National tours are a beautiful, wonderful thing. They bring Broadway plays and musicals around North America so those who cannot afford to visit New York City or missed the show before it closed have a chance to live through Broadway magic. In Canada, the only regions that have touring productions visit on a regular basis are Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Ontario and Edmonton. The rest of Canada may have productions stop by every so often, but it isn't enough!

Any thespian worth his or her salt knows that there is always more than one side to any story worth telling. The same can be said of working in a summer company. The ensemble here at Interlakes Theatre is comprised of actors of all different ages from all across the country, and we all bring our own unique perspectives to this process. This week I decided to give another actress a turn at talking about the in's and out's of life at summer stock, my new college and friend, Dana Rose. Dana is a rising senior at The Hartt School, and like me, she is making her summer stock debut.

On Sunday, we closed the world premiere of Backbeard: A New Musical at the Theatre Institute at Sage after a short two-week run. It came and went too quickly, and I do not know that any of us could have anticipated just how profoundly this sweet little musical would move us, how deeply it would nestle itself into our hearts.

It finally happened. The cast list got posted and you are cast. Congratulations! Now what's the next step? Prep work. It's time to get familiar with the character you are going to portray. Here are some of the key steps to getting to know your character, so that you can make your performance the best it can be.

A chilling start to their 46th season, Prairie Repertory Theatre opened their first show last week: Don't Hug Me. Despite the ninety plus degree weather outside, the cast bundled up, sang their hearts out, and left audiences rolling in the aisles.

As I begin this new job, I find myself stuck in this odd adult-but-not-quite limbo. For those readers who aren't familiar with the term 'summer stock', it is a period of about two or three months during which a group of young emerging artists are sent to a remote, usually rustic, location to perform a handful of shows in rapid-fire succession.

There's no getting around it: Broadway is expensive. For a broke soon-to-be college student like myself, the prospect of scrounging up enough dollar bills to purchase a ticket to Something Rotten is a daunting one. So what are those of us without the means to experience professional theatre to do? In some cases, all we have to do is switch on the television or take a trip to the movie theater to see a musical come to life.

9. Alex Brightman and the cast of School of Rock-The Musical:

Whether it be for a job interview, a sports team try out, or auditions for a show, we've all been kept waiting anxiously for results. 'Did I do well enough?' 'Did they like it?' 'It would have been better if I had done this.' Cue 'I Hope I Get It' from A Chorus Line. You begin to over analyze the performance you gave. You crave a sense of approval and validation. The audition haunts you until you get that email, phone call, see the physical list posted on a bulletin board, or however the director shares the information. I don't like thinking that things are a 'sure thing'. If it's my first time auditioning for a group/director or they are a close friend of mine that I've sung for dozens of times, I always make sure to bring my A game and the nerves are still there. How do we deal with post audition anxiety? How do we deal with the waiting? Cue Sutton Foster singing that C# for a near fourteen counts in 'I Know It's Today' from Shrek the Musical.

The hardest lesson to learn as a newly graduated theatre nerd, is that actors do not get a summer vacation.

When I first joined my theater group at school, I had no idea I was going to find a second family. Every single person in my theater group has such a special bond. No one is ever left out. From day one, everyone just clicked. When I walked in as a freshman, I had no idea who was going to even talk to me. Everyone right away came up to me and introduced themselves to me and we were instantly talking like we've known each other for years.

Introducing our production of Footloose to you involved some mental math. As a refresher, the show was announced in January, auditions were held in April and rehearsals will soon start at the end of June. That's six months of project checkpoints, with the last stages of our Randolph training being a steady source of continuity. Perhaps distinct from other systems with an imminent end, our training is amping up as opposed to wrapping up. How so? I offer three ways: Integration Assignments, MTP SS and Panels.

Backbeard: A New Musical found its first audiences this past Wednesday, and we were tremendously busy leading up the first performance. Regardless of what time of day it was, a plethora of artists were working around the clock to see the visions of Backbeard's creators through to opening day. The final week before opening was an integral period of growth for artists, creators, designers, and technical staff. After weeks (or in Backbeard's case, years) of immersion in the text and the projected visions of artists, the final stretch presented the actualization of the piece, and the monstrous effort of a family of artists was realized.

We all have our proudest moments. They may not always be the day you got the 'starring role', but maybe it is. Everyone has that one instant in their life that makes them smile. This week, we're going to talk about your proudest moment in theater. Whether you pursued theater your entire life, only did it in high school, or maybe still getting your feet wet; your experience in theater has an everlasting impact on your life whether you realize it or not. I love asking questions and I love getting to know people, so I went out and found out people's proudest moments in theater.

And just like that, the school year goes by in a blink. If you're anything like me, you always had a show. Whenever one show ended, another show began. This year was a record for the most shows I had done in the course of a year. Now all of my school shows are done and I await the next audition announcement. I know what you're thinking, 'Wow, that's great! You finally have a break to just relax and have fun!' Wrong. I went from doing four back to back (and some overlapping) productions fall semester, to doing three productions spring semester (again back to back and overlapping), to nothing. Some people spend so much time balancing a busy schedule that they don't really know what to do with free time. I am one of those people. Not to worry friends, we'll get through this together!

Struggles of being a small town Broadway fan in a Top 12 list

Imagine: your childhood hero, the woman who coined one of your 8-year-old self's favorite songs, holding your hand in front of hundreds of people, the renowned Phoenix Symphony gushing in gorgeous melodies behind you. You are surrounded by your friends and classmates, and bowing in front of an ocean of applauding strangers. No, this is not a dream. This was very much reality. Last weekend I had the opportunity of performing backup vocals with fifteen of my classmates at Arizona State University, for Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth.

Since discovering BroadwayWorld.com in freshman year of high school, I have been hooked! No other website makes me feel as 'in the loop' with New York as this site. Being from a small town in Canada, I enjoy everything BroadwayWorld has to offer. It's been my home sweet homepage ever since!

We are about to enter our final week of rehearsal for Backbeard: A New Musical at the Theatre Institute at Sage! This Friday, we will begin technical rehearsals for the show, and we open for school groups next Wednesday, June 1st. It will be an exciting last week as the final details are hammered out and we finally see the results of our efforts come to fruition.

Randolph Academy's Class of 2016 (Summer) is graduating in 81 days and I am but one member of this sizeable and extraordinary group. It is my absolute pleasure to share the work on our last production, Footloose, with you over the next few months. Hey, my name is Naomi!

If you're reading this, chances are I do not need to describe what many refer to as 'the magic' of theatre. You're probably living it right now. Whether this idea refers to the relationships within a cast, the effect of the show on an audience, or simply the energy that you can only feel onstage, there is certainly something special about being a part of theatre. Now take all of those warm fuzzies, and put them into one tiny, little 24-Hour long box. You shouldn't be able to, right? But it's completely possible, and it's something students from all across my university have been doing for two years now.

Last week I shared the growth of the University of New Haven's Theatre Department from the student perspective. Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with a few of the faculty to hear their views of the program's growth.

When deciding on what show to do for each semester, our theater group gets together to discuss possibilities to run by our director. Our director threw Sweeney Todd out as an option but we all knew it was going to be a challenge. One of the biggest things we have to take into consideration when choosing a show every year is our very tiny stage. Our theater has a little over 100 seats but has the smallest little stage. We also have to squeeze our orchestra on the stage right corner of the stage because there is no other place to put them! Visioning sets on that stage always is difficult to start but with the help of our amazing crew, we manage to pull it off every year.

One of my favorite mantras is, 'If you rest, you rust'.

Since the theatre program first came to be, the University of New Haven has not been the same. Watching the program grow has infected the rest of campus with the theatre bug. Student organizations have been inspired to take on more theatrical events around campus. To quote Cabaret cast member Katherine Lutz, 'Theatre is no longer a group of misunderstood outcasts; theatre is now a welcomed part of student life on campus!'