Q: Where is it?
Next Actors meets in Next Act Theatre’s professional rehearsal space located at 255 South Water Street, Milwaukee, WI 53204.
Q: Do we get lunch?
A brown-bag lunch is provided to each student. You are welcome to bring your own food, including snacks, and encouraged to bring a water bottle.
Q: How much does it cost?
Next Act provides free summer programming for high school students. It only costs your time and dedication.
Q: How old do I have to be?
To join any summer programming Next Act provides, you must be between the ages of entering high school or just graduated (13-18) during the summer you wish to attend. Some rare exceptions are made: please contact pia@nextact.org if you feels as though you are one of those exceptions.
Q: How do I get in?
If you would like to be a member of the Next Actors: Summer Theatre for Teens, you must prepare two short audition pieces.
Q: When are auditions?
Auditions for Next Actors: Summer Theatre for Teens 2023 will take place on April 29 and 30 as well as May 6 and 7, 2023. A way to sign up will be coming soon.
Q: How do I prepare an audition?
In the audition, you must demonstrate a willingness to be bold in your
artistic identity as well as collaborate and cooperate with your peers. You’ll be asked to perform two pieces you’ve prepared, and then interviewed for a few short minutes about why you want to join the program.
Please prepare two contrasting pieces from the following list:
- a monologue from a play
- any forensics piece
- a song (preferably one you wrote yourself)
- performance poetry
- a few bars of an instrument you play
- a joke
- a paragraph from your favorite book
if you can’t find something you like to do, we’ll provide you with a
monologue or a poem.
The entire audition performance must be under 6 minutes long, total.
Q: What skills are you looking for?
Where most audition scenarios are seeking raw talent, the Next Actors program seeks out brave, active learners who take charge of their own education and want their voice to be heard. You do not have to have Broadway skills. You DO need dedication, passion, critical thinking skills, and a willingness to work with peers.
Q: What is the summer time commitment?
Next Actors: 2023 program dates are as follows
Next Actors Special Skills Program
Monday – Friday, 4:00PM – 6:00PM
June 5 – 16
Next Actors: Summer Theatre for Teens
Monday-Friday, 9:00AM – 3:00PM
June 19 – July 21
Final Showcase: July 22, 4:00PM
You will be able to indicate on your registration form which session you’d like to attend, or commit to both of them. Neither program is mandatory in order to attend the other.
Be advised: the final week of the Next Actors: Summer Theatre for Teens program, July 17-21, we plan to take the show on tour to local Milwaukee community centers. We will travel together, leaving Next Act Theatre in the morning and returning at the end of the day. These hours may fluctuate outside of our regular 9:00am – 3:00pm class time.
Q: What’s in it for me?
As a Next Actor, you will improvise, write, explore, devise, and co-create a performance with teens from places in and around Milwaukee. Together, you will perform a piece of theater that is meaningful to you – empowering your voice within your community. The Next Actors summer program is an opportunity to recognize your value, step outside your comfort zone, meet new peers with similar interests, and let Milwaukee audiences know what’s important to you.
Community: The Next Actors are a supportive group of students willing to be creatively brave, showcase first drafts, and respectfully give constructive feedback. They allow their peers the freedom to be themselves, support bold artistic risks, encourage and motivate each other, and lend helpful constructive criticism when appropriate. Additionally, touring the show to locations throughout the Milwaukee community, Community Learning Centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, senior centers, etc. allows you to let your voice be heard in communities you may have never explored before.
Accountability: Your classmates will depend on you to get work done. There are no grades, there is no principal’s office. This is what it means to be a part of a community of artists – during the Next Actors summer, other artists your age are counting on you to create and share!
Creation: It takes at least one hundred bad poems to write a good one. We will be making things and sharing things – scenes, monologues, characters, poetry, essays, rants, drawings, songs, on paper and on camera – the quality of those things won’t matter as much as the process of making them. “Be bold! Fail mightily!”