Mentorship and Job Experience Take Center Stage in Prepping Students for Theatre Career

Theatre Student Annie Mulvihill gained real-world professional experience working at the Swan Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Jesús Lopez Vargas.

Empowered by mentorship and hands-on experience, Theater Student Annie Mulvihill plans to channel the diverse skills she’s acquired in the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (CAHSS) Department of Theatre toward a theatre career. 

This is the first part of our two-part story highlighting  the professional experience Mulvihill gained through summer jobs, enabling her to take a leadership role among professionals. 

CAHSS theatre major Annie Mulvihill learned to manage many unexpected challenges in her job as production and stage manager last summer for the New Swan Shakespeare Festival near her family home in Southern California. Things like adapting to bad weather, mitigating surrounding noise, and substituting understudies when cast members fell ill. But she never dreamed she’d have to keep an eye on a coyote wandering around one day.

“I was told about it, and we had to chase it down in a golf cart to make sure it wasn’t posing a threat to anyone,” she said. 

Mulvihill worked at the festival over two summers, first as an assistant stage manager and subsequently as a professional stage and production manager, honing real-world leadership, crisis management, time management, and interpersonal skills. In a role usually reserved for master’s degree students or professionals, the undergraduate earned the respect of colleagues across all ages, building confidence and confirming her determination to pursue a theatre career.

“It was intimidating because I was aware of how young I was, but I was able to show up as an adult and rise to the occasion,” she said. “It’s given me the confidence to interact with all kinds of people.” 

She attributes the opportunity to Associate Professor Greg Ungar, with whom she worked closely in the CAHSS Department of Theatre, stage-managing shows in her freshman and sophomore years. Ungar, who worked as artistic director and actor for the festival located on the grounds of the University of California, Irvine, helped her apply for the initial assistant stage manager role. 

“Greg has really helped me grow since I started at DU and given me so much guidance and perspective,” Mulvihill said. “He’s really good at reading people and someone I know I can always turn to for advice.”

“I am grateful to have had the chance to learn with and from Annie,” Ungar said. “She is curious, joyful, mature, smart, passionate, and responsible. When other students are around her, they rise to meet the expectations and rewards she sets for herself. It's been my pleasure and privilege to be in classrooms, rehearsal rooms, DU theatres, and professional theatres with Annie — she inspires!” 

To be continued …