As the end of St. Ambrose's school year draws nearer, the Theatre Department would normally start getting ready for end-of-the-year performances and awards to celebrate its students' accomplishments. The end of this year is out of the ordinary, but fortunately, first-year student and talented improvisational actor Hailey Allbaugh is used to working without a script! Improvisational actors think on their feet and creatively use any scenario that gets thrown at them. That's just what Allbaugh has done in her experiences with theatre.
Theatre entered Allbaugh's life when she was in fourth grade, and she was in every play her school put on since then. One high point during her high school acting career was playing Glinda in The Wizard of Oz during her senior year.
Beyond acting, high school gave Allbaugh a new way to explore her theatrical interest: speech competitions. Allbaugh participated annually in state speech competitions through the Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA). Her categories of choice were prose, storytelling, and improvisation – all closely tied to theatre. Improvisation quickly became her favorite category and Allbaugh's love for live theatre grew.
When Allbaugh began college visits, her plans for theatre shifted from live theatre into filmmaking, which combines her interests in storytelling and live theatre and brings them to a bigger stage and screen. She wasn't certain about what she would find during a college visit to St. Ambrose in 2018. St. Ambrose didn't have a film program at the time, and she had her heart set on another school. Still, she went in with an open mind knowing that if she changed her mind, she would definitely want to major in theatre.
Fortunately, St. Ambrose caught Allbaugh by surprise. Unlike any other school she had visited, she was actually able to meet the professors for her classes and see the spaces for theatre and communications that she'd be working in. St. Ambrose's warm welcome and personal attention during that visit won her over.
"It definitely felt like a closer community than my previous decision did," she said. "I immediately knew that St. Ambrose would be my new home."
Many actors will say the main rule of improvisation is saying, "Yes, and?". Like a good improvisational actor, Allbaugh followed this "rule" while settling into her new home at St. Ambrose. Throughout the year, her openness to trying new roles in theatre answered the question: "Yes, I'll study theatre, and what more can I add?"
Allbaugh's answer came through on the technical side of theatre. She operated the light board for Big Fish and was the assistant stage manager for The Little Prince in the fall. This spring, she continued her four-year tradition of traveling and performing by taking The Little Prince on the road to KCACTF with the rest of the cast and crew. Later in the spring, she was also a part of the running crew for The Shape of Things. Although she's made many memories throughout the year, she said her favorites are from The Little Prince.
"There were a lot of good memories from that show, and I loved watching that show grow," she said.
Now that Allbaugh has worked as assistant stage manager, she wants to try out stage managing and directing as well as picking up more technical skills in the future. Anything that will give her more experience for filmmaking is likely in Allbaugh's plans for her time at St. Ambrose.
"I don't have a lot of technical experience [yet]," Allbaugh said. "Considering I would like to go into film as my occupation, the technical side of theatre will really help me with that."
With so many possibilities to try, it looks like she has an exciting future in store for her at St. Ambrose! Once everyone can come back healthy and ready to go, look for Allbaugh because she'll already be starting her next project. Now that St. Ambrose offers new opportunities in theatre and filmmaking [Discontinued 2023], who knows what Allbaugh will do next!
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