8 interns selected for first Young Actors Studio at Renaissance Center

Release Date: 6/15/2004. Expired: 7/15/2004

Eight students from Middle Tennessee have been selected as the first members of the new Young Actors Studio at The Renaissance Center in Dickson.

The actors will work internships with the Theatre Department at The Renaissance Center through the next year, under the direction of Hal Partlow, managing director of the Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company. They will perform in and work behind the scenes on theatrical productions for field trips visiting the center as well as assist with productions in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre and the Renaissance Players community theatre series.

“The Young Actors Studio will give them a chance to experience the day-to-day requirements of being part of a professional theatre company,” Partlow said. “These interns will be rehearsing and performing in multiple plays and working behind the scenes to prepare the productions.”

The members of the Young Actors Studio were selected after a series of open auditions for which they had to present two contrasting monologues and sing.

During the upcoming season, they will present productions of Young Cherokee and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Young Cherokee is being directed by Ryan Hunt, a member of the Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company, while Partlow is directing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

The eight members of the first Young Actors Studio are Joshua Arnold of Erin, Kalli Frey of Dickson, Heather Funderburg of Leiper’s Fork, Kayleigh Gregg of Dickson, Tory Gunn of Dickson, Matt Romine of Dickson, Sarah LeJeune of Leiper’s Fork and Katherine Jett of Nashville.

The son of Ernie and Rebekah Arnold, Joshua Arnold is a resident of Houston County where he attended Houston County High School for three years and is currently a home-schooled senior. At HCHS, he appeared in The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He played the Prince in the Renaissance Players production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. He is a vocal student of Richard Fudge.

Kalli Frey is the daughter of Greg and Connie Frey of Dickson and is home-schooled along with her seven siblings. She attends Last Defense Youth Group of Dickson First Assembly and enjoys “zoning out” with her music as much as possible. Kalli began her acting career at the age of 10 when she was cast in A Christmas Carol at The Renaissance Center and she has gone on to appear in productions of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Grease!, Godspell and The Sound of Music while also appearing in the Repertory Company production of Jane Eyre. Her other credits include an independent film version of A Christmas Carol and last summer she toured with the Rising Image Productions rendition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Her television credits include Noel - A Nighty Night and the PBS trailer for My Studio. Her favorite performance credit is participating in Martine McBride’s Joy of Christmas tour for the past two years. She also has taken voice, drama and piano classes at The Renaissance Center.

Heather Funderburg is a home-schooled student residing in Leiper’s Fork with her parents, Pam and Tony Funderburg. She has participated in many productions at the New Hope Community Church, the Home School Academy of Fine Arts and The Renaissance Center, including productions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, A Christmas Story, The Sound of Music and Cinderella. As a member of the technical crew, she has worked on The Miracle Worker, The Mousetrap, Annie Get Your Gun and A Christmas Story. She also appeared as one of Queen Elizabeth’s ladies in waiting at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival this past May. Her training includes acting, voice, dance and more.

Kayleigh Gregg has studied ballet for eight years, dancing with the Nashville Ballet and the Virginia School of the Arts and performing roles such as Clara and Waltz of the Flowers in The Nutcracker. She also was featured in a performance with the Epiphany Dance Company and has danced as a member of the Turnout Dance Company. After attending a performing arts camp in Virginia in the summer of 2003, Kayleigh decided to pursue a career in acting, appearing as Cha-Cha in the camp production of Grease! and in a featured role in the camp’s dramatic play. She made her Renaissance Players debut as a single lady in the chorus of Cinderella. She has been home-schooled for the past seven years, graduating in June.

Tory Gunn is the daughter of John and Rachel Gunn of Dickson and is a home-schooled eighth grader. She has previously appeared in The Renaissance Center productions of A Christmas Carol, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Christmas Story, The Sound of Music and Cinderella. Tory has had five years of formal vocal training and has participated in The Renaissance Center’s Children’s Choir for five years. She is currently enrolled in the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and took her level one test for voice in May.

Sarah LeJeune is an eighth-grade student at Hillsboro Middle School in Leiper’s Fork. She has appeared in three Renaissance Players productions, including Cinderella, The Sound of Music and Annie Get Your Gun. Sarah also played Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Kids on Stage and appeared in Romeo and Juliet and All’s Well That Ends Well with the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. Other past productions include The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at Pull-Tight Players and The Music Man, as well as roles in The Nutcracker, Tom Sawyer, All the World’s a Stage and Old Time Radio Hour.

The son of Tina Romine and Robert Romine of Dickson, Matt Romine has appeared in several productions including To Kill a Mockingbird, A Christmas Carol, Annie Get Your Gun, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Cinderella. Matt is a past intern with the Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company having appeared in MacBeth, Twelfth Night, Alice in Mannerland and King of the Ice Cream Mountain.

Katherine Jett last graced The Renaissance Center stage in the title role in Cinderella. She also has appeared in Annie Get Your Gun, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Sound of Music. As an intern with the Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company, she appeared in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and King of the Ice Cream Mountain. She also has had roles in Aladdin and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Sumner County Playhouse and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and All’s Well That Ends Well with the Nashville Shakespeare Festival.

The Young Actors Studio will present Young Cherokee and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for field trips and campers from Camp Renaissance. The plays will be available for field trip bookings for summer programs and other groups June 15-17, June 23, June 29-July 1, July 6-8 and July 13-15.

The plays are presented at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., respectively, on Wednesdays during that period for campers from Camp Renaissance. Campers spend part of Wednesdays of each camp week at The Renaissance Center, enjoying live theatre and planetarium shows as part of their camp experience.

On the other days that the plays are available, they will be presented only if they are scheduled for a field trip group. Once a group schedules a show, it also is then open to the public. Tickets to scheduled shows are $5 for adults and $3 for students and will be sold only if space is available.

The plays will be presented in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre, so seating is limited.

For more information on the Young Actors Studio or theatrical productions at The Renaissance Center, call (615)740-5600. To determine if tickets are available for a Young Actors Studio production or to purchase tickets, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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