Field Work Term Spotlight: Ren Acevedo

How does your Field Work Term relate to your studies at Bennington?

I performed in New Bedford Festival Theatre's summer production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical comedy involving six children participating in a spelling bee. This opportunity was my professional debut as an actor.

What does a typical day at your FWT site look like? 

Our rehearsal process was around four weeks long, including our week of tech. For rehearsals, we were given a schedule per week on what we would be working on. We were also given a daily call via email with our respective call times. A typical day of rehearsals involved either choreography, vocal work, blocking, or a show run later on in the process. We took breaks on an equity schedule, which was either a five minute break every fifty-five minutes, or a ten minute one after eighty. Around the last week of rehearsals, we moved spaces and started working in the theatre we would be using for performances.

For our tech week we started with a cue to cue, in which we ran through the show in order to build the lighting and sound cues. Then we did full runs of the show with lighting, sound, and costumes.

There were eight performances in total, and we had three days off in between. On a typical show day, I would arrive at the theatre an hour prior to the show, sign in, warm up, and get into costume and mic. Our stage manager would let us know when the house was open and when to get into places. The run time of the show was around two hours, with a fifteen minute intermission.

What has surprised you most about your Field Work Term position?

This was an absolutely lovely experience and a total whirlwind. What surprised me the most was how fast everything was, especially during the rehearsal process. It was definitely a challenge, but also extremely rewarding.

What do you hope to do for your next Field Work Term?

I would be interested in potentially being a stage manager or assistant stage manager. I’ve taken some classes in technical theatre at Bennington, and getting to observe the stage manager and assistant stage manager for this production has made me consider trying it as well.