Jennifer Avery

Age: 30s

Title/Affiliation: Actress, Teacher, Co-Artistic Director/Strawdog Theatre
University/Training: Smith College; New Actors Workshop

Recent/Current Projects: Apocolyptic Butterflies (Collaboraction Theatre); Measure for Measure (Next Theatre); Knives in Hens (Strawdog Theatre. Jeff nomination for Best Actress).

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: I guess, in the most obvious way, my college education gave me a sense of discipline and an ability to analyze a text. I think that getting a liberal arts degree has given me a larger perspective that has proved incredibly helpful. I can draw on information I learned in classes ranging from art history to psychology to help me in preparing for a role. In terms of my theatre training, I feel that I have a bag of tools that I can pick up when inspiration is hard to find.

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: The training program that I attended in New York was run by a bunch of guys who started out in Chicago. They all said quite plainly that if we wanted to be doing theatre, Chicago was the place to be. I stayed in New York for a year after the program finished, waiting in lines to audition and working enormous hours to afford my rent and I finally wised up and decided to take their advice.

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career, or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: The biggest thing is that it really takes time. This is what so many teachers told me, but I just didn’t want to believe it. As I get older, I have more experience and confidence in my craft to bring to the table. Do it because it brings you joy. Stop doing it if it does not.

Michelle Habeck
Age: Ageless! 35 on the time scale.

Title/Affiliations: Lighting, Scenic and Multimedia Designer/The Stage; Museums and Private Residences; United Scenic Artist Local 829 member; Artistic Associate (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble).
University/Training: Undergraduate studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst (biochemistry and biology); Salem State College, Salem, Mass. (B.F.A in Lighting and Scenic Design); Graduate studies at Northwestern University (M.F.A in Lighting and Scenic Design).

Recent/Current Projects: The Boy From OZ (Broadway): Associate Lighting Design; Thoroughly Modern Millie National Tour: Projection Design; The Romance Cycle (The Court Theatre): Lighting Design; Lobby Hero (The Goodman Theatre): Lighting Design; Gem of The Ocean (The Goodman Theatre, Mark Taper Forum): Associate Lighting Design; Julie Taymor Playing With Fire (National Touring Exhibit): Associate Lighting Design; Wedding Planner for Chris Habeck and Cara Neelan in June (designer and chef).

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: Theatre touches all the bases of life. It’s not just about the technical side of design, it’s about digging into the richness of what it is to be human. I had some fantastic undergraduate professors who challenged me, motivated me—sometimes by fear—and kept me constantly inspired. I studied art, literature, history, science, logic, philosophy and music. I was required to go to a museum once every two weeks. The museum visits kept me connected to the masters and to those who broke rules. I learned that those who break the rules almost always studied the masters first, the finer art if you will. That’s a great lesson I learn from even now. The most important lesson I learned while at Salem State College is that the work is your own. You have to do the work in order to improve. You have to fail, and you have to push beyond your perceived limits. It’s a hands-on craft, you cannot just think it and make it so. You must practice the craft, and you have to be your own bully because once you’re out of school, you are your own motivation. No one will be standing over your back cheering you on.

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: I love Chicago. There is a great life force in this city that is highly intoxicating to me. It’s a young, accepting city that views growth and change as positive. The cultural variation excites me…I believe the opportunities in the Chicago theatre scene for young designers, actors and writers is bar none the best in the nation. Granted, you are not always making big money, but there are some extremely talented and fearless souls in this city practicing our craft.

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career, or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: Be a student of life. Learn to enjoy the small things in life. Keep family close. Find a hobby or a sport that has nothing to do with theatre and make it part of your life—balance. Regarding school: Make sure the school fits you. Interview your professors, visit, talk to the students enrolled and ask them what they don’t like about the program. It’s your college career, choose the school on your terms.

What I wish I knew back then?: I wish I had given myself the permission to have that outside of theatre hobby. I run now, and I tell you, it saves my soul.

David Christopher Krause
(but you can call me “Big”)
Age: 32

Title/Affiliations: Artistic Engineer/ Redmoon Theater, which encompasses the roles of Technical Director, Master Builder, Primary Object Designer/ Inventor, Mechanical Engineer and Mad Scientist.
University/Training: North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics; North Carolina State University College of Mechanical Engineering; School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts (screenwriter and animator).

Recent/Current Projects: Besides expanding our new shop space and setting up our machine shop, I recently created a large number of objects for our mainstage show Seagull. For Independence Day, I worked on large motorized parade objects for our multi-parade extravaganza. I am currently working with Frank Maugeri and Kevin O’Donnell on writing and designing our upcoming winter pageant. And I am in the process of refining and shopping around a television show I have been filming entitled “Yard Sailing.” The show is about the counterculture surrounding yard, garage and rummage sales.

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: My training in the arts gave me the creative confidence to dream up the ridiculous machines, vehicles and objects that I do, and my engineering experience helps me to understand how to bring them off the page. It is exciting to know that a designer can come to me with just a concept for a set or object, and I can take it from a scratch drawing, offer creative guidance, figure out the necessary mechanical and structural components to make it work and build it. It’s a lot of work, but it’s rewarding.

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: I fell in love with a girl, and I made her my wife this May. (Hi Chris!)

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career, or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: Believe that your opportunity is out there. The perfect job is waiting to fall out of the sky right onto your head. Don’t be afraid. Just be poised to grab it when you see it.

Amanda LaFollette
Age: 26

Title/Affiliations: Managing Director, Famous Door

University/Training: B.A. in Communication Studies and Theater at South Dakota State University; M.F.A. in Theater Management at Yale School of Drama.
Recent/Current Projects: I joined Famous Door in 2001 from general management posts at Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Stage & Film and Yale Repertory Theatre, among others. At the Manhattan Theatre Club, I helped produce such plays as Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire, The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa, The Tale of The Allergist’s Wife by Charles Busch and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof by David Auburn. At New York Stage & Film, I managed the development and world premieres of 19 new plays including Chesapeake by Lee Blessing, The Trail of Her Inner Thigh by Erin Cressida Wilson and the off-Broadway hit The Bombitty of Errors. My professional background also includes marketing and development work at City Theatre in Miami and Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as consulting work for many arts organizations including Disney Theatricals, The National Arts Marketing Project, and Baryshnikov Productions.

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: I went to a conservatory, so my training was the beginning of my professional theatre career. Theories and textbooks provide a very valuable base, but the experience I gained working at the Rep during graduate school was what really began to solidify my skills as a manager and producer. Often, people will find out that I have a Masters degree and ask: “What did you write your thesis on?” I get to say: “I didn’t write a thesis, I ran a theatre!” It was wonderful training to have this $6 million LORT theatre as a classroom and lab for the students. Also, the incredible thing about a place like Yale is the network to which you suddenly belong. The school made a huge effort to introduce us to anyone and everyone they could. I had whole classes that were made up entirely of influential industry professionals as guest speakers that served almost solely to introduce us to the people we would need to know in our future careers. That network includes not only such guests, but also the extensive list of faculty, alumni and, of course, my classmates who provide the most amazing support system I have ever experienced.

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: I loved my time in New York, but I was interested in trying something else after I graduated. I was looking at various things all over the country, and the Famous Door opportunity came up at the right time and just felt right all around. I was excited not only to become a part of Famous Door, but the entire artistic community here. That community was something I definitely wanted. The Chicago community is large, vibrant and very active.

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career, or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: If you wish to have a professional career in the theatre, the first step is to be informed of what’s happening in the field—not only on a local level, but nationally and internationally, as well. It always astounds me how many people I meet who fancy themselves as theatre professionals but cannot name even three regional theatres in this country . Even fewer people know anything about the history of the not-for-profit theatre in this country, or even how professional theatres are run. Be informed. You don’t need to write a thesis, but if you are serious about making this industry your livelihood, then you need to know a little bit about it.

Anthony Moseley
Age: 29 (going on 30)

Title/Affiliations: Theatre and Film Producer, Director, Actor and Artistic Director for Collaboraction. I also work as an acting and playwright teacher, party and event planner and promoter, M.C. and corporate, on-premise promotion creative director.

University/Training: B.A. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame in 1995. Then, I had my early mid-life crisis, read too much Deepak Chopra and started pursuing my passion for acting and storytelling. With the goal of “being in control of my own creative universe,” I began waiting tables at the Artist’s Café on Michigan Avenue and found the Steven Ivcich Professional Studio program, which was where I found my own process and craft thanks to guru Steve. Ever since, my training has been hands-on, in-the-streets hustling.

Recent/Current Projects: Collaboraction’s Apocalyptic Butterflies; the mammoth known as Sketchbook 2003; Theatre Head; the development of a multi-function warehouse performance space. And, of course, marrying my closest friend and collaborator, actress Sandra Delgado.

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: My business degree from Notre Dame gave me the foundation I needed to be a producer with the ability to understand, both intuitively and practically, budgets, marketing, risk management, etc. It also fueled me to avoid work in the real business world because I knew I would end up too dry inside. Everything else I know was basically self-taught (directing, film, events, teaching, etc.). I excel at throwing myself into situations in which I don’t belong and then ploughing ahead until I master the challenge (or at least I try).

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: Besides the fact that I was raised here, Chicago has the deepest, most diverse and most talented theatre community in the world. Period. To be the best, you have to play with the best. As far as true craft goes, Chicago is the best. The creative environment is ideal—good people, great talent, reasonable cost-of-living for artists and diversity of people and experiences.

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career, or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: You are responsible for your life, your future and your career. That means that each individual needs to put themselves on-the-line for making things happen. The days of getting discovered while cutting the grass with your shirt off are over. To make it, you have to hustle. Choosing a career in theatre takes guts and passion. So dig down deep, work harder than everybody else and enjoy it because making a living in this field is a blessing. Oh yeah, one more thing: persistence. If you don’t hang in there, your career is hung for you.

Bruce Norris
Age: 43
Title/Affiliations: Actor, Playwright
University/Training: B.S. in Theater at Northwestern University.
Recent/Current Projects: Recent productions as a playwright: The Infidel (Steppenwolf Theatre and Philadelphia Theatre companies); Purple Heart; We All Went Down to Amsterdam (Steppenwolf). I am currently working on a new play, The Pain and the Itch, for the Philadelphia Theatre.

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: I trained as an actor at Northwestern, and in that respect my training was extremely valuable because it provided a meeting place for a huge number of talented peers who could observe and learn from each other (and steal). It also simply provided a temporary home in which to try and fail, repeatedly in my case. Writing has only been the outgrowth of my dissatisfaction with my acting career. (Not a completely unsuccessful career, I want to add.) So, in that sense, college was only relevant in a roundabout way—I had begun writing in college but was too filled with shame to show it to anyone at that time. Which is just as well.

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: My girlfriend lived here.

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career, or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: I wish that I had known that I probably would not be doing Greek tragedy when I graduated. That would have been useful. I also was facing years of miserable, crushing rejection, and I wish I had known that was perfectly normal. And despite all the horrible parts of the career, if you can, by some means, outlast all the other poor bastards who are trying to do the same thing, you should know that the job is actually kind of fun from time to time.

Andre J. Pluess
Age: 30

Title/Affiliations: Composer, Sound Designer; Artistic Associate (Lookingglass Theatre); Resident Sound Designer (Victory Gardens Theater); Ensemble Member (Roadworks Productions); Associate Artist (About Face Theatre).

University/Training: B.A. in European History (Medieval Studies) from the University of Chicago with a minor concentration in Music Theory and Composition.

Recent/Current Projects: Design and composition credits include projects for Court Theatre (1999-2002 resident artist), Steppenwolf, Goodman, Northlight, Chicago Shakespeare, the Mark Taper Forum and Odyssey Theatres in Los Angeles, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, the New York Drama League, Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses (Circle in the Square New York), Writers Theatre, Next Theatre, Naked Eye and numerous other Chicago theatres. Recent and current projects include Race and Secret in the Wings (Lookingglass), I Am My Own Wife (Playwrights Horizons), Cymbeline and Pericles (Court), The Idiot Box (Naked Eye), Death and Harry Houdini (House Theatre) and A Play About a Baby (Goodman).

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: The University of Chicago has no formal theatre training program. There are various design classes offered (none in sound) and an assortment of acting classes. As students, we produced, directed, designed and acted with limited faculty supervision. Theatre students at the university had many opportunities to use the resources of University Theater in conjunction with their academic studies to explore in a theatrical context various themes related to their class work in the college. In addition, there is a heavy rotation of classic and contemporary plays produced year-round. I had many opportunities to integrate work in composition and music theory classes with University Theater projects. As a European History major, my work with University Theater was in constant dialogue with my academic focus (or lack thereof). I don’t think anything better prepares someone for a career in theatre than a well-rounded, thorough undergraduate liberal arts education.

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: Chicago is an affordable place to experiment and take risks. As a result, there is so much interesting theatre going on in this town varying in aesthetic, budget, style, etc. There is also a ton of new work being developed and produced. A large portion of my work in Chicago consists of designing new plays. Having spent some time in other cities, I really believe the Chicago theatre community is the most vital center for American theatre. I’d rather be here than anywhere else right now.

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: To those training in theatre on the academic level, I would simply say that training, though extremely valuable, is just the tip of the iceberg relative to experiences you will have learning hands-on from those in the business who are still “in the business.” I really felt like my true training began after college and is still on going. Be excited, be open and have fun.

PJ Powers
Age: 30

Title/Affiliations: Artistic Director and Co-Founder/TimeLine Theatre Company

University/Training: B.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Recent/Current Projects: I am a 1995 graduate of The Theatre School’s acting program. In 1997, I co-founded TimeLine Theatre Company, along with five other Theatre School grads, and I have served as the company’s artistic director since 1999. Since then, TimeLine has established a home at Baird Hall Theatre in Chicago’s East Lakeview neighborhood and has led the Joseph Jefferson Citations for the past three years with a total of 18 awards. Onstage for TimeLine, I have been seen most recently in the title role in Hauptmann, for which I received a Jeff Citation for Leading Actor. Other TimeLine appearances include the award-winning productions of Not About Nightingales and The Crucible (Jeff Citations for Production and Ensemble), Summit Conference, No End of Blame, Gaslight, A Cry of Players, The Seagull and Halcyon Days. Elsewhere in Chicago I have appeared in Rocket to the Moon and The Glass Menagerie (Writers’ Theatre), The Cripple of Inishmann (Northlight, After Dark Award for Ensemble), Locked Up Down Shorty’s (Steeltown Productions), Becket and Peter Pan (Shattered Globe), The Subject Was Roses (Carpe Noctem), and Three Sisters (Porchlight). I will appear this fall in Our Town at Writers’ Theatre. I am proud to serve on the Board of Directors for the League of Chicago Theatres.

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: What DePaul gave me was a set of tools to use for a career—learning how to analyze a script, break down a scene, take care of my voice, use my body, handle language and utilize my unique qualities to develop a character. Through my training as an actor, I realized that there were greater statements to make and greater opportunities that could exist beyond merely taking whatever role in whatever play I could get. I learned about artistic integrity. That’s not an easy thing to teach. It’s done simply by leading by example, and DePaul surrounded me with many examples every day of artists with integrity and a passion for their work.

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: As soon as I moved to Chicago in 1991, I started seeing shows at places like Remains and Shattered Globe. I felt at home. The work is challenging and fresh, and this is a place where anything can happen—where companies like Steppenwolf and Lookingglass can start from nothing and turn into institutions; where a show can (or could) begin in the basement of Café Voltaire and wind up being a landmark production; where you can have an amazing experience seeing a show in the back of a bookstore in Glencoe; where you can produce a show even if you have no clue whatsoever on how to produce; and where newspapers actually support the work of non-equity theatre with the same enthusiasm that they afford bigger theatres. And it’s all because the focus is on the work and how it can impact people. It just seems altogether different from what I’ve experienced visiting other major cities. New York is extraordinary in so many ways, but I could never build an artistic home like the one I have at TimeLine in a city where the economics of the commercial theatre are so dominant. And Los Angeles? That place just makes me want to come home to Chicago and bathe. It’s not a place for me.

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: My biggest piece of advice is go see plays in town! If you’re still in school or you’re new to town, make sure that you’re going out a couple times a week to see the work that is happening here. There are so many ways to see shows for free or cheap. And you should be getting to know the companies and artists that are working here. It will only help you define for yourself the type of work you want do. The single greatest thing about training in Chicago is taking advantage of the theatre community that is at your doorstep. Seeing the work in town should be at least half of your education.

Jacqueline Singleton
Age: 31

Title/Affiliations: Equity stage manager; Stage Left

University/Training: Northwestern University, B.S. in Theatre, Class of 1993

Recent/Current Projects: I’m currently stage managing Pygmalion and The Cherry Orchard at American Players Theater in Spring Green, Wisc. for my second season. Upcoming: A new musical at Madison Rep called Heartland and The Drawer Boy. This past year, I assisted on Trojan Women at the Goodman, did a workshop for the Arts Exchange program at Steppenwolf, stage managed Lobby Hero (Madison Rep) and did Anthony and Cleopatra and Mrs. Warren’s Profession at American Players Theater.

How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a theatre career?: There’s no real stage management concentration at Northwestern, so I was able to dabble in a lot of subjects. I took theatre, musical and opera history; lighting, costume and sound design; directing, producing and fight choreography; performance studies, voice and acting. I worked in the scene, prop, costume and electrics shops. I worked on student and university productions in every field: producing, publicity, finance, design, construction and crew. I also stage managed three to four shows a year. All of this was excellent preparation for my work as a stage manager. I am able to communicate with different departments throughout the theatre and know, through experience, what it is they do. Having a body of knowledge of theatrical history is also very important. Getting to know great writers’ plays teaches you to identify the standard for theatrical excellence.

Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: I think there’s a place for everyone to work in Chicago, and it’s a great place to start off. Since I’ve gone Equity, I have stayed in the Midwest regional circuit because I think it’s a different way of life here than being involved in theatre in New York or film in Los Angeles. Here in the Midwest, you meet a lot of normal people who happen to work in theatre: people with a house, a dog, kids, a spouse. It makes for a nicer working atmosphere at the theatre when you’re working with people who have a life outside of it.

What advice do you have to offer to those looking to pursue theatre as a career, or what do you know now that you wish you knew back in school or during your training?: The conditions you have in college are not anything like real-world conditions. All of the equipment you work with is going to be at least 15 years older and all of the theatres you work in are going to be smaller, have less money and be less organized. Enjoy college and learn as much as you can. Work in the small studio spaces and with the student-run productions because that will be closer to what it’s really going to be like once you get out. Ask your teachers to tell you what it’s like to go on an interview, write a resume, have a headshot taken and do an audition. Also, take up a hobby. I was very theatre-driven for a long time, and it’s easy to forget that plays aren’t about people doing plays, they’re about people living life.

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