2011 Season
A Year With Frog and Toad July 23-August 7
The Producers July 21-August 6
Urinetown July 28-August 7
"It taught me my limits, showed me my potential... but mostly it was an incredible experience both personally and professionally."
About Summer Stock Austin
Each summer, students from across Texas meet to mount several productions with professionals from Austin and around the country in a one-of-a-kind experience. They work as a traditional stock company; each member performs, designs, builds and assists on the various aspects of theatrical productions. Similar programs charge tuition, but Summer Stock Austin offers this experience to all participants virtually free of charge.
The company is led by a host of professionals with experience ranging from Austin to Broadway. Through this work college students begin making invaluable connections as they embark on their professional careers. High school students will have a similarly unique experience as they gain first-hand knowledge of working in a collegiate setting. Moreover, each student leaves the stock season with pride, knowing that he/she has played an integral part of a professional production.
Summer Stock Austin’s philosophy is to create an environment of shared learning by incorporating high school students, college students and professionals in a fast-paced production series where everyone involved shares in the responsibility of creating high-quality theatre.
Summer Stock Austin is a joint program of St. Edward’s University and Zilker Theatre Productions.
The Beginning
In August of 2005, St Edward’s Mary Moody Northen Theatre hosted the inaugural season of Summer Stock Austin (SSA). Joining forces with Zilker Theatre Productions and Austin Shakespeare Festival, SSA brought together 15 of St. Edwards’s theater and music students and 30 high school students from the greater Austin area to produce two remarkable productions; Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Footloose, the musical. Presented in back to back repertory style, Austin audiences flocked to these performances; many of which were sold out.
Founders
With more than 15 years combined experience working with Jr. High, high school and college students, two of Austin’s leading theatre professionals, Dr. Michael McKelvey and Ms. Ginger Morris, founded Summer Stock Austin. SSA provides an opportunity for Central Texas high school students to work alongside college students and theatre professionals to mount a summer stock season where each participant involved works in all areas of theatre production from acting to technical theatre to marketing.
Dr. Michael McKelvey has been an active performer, musical, and stage director on the Austin theatre scene for 15 years. Together with Ginger Morris, he founded Summer Stock Austin in 2005. Michael is the Coordinator of Music, and newly appointed Director of Musical Theatre at St. Edward’s University. As a stage director, Michael’s credits include Sweeney Todd (B. Iden Payne Award), The Last Five Years, John and Jen, Assassins (BIP Award), Alice in Wonderland, The Frog Prince, Nunsense, A Christmas Carol, and The Pajama Game. As a musical director, he has worked for the majority of musical producing companies in Austin with almost 50 titles on his resume. Some of his favorite musical direction credits are Sweeney Todd (BIP Award), Crazy For You (Austin Critics’ Table Award), Assassins (BIP Award), Pajama Game, Parade (ACT Award), Seven Brides...(BIP Award), The Last Five Years, Into the Woods, and Beauty and the Beast. He has also been an active composer over the past year, writing scores for Austin Shakespeare, the Mary Moody Northen Theatre, and Scottish Rite Theatre. Besides his university duties and directing activities, Michael also serves as a faculty member for the Texas Arts Project and Zachary Scott P.A.S., and as a board member for Hyde Park and Penfold Theatre Companies.
Ginger Morris graduated with a BFA in Theatre from the University of Texas at Austin. She worked as Stage Manager or Production Manager for various Austin Musical Theatre Productions, where she managed the AMT Performing Arts Academy for six years. Ginger has directed productions with St. Edward’s University, Zilker Theatre Productions, Arts On Real, Second Youth, and Austin Scottish Rite Children’s Theatre. She has also taught, directed, and/or choreographed for Dripping Springs Middle and High Schools, Trinity Episcopal School, Leander High School, McCallum High School, and NYOS Charter School. She is founder/director of Texas Arts Project at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School and Director/Choreographer for Camp Paramount 2010. Ginger is a proud co-founder of Summer Stock Austin, where she has directed Footloose, West Side Story, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Little Shop of Horrors.