Taking the show on the road

McKenna Moten, theatre performance and directing major

McKenna Moten arrived at K-State excited to study theatre performance. She was working hard at honing her acting chops until — plot twist! — her plans changed “direction.”

After she took a pair of directing classes taught by Teaching Assistant Professor Joelle Arp-Dunham, an inspired Moten pictured herself in the director’s chair.

“What don’t I like about Joelle? She goes far beyond her job description to guide us, because her goal is for her students to actually enjoy learning and growing,” Moten said. “To see this strong woman in our department doing what she loves — and doing it so well — pushes me even more to give this everything I’ve got.”

Moten takes Manhattan

Moten knew she was getting a theater education worthy of top-billing, but she didn’t expect part of it to come directly from Broadway’s biggest names. Kail, who earned a Tony Award in 2016 and the Kennedy Center Award two years later, has a history of placing K-State at center stage. He directed two of Jackson’s plays at Lincoln Center and is now giving more Wildcats a front-row seat to the action.

At an exclusive NYC meet-and-greet, Moten and other K-Staters grilled Kail about what it takes to succeed in the theater industry.

“I couldn’t stop yapping,” she said, still starstruck over the conversation she credits to changing the way she perceives theater altogether. “He showed me the most important part of theater is having empathy for others and understanding the people around you. What I’ve always loved most about theater is its innate ability to build community, and empathy is the driving force behind that.”

During her NYC trip, Moten hit the jackpot: last-minute seats to a sold-out “Sweeney Todd.” She wound up five rows from center stage for her first Broadway play, which was directed by Kail and starred Grammy-winner Josh Groban and Tony-winning Annaleigh Ashford.

“It was amazing,” she said. “Annaleigh Ashford was phenomenal. Just being there was surreal.”

Back at K-State, Moten is pouring her efforts into networking at Kail’s recommendation. To expand her circle, she works as a K-State Student Theatre Ambassador and is co-president of Ebony Theatre, where playwright Jackson workshopped his earliest writing. She didn’t find the trip particularly helpful in narrowing her next steps, though.

What does this actor/director want to do most?

“All of it. I love all of it,” Moten said. “I really like the idea of not staying too long in one place. Maybe Chicago for one or two years, or Atlanta with its great theater scene. New York or Los Angeles if I’m feeling crazy!”

Jay Garrison, theatre performance major

When Jay Garrison was little, she’d disappear into the entryway closet of her home in Monet, Missouri, and then emerge with her grandmother’s cane — in full character.

“I’d ask my mom, ‘How’s my favorite daughter doing today?’ in my best grandma voice,” she said.

A few years later while performing in a church Christmas play, she learned that what she knew as “pretend” and “make believe” had another name: acting. And that she absolutely loved it.

Garrison’s talent for making a scene continued to grow, and in high school she decided to do it for a living. She loaded her car and headed for Manhattan, Kansas, the night of her graduation, having decided on K-State at the recommendation of her cousin. The town and theater program looked great, and she’d be close to family.

She quickly discovered it was all that and more.

The Nathan Jackson fund serves as an encore to the teachings of faculty members such as Associate Professor Jerry Jay Cranford — an actor, director and choreographer whose extensive resume includes performing in Broadway’s “Les Miserables” and work with Dreamworks and Disney.

In the costume department, Associate Professor Dana Pinkston is a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival National Award for Excellence in Costume Design.

In all, the school boasts a full cast of equally talented educators.

“I didn’t expect to start my own professional career with the type of connections I’ve made here,” Garrison said. “And that’s a real leg up in an industry that’s all about who you know.”

Face-to-face with a famous director

One of her key connections is now director Kail, who answered her burning questions about the business at the meet-up.

“I grew up in a small town and didn’t do a lot of traveling,” Garrison said. “I didn’t know if I’d ever get to see Broadway, let alone meet a famous director.”

When Garrison asked Kail for advice on how to keep going when it seems like every audition ends in rejection, he confessed he hears the word “no” all the time.

“I said, ‘What do you mean? You’re Thomas Kail!’” she recalled. “So that was eye-opening. It’s nice to know that everyone struggles with rejection, and it doesn’t mean you won’t be successful.”

The change of scenery offered clarity in other ways, as well. Garrison intentionally skipped the smash hits in favor of New York’s off-Broadway, experimental offerings, which nudged her closer to a career in smaller-scale production companies.

“Hollywood or Broadway is obviously an end goal for most actors,” she said. “But I know as long as I’m doing theater, I’ll be happy.”

Bernie Poulter, theatre design and technology major

If you’re looking for Bernie Poulter, you won’t find her on stage. Her happy place is behind the scenes in the costume shop, where the third-generation K-Stater is in her third year as a wardrobe supervisor.

“Initially I enjoyed the way theater let me pretend that I was someone else for a couple of hours and explore their thoughts and feelings,” Poulter said. “I think it also gives you a better view of who you are deep down.”

At K-State, Poulter discovered that deep down, she’s fascinated with costume design. She’s an ace with a sewing machine, working with cast members to pattern and create elaborate made-to-order garments that bring stories to life.

“When I came here, I didn’t realize how much goes into a theater’s costume department alone,” Poulter said. “There are stitchers, cutters, drapers, shop managers and designers, and that’s all before anything even goes on stage. Then there are ensemble dressers and star dressers, plus the day crew that repairs, washes and steams everything. There’s just so much that people don’t think about.”

Sew like a pro

And then there are wigs, which Poulter learned about from “Chicago” wigmaker Barry Ernst during her visit to New York City.

Poulter and four classmates visited the city through a separate travel opportunity for directing and costume students organized by K-State’s Cranford and Pinkston, who arranged for star-studded shadowing and all-access tours of “The Lion King” and “Chicago.”

“I got to see how wigs are styled and managed during the run of a big Broadway show,” Poulter said. “Barry taught me that wigs are created by hand from start to finish, based on the actor’s natural hair.”

Students filled the rest of the four-day trip with productions of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Six the Musical,” highlighted with chances to meet cast and crew members. A side trip to New York’s garment district showed Poulter the inner workings of the industry’s costume construction and fabric shops.

Theater is a complex industry, but Poulter returned to the costume shop below McCain Auditorium armed with more insight to piece together her post-graduation plans along with the wardrobes for the productions in her final year at K-State.