To read current articles by the Ovation Fellows, click here!

Current Ovation Fellows and Mentors, 2009/2010:

Jesse Bethune (CSUN) - Mentor Kevin Cochran (Artistic Director, Grove Theatre Center)

Alessandra Brown (CALARTS) - Mentor Wendy Worthington (Artistic Director, Theatre Neo)

Aubrey Canfield (CSUN) - Mentor Allison Bibicoff (Director/Choreographer)

Daniel Everson (CALARTS) - Mentor Danny Feldman (Managing Director, Reprise Theatre Company)

Martin Head (LACC) - Mentor Marilyn McIntyre (Actress/Professor)

Christopher Johnson (APU) - Mentor Lee Lawlor (Grand Performances)

Jesse Lagos (APU) - Mentor Elise Dewsberry (Associate Artistic Director, Academy for New Musical Theatre)

Sofya Levitsky-Weitz (LMU) - Mentor Tom Buderwitz (Scenic Designer)

Tyler McClain (LMU) - Mentor Dennis Smeal (Literary Manager, Arden Theatre)

Marta Portillo (LACC) - Mentor Emilie Beck (Playwright/Director)

Ben Rodriguez (USC) - Mentor Mark Kinsey Stephenson (Actor/Writer/Director)

Joe Tower (UCLA) - Mentor Johnny Clark (Co-Artistic Director, Vs. Theatre Company)

Ashley Walden (CALARTS) - Mentor Inger Tudor (Actress/Director)

2009/2010 Ovation Fellows, Ovation Mentors and LA Stage Alliance Board Members, at the Ovation Awards Nominee Announcement

What is the Ovation Fellows program?

The Ovation Fellows program was conceived in August 2009 by LA Stage Alliance Board Member and LMU faculty member Kelly Younger.   The Ovation Fellows program’s purpose is to create connections between individual students and Los Angeles area theatre professionals in order to ignite a desire to work, administrate, write, produce, direct, design, and perform within our own artistic community.

Additional goals of this program are to build connections between Los Angeles universities and the theatre community, creating new relationships between professional theatre artists, and providing a new channel for research and marketing about the experiences of young audiences at theatrical events in our community.

Ovation Fellows are representatives of their universities and their peers, acting as envoys and points of connection to the professional theatre community.  Becoming an Ovation Fellow is a highly competitive process, and carries with it a high level of prestige and opportunity that can lead to even greater opportunities in the future.

How are Ovation Fellows selected?

Each summer, LA Stage Alliance will select a group of Ovation Mentors from the pool of Ovation voters for the new Ovation season.   (Ovation voters are all theatre professionals, vetted through an indepth selection process in June of each year.  Approximately 250 voters serve during each annual season.)

Then, the advisory team for the program, with the Ovation Mentors, goes through an application and interview process to select prospective Ovation Fellows.  Fellows must be either currently enrolled at a 2 or 4 year university in the Greater Los Angeles area (the six county region centered on Los Angeles county), or be recent alums (within 3 years) of a university in that region.

After the Ovation Fellows have been approved, each Fellow is paired with one of the Mentors for the duration of the Ovation season, ending August 31 of the following year.

If you are interested in applying to become an Ovation Fellow or an Ovation Mentor, please check back here in May 2010.

What do the Ovation Fellows do?

The Mentors and Fellows commit to attending at least six (6) productions during the course of the Ovation season, using the Mentor’s Ovation voter tickets through the Ovation Awards program.  Though six is the minimum, there is no maximum number of productions they can attend, and there is no specific timeline - the six do not have to be done on any regular schedule, as long as all six have been attended by the end of the Ovations season.

When a production has been chosen by the Mentor and Fellow, and the reservation has been made by the Mentor, the Mentor contacts LA Stage Alliance and notifies the staff.  The staff at LA Stage then contacts the theatre and puts the Mentor in touch with an artist engaged with that production (an actor, director, designer, stage manager, artistic director, etc).  The Mentor then arranges for the Mentor, the Fellow, and the Artist to meet for 30 - 60 minutes either before or after the performance, and facilitates a discussion between the Fellow and Artist about their work, their career, the production, and any other topics that seem appropriate.

After the Fellow has seen the production and spoken to the Artist, they then have seven days to write an article responding to their overall experience attending the theatre, seeing the production, and meeting the Artist from the company.  This article is edited and then posted by the staff of LAStageBlog.com, with credit given to the Fellow, their university, and their mentor.  The article is also propagated through the university’s publications as well, including their school newsletters, newspapers, websites, etc as appropriate.

LA Stage Alliance encourages the Mentors and Fellows to visit a diverse selection of theaters and types of productions over the course of the Fellowship program.  A full list of all theatres and artists interacted with by Fellows will be available on this page throughout the season.

The Fellows and Mentors will be acknowledged on-stage at the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards ceremony.

At the end of the season, there will be a final session where the Mentors and Fellows meet as a group and discuss their experience throughout the season.  LA Stage Alliance will also make available all the Fellows’ articles in a compiled format at the end of each season for research purposes.

Current Shows Attended/Artists Met:

October 9, 2009
Fellow: Aubrey Canfield
Production: Savin’ Up for Saturday Night, Sacred Fools Theatre
Artist(s): Full cast and production team
View the article here!

October 10, 2009
Fellow: Daniel Everson
Production: Savin’ Up for Saturday Night, Sacred Fools Theatre
View the article here!

October 11, 2009
Fellow: Tyler McClain
Production: God Save Gertrude, The Theatre @ Boston Court
Artist: Director Michael Michetti
View the article here!

October 15, 2009
Fellow: Benjamin Rodriguez
Production: Medea, UCLA Live
Artist: Actor Hugo Armstrong
View the article here!

October 17, 2009
Fellow: Martin Head
Production: Parade, Mark Taper Forum, and Children of a Lesser God, Deaf West Theatre
Artist: Production Manager and Director, Jonathan Barlow Lee
View the article here!

October 18, 2009
Fellow: Ashley Walden
Production: Stop Kiss, Rogue Machine
Artist: Actress Inger Tudor
View the article here!

October 22, 2009
Fellow: Benjamin Rodriguez
Production: Never Land, Rogue Machine
Artist: Penny Orloff
View the article here!

October 23, 2009
Fellow: Ashely Walden
Production: Stray, Black Dahlia
View the article here!

October 25, 2009
Fellow: Tyler McClain
Production: Scarcity, needtheater
View article here!

October 28, 2009
Fellow: Daniel Everson
Production: Purgartorio, UCLA Live
View the article here!

October 31, 2009
Fellow: Tyler McClain
Production: Better Angels, Colony Theatre
Artist: Playwright Wayne Leibman
View the article here!

November 1, 2009
Fellow: Sofya Levitsky-Weitz
Production: God Save Gertrude, Theatre @ Boston Court
Artist: Artistic Director/Director Michael Michetti
View the article here!

November 4, 2009
Fellow: Daniel Everson
Production: Equivocation, Geffen Playhouse
View the article here!

November 6, 2009
Fellow: Sofya Levitsky-Weitz
Production: Wonder of the World, Seaglass Theatre Company
Artist: Director Neil Wilson
View the article here!

Fellow: Martin Head
Production: Shining City, Fountain Theatre
View the article here!

November 8, 2009
Fellow: Jesse Lago
Production: Gogol Project, Bootleg Theatre

November 12, 2009
Fellow: Aubrey Canfield
Production: No Man’s Land, Odyssey Theatre
Artist: Director Michael Peretzian
View the article here!

November 13, 2009
Fellow: Chris Johnson
Production: Meet Me in St. Louis, Musical Theatre West
Artist: Artistic Director Steven Glaudini
View the article here!

November 22, 2009
Fellow: Jesse Lagos
Production: Sally Spectre/The Musical, Theatre West

Fellow: Sofya Levitsky-Weitz
Production: The Ghost Building, Alexandria Hotel (3rd floor)
Artist: Playwright Damon Chua
View the article here!

November 27, 2009
Fellow: Jesse Lagos
Production: The Ghost Building, Alexandria Hotel (3rd floor)

November 28, 2009
Fellow: Jesse Lagos
Production: Hamlet Shut Up, Sacred Fools Theatre

Fellow: Daniel Everson
Production: Sally Spectre The Musical, Theatre West

November 29, 2009
Fellow: Jesse Lagos
Production: No Man’s Land, Odyssey Theatre
Artist: Director Michael Peretzian

Fellow: Chris Johnson
Production: No Man’s Land, Odyssey Theatre
Artist: Director Michael Peretzian

December 3, 2009
Fellow: Benjamin Rodriguez
Production: The House of Besarab, Hollywood American Legion Theatre

December 4, 2009
Fellow: Jesse Bethune
Production: As White As O, The Road Theatre Company

December 5, 2009
Fellow: Sofya Levitsky-Weitz
Production: Absinthe, Opium & Magic, Grand Guignolers
Artist: Artistic Director/Director/Actress Debbie McMahon

December 6, 2009
Fellow: Marta Portillo
Production: As White As O, The Road Theatre Company
Artist: Director Sam Anderson

December 11, 2009
Fellow: Jesse Bethune
Production: Rent, Musical Theater West

December 17, 2009
Fellow: Benjamin Rodriguez
Production: The Browning Version, Pacific Resident Theatre

March 5, 2010
Fellow: Sofya Levitsky-Weitz
Production: Oedipus El Rey, The Theatre @ Boston Courty
Artist: Jaclyn Kalkhurst, Stage Manager