The Third Rail Mentorship Program is a training intensive designed to give emerging theatre artists an artistic home for a season of hands-on experience in the day-to-day life of a professional repertory theatre. We welcome our Mentees into the fold by providing free training, compensated positions, and other professional growth opportunities. The program begins in January and continues through June.
Mentees work alongside Third Rail Company Members in both the rehearsal room and the administrative offices, gaining experience in all aspects of creating, producing, financing, and marketing a show.
Who are are looking for:
Ambitious, talented, disciplined, and diverse emerging theatre artists. Candidates should be over 21 years of age and not currently enrolled in school.
You want to gain a broader sense of what it is to be an artist of the theatre and already excel in at least one area (acting, design, directing, writing, producing, or stage management). You want to experience what it is to be part of a company. You want an artistic home. You have excellent communication skills, and have an entrepreneurial spirit.
What we offer:
An opportunity to be part of a company within a company; to broaden your identity from actors, designers, stage managers, writers, and producers into comprehensive theatre artists. You will attend regular weekend “intensives” that delve into various methods of theatrical practice, such as collaboration/devised work, viewpoints, movement, improvisation, design, and the business of theatre. Mentees will study side-by side with Third Rail Company Members and some intensives will culminate with a presentation.
Mentees with the appropriate skill sets will be given opportunities to assist our professional stage managers, designers, directors, and producers as well as shadow actors in the company as they prepare a role.
Mentees are given opportunities to learn the business of producing theatre. They will be invited to learn and assist in all facets of Third Rail’s enterprise: season selection, marketing, sales, and development.
Each Mentee will be partnered with a Company Member for the duration of the program. Each Mentee will learn both the art and the business side of theatre one-on-one from a professional.
What we expect:
Engagement. Mentees are expected to be involved with and attend Third Rail programming and intensives scheduled 1-2 weekends of every month. You will be invited to attend company meetings.
Mentees will be responsible for coordination and production of our National Theatre Live programming, and front of house and box office for our Main Stage productions. Work hours for National Theatre Live, front of house and box office are paid. Work will be variable in terms of hourly commitment, but should average around 5-10 hours a week. It is possible to have a full-time job and be a Mentee. We encourage our Mentees to be actively seeking theatre work during their tenure, provided they can fulfill their duties to the company.
For more information about the program or future opportunities to join the Mentorship Company, please contact Kelsea Ashenbrenner, kelsea@thirdrailrep.org.
Meet the 2024 Mentorship Company
Patrick Lee (he/she/they) is a writer, director, and filmmaker, who tends to be very matter-of-fact when discussing himself. Born and raised in Arizona, Lee graduated from Portland’s Lewis & Clark College in 2023, majoring in Theatre and minoring in Computer Science. They have directed productions of Play by Samuel Beckett, Really Rosie by Maurice Sendak & Carole King, and The Play That Goes Wrong. He assistant directed Lewis & Clark College’s fall 2022 production of RENT. From 2017-2019, they led a team of young writers in the creation and production of two original, two-act musicals. At Lewis & Clark, Lee sat on the board of (Pause.), the school’s journal of dramatic literature. Lee has written and produced an original, 45-minute play, Born to Live, loosely inspired by the true story of an Arizona-based immortality cult. It was performed in Lewis & Clark’s Black Box theater in 2023. He can also act or do sound design, if asked nicely.
Dominic Mallari (he/they) continues to enthusiastically learn more about the theatre industry as a TRRT mentee this season! They hold Bachelor degrees in Theatre Arts and Business Administration from Portland State University, where they starred in Frontieres Sans Frontieres and Oh, the Humanity, sang chorus in The Magic Flute, and co-wrote/originated Tony Luna in Re-Presented: A Pilipino Musical. Stage credits throughout PDX and Redding, CA include IQ in Hairspray and Fr. Peregrine in The Martian Chronicles (PCC), PSM of Carrie and In the Heights (Stumptown Stages), Steward in Into the Woods and Ensemble in Newsies (AxRep), Rev. Samuel Parris in The Crucible, Ensemble in Sweeney Todd and AD of A Few Good Men (Shasta College), SM of Tarzan and Ensemble in Elf (Cascade Theatre), AD of Aladdin Jr. and Mary Poppins Jr., and Ensemble in The Nutcracker (TheRAP), Ensemble in The Addams Family (SFA) and Armand in Once on this Island (WST). Dominic also volunteers with many theaters, and ushers at Portland’5 Centers for the Arts and Oregon Convention Center. IG: @domseestheatre
Victoria Spelman (she/her) is a Las Vegas native, who moved to Portland mid pandemic. She considers herself an actor-creator and specializes in physical theatre. She is a graduate from the Dell’arte School of Physical Theatre as well as the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Beyond working as an actor, Victoria loves to direct and is currently working as an intimacy director/coordinator. She has directed numerous children’s productions and loves to bring a sense of play into every production she is involved with. When not performing, Victoria enjoys gardening, going on walks, and eating pizza.
Niels Truman (he/him) is a playwright and theatre-maker based in Portland, Oregon. He holds a degree in Theatre and English from Lewis & Clark College where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors. His produced work includes The Third Place, The Announcement, Code Serpent, Sasha & Carlyle Make a TikTok, and It’s All About Pumpkin. In April he and his co-writer Duncan Kass will present their original musical Sam’s 21st as part of the Fertile Ground Festival. In addition to being a part of the mentorship program, Niels is proud to be a box office and marketing associate for Third Rail. Elsewhere in town, he has worked various positions at 21ten Theatre, and is on the playwriting committee for Northwest Theatre Workshop. He loves black coffee, long books, and getting lost in the city.