Meet T2's Apprentices

For people interested in a career in the arts, TheatreSquared’s apprenticeship program can be enormously beneficial. The current class of T2 apprentices told us a little bit about themselves and what they hope to get out of the program — and what they’ve already gotten out of it, two months in.

Israel Rios

Growing up, Israel Rios was extraordinarily close to his grandmother; she taught him to sew, and he developed his exceptional talent for makeup artistry by practicing on her. He took his first job as a retail worker in a Cracker Barrel because it was her favorite restaurant.

“I told her, ‘I’ll get a job there and get us that discount,’” he says with a smile. 

Her influence is what ultimately led Rios to a career in aesthetics, her memory complicating his decision to move on from that path when he found himself unfulfilled. 

“I think that one of the reasons why I held on to aesthetics for so long was because she was so proud that I had achieved a higher education than high school,” he says. She passed away in 2018, and he felt a deep desire to honor her memory. “I thought, ‘I don't want to waste this thing that she was so proud of.’ But there were so many other things that we loved — that wasn’t the only thing. That’s not the only thing that’s going to make her proud.” 

In fact, sewing was something that linked the two, as well, but following her death, grief stripped Rios of his creativity in that field. He wasn’t able to pick up a needle and thread, and it left a hole in his life, as he had been active in the drag scene, sewing his own and others’ performance costumes. 

Then he applied for a costume design apprenticeship at T2.

“I'm always sewing at home now — it's insane,” he says. “And not only did it kick start my passion for fashion, it also kick started my passion for creativity. Because that was one thing that I felt like was really suppressed over the past couple of years, especially, trying to be an ‘actual legitimate adult’, as well as do adult things. I feel like it's a struggle to have that balance of being able to be creative but also be realistic at the same time because you don't want one to overpower the other.”

This is something that Rios has thought a lot about in the past year —whether or not you have to trade your passion for a career. The T2 apprenticeship, he says, has shown him that he does not: He has big plans for the future that include traveling, summer stock theater companies, and lots of opportunity to express his creativity. That trading happiness for a lucrative job is something that many of us consider, he muses, “really shows you the structure of our society and how we always perceive that having financial security and professionalism is something that you have to obtain. When in reality, the one thing that you really have to obtain is being happy. “

Eddie Fountain 

Eddie Fountain was raised in the small Louisiana town of Talullah, with a population that hovers just below 7,000 people and where, he says, not a single live theater venue could be found. That was hard for Fountain, who had loved the live church performances he had seen and performed in, relished Disney musicals, and had been galvanized by the movie version of the popular 1990s musical “Rent”. But when he moved to the larger metropolitan city of Monroe, that all changed. With a variety of community and university theater venues to choose from, Fountain was finally an active participant in the theater world he had previously watched from afar. 

“I have always loved it, and it’s always been a part of my life,” he explains. “I just didn’t realize how much I loved it until I got on stage. It just really touches my heart.”.

But he was convinced that theater would have to remain a hobby instead of a career path because — despite the relatively large city he found himself in — opportunities for paid theater work seemed scarce. So he got a job at IBM and enrolled in an apprenticeship to train to be an application developer. Despite this apparent acquiescence to practicality, he didn’t stop poring over trade websites to keep track of opportunities that might be out there. And that’s how he found the notice for the T2 apprenticeships on Playbill.com. Nervous but determined, he applied — and won a spot. In a huge leap of faith, Fountain moved six hours from Monroe to Fayetteville to work at T2. 

“But any nerves that I had, honestly, subsided when I walked in,” he says. “It was such an easy environment, if that makes sense. I felt not only the level of professionalism here, but also the level of care. That was a little different than in my previous world.”

As an apprentice in the education department, Fountain says he’s learning a new vocabulary to help express his love of theater in order to inspire a younger generation. 

“I've been observing the residencies at the schools and before this, if someone asked, ‘So, how do you act? What is your process?’, I would not have known how to explain it because it’s just something I do,” he says. “But watching others in the education department, I’ve gained the skill of being able to break it down, to help someone get to that point where I see what it is they want me to see. How to expand on ideas — that’s another thing I’ve learned. Not cutting an idea off, but expanding it, because we never want to cut short or dull someone’s creativity. We want to expand on it, help it grow.” 

Amber Holley

Amber Holley graduated from Indiana University Northwest in May 2020 — a few months after the world ground to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A theater major, Holley was suddenly in a world where theaters all over the country had been closed indefinitely. So they took a chance and moved to Fayetteville, where grad school was a possibility when the world opened up again. Meanwhile, they got a job at T2 in May 2021 and were in a staff meeting when the announcement about the new apprenticeship program was announced. Holley applied, hoping for a spot on the stage management team. 

“I am a very organized person, very detail-oriented, and I really like to watch the process,” Holley says of stage management, a position they held many times during undergraduate studies. “I love being a part of the process — being in the room and just kind of observing everything that’s happening. The thing that I love the most is when a director has their hands on a production and slowly but surely kind of starts to give you, the stage manager, more and more responsibility — and then leaves you basically as the conductor of the show, making sure it runs exactly the same every single night.”

Holley says they have already learned so much from the program. 

“I’m learning how to communicate more effectively and listen more intently,” Holley says. “There are so many things while I’m watching [Stage Manager] Merit [Glover] and [Assistant Stage Manager] Fior [Tat]. I can see that they’re very good at picking up on when things could be an issue. They just notice things, and they are very good at anticipating needs. I feel like watching them do all of that is making me better at observing.”

Kayleigh Hughes

Kayleigh Hughes says she chose her undergraduate majors of communications, marketing, and journalism for a very particular reason. 

“I felt like communications had one foot in business and one foot in psychology,” she muses. “I didn’t feel like it was solely business-minded but a little more like liberal arts. I feel like working at a nonprofit is a perfect blend between the two.” 

She put a great deal of thought into choosing the major, but she still found herself unsure of her next step when she graduated in May 2021. 

“I graduated, and I've done internships, but I didn't necessarily feel ready to jump into a career for the rest of my life,” she admits. “I wanted something a little more temporary, a little more educational so that I could get an experience base. I sat in a classroom for four years, but I don’t necessarily know how to do the job yet. I've always loved theater, so this seemed like a good way to combine the hobby with my professional goals. “

Two months into the program, Hughes says she’s still working through whether or not marketing seems like a field she wants to pursue. But the program’s value, she says, is clear. 

“I’m learning the norms of an office with structure and developing those skills,” she says. “And I can massively fail by trying new things because I have a team backing up all of my decisions and all of my work. It gives me the opportunity to try things — to fail and learn by failing. And that’s okay because I’ve got a safety net.”