Meet Former Props Intern - Kenneth Church

Meet Kenneth Church

I was the props intern for the 2019/2020 season. It was unfortunately cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, while my time was short I learned a lot from Kristen Gribbin and can't thank her enough for helping me grow as an artist. I also want to thank Phillip Hall, who was the Master Electrician at the time, for helping me improve on my lighting abilities. I made a lot of connections and friends while at MB and still chat with former interns and artists. I am currently working for a wedding and corporate event company and doing overhire at a theatre out in Saint Louis, MO. I am hoping to jump back into the theatre world this spring and head off to grad school to improve my skills and learn more about my profession to one day teach.

Meet Former Stage Management Intern - Casey Rebecca Nunes

Meet Casey Rebecca Nunes

It would be a grave understatement to say that my time with Meadow Brook Theatre as the 2009-2010 (egads) stage management intern shaped who I am as a person. Working with Terry Carpenter and Sarah Lin Warren as my mentors, along with the rest of the wonderful staff, was one of the greatest gifts I could have ever received, but it definitely wasn't a handout; I earned that gift many times over and I'll never be thankful enough for my experience there.

After I left MBT, I worked as the Senior Production Stage Manager at The Western Stage in Salinas, CA (right outside of Monterey) for two seasons. In 2011, nestled under the TWS umbrella, I was a founding member of a new theatre rep company, 2X4 BASH: theatre on the edge, whose mission was to produce works that resonated more soundly with the 18-30 theatre audience/participant demographic. It's currently gearing up for its 11th season (yay and holy moly!)

In December 2011, I moved back to the Bay Area, where I'm originally from (I followed a boy, ew) and after scraping by in the most expensive city on the country, I landed a highly coveted stage tech position at Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running musical revue in the world (RIP after 45 years!) There I worked five different technical tracks: props (including the giant hats and wigs), stage left, spot, light op, and a little stage management.

In 2015 while working at BBB, I auditioned for MasterChef Season 6 and made the Top 100 (out of 44,000 applicants!). Sadly, I was cut right before TV but it got me thinking that maybe there was something else I could be pursuing. Theatre had always been my true love, but there was something drawing me to the kitchen. After a lot of thought, taco pop ups, and kitchen scars, in 2016 I decided to quit theatre after 27 years, move to New Orleans, and pursue cooking.

NOLA didn't quite work out for me the way I thought it would, so I ended up back in San Francisco six months later. I was hired as the Executive Chef at Media Noche, a female-owned and operated Miami style Cuban restaurant, where I built that program for its first three years. During my time at Media Noche, I was able to collaborate with chefs from all over the country and learn so much about myself as a person and chef.

Right before COVID hit, I left Media Noche to figure out my next move for a bit. COVID decided I should think about it a little longer than that. With both of my industries in ruins, I did a lot of thinking about what I needed and wanted, rather than what place (theatre, restaurant) needed me. This led me to bottling my signature sauce, Broke Bitch Sauce: an all-purpose soy vinaigrette (https://www.instagram.com/brokebitchsauce_). My dream is to do that full time, but I've got SF rent to pay, so in the meantime...

...I'm the Managing Director of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters in San Francisco, co-owned by TikTok creator Nick Cho (aka Your Korean Dad) and his wife Trish Rothgeb, a world renowned coffee roaster. (https://www.wreckingballcoffee.com/) Hoping this executive operations experience will lead me to being my own boss and more freedom to come visit my MBT family :)

Meet Former Costume Intern - Emily Kimball

Meet Emily Kimball

Emily Kimball, a costume shop intern from 2011-12, is currently living and thriving in Mankato, MN.  Her career path has stayed in theatrical costuming after leaving Meadowbrook Theatre. She has been teaching college students since 2012 and earned her MFA in Costume Design from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2018.

This past school year was certainly challenging. But in spite of the uncertainty of the world of theatre, she was made a full time professor at her alma mater, Bethany Lutheran College (2010) where she had been teaching adjunct for 8 years. There she teaches costume design, construction, makeup design, theatre history and literature, acting, and soon musical theatre and directing. She also has been supervising the costume shop and designing and building costumes for all the college’s productions since returning to Minnesota after her time in Michigan.

When not sewing, teaching, grading papers, or wishing she could live in a BBC historical drama, she spent much of this last year going on adventures with her dog, an Australian Shepherd named Mr. Bingley and cultivating a newfound interest in houseplants. Her collection is quickly growing past 60. She also began a side business selling hand-embroidered designs and digital pet portraits.

She’s looking forward to this fall’s theatre season at Bethany where her third play, an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, will have its world premiere in November 2021. It was written with a former student during this past spring. She will be directing and designing costumes!

Emily remembers fondly her time at MBT. She often tells her students of her times wrangling Cratchits, roller skating through the costume room, or a 30 second quick change through a trapdoor from underneath the stage. She’s so pleased to read about MBT’s continuing tradition of providing excellent theatre to their community!

Meet Former Acting Intern - Renee Turner

Meet Renee Turner

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Meadow Brook family as its 2010-11 acting intern, performing one of my favorite roles to date--The Yellow Girl in Shout! The Mod Musical. 

Following my internship, I was a Guest Artist at the Charleston (SC) Performing Arts Center in a new musical called Fever during the area’s popular Piccolo Spoletto Festival. I had a ball doing iconic female singers from Marilyn Monroe to Cher to Madonna.

Back home, I collaborated on an original song with best-selling author Mitch Albom, and can be heard on The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto soundtrack to his book of the same name. At Mitch’s book-release event, I shared the Fox Theatre stage with Michael Bolton, Ted Nugent, Roger McGuinn, Academy Award-winning actor J.K. Simmons and others. 

More recently, I was seen nationally in an episode of The Travel Channel’s Ghost Nation ("A Nightmare in the Nursery") and have enjoyed singing Motown hits on numerous occasions with The Stubbs Girls, the family of The Four Tops' late lead singer Levi Stubbs. I've received two Detroit Music Awards for my work with Rio and the Rockabilly Revival and was last on the Meadow Brook stage as Flo in Why Do Fools Fall In Love? 

In offstage news, I was featured in a New York Times article entitled “Tallying the Cost of Growing Older” performing my other favorite role: primary caregiver for my 92-year-old grandmother. 

Currently I'm a front woman for one of the Midwest’s premier wedding and events bands, Detroit-based Nick Kuhl and the Gang. So if you have a big event coming up, check us out at NKGband.com