Out-of-Town Actor
General Information 2025

Overview

The Camden Shakespeare Festival is a professional, non-profit theatre committed to producing Shakespeare’s plays chiefly in the Camden Amphitheatre. At the core of our mission is a passion to make Shakespeare’s plays accessible to contemporary audiences. Yes, we are concerned with illuminating the text, but we also focus on physicality, music, and spectacle as crucial aspects of performance.

We are a non-Equity Theatre. Although we have hired Equity artists in the past, we have no current plans to do so. And as we are non-Equity, we do not give EMC points.

This summer we are producing The Two Gentlemen of Verona - Shakespeare’s comedy about a comic love triangle. This show has the classic, cross-dressing heroine, singing, and live music as well as a dog named Crab.

We pay $350 a week and provide free housing. More about the housing below.

We chiefly perform outdoors in the Camden Amphitheatre, a 200-seat venue that is a national historic landmark. Camden is the quintessential Maine harbor village, which Forbes magazine listed as one of the 25 most beautiful towns in the country.

Rehearsal and Performance Schedule

Our 2025 rehearsal period is from June 27 through July 15. We generally rehearse 8 hours a day, six days a week. Our typical rehearsal day is from 11am to 9pm with a two-hour dinner beak.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona opens on July 16 and plays through August 10. We play 5 shows a week over the course of four weeks, for a total of 20 performances. There are no two-show days.

We do 16 performances in Camden, but the show will also perform in Bath, Monson, and Bowdoinham. As of this writing those non-Camden dates have not been set.

The entire commitment with rehearsals and performances is from June 27 through August 10.

Non-performance responsibilities.

Other than performing, actors will distribute posters and flyers to local businesses, and they will take part in set up and strike.

Set up and Strike

The entire company will set up and strike, before and after every performance. This takes about 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after the performances. A typical schedule on show days is:
4:30 Set up
5:00 Break or individual preparation
5:30 Half hour for costumes.
6:00 Curtain
8:00 Show end and begin strike
8:30pm Finish strike

Travel

We generally reimburse for travel to and from Maine, up to a total of $300, irrespective of the mode of travel.

Housing

Out-of-town actors are generally housed in a single room in the house of a local host, who is a supporter of the theatre. Actors have access to a kitchen and a laundry, but are responsible for their own food. We encourage all actors to bring a car if they can (although it is certainly not a requirement). If an actor is without a car, care is taken to provide housing within walking distance to the rehearsals and performances, or to arrange for them to carpool. Just about every professional theatre in Maine relies on similar donated housing for out-of-town actors.