Festival interns raised on Shakespeare

College students attended shows, camp as children

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Emilia Covault, Natasha Buran, Christopher Clyne and Cecilia Lindgren are among the college interns providing the core of the festival’s production and support staff.

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – June 12, 2015) The Kingsmen Shakespeare Company has more college interns this year than ever before in its 19 years, including four Ventura County residents who have grown up with the group’s annual summer festival.

Primarily selected from among the top Theatre Arts Department students at California Lutheran University, interns provide the core of the festival’s production and support staff. Along with apprentices selected from colleges throughout the country, interns play minor roles and understudy major roles. They also work on the tech and stage crews, teach camp workshops and handle social media.

Natasha Buran of Thousand Oaks attended the company’s Summer Theatre Camp as a child. She remembers learning stage combat from Kevin Kern, who last year directed her festival debut in “Twelfth Night.” She graduated in May from Cal Lutheran with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts and is now the lead apprentice.

Emilia Covault of Ventura participated in the company’s Rhodes Junior Apprentice program for 13- to 19-year-olds. She took classes taught by the Kingsmen actors, helped write and perform pre-show skits and worked behind-the-scenes. The Cal Lutheran theater arts major is now interested in technical theater and last summer served as the painting intern.

Christopher Clyne of Camarillo has been attending Kingsmen productions since he was a baby. He started the camp workshops when he was 7 and joined the Rhodes Junior Apprentices as soon as he was old enough. He just finished his first year at Cal Lutheran majoring in theater arts and is in his first summer as an intern.

Cecilia Lindgren’s mother once performed in the festival and the Thousand Oaks resident remembers riding to Kingsmen Park in a red wagon to watch her siblings play fairies and the changeling boy in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” She became a Rhodes Junior Apprentice five years ago and is now studying theater at Cal Lutheran. In her second year as an intern, she is playing Juliet in “Measure for Measure.”

The other interns include Cal Lutheran theater arts majors Michael Berquist of Lakewood, Colorado; Carly Crocker of Simi Valley; Annika Dybevik of Issaquah, Washington; Mario Granados of Van Nuys; Malissa Marlow of Thousand Oaks; and Kaitlin Ruby of Scottsdale, Arizona. Cal Lutheran communication majors Ryder Christ of Sunland and Michelle Miller of La Mirada and history major Samantha Winters of Ventura round out the group.

The festival season begins with “Measure for Measure” from June 26 through July 12 and continues with “Richard III” July 17 through Aug. 2. The Kingsmen Shakespeare Company is the professional theater company of Cal Lutheran. In addition to producing the festival, the company presents a spring educational tour.

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