Placer Rep Announces New Company Members for 2023

Positive energy and the eagerness to devote themselves to grow as artists was repeatedly evident at the Placer Rep 2023 Company Member auditions held in Rocklin, Roseville and Lincoln in January. The healthy number of candidates who turned out to audition and interview exposes the large pool of regional actors and directors hungry to dedicate themselves to growing as artists and professionals.

Mined from these auditions, Placer Repertory Theater has announced the acting and directing Company Members and Affiliates for 2023, which includes: Cloud Adams, Shaquarrius Calloway, Shianne Dingeman, Del Dozier, Ronnie Duska Fowler, Gary Giurbino, Matthew Heyer, Philip Jacques, Marion Jeffery, Layce Lynne Kieu, Arie Knyazev, Carol Anne Lopez, Judy Merrick, Emalie Powers and Kyla Quinn.

Some Company Members and Affiliates are seasoned professionals. For example, Company Member Judy Merrick's credits include performing at Playwrights Horizons in New York as well as an award for best actor for her performance in the touring production of Knuckleball at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Affiliate Layce Lynne Kieu's resume includes professional stage, film, TV, and modeling credits. Working shoulder to shoulder are also early career professionals like Matthew Heyer and Shianne Dingeman, both of whom have earned their BFAs in Theatre. "This is part of the Placer Rep vision: to bridge the gap from preparatory education or amateur experience to professional employment for early career creatives as they work alongside seasoned professionals in an organization that sets a high bar of excellence," said Producing Artistic Director, T.S. Forsyth.

A few of the key benefits these company membership will enjoy include: first consideration for all Placer Repertory Theater roles and paid work opportunities, regional promotion of Company Members and Affiliates, free participation in the company's continuing education & professional growth program (Studium-Practicum) that leads to paid rehearsals and performances of locally touring works, and a nonexclusive agreement that encourages professional growth through pursuit of external opportunities.

"Getting in on the ground floor of a small but vital and growing company is exciting, because you get to wear a lot of hats if you want to, and you're helping to create and run programs and have a voice in the development of the company and its works," said Matt Heyer, an affiliate who performed with Placer Rep in 2021 and 2022, and full company member for 2023. "I grow as a professional as the company grows."

To enhance the growth of all creatives involved with Placer Repertory Theater, in 2023, Placer Rep established Studium-Practicum, a professional growth program to which all company members dedicate themselves. In these sessions, core theatrical questions are cooperatively explored through analysis, skill development and experiential learning through performance, in a sophisticated and meaningful facilitated process. "One of the hallmarks of any great performing arts company is its members' cohesion of style and attack - that its members seem to breathe together in performance. This is no happy accident or theatrical serendipity. Such brilliance is achieved through thoughtful study and practical application," said Anne Merino, Placer Repertory Theater 2020 Founding Board Member.

While Placer Repertory Theater is a young professional theater company, from 2020-2022, it has already garnered for itself and its company members a surprising number of awards. In 2022, a few of the many awards and honors received include: twenty Broadway World Nominations, the company and its artists were honored with two California Arts Council and two Placer County Arts Council grants, were awarded funds from Armrod Charitable Foundation and several corporations, won two 2022 Best of the Best Gold Country Media Awards including Best Live Theatrical Group, and the Board President was named to Marquis' Who's Who in America, was an SDC Foundation Denham Fellowship finalist, and was awarded the Gloria Burt Sacramento Region Arts Fellowship in Literature through the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.

Audiences will remember Placer Repertory Theater for its recent mainstage world premiere, Ghosts of Placer County, a new play that wove threads of regional history through a poignant mother/daughter drama, and New Beginnings - an original play about Placer County railroad history, as well as An Evening with Sherlock Holmes and the acclaimed Jane Austen Soiree featuring Persuasion: A Holiday Romantic Comedy.

Placer Repertory Theater is a 501(c) 3 non-profit performing arts and culture non-profit organization with the mission to offer educational and quality-of-life enriching professional performing arts and cultural programs relevant to Placer County and surrounding area, while supporting local organizations and acting as an economic engine for the region. Follow Placer Repertory Theater on Facebook and social media: PlacerRep.

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