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Galloway, N.J. — A new partnership between ������Ƶ’s Theatre program and Cape May Stage, South Jersey’s lone Equity theater company, hopes to create a pipeline for professional theater jobs in the region.

“For 50 years, ������Ƶ has been bringing the community onto campus to share in our artistic celebrations, whether it’s for music, dance or theater,” said Aaron Moss, assistant professor of Theatre/Directing. “This gives students the opposite experience. Now we’re taking a selected student and giving them professional experience as their bridge into the professional world.”

The center of the partnership is the creation of a full-time paid professional assistantship for a graduating senior theatre student with Cape May Stage from May through August. Cape May Stage is the only Actors’ Equity Association labor union theater in South Jersey, which ensures safe working conditions, living wages and benefits for its members.

The assistantship offers exposure to a variety of aspects of the theater business, including directing, production, stage management and marketing, said Roy Steinberg, the producing artistic director of Cape May Stage.

“It’s an opportunity for us to use people who have skills,” Steinberg said. “One of the problems of working down in South Jersey is there’s not a huge talent pool. In New York or Los Angeles, there’s a line around the block if you need a lighting designer, but not so much here.”

Steinberg hopes to expose ������Ƶ students to working professionals on stage and backstage. Every year the company offers a series of original shows and unique musical performances from May to December to capitalize on the summer crowds.

“Over the years, we’ve had Tony Award winners and the majority of our plays have Broadway veterans in them,” Steinberg said. “This is a chance for students to talk to people and learn, and find out the good, the bad and the ugly about the industry. I always think it’s good to not think it’s all glamour and beauty, but the artistry combined with practicality.”

Antoinette Mozee ’25 is proof the new partnership can work. She took part in a similar assistantship last year after graduating with her degree in Performing Arts with a concentration in Stage Management. She worked with the Cape May Stage production team, helped set up for stage shows and even sold tickets at the box office.

Her experience led to a full-time job at Cape May Stage before moving on to The Broadway Theatre of Pitman, which is closer to her Sicklerville home.

“I would definitely say both working at Cape May Stage and what I studied at ������Ƶ have given me so much practice learning what it’s like to work with a community theater in a production setting,” she said.

������Ƶ senior Brendan Bradley was selected for this year’s assistantship. He’s a Performing Arts major with a minor in Creative Writing and directed the mainstage play on campus “26 Pebbles” this year.

“I want to expand my connections to theater because I’m already a pretty well-rounded person. I direct, do costumes and I act,” said the Cape May native. “At this Equity theater, I think they’re really going to help me put on multiple hats and do multiple things. I would love to just do theater for the rest of my life. And I hope that this is the start of that.”

This year, the partnership also included the presentation of the ������Ƶ Theatre Program’s spring production, “Lýkos Ánthropos,” as part of Cape May Stage’s New Playwrights Symposium. Written by Bob Bartlett along with collaboration from ������Ƶ students, “Lýkos Ánthropos” debuted on ������Ƶ’s campus in April and explores the mythology of monsters.

— Story by Mark Melhorn