Connect. Create. Cultivate.
Professional Division
The professional division seeks to connect professional producing organizations as well as professional individual artistic practitioners with resources like auditions, directories, job opportunities and events. This division serves non-profit arts organizations, for profit arts organizations, road/tour and concert venues as well as individual performing arts makers who work in or aspire to work in the performance, design, tech, education, directing, management and administration areas of the performing arts.
As professional theatre grows in our state, SCTA hopes that it can become an integral part in both the development and sustainability of these organizations and artists. It is also our desire that professional theatre faculty become involved with the Professional Division as part of their own career development. Let us know how we can help YOU!
Professional theatre in the state of South Carolina is alive and well. Whether you are an established AEA theatre, or a professional working freelance in the field, we want to hear from you. Let us know what SCTA can do for you.
Upcoming Events/Opportunities for Members:
Virtual Meetings held every other month. Our first one is October 5. See more information below.
Adjudicators Needed!
There are a variety of adjudicators needs for the HS Theatre Festival and the the Community Theatre Festival-at the upcoming Convention. We are looking for virtual (in October) and in person adjudicators and some positions offer stipends. Please email jenna@glowlyric.com if you want to participate.
November 3rd: Professional Division Mixer at the Convention
Join other members at the SCTA Convention for complimentary drinks and food. This reception hosted by the division will take place immediately following the the Keynote Address. Location is still TBA.
November 4th: Professional Division Lunch
From 11:30 AM- 12:30 PM, members will dine privately in the Furman Board of Director’s Room (in the Dining Hall). Election of the Division Chair and a discussion of old and new business will be part of the agenda.
Virtual Meeting for SC Theatre Companies & Artists
Held every other month, the Professional Division Virtual Meetings provide a way for theatres and artists to connect, network and discuss current issues in the field. These meetings are moderated by Jenna Elser, the SCTA Professional Division Chair.
We hope as many of you as possible can joins us on Thursday, October 5th at Noon!
MEET YOUR DIVISION LEADERSHIP
Jenna Elser (Professional Division Chair) currently serves as the Artistic Director of Glow Lyric Theatre, which is a vocal arts company producing opera and musical theatre in response to the political and social climate of South Carolina. She is also a traveling freelance director throughout the Southeast. Recent Directing Credits include: Frog & Toad (Atlanta’s Synchronicity Theatre) Spring Awakening (The Warehouse Theatre) Guys and Dolls (Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre), Peter Grimes (Northern Arizona University) Summer and Smoke (Converse Opera Theatre) and Hands on a Hardbody (Guilford Arts Collective). Jenna even had her first Zoom directing experiences this year with Proud Mary Theatre Company’s The P*ssy Grabber Plays and Trustus Theatre’s Not Until I Say So. Some of Jenna’s original devised work includes Armed (Glow Lyric Theatre), which reflects on gun violence in the US, and Pulse (AnamCara Theatre), a piece responding to the Orlando mass shooting. Jenna was recently named a finalist for the American Prize in Directing for her productions of The Hot Mikado and West Side Story. She is also a recipient of the Robert Porterfield Directing Award, a finalist for the Drama League New Musicals Fellowship and was chosen for the 2021 Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Observership Program. She holds an MFA in Directing from Florida State University.
