With Cabaret closing and the senior showcase complete, the SAU 2017-18 theatre season has officially reached its end.
Although the department itself will not produce shows this summer, students and faculty will be hard at work throughout the Quad Cities and beyond! Our dedicated department is continuing to represent St. Ambrose as actors, stage managers, interns, educators, and directors.
Sophomore Jessica Karolczak and Junior Kendall McKasson will be working at St. Ambrose after the semester ends. McKasson will be working as an employee in the scene shop throughout the summer months. Karolczak will be working with her student designers throughout the summer as she prepares for her upcoming production of Rabbit Hole set to debut in the SAU Studio Theatre at the beginning of September.
Seniors Hannah Donovan and Kelci Eaton will be stage managers in the Quad Cities this summer. Donovan is stage-managing the first week of Big River with the Mississippi Bend Players theatre company in Rock Island, Illinois, while their full-time stage manager is out of the country. She will also be stage-managing Circa ‘21 Dinner Playhouse's production of Mamma Mia while their stage manager is on maternity leave. Mamma Mia runs July 20-September 15. Eaton will be the stage manager for The Blackbox Theatre's production of Next to Normal, running August 9-18.
Many SAU students are putting their special skills to work by becoming interns this summer! The Mississippi Bend Players interns include senior Zachary Lawson, first-year Ellie Larson, and senior Megan Clarke. Karolczak will be interning at a television studio in her hometown of Sheldon, Iowa, learning the ins and outs of running a TV station. Senior Sam Jones will be an apprentice at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, Minn. There he will take classes, understudy the main company shows, and put on an Apprenticeship Show at the end of the summer. Junior Rebecca Moews will be assisting Ben Ulin, a magician at Adventureland Amusement Park in Altoona, Iowa, throughout the summer as well.
Senior Kayla Lansing and first-year Luke Peterson will be using their skills as educators in the theatrical world this summer.
Lansing will be teaching theatre camps at Theatre Cedar Rapids, some of which include Disney heroes and villains; Adventure Quest camp; Star Wars camp; a new camp for kids on the autism spectrum; and emoji camp. Peterson will be entering his fourth year at the Rising Stars Theatre Camp in Van Horne, Iowa, as a camp leader, workshop leader, and part of the backstage crew.
Not only will SAU students be backstage, but many of them will be acting on stage as well!
- Lansing is Miss Watson in the first production of the Mississippi Bend Players' season, Big River, which runs June 22-July 1.
- Megan Clarke ‘18 will be Amy in Beginner's Luck, the last show of the Mississippi Bend Players' season, which runs August 5-12.
- Kelci Eaton ‘18 will portray Lizzie in the Blackbox's production of Baby: the Musical, running from June 14-23.
- Sophomore TJ Green is Ralph in the QC Theatre Workshop's production of Reefer Madness, which runs from June 1st to June 17th. You can also see Green in The Quad City Music Guild's production of Shrek: the Musical, where he will be one of the three little pigs.
- Senior Jackson Green will be in the new Spotlight Theatre's production of All the Great Books [Abridged], opening on June 2 and SAU alumna Helene Devine will stage manage.
As you can see, we here at St. Ambrose are committed to theatre in more ways than one, and we are hard at work representing the university as an artistic and theatrical powerhouse. We encourage you to come visit us all this summer and see what we're up to!
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