Join Our Labs!
Please note Blueberry does not provide training or education for beginners outside our Youth Program. Although you are not required to be a member of a professional association or union, you must have some training, experience or relevant education to join the Labs as an actor, writer or director.
Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble is the only professional Theatre Company in Westchester County whose season consists solely of original works, written and developed in weekly lab sessions with member writers, actors, and directors. Here’s how to become a part of Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble!
Blueberry is always seeking professional (union and non-union) theatre artists for whom theatre is a vocation, not an avocation. Expertise in all areas, in front of and behind the footlights, is welcomed. Free weekly lab sessions are open to all ensemble members. Writers bring in first drafts of scenes leading to full-length plays to be read and supportively critiqued by our member artists. Artists form working relationships; writers may find their creative process fueled by writing for specific performers, actors can be part of the genesis of a role, directors bring their vision to the work of like-minded craftspeople in an exciting collaborative process.
If you are interested in an artistic home base as part of an ensemble, please send your picture, resume, and writing sample/portfolio as appropriate via email to the Artistic Director at blueberryartisticdirector@earthlink.net or by U.S. Mail to
Artistic Director
Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble
PO Box 3023
Ossining, NY 10562
Include with your information a letter indicating your area of interest. Westchester residents are strongly encouraged to apply. Blueberry is interested in persons of all backgrounds and ages. Blueberry welcomes people regardless of physical disability, creed (or absence there of), nationality, political perspective, race, gender, age and sexual orientation. But do come with some experience and background. We do not provide basic training workshops.
If you are an actor with membership in the Actor’s Equity Association, Blueberry contracts with AEA. Accordingly, we hold at least annually in Westchester and Manhattan open auditions for our season. You do not need to be a member of Blueberry Pond to attend an open audition sponsored with AEA. Moreover, although we do preference Blueberry Members (most of whom are AEA), we do hire outside the company for certain roles. Most of these out-of-the-company hires are discovered at AEA open auditions. You are not required to become a member of AEA to become a member of Blueberry. We cannot guarantee that a non-AEA actor will be accepted into AEA as a result of being hired by Blueberry, however we will not obstruct a non-member from becoming an AEA member while under contract with us. Under the terms of our agreements with AEA, no less then half of all actors hired must be AEA and all Stage Managers must be AEA Members. Historically, over 80% of our adult hires and actor members are AEA and nearly all hold membership in either AEA, SAG or AFTRA.
Blueberry Pond’s lab sessions are offered free of charge, and there are no membership dues or required donations. Actors appearing on the Mainstage will be compensated at the applicable union wage (Equity SPT 4) whether or not they are union members. AEA Members receive additional benefits such as pension contributions and credits to their AEA health care plan that are not available to non-union actors. Writers, directors, and other creative personnel are compensated for Mainstage work.
Writers…you are what we are all about: You are not required to have been published or produced. Actually, we are looking for new talent. We will not produce plays that have been produced elsewhere (other then the occasional one-night reading). So do not bring in “trunk plays” or previously produced plays. What we do look for is talent that reflects the “Blueberry brand” of edgy, provocative, thoughtful and original material. We are constrained by the physical and financial limitations of a 49-seat theater. So plays with more then six characters, sweeping panorama or complex set and technical requirements are unlikely to be produced at Blueberry. We do produce dramas, comedies and musicals. Our Artistic Director will explain in greater detail how we select plays for main stage, but basically once the Artistic Director recommends a play our independent Reading Committee evaluates and determines if it is eligible. Prior to this your play will run the gauntlet of criticism at labs and a public staged reading. The last step is the Blueberry Executive Committee subject to the writer executing an acceptable license and royalty agreement then schedules it. We do pay a royalty for one-time use and do not ask the writer to give up any future royalties or rights. Contracts are loosely based upon Dramatist Guild of America guidelines. |