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We will be working on a future blog post about some of the best “Summer Stocks” for future Scenic Artists. Who do recommend and why? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ooo, I’m interested in this topic. I have a student who was just asking for recommendations. I’ve never gotten into the summer stock scene (I have a dog, which makes it tough…) so I’m not familiar with the different ones. He’s applying for an internship with Great River Shakespeare Festival; does anyone know much about this festival?
I worked at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, WV for six seasons. I started off as an intern (paid!) and then worked as the Charge Artist. The festival is modeled off of the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, so they produce 5 (or 6) brand new works every year. The shows run in rotating rep in their 3 theatre spaces. With new works it’s always a hit or miss, but overall the quality of the shows is always stellar. The paint shop consists of 2 interns, 2 scenics, and 1 charge and they do five or six shows. The pay is decent, by summerstock standards, and the contracts for the charge and painters are only six weeks long, which is nice if you’re in school or you’ve got a 9 month contract somewhere else. The budgets are adequate and the staff overall is really nice. They definitely hire some good people. The festival definitely has its pros and cons, but overall I really enjoyed my time there.
Shepherdstown is this tiny little liberal community on the Potomac River in eastern West Virginia, about an hour outside of Washington DC and Baltimore. It’s home to Shepherd University, which is where the festival is located, and is just the most wonderful place you can imagine. It has beautiful hiking and rafting and the whole town is just gorgeous. There are a bunch of great restaurants and shops and being so close to two major cities means you can do some pretty cool day trips. I absolutely love Shepherdstown and cannot recommend it highly enough.
I was there from 2009-2015 and I currently work with a bunch of people that still go back every year so I’m always happy to answer questions about CATF!
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