Greetings from the barn! The weather is starting to warm up, flowers and trees are beginning to bloom, and the Peterborough Players are gearing up for our 2026 summer season. Last year, the Ledger-Transcript graciously accepted my pitch to write a regular column pulling the curtain back on how we produce our shows. The response was gratifying; many of you reached out in person or by email and shared how much you enjoyed these columns, so I’m happy to report that my reports from Hadley Road are back. Each column will focus on a different aspect of theatre-making, sometimes highlighting a particular artist working on one of our productions to take a deep dive into their discipline.
For this column I want to shine a light not on one person, but a group who will be joining us in just over a month with members from all over the country. This summer, the Core Company of the Players will be 12 early-career artists working as paid apprentices in design, administration, technical fields, stage management and company management. The Players has always put a premium on education and training. Our mission states that our theatre “enriches the human experience by producing quality live professional theatre, developing and training theatre artists, and offering New Hampshire a wide variety of performing arts events.”
They have been given various titles in the past — interns, Second Company — but they were dubbed the Core Company in 2025 because they are truly at the center of everything the Players does over the summer. In the past, there have been acting apprentices at the Players, and the size of the contingent has varied from year to year. Last year, we decided to push pause on including acting apprentices because the number of non-union actors we can hire is directly connected to the size of our shows. We also decided to shift from having all our design and technical apprentices rotate departments from show to show to hiring most of them to stay in one area for the entire summer. This allows them to take a deep dive into a particular discipline over five shows, and it was inspiring for me last year to witness the exponential growth and confidence in every apprentice. On Saturday, May 9, the Players is hosting its annual Curtains Up fundraiser, and the proceeds go directly to funding the Core Company. I hope you’ll seriously consider attending if you haven’t already got your tickets; with music, food, and dancing, it’s a fun way to support a great cause.
I’m a great believer in the importance of mentorship, and I’m fortunate to have had powerful teachers both in school and professionally. The way the skills and spirit of theater-making are passed along from person to person and generation to generation is what keeps my field alive and thriving. I reached out to Stephen Jones, one of our set and lighting designers from 2025 who worked closely with the Core Company. He shared with me that “the apprentices are enthusiastic, hard-working future of the art of theatre. As a designer for Peterborough players, I found it thrilling and encouraging for the craft to work alongside such talented youth.”
I also reached out to Nait Bigler, Ashley Rupert, and Ryan Wickline — apprentices last summer excited to return soon in their positions of Lighting Tech Apprentice, Administrative Apprentice, and Scenic Carpenter Apprentice, respectively. I wanted to hear in their words what made last year so special.
Nait shared, “I think the most impactful element that stuck with me was learning the tempo of professional theatre specifically regarding lighting. The practices and standards of the lighting team at The Players are held to the same level of prestigious theatres on Broadway, but the output is expected in a turnaround of a few days. I was educated on not only the content of lighting production, but also on the ways of doing the work at the professional level.
In terms of the people, I felt we all became like family almost overnight. We worked together side by side every day, and we all still spent our nights together laughing and making memories just the same.” Ashley recounted that “the CC (Core Company) is a place full of chances for young theater makers to learn more about their craft while also having fun. Being a part of the scenic CC made me much more confident in my carpentry skills. I was able to have fun and enjoy time with other apprentices — whether that was watching a movie, playing Uno in the community building, or going to town for a coffee before work.” Dovetailing Ash and Nait’s comments about expanding one’s skills, Ryan shared, “I experienced a degree of growth in my craft and skill that was unprecedented up until that point. That is totally due to the supportive, yet challenging environment provided and constructed by the Players. It is a space where you are expected to make mistakes, but to learn from those mistakes, to utilize them to your advantage. This type of environment was perfect for me as a young, emerging theater professional.”
And why return this year? Ash stated that “with my education, I can learn a lot about the technical side of theatre, but we don’t really learn about the administrative side. So, when Peterborough offered a chance to learn through Admin CC, I ran with it!” And I’ll wrap up my first column of 2026 with Ryan’s inspiring sentiments: “I wanted to return for the wonderful sense of purpose in its dedication and service to the town. In that regard, the Players, to me, is the epitome of what theatre should be – a place of pure artistry, dedicated to both the art and the service of its community. It was immensely rewarding to open a show and know that those who see it are intimately linked to the culture and history of that barn out in the woods. That ability to serve the community through my art was a large motivator for my return.”
Brendon Fox is artistic director of the Peterborough Players.