Student Blogger: Matt Guernier

Again, remind yourself of your 'wants' before coming into the Summer Stock process. Does the offer make sense for where you are in your career? Evaluate and check-in with yourself on an offer-by-offer basis. In my opinion, just having an offer is already a 'W.' And having choices?! I mean, that's my idea of success in this industry.

I know for a few of my digital Callbacks, I was asked to speak about myself or perform material that represented me well. These Venues want to hire great performers, but they also want to hire great people. Don’t be afraid to show them who you are or what kind of material that excites you. After all, the last thing you want to do is show an insincere part of yourself, get the job, and then be miserable the whole summer because you don’t vibe with the culture and energy of the company.

I know all of us take countless classes, read plenty of articles, and listen to endless interviews about what makes a great audition 'in the room.' So, to not waste your time, I will not be discussing how to audition in-person, but rather the digital Summer Stock audition process. After you've created all your audition cuts, there are essentially 2 methods of auditioning: 1. Self-Submissions 2. Audition Conferences

So...I could be totally wrong with this forecast, but I think self-tapes will be a permanent staple in this industry for years to come. For your Summer Stock search, it's highly likely that you'll have to complete at least one self-tape...so let's master it in just 3 steps: 1. Gather your Equipment 2. Prepare your Material 3. Execute Efficiently

Summer Stock auditions are a total numbers game and I implore you to cast a wide net, but make sure you're really targeting Venues that are most likely to hire you, Venues that are looking for performers with your skillsets and strengths--you want to set yourself up to receive as many callbacks as possible. Because more callbacks means a higher callback rate and a higher callback rate leads to a higher likelihood of booking work next summer!

In whatever order you've listed out these Venues on whichever preferred note taking app you've used, go ahead and comb through your list by looking up each Venue's website and searching for these 2 pieces of critical information: - Their Season - Their Audition Information/Procedure

The term 'research' is one that gets thrown around a lot, but I feel like there is rarely ever any specificity or clarification given as to how to go about researching. But never fear, that's what I'm here for haha. So the name of the game for researching as it pertains to Summer Stock is all about, literally...names, Venue Names that is (be sure to re-read the 'Venue Types' section of Step #1| Define 'Summer Stock' if you're a little confused). So how to go about acquiring these Venue Names? - MT IGs - Facebook Groups - Master Lists

Working Definition: An amorphous term that has come to describe any Professional (paid) theatre (musicals, plays, Shakespeare, musical variety) that occurs during the summer season (approx. May-September). Often featuring young professionals, Summer Stock work can be found at a variety of both year-round and summer-only venues and can often occur in non-traditional spaces, such as outdoors or under tents. While treated as an entry level/intern gig in the professional world with entry-level pay, Summer Stock work provides real world performance experience in addition to exposing early career theatremakers to a variety of other responsibilities (building sets, costuming, teaching, etc.).