Community Theater

On a Tuesday afternoon toward the end of the semester, a nursing major, a football player, a former volleyball player, a biology major, and the president of the student-run theatre company sit around a table. A seemingly unlikely grouping, it’s clear that they’re hardly strangers; it’s not long before small talk devolves into fits of laughter and inside jokes. They’re members of a community, bonded by a shared passion for theater and united by their experiences on the Saint Vincent stage.

For Josie Rodell, C’23, and Anna Doelling, C 24, theater—and their friendship—predates Saint Vincent.

“Anna and I went to the same high school, and we actually did shows together,” says Rodell, a history major and outgoing president of The Company, Saint Vincent’s student-run theatre group. Both graduates of Greater Latrobe Senior High School, sharing the stage again was like completing a circle.

“The first production that Josie and I did together was Once Upon a Mattress,” Doelling notes, referring to a junior high production. “The last production we’ve been in together was Once Upon a Mattress at Saint Vincent.”

“We went from being in the ensemble to being two of the main parts,” adds Rodell. “It was wonderful.”

Doelling, a biology major, will succeed Rodell as The Company’s next president. The pair also shared the stage in the Saint Vincent College Players’ production of Little Women last fall, Doelling playing Marmee and Rodell playing her daughter, Meg.

For their Little Women castmates Kelsy Levendosky, C 24, of North Huntingdon, and Emily Bosche, C’23, of Harrisburg, neither was sure how, or even if, theater would fit into their schedules. Levendosky, a nursing major, and Bosche, a math and psychology double major, both performed in musicals starting in elementary school.

From left: Kelsy Levendosky, Brayden Gibson, Anna Doelling, Emily Bosche and Josie Rodell.

“My major can be demanding at times and especially with clinical,” Levendosky noted. “I thought, well, I’ll just give it a shot. I’m really glad I did because I got to meet some amazing people.”

For Bosche, sports took precedent over theater until she decided to step away from volleyball as a college junior.

“Volleyball was my identity freshman and sophomore years,” said Bosche. “It was a little unsettling at first. It was like, okay, who am I? I don’t have this thing to identify me or ground me. So, I thought, ‘Let’s jump into this theater thing.’ I finally felt like I had somewhere where I was really using my talents, and I was also surrounding myself with the most amazing people.”

Bosche’s story resonates with Brayden Gibson, C 25, an engineering major and football player from Warren, Ohio. His path from athlete to actor was somewhat accidental.

“My buddies were like ‘We need to take this core class, and it’s an acting class, so it should be pretty simple and not too time-consuming’,” Gibson explained.

In that class, taught by Gregg Brandt, assistant professor of theater and producing artistic director of Saint Vincent Summer Theatre, Gibson’s love of theatre began to flourish. “I kind of had the bug, but I just didn’t have a way to pursue it,” said Gibson. “Then Gregg and Josie asked me if I wanted to try out for Little Women.”

He did, and he soon found himself at the first rehearsal where the cast gathered for a read-through of the script. “I walked into that reading with no clue what was going on,” he says. “I didn’t even know we were reading. I thought it was just a meeting.”

“It was really funny because I didn’t know who he was,” added Doelling, “and then he integrated himself so fast and was like, ‘I’m one of you now!’”

“It was awkward at first, but everybody made it so welcoming,” says Gibson. “Gregg especially.”

The group noted how Brandt is instrumental in fostering a fun but focused environment and making everybody feel at ease.

“Whenever we have a show, no matter how many times he has seen it, he will laugh like it’s the first time he’s seen it,” said Rodell with a laugh. “We call it the Griggle—the Gregg giggle.”

That environment, Bosche noted, allows actors to be vulnerable on stage: “You’re surrounded by all these theater people, and they just want to see you be your best self and put on your best performance.”

“You share this super intimate experience,” said Rodell. “We spend so much time together. It’s a community. I hate when people are like ‘It’s a family,’ but it really is because you do spend so much time together.”

“That’s the thing about theater,” added Levendosky. “It’ll bring together so many people from different walks of life who you would never see otherwise.”

In the process, a family is formed—a family that supports each other through good times and bad. For instance, when The Company had to make the difficult decision to cancel a show last year, Rodell, the director, dreaded breaking the news.

“I remember sitting on the stage, having the whole cast in the audience and Anna sitting beside me, and immediately, as I started saying that we weren’t going to be able to put on our show, she grabbed my hand. We were holding hands and I’m crying, and I’m telling everyone that we unfortunately can’t put our show on, and it’s really hard for the seniors who are going to be leaving,” said Rodell.

“Afterwards, everyone started coming up and they were thanking me and giving me hugs and just hugging each other,” she said. “That was really a time where I felt like we had a community in the theater.”

The spirit of collaboration and a shared purpose bond the Company members in a non-competitive environment where everyone works together.

“Theater, and the people in our community, there’s nobody like them.” says Doelling. “They’ll persist no matter what, and they want to be able to share their talents and their gifts and what they can do.”

“It just goes to show how special theater is,” adds Levendosky. “You really don’t get that anywhere else.” ♦