director for Uncovered Theatre, Kris Yoder returned to his home state of PA where he has taught college & just recently performed in "The Nutcracker Ballet" and Joey Bybee is based in CA where he continues to perform, though he did return to MBT to be in "By Jeeves" & "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown".