“The combination of incredible theater training (particularly the vocal and physical training), a safe and supportive space to take creative risks and a welcoming community of warm theater nerds like me. They all go hand-in-hand. It was that magic combination.”
The Blue Monster
Current Grades 7-9
Tysons Studio
By Carlo Gozzi
Stuck in her bedroom while her parents argue, a young girl spins up a fantastical tale. Prince Taèr is returning home with his new bride, but the path is treacherous. Fearsome monsters (and a monstrous stepmother) have wreaked havoc on the once peaceful Kingdom of Tilan.
Soon, the young lovers are intercepted by a powerful monster, intent on testing their love. Separated and cursed, Princess Dardanè is transformed into a man, and Taèr into a Blue Monster. Desperate to reunite, Dardanè must overcome many challenges, and Taèr must convince her to love him despite his hideous new shape…before the sun sets and they lose their loves forever…
This innovative performance class remounts one of our summer plays using a tight ensemble of middle and high school actors. The play will be professionally directed and fully produced — with custom-designed costumes, set, props, sound score, and lighting. This production will tour to 4 different venues, performing for a wide variety of audiences.
Auditions are open to students in grades 7-9.
What Families Are Saying
Margot, Alum
“My child was INTENSE about learning lines, studying the play, listening to music of the era, etc. She was immersed and focused.”
Amy, Parent
Staff
Jeanne Harrison
Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Head of High School Programming, Director for Shakespeare Troupe
Jeanne (she/her) founded Traveling Players Ensemble to give theatre students a joyful, rigorous, and nurturing artistic community to grow up in. She serves as both Producing Artistic and Executive Director, including vision and creative leadership for all educational and artistic activities, organizational direction, and staff management.
Jeanne continues to teach and direct all year long for Traveling Players, including directing Shakespeare Troupe in the summer. In her 36-year teaching career, Jeanne has taught for The Folger Shakespeare Library, Catholic University, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Loyola University (MD), Chapin School (NYC), and Interlochen Center for the Arts (MI), where she directed the Shakespeare program. Jeanne has worked in camping for 37 years, directed two other camps, and is a certified Camp Director (American Camp Association) and Instructor with the American Red Cross.
Often doubling as choreographer and sound designer, Jeanne has directed over a hundred theatrical productions. Recent productions include Cymbeline, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Commedia Christmas Carol (her own adaptation), Comedy of Errors, Women of Troy and Hecuba (Kenneth McLeish’s translations of Euripides), Taming of the Shrew, Antigone by Jean Anouilh (based on Sophocles), and Dust by Sarah Daniels.
An expert in mask, Commedia dell’Arte, and physical training for actors, Jeanne has presented workshops at the National Conference of the American Alliance for Theater & Education (AATE). She holds an MA in Theater from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MFA in Directing from Catholic University.
She served as a judge for Theatre Washington’s Helen Hayes Awards as well as the English-Speaking Union’s Shakespeare competition. She served as a panelist for Virginia’s Commission for the Arts and Maryland’s Council for the Arts & Humanities. Her lesson plans are published in The American Girls Collection, a Teacher’s Guide. She was selected as one of ArtsFairfax’s three 2015 Middle School Artists-in-Residence, and she also received ArtsFairfax’s 2016 Strauss Artist Award for her distinctive fusing of physical and classical theatre.
Jenna Heleen
Tech Director
Jenna Heleen (she/her) is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where her studies focused on Costume Design and Construction, Dramaturgy, Fashion History, and Dramatic Literature. She has worked as a stitcher and wardrobe crew member at Wolf Trap Opera, Folger Theatre, and Arena Stage, and is also about to begin her fourth year as Costume Director for Kilmer Middle School’s annual musical. Jenna was the Head of the Costume shop for Traveling Player’s 2023 residential camp and has designed five shows for them: Eros and Psyche, Green Bird, Tartuffe, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. Always eager to integrate her love of theatre with her love of history, Jenna has also worked on several projects researching and reproducing historical fashions. In addition to her loves of theatre and history, Jenna is a lifetime member of Girl Scouts of the United States of America. She grew up attending Camp Coles Trip, a much-beloved Girl Scout outdoor adventure sleep-away camp, and eventually spent three summers working there as a Unit Counselor and then Lifeguard and Windsurfing Instructor. In 2022, Jenna spent three months living in London as a volunteer at Pax Lodge, one of the five world centers run by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. While there, she led activities for Guides and Scouts as young as 6 and as old as 60, many of whom came from places as distant as Ghana and Taiwan. When not researching, sewing or Scouting, Jenna can be found engaging in general geekery with her sister, reading, baking, watching documentaries, and consuming copious amounts of tea.
Morgan Shotwell
Director of Communications & Outreach, Head of Middle School Programming, Director of the Thespian Ensemble
Morgan (she/her) joined the Traveling Players community in 2007 as a student in the Thespian Ensemble and remembers well the days of being “a middle school theatre kid.” Today, she is the Head of our Middle School Programs, our Thespians, teaching acting classes and directing plays throughout the year, including our Thespian Ensemble over the summer. This is her eighth year on staff. She spent six summers as a camper (Thespian and Shakespeare Ensembles, as well as Commedia and Shakespeare Troupes).
As the Director of Communications & Marketing, Morgan lets the community know about our programs and opportunities – as well as the ways the Traveling Players community can be a transformational experience and a touchstone for the rest of their lives.
Morgan has taught and developed new curricula for our Technical Theatre program as well as middle school classes including Preparing a Role and Scene Study & Acting Technique. She co-developed and now leads our workshop “Embedded Bias in Classical Literature” (with Ryan Fields).
In 2022, she launched and now leads the Greater Washington Middle School Theatre Festival. This festival, hosted by Traveling Players, is exclusively for Middle School students and designed to help them connect and learn with peers from other schools while celebrating the joy of theater.
Recent Traveling Players directing credits include Carlo Goldoni’s Servant of Two Masters, Molière’s Learned Ladies and Tartuffe, Carlo Gozzi’s Green Bird, King Stag, and Blue Monster, The Odyssey by Gregory A. Falls & Kurt Beattie, PUFFS by Matt Cox, and The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke, adapted to the stage by James DeVita. She served as Assistant Director on Orlando, Jane Eyre, The Learned Ladies, The Doctor in Spite of Himself, Tartuffe, Rumpelstiltskin, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Morgan also designs and constructs props for Traveling Players productions and mentors the Technical Theatre Apprentices during the academic year.
Other artistic work includes directing Mojo at Studio 115 and Assistant to the Director for Smile Lines at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, where she also worked in the box office for many years.
Frequently Asked Questions
For over 20 years we’ve been creating great theatre in the great outdoors with teens and pre-teens. Our team will happily walk you through any one of our carefully crafted programs.
How do you decide who is accepted?
We accept students who we think will be a good fit for our community – socially and artistically.
We ask students to audition because we’re interested in how you play with others – on stage and off – and with whom you play particularly well. Collaboration, chemistry, dedication, kindness, joy, and imagination are the qualities that allow our ensembles and all our students to thrive.
For Shakespeare Troupe: We accept actors into Troupe by considering the needs of the individuals and the play. Since Troupe is going on a professional performance tour, we have to cast the play with actors who are right (or can stretch into) the roles. We must also have roles that challenge the accepted actors.
The learning opportunities in Troupe, however, are only partly reflected in an actor’s role. The demands of mounting a full-length Shakespeare play on a professional rehearsal schedule are awesome and daunting. It’s the experience of a lifetime!
For Technical Theatre Apprentices: We accept technicians while considering the technical aspects of the season’s plays. We need to ensure each technician has a challenging project to work on so they can grow their skills.
How is Traveling Players known?
Traveling Players has two distinct reputations.
Called a top “25 summer school for the arts” by the National Endowment for the Arts, Traveling Players is known and nationally awarded for our artistic excellence. Our curriculum is rigorous, and the Shakespeare Troupe in particular has been noted for offering artistic challenges “unlike any other pre-college theatre program in the country.” You can read more about our awards and the excellent work of our students and alumni here.
However, if you asked a Traveling Players student, parent, or alum to describe us, they wouldn’t start by talking about the awards we’ve won, or the best show they were in or had seen from us. They would talk about our community.
With a 70% retention rate, our community is vibrant, connected, and kind. Our curriculum is intentionally designed to promote artistic collaboration. We limit our ensembles to just 13 students to ensure that everyone receives individualized training and attention. We select scripts that offer a wide range of roles and cast to maximize each student’s artistic growth. We help foster friendships both in and across ensembles through theatre games, low ropes challenge courses, and structured fun. The result is a community that remains thriving – and always welcoming. You can read more about why parents choose Traveling Players here.
What is your conflict policy? Can I miss a rehearsal or performance?
We ask families to limit absences to no more than two rehearsals. You cannot have any conflicts with tech rehearsals or performances. All conflicts (barring family emergencies and illness) must be submitted when you audition.
As an ensemble theatre company, we try to keep all of our actors active and onstage as much as possible. Our rehearsals are designed to allow us to work on multiple scenes simultaneously, which is uncommon. The benefit is that all of our students, regardless of which role they are playing, stay engaged throughout every rehearsal. The drawback is that it is harder for us to accommodate absences. Acting is collaborative, and it is very hard for young actors to imagine where their scene partner is on the stage and what they are doing.
Absences can impact casting. Our directors generally know which scenes they will work on at each rehearsal before rehearsals begin. An actor might not be able to play a particular role if we know they will be out for the rehearsals when we block that character’s most important scenes. We have cut students we love and who are wonderful actors from the ensemble because they have too many absences.
If you have a conflict, we ask that you do some extra practice at home so that you can catch up as quickly as possible when you return.
Theatre is awesome for teaching kids responsibility, collaboration, and commitment – and missing a rehearsal asks kids to really practice those skills. We’ll talk about how to practice at home during the parent meeting on the first day of rehearsal, and ways you can support your actor throughout the rehearsal process.
What happens at the auditions and interviews during the school year?
AUDITIONS: We know actors can shine in different ways, so we organize our auditions to let actors with different strengths shine. You will read a few scenes (called “sides,” since they are sides of the script), play improvisation games, and participate in ensemble-building activities. The audition is an opportunity for the director to get to know you and see how you work and play with other potential ensemble members. It is also an opportunity for you to get to know your potential castmates.
We have been told that our auditions are significantly more fun than the average audition. We plan to keep it that way!
INTERVIEWS: We’ll discuss your portfolio, interests, current skills, what you want to learn, and how the production can help you achieve your goals. You’ll have a chance to ask us questions, too!
Why do you tour?
We tour because we think it is an invaluable tool for training young actors.
Touring is a huge artistic challenge that teaches adaptability. When touring, you can’t just perform the play you’ve rehearsed in the same space for months on end – you have to make adjustments to suit the venue and the audience in front of you. Touring teaches our actors to respond to the gifts each audience gives. Through touring, actors become bolder, more generous storytellers, and technicians become more adaptable and resourceful.
In addition to their responsibilities onstage (actors) or backstage (technicians), all of our students take on an additional tour job. They might be the person who packs the costumes, or on a team that sets up the sound system. These tour jobs are vital in making the tour run smoothly. They teach our students to work collaboratively and take ownership of a piece of a project.
Plus, touring is a TON of fun! Every Traveling Players alum has a favorite memory from tour. We are the only educational theatre program in the nation that gives students the challenge of touring, and it is a core part of our artistic identity. (And it doesn’t hurt that touring gives you great material for college essays).
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