Determined to get as much theater education as possible, Jennifer Robbins, a 2012 graduate of Saint Michael's College, applied for three summer's in a row for a summer internship with the Saint Michael's Playhouse, owned and operated by the college. And this summer, the theater major landed an administrative internship with them.
Ms. Robbins' principal responsibilities are with the box office, sales, reservations, 'will call' and customer service. She also works with company management, transports actors, works the concessions, organizes the ushers, and sometimes rotates onto the construction crew, helping build sets. In the box office, she usually works 9 AM to 6 PM, and sometimes till 10 helping run the show.
Ms. Robbins, the daughter of two Saint Michael's College graduates, David and Tracey Robbins of Walpole, loves theater and is completely dedicated to finding a career as an actor. She performed as Mrs. C and Dee in her senior capstone theater production, B for Baby, and appeared in Saint Michael's College main-stage productions, including Crimes of the Heart and Romeo and Juliet.
"I am thrilled to be part of Saint Michael's Playhouse," she said. Student interns experience the excitement and challenge of mounting a full professional theater production at the Playhouse in two weeks' time. They get to see professionals at work and rub elbows with the pros both on stage and back stage. And they clearly see the intensity involved in producing professional shows, in comparison to college productions which usually come together over the course of a whole semester.
"I've known for as long as I can remember that I want to perform," Ms. Robbins said. She was cast as Mrs. Pinkerton/Butterfly in the children's show Pinkalicious, The Musical, staged by Playhouse Junior July 20-22. She said she loved being in the show, which was a great success. She especially enjoyed signing autographs after the show for very excited youngsters, who were delighted to see her still playing Butterfly as she signed for them.
Ms. Robbins plans to pursue her acting ambitions, while also using theater in a job teaching children with special needs.
Playhouse background
Founded in 1947, Saint Michael's Playhouse features talent from Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theaters nationwide and attracts approximately 16,000 theatergoers each season. An auxiliary enterprise of Saint Michael's College, the Playhouse is greater Burlington's only actors' Equity resident theater company and operates under contract with Actors' Equity Association in New York City. At the same time, Saint Michael's College students have the opportunity to learn from the pros through internships in technical theater, costuming, lighting, set construction, publicity, and occasionally, on-stage roles.