Want To Be A Theater Volunteer? Here's Where to Start!

Tracey Sutherland (from left), Kayla Earnest, and Cindy Coleman work backstage during the 2019 Razzle Dazzle variety show.

By Kayla Earnest

Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming of being onstage? Or maybe you have a special place in your heart for costumes? Is learning a new skill such as lighting or sound engineering something that you desire? Think it might be fun to be a part of the unseen magic of scene changes during a performance? Maybe you just want a fun group of new people to hang out with (and I mean … who is more fun than theater folk? Not that I’m biased or anything.)

If you have ever thought to yourself, “Theater looks like so much fun … but I don’t even know where to start,” this happens to be your lucky day! There are a plethora of opportunities for volunteerism in the ASC volunteer theater family, and I’m here to tell you all about them!

Volunteers Keiren Minter (from left), Ava Hoover, Jonathan Hoover, and Rory Lake (daughter of this blog post’s writer, Kayla Earnest) work on the set of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in December 2021.

The most obvious place to start is to audition for an onstage role. We have some really fun shows in the works, including Murder On The Orient Express this fall, and you can fill out an audition form here.

No previous experience? No problem! We are an educational facility, and we are super excited to teach everyone all about the world of theater. 

If performing isn’t quite your thing, don’t worry. There are a lot (and I mean A LOT) of roles within theater that don’t require you to be onstage. Even if performing is your thing, I truly believe that working on the backstage crew every now and then makes you a better actor. You become aware of all of the little intricacies within a performance that make up the big picture, and it really is a magical experience to be a part of it. If you are interested in working on crew for an upcoming show, just send Lindsey Collins, our Theater Programs Manager at ASC, an email at lcollins@asc701.org and she can give you the scoop on all of our upcoming opportunities. 

Contrary to what you might believe, you do not need to be a seamstress to work on our costume crew. Those skills are definitely helpful if you have them, but working in our costume department is often looks like getting lost in the racks of the costume shop looking for the perfect dress for a particular actor, helping out with hair and makeup, making sure that everyone has all of their costume pieces that they need, creating headpieces, and making random runs to thrift stores for the odd items that just can’t be found anywhere else. During the show, we also need costume crew members backstage to help actors in and out of costumes. (There is truly an art to quick-changing, and we LOVE a challenge.)

An item that an actor holds during their performance is known as a prop. A props master is someone who is given the responsibility of finding the props needed for a show (or creating them, if the situation calls for it), fixing a prop if it is broken, organizing the props backstage and making sure that they are set in the correct place, and making sure that the props are being handled correctly and not being played with by actors or crew members. You would think that last bit was a joke, but we are a bunch of goofballs, and sometimes reminding us, “Is that your prop? No? Then please put it down,” ends up being 90 percent of the job. It’s all in good fun though, and our veteran props masters are some of the most creative people I’ve ever met.

Set building and painting! There’s a job for everyone during this process. Working with the director to problem solve and find a way to bring their vision for the show to life is a really fun experience, and you learn so much along the way. We spend all day working and laughing, not to mention there’s sometimes pizza involved. 

Are you more of a tech person? Volunteering to run lights and sound just might be your cup of tea. We need people to make sure that mics have batteries, that sound effects and music come in at *just* the right time, and work with the music director to help flesh out their vision.

Lighting is also an important aspect, as it sets the mood for different scenes, camouflages those sneaky scene changes, and makes sure that we can see all of the actors’ lovely faces when they are performing. We have a lightboard, but we also have a space that we have lovingly nicknamed “the crow’s nest” which houses three spotlights. Admittedly, there’s a special place in my heart for the spot booth because it was one of my favorite theater jobs when I first started volunteering as a teenager. 

The view from the sound and lighting booth, looking onto the Catherine M. Bellamy Theater and stage.

Now, I’m going to give away a little secret. Imagine you are watching a show, and suddenly there is a scene change that seems to happen all on its own. The set pieces move in just the right directions, and suddenly you are in a completely different part of the story. As much as we want you to believe that it is all magic and whimsy … there are volunteers that make that magic happen. These amazing people are our run crew, and we like to joke that, “If you can see them, something has gone wrong.”

Some shows only need a couple of run crew members, and other shows need an army of them. They are the ones that make sure that an actor’s chair gets where it is supposed to, that we are bringing in the correct set pieces for a particular scene, and keep the backstage space as neat and organized as humanly possible to ensure smooth transitions. In the Bellamy Theater, we also have a pinrail that enables us to bring some set pieces in and out of the performance space through a system of weights and ropes. If you are chosen to run the pinrail, consider yourself honored, because we only put the best of the best crew members in charge of the hundreds of pounds of weight dangling above the performers (don’t worry, we follow safety guidelines and are up to code).

Who is in charge of organizing all of these different crew members and their respective responsibilities? The stage manager, of course! There are so many things that go into stage management, because you have to be familiar with everyone else’s job as well. They are also in charge of “calling the show,” which means that they give crew members cues (usually over a headset) for what things need to happen and when. It’s an intense job, but it is also so much fun to watch everyone work together so seamlessly.

Maybe you are just a little too busy to commit to the time commitment of being a crew member, or maybe you live far away from ASC and volunteering in person is a bit challenging. Luckily, the past couple of years have given us a chance to try out some virtual acting opportunities, such as our Read-Aloud videos. You can find our playlist of storybook videos on our YouTube page. Give us a like and a follow while you’re there, and if you would like to participate in our next Read-Aloud video, you can let me know by emailing me at kearnest@asc701.org. Everyone is welcome to join in the fun!

So now that you know a few of the different jobs within ASC’s volunteer theater family, come and join us! We love bringing in new people and are incredibly welcoming to all who enter. Let’s make some theater magic together. Because after all, “Impossible things are happening every day.” 

Speaking of which, do you have tickets to see our quickly approaching production of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella? You can get them right here.

See you soon!