SETC News Summer 2026

Summer 2026

NEWS

www.setc.org

Newsletter of Southeastern Theatre Conference, Inc.

CONTENTS Thoughts from the President’s Desk Page 1

Theatre is an Invitation to Connect Page 3

From the SETC Job Fair to the New London Barn Playhouse Page 4

Job Listings & More Page 6

The Gift of Intermission Page 7

Reimagining Romeo and Juliet: A Modern Tale for Black Audiences at Hampton University Page 9

SETC Is Moving Into The Future We are excited to see that SETC’s new governance structure is now in place, marking an important step forward for the organization. With this foundation established, we are turning our attention to streamlining documentation and protocols to better support effective, responsive leadership across all areas of our work.

Jeremy Kisling (he/him)

NEWS SUBMISSIONS Thomas Pinckney (he/him) Director of Advancement thomas@setc.org

This new structure reflects a President thoughtful approach to serving our community. By organizing around affinity and interest areas, we are creating more intentional spaces where theatre artists can connect, not only based on what they do, but also who they are. This approach allows our members to more easily identify with their creative practice, identity, and professional goals, strengthening engagement and fostering connections across the organization.

As we move through the coming year, we will focus on visioning and strategic planning. This phase will invite us to reflect on what we want SETC to be and what we aspire to become. By engaging in this work collectively, we aim to shape a future that is both ambitious and grounded in the field's needs.

NEWS Connecting You to Opportunities in Theatre Nationwide

Central Office SETC 5701 W. Gate City Blvd.

Suite K, Box 186 Greensboro, NC 27407 336-265-7489 info@setc.org

continued from the previous page We are especially energized by the leadership of Joanna Bell and the ongoing dedication of the SETC staff. Their commitment continues to guide the organization forward, ensuring that our efforts benefit not only our members but the broader theatre community.

Together, we look ahead with enthusiasm and purpose as SETC continues to evolve, grow, and lead in meaningful ways.

SETC Board Jeremy Kisling (he/him) President Ginger Poole Avis (she/her) VP of Finance & Advancement Ian Andersen (he/him) VP of States Jack Benjamin (he/him) Elected Past President c.j (they/them) VP of Opportunity & Access Caroline Jane Davis (she/her) Secretary Iris Goode-Middleton (she/her) VP of Communications Matthew Leckenbusch (he/him) VP of Programming Darren Michael (he/him) VP of Festivals Lily Vetter (she/her) VP of Engagement

ADVERTISE with us!

SETC offers several affordable ways to put your program in front of a broad audience.

Email us for more information.

Send your news to Thomas Pinckney Director of Advancement thomas@setc.org.

www.setc.org

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NEWS Connecting You to Opportunities in Theatre Nationwide

Central Office SETC 5701 W. Gate City Blvd.

Suite K, Box 186 Greensboro, NC 27407 336 265 6148 info@setc.org

Central Office Team Joanna Sheehan Bell (she/her) Executive Director Maegan McNerney Azar (she/her) Staff Board Liaison Nikki Baldwin (she/her) Digital Operations Specialist

Beth Watkins Brown (she/her) Producer and Director of SETC Festivals and Special Events

Marci Duncan (she/her) Director of Auditions Aaliyah Jordan (she/her) Resource Specialist

Sharell Luckett, PHD (she/her) Editor-in-Chief, Southern Theatre Magazine

Thomas Pinckney (he/him) Director of Advancement

Rachel Zwerver (she/her) Operations & Communications Coordinator

ADVERTISE with us!

SETC offers several affordable ways to put your program in front of a broad audience.

Email us for more information.

Theatre is an Invitation to Connect This past week, the Central Office staff began mapping out our fall and spring travel, and a question came up: Where and when is your theatre community gathering? I think we all know that theatre begins with an invitation. An invitation to share space and stories with strangers. An invitation to create something together that could never exist alone.

We want to know: Where can we join you?

Joanna Sheehan Bell (she/her) Executive Director

Festivals, conferences, productions, celebrations, convenings, opening nights, workshops, and special events all strengthen the theatre community year-round. That workshop production you are finally mounting. That remarkable visiting artist leading a master class. The festival your school has spent months preparing. The community theatre anniversary that brings generations of artists back together.

The new play reading that could become the next great production.

The gathering where artists trade ideas, share resources, and imagine what comes next. We want to know about all of it.

So, send us an invitation by email, tag us in your posts, message us on social media, or simply let us know what’s happening in your corner of the theatre world, where it’s happening, and when we should be there.

We’d love to cheer you on, and whenever we can, we’ll be there. We may not make it to every event this year, but we want to know where the energy is, where the work is happening, and where SETC can show up.

Because that’s what theatre people do. We invite each other in.

You’ve probably already heard, but in case you haven’t, we’re formally inviting you to join us in Lexington, Kentucky, March 3–6, 2027, as the SETC community gathers for our annual convention. Registration opens August 15!

Send your news to Thomas Pinckney Director of Advancement thomas@setc.org.

www.setc.org

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NEWS From the SETC Job Fair to the New London Barn Playhouse Every summer, the New London Barn Playhouse dusts off the seats, sweeps the stage, and turns the lights on. While Education programs run year-round in the Fleming Center, the Barn stage remains quiet until the summer rays of sunshine hit the front porch.

As of 2026, the New London Barn Playhouse is currently in its 94th Lily Vetter (she/her) Summer Season and is the oldest VP of Engagement continuously operated summer stock in New Hampshire. Almost two hundred theatre students, emerging artists, and professionals rotate through our spaces every summer, bringing stories to life. Coming from all corners of the United States, we welcome a wide variety of students at different levels to join us at this historic theatre.

The creative individuals who join us each summer make the barn a truly special place to cultivate learning opportunities for the students who join us in various roles. From Designer mentorship to hands-on creative projects specific to a show! It is always amazing to see the talented work of both our Acting Intern Company and our Tech Staff throughout the exciting summer season.

MichaelHowardStudios.com Photo Credit: Maxfield Productions

www.setc.org

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NEWS Fall Professional

AUDITIONS and Tech Interviews

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A big task every year is hiring the large number of staff we need each year to put on our jammed-packed season! While posting on sites such as offstagejobs.com and Playbill is helpful, talking face-to-face with passionate folks is very beneficial for our process. For years, the New London Barn Playhouse has participated in the Job Fair at the annual SETC Conference in March.

Photo Credit: Jared Rosselli Interviewing hundreds of great students is exciting, and this year we hired seven folks to join our tech staff!

The SETC Job Fair has been a great way to connect with prospective hires and talk one-on-one about possible opportunities! It also serves as a way to broaden the pool of applicants so that students from far and wide are potentially getting new opportunities. As the Production Manager for the New London Barn Playhouse, I am looking for passionate students who are willing to learn, grow, and are ready to jump into a chaotic season! I’ve enjoyed the Job Fair the past few years and have valued the connections we have made with applicants throughout the process. We’re excited to start planning for the 2027 Job Fair and see who can join us on the porch next summer!

Look no further, SETC has you covered!

SEPTEMBER

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Look no further, SETC has you covered!

ATLANTA, GA

MichaelHowardStudios.com

www.setc.org

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NEWS Got any bright ideas?

JOB LISTINGS

Adjunct Professor of Theatre and Performance (Stage Combat) William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Design Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA

Scene Shop Supervisor - Theatre and Dance Southeast Missouri State University - Cape Girardeau, MO

Take the next step in your career! Explore these and many more available positions at the SETC Theatre Job Board.

To post a job listing, click here SETCMember2026 Thanks to SETC’s Contributors Contributions made by

Kimberly Frick-Welker Paul Gabbard Jeffery Gibson Rebecca Land Hill Veronica Neblett Please consider making a monthly, annual, or even occasional contribution to SETC. It is tax-deductible and is the best way to ensure our organization's stability.

Email your newsletter article suggestions to

Save the dates: 9/4/26-9/5/26.

To make a donation to SETC, click here

Thomas Pinckney at thomas@setc.org

www.setc.org

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NEWS The Gift of Intermission Actors are taught to keep moving. The next audition. The next callback. The next class. The next contract. Momentum can feel like survival in this profession. We celebrate busy calendars and packed résumés, often measuring our success by what comes next.

For a long time, I believed that too. But life has now asked me to step away from acting twice. The first time, I fought it, but this second time, I’ve welcomed it, and both have made me a better artist. The first break wasn't my choice. I graduated with my MFA just as COVID-19 brought the theatre industry to a standstill.

After years of training, late nights in rehearsal rooms, and Tiffany Gilly-Forrer (she/her) imagining what life after graduate school would look like, I SETC Member stepped into an industry that had, almost overnight, gone quiet.

To make matters even more disorienting, my spouse and I moved to a small, sorta remote town in Utah, far from the theatre communities I had imagined building a career alongside. I remember wondering if all of that training had been leading toward... nothing. Cue existential crisis and nihilism.

It felt like the momentum I had spent years building had disappeared before I even had the chance to use it. But life has a funny way of redirecting us toward the things we didn't know we needed and I became an adjunct professor, teaching theatre and film. At first, it felt like Plan B; then something unexpected happened. I fell in love with teaching. I remember crying on a drive home realizing how beautiful film was through teaching it to non-majors. And teaching didn’t replace acting for me, it reminded me why I loved it in the first place.

Watching students discover a scene for the first time, wrestle with a character, or suddenly understand the power of storytelling forced me to articulate instincts I had never put into words. I wasn't just teaching acting. I was rediscovering it. Somewhere between lesson plans, classroom discussions, and directing student work, I realized I hadn't left my artistry behind. It had simply changed forms.

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When I eventually returned to acting, I brought something with me that I hadn't possessed before.

Perspective, patience, and a greater understanding of collaboration. Teaching had expanded my empathy, sharpened my communication, and reminded me that great actors are lifelong students, always staying curious and ready to grow. I returned to the rehearsal room not diminished by the break, but enriched because of it. That experience changed something in me.

So when life invited me into another season away from the stage, I recognized it. This time, the reason is much happier. I'm a new mom. For the first time in years, I'm not preparing for auditions or memorizing sides (though I am doing some unrehearsed Shakespeare in the park!). Instead, I'm learning how to soothe a crying baby in the middle of the night. I'm celebrating fine motor milestones like grabbing things and clapping, making time for stroller walks and “outside time,” and the unmatched feeling of a tiny hand wrapped around my finger.

This season feels profoundly different from the last. Becoming a parent didn’t just rearrange my schedule. It rearranged ME. There are moments when I hardly recognize the person I was before my daughter was born, and yet somehow, I feel more myself than ever. This pause feels deeper than the one COVID forced upon me because it isn't simply about stepping away from my craft. It's about becoming someone new. Oddly enough, though, I'm less afraid of it. The first time I stepped away, I worried I would lose my identity as an actor. Now I know better, because I know that stepping away doesn't mean I’m no longer an artist. It means my artistry is quietly growing in places no rehearsal room could ever teach.

As actors, we spend our lives trying to understand people. We study relationships. Conflict. Joy. Grief. Love.

Loss. Hope. We search for emotional truth because audiences can tell the difference between circumstances we've imagined and circumstances we've lived. Motherhood has introduced me to emotional landscapes I couldn't have understood before. The fierce protectiveness. The vulnerability of loving someone so completely. The exhaustion that somehow coexists with overwhelming joy. The quiet grief of watching a baby outgrow yesterday's version of themselves. None of those lessons came from an acting exercise, they’ve come from living.

And isn't that what we're all trying to do as artists? Not simply collect techniques, but collect life. That realization has changed how I think about rest. Rest isn't simply sleeping more, although that would be very nice right about now… rest is allowing yourself to inhabit your own life without constantly wondering how it will affect your career. It's taking a hike. Reading a novel just because it sounds interesting. Learning to bake bread. Trying pottery. Gardening. Traveling. Volunteering. Having dinner with friends where no one talks about auditions. It might look like caring for aging parents. Recovering from burnout. Returning to school.

Starting a family. Or simply giving yourself permission to breathe after years of chasing the next opportunity.

None of those experiences are detours from becoming an actor. They are part of becoming one. Our industry often treats careers as though they should move in one continuous upward line. But very few lives actually work that way. Careers pause. Families grow. Dreams shift. People change. Maybe we need to give ourselves permission to have seasons instead of constantly expecting momentum. Trees don't produce fruit every month of the year. Fields aren't harvested in every season. Even theatres have intermissions. Not because the story is over. Because everyone needs a moment before the next act begins.

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Looking back, I don't think my career stopped during that time in Utah. I think another part of it began. And I don't think my career has stopped now because I'm home with my daughter. I think another chapter is quietly being written. When I return to the rehearsal room, whether that's months from now or years from now, I'll bring different stories with me. I'll understand love differently. Patience differently. Responsibility differently.

Wonder differently. Just as teaching made me a stronger collaborator and actor, I have a feeling motherhood will deepen my work in ways I can't yet predict. That's the beautiful thing about this profession. Our greatest resource isn't our résumé. It's our humanity. Every season of living expands the stories we're capable of telling.

If you're in a season that feels slower than you expected, or different than you planned, I hope you'll remember this: Intermission isn't the end of the play. It's part of the performance. The lights dim. The audience stretches. The actors catch their breath. And when the curtain rises again, the story continues.

Perhaps with even greater depth than before.

Reimagining Romeo and Juliet: A Modern Tale for Black Audiences at Hampton University Reimagining Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet within the vibrant campus of Hampton University opens a doorway for accessibility, relevance, and cultural resonance. My new retelling, Juliet & Romeo: A Street Saga, centers the daily realities and vibrant voices of Black students and families, with a setting that feels both intimate and expansive - my native New York City.

This piece is a continued reflection of my work as a director and writer, echoing the trajectory I began with Antigone Blue. In that project, I reimagined Sophocles’ Antigone through a Black Lives Matter lens, turning ancient tragedy into a contemporary indictment of injustice and a celebration of Black resilience. The Iris Goode-Middleton (she/her) current Romeo and Juliet adaptation mirrors that same artistic VP of Communications impulse: to translate canonical questions of power, loyalty, and moral choice into urgent, twenty-first-century conversations within Black communities. Just as Antigone Blue held up a mirror to state violence, this Black-centered retelling refracts structural barriers and their impact on Black youth navigating life, love, and questioning their futures. The throughline is clear: Shakespearean tragedy remains a powerful vehicle for social critique when anchored in lived experience and grounded storytelling.

Rooted in the classics but designed for today, the play preserves the iconic force of forbidden love while foregrounding themes that speak directly to modern audiences: community, resilience, and courage to consider love even in the face of systemic obstacles. New York City is not just a backdrop; it is a living character that shapes dialogue, tempo, and rhythm. The score, infused with r&b, hip-hop, and jazz, weaves memory with momentum, helping students hear Shakespeare in a language that sounds like their own. The result is a work where iambic pentameter meets streetsmart vernacular, creating accessibility without sacrificing poetic craft.

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Intentional inclusivity guides every choice: a cast that reflects the communities it depicts; a design aesthetic that honors Black artistry; and a classroom-forward approach that invites students to see themselves as co-creators of the canon. The production invites students to explore how Shakespeare’s universal questions of identity, loyalty, fate, and choice which arrive with urgency when imagined through Black campus life. What does it mean to love while navigating structural barriers? How can families guard legacies while empowering the next generation to redefine success?

In the workshop, the play has become a powerful teaching tool. Pre-performance discussions unpack historical context, contemporary parallels, and the mechanics of adaptation. The workshop has invited students to explore how the remixed story has translated the late-teen romance into mature, contemporary perspectives while preserving the emotional core of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The aim was not simply to “modernize” Romeo and Juliet, but to make it tactile and teachable: to show that classic literature can illuminate today’s conversations about equality, opportunity, and community.

Ultimately, this retelling honors the enduring relevance of the Bard while celebrating Black youth voices and the educational mission of HBCUs. It is a love letter to Hampton University, to Black students, and to the belief that literature, when reimagined with intention, can teach, transform, and connect across generations.

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