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Jenna Johnson
Portland, Maine
Theater
After Mac: Stage Manager, Jon Hassler Theater, Plainview, Minnesota
Sophomore year I declared a major in
theater, but I hadn’t yet decided on a particular
emphasis. Then I interned as house
manager at Barrington Stage Company in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where I gained
a greater sense of confidence and learned
how much I liked being able to control
things from behind the scenes. With my
new tools, I started down the path of stage
management at Macalester.
“If you’re going to
make a living in the arts, networking
is essential, and
the Twin Cities
is a great place
to make that
happen.”
Jenna Johnson ’08
As stage manager, I run the show, call the
cues, and make sure everything happens
smoothly. If something goes wrong backstage,
my goal is to handle it so that the
audience never knows. I communicate with
the cast, the director, and the productio
team. The summer before my senior year, I
volunteered with Off-Leash Area, a dance
theater company based in Minneapolis,
and stage-managed a dance show at
the Southern Theater for the Fringe
Festival. Brecht & Weill’s anti-musical, The
Threepenny Opera, became the second
show I stage-managed at Mac, as well as
my senior project.
 Alexander Galick
Oakdale, Minnesota
Theater, German Studies
After Mac: M.F.A. in theater & acting, Louisiana State University
Acting in The Threepenny Opera was a
memorable theater experience that drew
on my diverse scholarly interests in theater
and German studies, as well as skills from
singing with the Macalester Choir.
I performed the role of Mr. Peachum, the
beggar baron who attempts to have the
bandit Macheath (Mack the Knife) captured
and hanged, so he can collect the
reward. When you do a three-hour play
like this, the rehearsal commitment can be
staggering, so our rehearsals started in the
middle of winter break.
One of the great things about a
Macalester education is that you can
pursue diverse interests like German and
theater. Opportunities can arise, like performing
in The Threepenny Opera, but
so can predicaments. The long-awaited
Macalester Choir tour to Japan was
scheduled for a two-week slot right in the
middle of winter break rehearsals. Luckily,
before I left I was able to record my lines
and songs on a digital recording device,
and I brought them along with my script to
Japan. I studied them whenever I had time,
and upon my return, I was ready to join in
with the rest of the cast.
“Macalester’s
proximity to a
thriving theater
community
provides an
amazing pool of
guest artists.”
Alexander
Galick
One of the most exciting aspects of
this production was the director Gary
Briggle, a Twin Cities director with
decades of experience (please Google
him). Macalester’s proximity to a thriving
theater community provides an amazing
pool of guest artists. Likewise, the Theater
Department faculty is involved in local
theater through set design, dramaturgy,
acting, and directing in venues like the
Guthrie, Frank, and Penumbra theaters,
making a richer theater environment
for Mac students, the college and the
community.
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