Summer Theater Academy - Crazy and fun

By Patrick Schley, Special Projects Coordinator

When Summer Academy begins on June 15th it will be the culmination of months and months of planning. We started way back in December when John and Laurie started thinking about what the summer would look like and when Erin and Alison got ready for the thousands of registrations to start pouring in. And then, in the time between December and now, we’ve been taking registrations, auditioning Company Classes, finding teachers and TA’s, copying scripts… it seems like it never ends.

Going forward from today, it’s a race to the finish. We want to make sure that everything is exactly what it’s supposed to be before hundreds of Academy students pour through the doors on the 15th. Sure, there are always some hiccups but our goal is for Academy to happen with as few hitches as possible.

So what’s my role in all of this? I see it all from afar—working remotely while pursuing my BFA in Theatre Management from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago. During the prep time I do whatever possible to help the full-time staff with what they’re doing (for example, this week I’ve helped with responding to e-mails and phone calls—we get a lot). And then once Summer rolls around, I’m in the thick of it: supervising lunch, handing out band-aids, taking attendance, finding tasks for our lovely office interns.

It’s a crazy time but I love every minute of it. This will be my eleventh summer at First Stage—and can’t wait for it to begin!

Photo Patrick Schley signing and Academy T-shirt