Through this Blumenthal program, Charlotte students learn the business of theater

Caitlyn Brown will never forget the first time she ushered for Blumenthal Performing Arts.

A high school senior then, she arrived early to review her responsibilities and safety protocols. As she peeked into Belk Theater, she caught one of the show’s stars running a last minute mic check.

“I was ecstatic, but I had to keep it together,” said Brown, while recalling this backstage moment from the 2018 opening night of “Hamilton,” one of the most anticipated musical theater performances ever to come to Charlotte.

Brown was there thanks to Blumenthal’s Junior Ambassadors program, a mentoring and pre-professional opportunity for students with an interest in the arts. It provides a behind-the-scenes look at the performing arts industry.

Each year, the program welcomes around 50 high school juniors and seniors from dozens of schools across the region. They learn about potential career opportunities, network with local performing arts professionals, meet other students who share a passion for the arts and get hands-on volunteer experience at the theater.

Applications for Junior Ambassadors are now being accepted through Sept. 3. Information is available at blumenthalarts.org/student-programs.

Ambassadors for the arts

The primary goal is for students to explore the arts and the many ways to be involved in them, said Tommy Prudenti, special programs manager in Blumenthal Performing Arts’ Education Department.

“Not only are there avenues into the arts through performance,” he said, “but there’s also avenues in tech and directing and administration — and even volunteering and being a donor — and really just being an enthusiastic patron of the arts.”

Although some participants are already avid theatergoers, others have rarely attended shows, so the program also aims to increase overall exposure to the arts.

For years, the program’s focus was equally split between career exploration/social activities and a required ushering component.

But when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered theaters across the country beginning in March 2020, Blumenthal’s Education department had to rethink its objectives. Rather than call off the program, Blumenthal pivoted to a virtual format and increased its educational and mentoring focus.

Now as theaters begin to reopen, program leaders plan a return to in-person activities but will incorporate lessons learned over the last year and a half.

Going forward, students will be encouraged to usher for at least one show per month from September through April. They’re also required to attend five of the planned seven seminars, focused on career prep and various perspectives on the arts.

Finding a path in the arts

Brown had been looking forward to becoming a Junior Ambassador since middle school, when her parents, who are longtime Blumenthal volunteers, first heard about the program.

During her tenure, Brown estimates she saw at least 18 shows. She also gained self-confidence navigating a professional sphere and interacting with people of all ages.

But the seminars turned out to be life-changing.

They led her toward a career path in the arts and gave her the courage to apply for Blumenthal’s Gordon Hay Scholarship, which she won. It’s a $5,000 award granted to one student annually who is pursuing a non-performance career in the arts.

Brown was in her final year at Central Academy of Technology and Arts in Monroe, where she had performed in several musicals. While attending a Junior Ambassadors’ seminar featuring a backstage tour of every Blumenthal-run theater, she was suddenly mesmerized by another production element: scenic design.

“I remember walking backstage and... seeing what’s built,” she said. “What’s in front is amazing. And with scenic, you fill up the stage, but what you do still has to extend off the stage. And that was something that really stuck with me.”

She began noticing how sets elevate any performance, whether a big Broadway musical, a ballet or a jazz concert in an intimate space. She got involved in the technical side of her school productions, too.

“It really helped me solidify what I loved about the behind the scenes,” said Brown, who is entering her junior year at Western Carolina University, as part of the Stage and Screen program.

Building relationships

Daniel Binder, a recent graduate of Providence High School, participated in Junior Ambassadors from 2019-2021, spanning both its pre-COVID and modified forms.

“It was a very different experience, so it was kind of interesting to be able to have experienced both years,” said Binder, who starts college at George Washington University this fall.

For him, the relationships he built were the most significant part of the program.

“When things were a little bit more normal back in 2019, I made so many friends throughout it that were my peers,” he said. These were students whom he likely never would have met otherwise, since they were spread out among schools in multiple counties.

Binder, a Best Actor nominee for this year’s Blumey Awards (Blumenthal’s high school musical theater award program), said he and other students would attend each other’s school shows and spend time together after seminars or ushering assignments. At the theater, older volunteers also became mentors.

Although he enjoyed the seminars his first year, he noted the range of opportunities to network with industry leaders expanded even further after COVID-19 closed down the theaters.

“This past year, we tried to lean more on local and regional artists,” Prudenti said.

That led to new sessions like freelancing in the performing arts, arts advocacy, workshops in slam poetry and improv. More traditional topics remained, too, with Blumenthal’s senior staff sharing their career journeys, sessions on technical theater, board members describing their roles and a look at what goes into producing Broadway and national tours.

“The students had so many great follow up questions for them,” Prudenti said. “So, we were really pleasantly surprised. We felt like if this was all in person, it only would have been that much more inspiring and that much more engaging.”

This summer, Brown and Binder are both working at Immersive Van Gogh, an experience that has enabled them to reconnect with Blumenthal staff, volunteers and the public.

“I owe a lot to Junior Ambassadors and Blumenthal,” said Binder, who was also one of four recipients of the Spirit of Service Scholarship Award, a grant exclusively available to graduating Junior Ambassadors, providing financial assistance during the first year of college.

He describes Junior Ambassadors as a highlight of his high school career.

“It was a phenomenal experience,” Binder said. “I wish I could do it all over again, and again and again.”

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This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 8:35 AM.