Meet the 2017-18 Apprentices: Samantha Williams
Position: Production and Company Management Apprentice
Hometown: Fayette, Missouri
“As far as my theatre education growing up, I did community theatre with my mom with Fayette Area Community Theatre (FACT)—which included doing everything for the show. My mom made our costumes, and everything was ‘volunteer.’ When I went to college [at Stetson University], I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I liked acting, so I put down theatre as a major so they wouldn’t put me in introductory bio. Through talking to my advisor and other faculty members I found out theatre was a business as well as a creative outlet, and that I could have a career in theatre without having to be onstage. With that knowledge, I stuck with theatre and finished with my Bachelor of Arts and Science in Theatre Arts with minors in Psychology and Management in an attempt to give myself a degree in arts management at Stetson University. Go Hats!”
Before coming to Olney, Samantha worked as the Company Manager and Assistant Production Manager this past summer at Endstation Theatre Company in Lynchburg, Virginia.
What attracted you to the Olney Theatre Apprentice Training Program?
“I was really attracted to the DC theatre scene, and in my post-grad job search, I googled best theatres to work at in DC and Olney Theatre Center came up. Looking at their program, it combined the two positions that I had been pursuing into one apprenticeship, which I liked a lot, and appeared to be very education-based with a diverse set of plays they were going to produce.”
What are you working on right now? What are you most excited for?
When Samantha and I spoke a couple weeks ago, she shared, “Right now, we are getting EVERY BRILLIANT THING open, which I have had the pleasure of co-production managing with our Director of Production, Dennis Blackledge. So that’s where a lot of my focus is currently. I am excited for our production of THE CRUCIBLE and to work with a female director, which is awesome. I will also be company managing The Hypocrites this summer as my capstone, which is a big project involving a lot of out of town artists, and I’m excited to sink my teeth into everything that comes with that.”
Have there been any surprises?
“Yes,” she sighed. “When you’re looking at [theatre] from a summer stock perspective, it’s a lot about getting the show up and getting people to come see the show, and it doesn’t feel like a passion project or for the community. This is my first time working at a year-round space, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much this company cares about the impact of the show after it closes. It’s more of a passion project. People are doing this because they have chosen this as a career not as a hobby. At a year-round space, you have to think about everything short term and long term. Time never stops.”
What’s something you’ve learned from your experience here?
“[I’ve learned] how to draw up different kind of contracts, and how you can offer or negotiate different kinds of things that aren’t money with an artist or an out of town artist...So many little things: Understanding how to live “on-call” 24/7 is something I’ve learned to do, but with all different types of people at different stages of their lives and careers. adults and not college students like at summer stocks. It’s learning how to field questions and take care of people who are older than you. Trying to offer solutions without being overbearing or to convince someone to go to the doctor. You want to have their best interests at heart, and sometimes it’s sacrificing personal time to make sure the people on your campus can be artists first.”
How is OTC from other theatres?
“There’s a forced, yet embraced, sense of community, not in a good or bad way, but you live where you work, and a lot of the people who work here have been here a long time. It’s like making theatre with your family. You celebrate the triumphs and deal with the problems together. When things go wrong, this theatre doesn’t blame anyone. Everyone reflects on their part in the process and focuses on how to fix it for the next time.”
Describe your favorite place on campus.
“See I knew you were going to ask this,” Samantha started. “For me, it’s the production office, where I also happen to work. We’ve created a space where people can come and talk about pretty much anything, which sometimes gets us in trouble because we are social folks. In a business like this, you have to have somewhere to talk about the things that are going well and the things that are not going well and things that are outside of work. I love that I get to work all day in a safe space for that.”
Samantha and Dennis were quite the Production Office pair on Halloween!
Do you have any advice for the next Production Management / Company Management Apprentice?
To answer this, Samantha offered a little list:
“Stay organized, and do your best to understand at what point in a task you are at all times so you can give updates to multiple people and departments when you are asked for them.”
“Be a problem solver – living and working in the same space comes with the combined issues of things that happen at home and things that happen at work, and it’s your job to deal with them.”
“Embrace that your job is what it is so that people can be comfortable and check their worries at the door. Embrace their art, and themselves as artists because we all know how it feels to try and create something when you’re worried about where you’re going to eat and who is going to pick you up. Take care of basic needs so that the people around you can be artists.”
“Make an effort to befriend your fellow apprentices. You’re going to need help, and helping out your fellow apprentices will come full circle. They are the people who will be there for you when no one else is on campus. Respect them and befriend them.”
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