A journey to find success By Madison Ward
“I figured I’ll go back to school when I need and/or want to, and now, it’s that time,” says Mark Albin, theater student at IU South Bend, who owns his own nonprofit theatre company called Art 4, with his husband, Aaron Albin. It is one of the few professional regional companies that is able to pay musical theatre artists in the area. Albin is a nontraditional student at IU South Bend, coming back to school after ten years of acting full-time in Chicago and working as an elementary teacher. For Albin, his experiences at IU South Bend are directly helping him with running his company Art 4. “My husband and I are co-founders. He is the Executive Director, and I am the Artistic Director. For each of our shows, we are both active in the process. I handle the stage direction and choreography, and his background is on the music side of things. He has his doctorate in orchestral conducting, so he does the vocal coaching and he handles the pit orchestra for all our shows. We also both share a background in arts administration and nonprofit management,” Albin explains. Art 4 hosts performances regularly throughout the local community. In November, Art 4 showcased Ghost Quartet, written by Tony Nominated Composer, Dave Malloy, in an event that included a whiskey tasting and folk music mixed with jazz. Art 4’s staff is comprised of Albin, his husband, and “a handful of really amazing volunteers.” 26
arts.iusb.edu
“It is really just my husband and I who run things. So, we are the custodians, we are the business managers, we are the fundraising team. And for a non-profit, that’s where a lot of our focus goes, raising the funds. Anytime that someone donates, it makes a huge impact on the way that we operate, because the primary mission for Art 4 is to pay local artists,” Albin says. This year, the company was able to hire lighting and costume designers. All of the actors, stage managers, and instrumentalists are key components to the show, and some of them are even IU South Bend alumni. Stage manager/ costume coordinator, Emily Chidalek, lighting designer, Nicholas Sikorski, and actor Mimi Bell have all attended IU South Bend and participated in showcases of Art 4. “I am proud of a lot of what we are doing. I think it is really cool to be working with my best friend every day. I am really proud of the community that we are making. We are able to provide opportunities to people who have not had opportunities to work in a professional setting before and be paid for their work. And I think when you are valued in that way, it is a very empowering thing that could inspire you to take larger actions within your life, so you advance your dreams and the direction you want to go. “We had two artists who worked with us, in our first season, who, after working with us for our first two shows, they had this awakening within themselves and realized that they are good enough to go out there and give their dreams a shot. They both moved to Chicago, and both booked gigs almost instantaneously. I think that is the
