amazing summer because I met the most amazing people, but most exhausting summer of my life. basically no breaks, abysmal pay, everybody's getting sick all the time, no understudies, late nights, early mornings, little to no understanding from the staff, LOOOONG days. apprentices are essentially the workhorses of the theatre. they do everything from serving, to ushering, to parking cars, to cleaning toilets. you will do all of those things if u choose to work here. also when I say no breaks - I mean not even for lunch. and also we would frequently go 2 weeks without a day off.

Just don’t. Don’t subject yourself to the abuse!

The worst job I've held. I could gone on and on about how terribly we were treated and the crazy amounts of exploitation and manipulation used in order to get manual labor out of young, impressionable actors. 70-90 hour work week. 1 hour lunch break and 2 hour dinner break are absolutely not observed. You will have a pre-show assignment, like ushering or parking attendant and you have to be ready for the show when that starts. So, hair and make-up need to be done before dinner "break" is over. The bar show that happens after every show and in which apprentices perform rehearses during lunch "break." You will be there at the beginning of the work day every day regardless of whether or not there is work to do because "we're a team and we arrive together and leave together." Of course, if you have any need that inconveniences the show in the least, you're on your own and the "team" is non-existent, at least in the eyes of the owners. (When I was there one of the apprentices got sick and went to the doctor and was diagnosed with strep. The owners were upset that she missed work that morning to go to the doctor and were going to have her serve food that evening at the bar show WHILE CONTAGIOUS WITH STREP. Another apprentice stepped in and served food in her stead.) You will stay until after the bar show. Sleep and food are not deemed to be important. If you don't have work to, you better figure out how to look busy because you will get in trouble for not working. Of course, there's typically more work to do than there is time to do it. There are immense communication issues and money issues that hamper the production and rehearsal processes and even if things are going wrong, if you don't have scripts because the rights didn't get paid for in time, if you didn't get called to rehearsal from your work area because the stage manager forget, well too bad. You have to somehow work harder to compensate for the problems created by the people above you. By the way. There is no rehearsal schedule. You show up in the morning and go to your work areas and work. If they need you in rehearsal someone will come get you and you go immediately. If you're lucky, the person coming to get you will know what is being rehearsed and will tell you what it is before you walk into the rehearsal space. Once you're done in rehearsal, you go straight back to your work area. Which yes, it's an apprenticeship, you should expect to work in addition to performing. But like, from what I experienced, most of the apprentices are not hired for performance at all. I mean, sure, it's great they can fill out the ensemble with underpaid college kids and fill some of the casting holes that their equity cast can't, and much of the apprentice company is SUPER talented and are highly competent performers, but mainly the apprentices are there to build the sets, props, costumes, hang the lights, and mow the lawns. In addition to the mainstage shows, apprentices also perform in the nightly bar show which as I said, rehearses during lunch AND they work the bar show either as a server, bartender, or kitchen worker. (The only benefit of this is that if you are also working the bar show as well as performing, you get tips. So that's nice. BUT also, which apprentices are assigned to work the bar show isn't fair either as they find the ones they like best and keep using them. So if you did want to work more and want/need that extra money and they don't like you or you don't have wait staff experience, welp... too bad.) Apprentices are also responsible to run the box office during lunch and dinner hours and on your day off (which occurs every other week if you're lucky.) For the day off, they pull names from a hat to decide who will work the box office. They also don't remove your name from the hat if you already worked on a "day off." So you could have to work box office on a day off multiple times. And I did see that happen to a couple people. There's a rotation of who covers the box office for meal "breaks". But if you're schedule for the box office AND bar show rehearsal during you "lunch break" you have to find another apprentice to cover your box office, otherwise you miss your bar show rehearsal and will then be in trouble for that. Really, they just set you up to fail and then kick your feet out from under you. Apprentices also ran the spotlights for the shows. So most likely there would be at least one mainstage show you were not in one of the acts because you would be running the spotlight. Which like, okay, yes again, it is an apprenticeship, but things like this were simply not communicated in the hiring process. At one point, there was a gala that the apprentices, of course, ran in addition to performing in. I was a greeter. We spent all afternoon prepping the event with no breaks and I wasn't allowed to leave my post for 3 minutes to use the bathroom because I was supposed to greet guests even though there were multiple apprentices present greeting. I probably held it for at least an hour. During which, of course, I was expected to converse with patrons. The pay is of course, atrocious. And you have to compensate your host home family for your housing out of your measly pay check. Some of the host homes are lovely... some, are not. A handful of the apprentices I worked with did not feel safe in their host homes. The owners are some of the most two-faced, manipulative people I have ever witnessed. I don't want to get into too many details, but BEWARE. Also beware of returning employees who've drunk the kool-aid. Again, I don't want to bash actors who have been worn down and manipulated into thinking that the way this company is run and treats people is acceptable. There's definitely some stockholm syndrome going on. And this is just my opinion, but it seems that sometime awarding very young actors their Equity cards before they've worked literally anywhere else kind sets them up for failure and makes them feel like they have to keep coming back because it's their only option if they want to continue working on stage. I'm pretty sure their insurance sucks because one of the biggest rules communicated was that we weren't allowed to run on the property when it rained.... Also, the building isn't grounded electrically. One of the ropes in the fly systems snapped while I was there. I could go on and on and on about safety issues. Honestly, I don't know how OSHA hasn't shut them down. Maybe they're black-mailing the local OSHA rep. That's the only explanation I can think of. Oh, it's also dirty. Like just generally dirty. Which like... okay, it's an old barn... but still. You shouldn't have to wear costumes that have mold growing in them. There are plenty more horror stories that I could tell, but honestly, I don't want to spend any more of my time thinking about it. After I finished this contract, I wasn't sure I wanted to continue working in theatre anymore. It complete zapped all my joy and destroyed my love for theatre. I was severely unwell by the end. Luckily, I was able to return back to my parents' house for a couple months and crash and recover in a safe space which was probably my saving grace. I wanted to quit multiple times, but it was pretty much implied to us that if we didn't do well at our jobs, the company had notoriety in the professional world and we could get blacklisted. This is of course, completely false and absolutely a manipulation tactic. Oh. and GENERAL WARNING FOR YOUNG ACTORS: A one page contract is a RED FLAG. Literally the only company I've worked for that had a one-page contract. Every other contract I've signed has been 5-15 pages. That is NORMAL and PROTECTS YOU. The only benefits I gained from this contract were: 1. I am able to put a show up in 10 days, because I did it 8 times in 16 weeks. It was hard and took a lot of late nights of staying up to memorize lines, music and dance. I was severely sleep deprived, but I did it. 2. I learned that I have value as a human being. Even if a person or a company thinks I have no talent, well that's one thing. Art is subjective. But my humanity is not. I deserve to be treated as a human with needs (like nourishment and sleep) regardless. This contract taught me what my boundaries are, and to value my own self-worth even when others are actively treating me as worthless, and to have self-respect. Unfortunately, not every one I worked with walked away with that lesson. Some people took the mistreatment to be what they deserved and let it destroy their self-worth. So instead, this contract set them up to be continually taken advantage of. It makes me very sad to think about. Anyway, I guess at the end of the day, I'm glad I did this contract and survived because it made me a stronger person and really built my perseverance and sense of self-worth. But honestly, if you're looking to build character, there's more lucrative and less traumatic ways to do it. I would not recommend working here especially since the EMC program is getting phased out and there's literally no upside to sacrificing your soul just to add some credits to your resume. You can do that somewhere else. And please do. (edited)

Fully echo all other reviews. Worked here two years and the second year was worse. It had its perks (casting, $50 more a week), but the cons from year one were exponentially worse. You're exploited more for "knowing how the place is run", and basically have to teach everything to first year apprentices. Felt guilty while cheering them up and trying to help them find the (very few) upsides. Cant imagine the theatre will survive much longer unless they make serious changes. If you choose to work here: Don't trust the staff. Love your fellow apprentices. Protect yourself. (edited)

Absolutely wild to see that folks are still having the same experiences here. I was there many years ago and I co-sign everything mentioned already.

My experience here was absolutely horrible. All the reviews below are accurate, and I hope continuing to add reviews to this page will save actors from working at such a terrible theatre and eventually get such a racist, homophobic, misogynistic and culty place shut down.

Soul sucking. And I don't mean that figuratively. As you've hopefully read in the previous reviews, this place has NO respect for its actors and the people who work for them. The amount of sexism (I consistently felt like I was in the 1960s), racism, and misogyny that was present made me feel empty and helpless. I won't go into detail about when, who, or where, but I felt threatened and unsafe every day of this contract. And it wasn't just me by a long shot. So instead of going into details about my specifics, here's what I want to share with you. Here's a snapshot of a day in the life of a Barnie (during the full swing of things): - Wake up around 8 am - Pack whatever food you have (not a lot because a grocery trip is a rarity that only happens on days off) and whatever else you need for work areas, the show, and bar show after. - Drive to the theater (depending on where your host family is, this can end up being half an hour or more) - Wait in the Pit (the morning meeting area, which is more of like a weird hallway). Call time is 9 am, but you're waiting around for the AD (aka Boss) who is always late. When he finally shows up, he chews a couple of people out for being late and for not respecting his time. He gives a series of vague, meaningless, passive-aggressive notes and then proceeds to grumble about something meaningless for a while. It always ends with him telling someone to meet him in his office where he'll give you a "talking to" for no clear reason. - Work areas. At best, you have a couple of projects you're working on for the upcoming show. While some of the shop supervisors are great, there are quite a few who are absolutely terrible to be around. They will give you mind-numbingly useless tasks just to keep you busy and then will get mad at you for doing it "wrong" just to feel like they have power over you. For an entire two weeks, we were told to weed the entire property (which is large). We were literally on our hands and knees digging weeds out of the pavement for HOURS. Scraping moss off a brick wall. When they grew back two days later, we were yelled at for not doing it well enough. - Rehearsals will happen during work areas. When you're not being used, you are sent back to work areas, sometimes only for 15 minutes. Then the shop supervisor will get mad that you keep on leaving and somehow blame you for having to be in rehearsal rather than help them. Meanwhile, the director gets angry that it takes 20 minutes to move on to the next piece because the SM and ASM have to go around the entire property finding the actors at their work areas. There are times when actors have shown up with wet paint dripping from their hands and then yelled at for not being prepared for rehearsal. And you never know what you're going to be rehearsing (or sometimes what role you are) until the SM or ASM comes up to you and says "you're needed for [insert ensemble number here]". - Work areas continue until it's "meal break" which is in fact not a meal break but rehearsal for the Bar Show. Which is a strange amalgamation of songs that were definitely forgotten for a reason (simply because they're bad, racist, sexist, anything -ist, just strange, or all of the above), a sprinkling of musical theatre, and A LOT of old time commercials. Directed by the AD's oldest son and music directed by a middle-aged man who takes a disgusting interest in the male-identifying interns. If you try to eat during rehearsal, you are yelled at because rehearsal takes place in a bar so no outside food. But if you step outside the bar and try to eat, you're yelled at for not being ready for your next entrance. Oh and if you're covering box office, have fun trying to run back and forth between bar show rehearsal, running box office, and trying to eat. I could go on but you get the idea. - Work areas continue. Same as before. - Coolios. So it used to be called something different but someone brought up that it was actually a slur and that we shouldn't be using it. So the name was BEGRUDGINGLY changed to "coolios" even though the AD "didn't understand why it was such a big problem". Coolios is a "fun" way of saying chores. The Barn doesn't have a cleaning service so you're scrubbing toilets, mopping floors, setting up the bar for tonight, cleaning the aisles from last night, sweeping the stage, sweeping the basement floors, taking out trash, etc. And when you're done you get to go "bu*t sweeping". Which is walking down the sides of the road and picking up cigare**e bu**s with your bare hands. When all the chores have been done you wait back in the Pit, until Boss deems that the chores have been done well (which most of the times, they mysteriously haven't) and then finally we're dismissed. Usually this cuts into dinner break (which is supposed to be 2 hours long, but gets cut short on both ends). - So if this is box office day, then you don't get to go home. You and another intern are covering box office during dinner break. Because of your preshow assignment, you will be getting ready for the show in the box office. You are not allowed to leave the box office. If you go to the bathroom you better have proof. - Preshow assignments. They run until places start. This means that more often than not you are doing preshow assignments in costume. Preshow assignments: ushering, bartending, parking cars, box office, serving, etc. The AD makes a long speech once places begin so that you "have time" to get ready. Show starts whether you're ready or not. - Show - Bar show immediately after. You're serving/bartending/cooking in between sets more often than not. - Everyone stays to clean up after bar show. You cannot clean up until all the patrons leave. And you are not allowed to kick patrons out. Which results in waiting around for hours until they finally feel like they can go home. - Go home (probably 12:30 am, but sometimes 2 am), memorize lines and practice for bar show. - Sleep and get ready for the same thing the next day.

- didn't get SM's phone number until a month in from another apprentice - no contact sheet until after a month - work/reh during break - cheap labor: mold, dust, rats, bugs - health emergency - the boss wasn't helpful at all and got mad at apprentices who helped - Constant gossiping and drama - The costume manager flipped off an apprentice about laundry - inefficient, uncoordinated, unorganized, unsafe, uncommunicative, unclear - apprentices get in trouble for doing something they didn't know bc they weren't told at all how to do things - giving jobs to ppl who shouldn't do them: ASM doing quick changes, making apprentices clean out unkept theater props, costumes, and areas instead of hiring people who would be better at the job and risking the health of the apprentices - dangerous, steep stairs to platforms - always asked to be on time but nothing ever started on time and the boss was always late - used apprentices in ensemble to hold platforms - not allowing 20 yr olds audition/perform 20 yr old roles - no intimacy coordinator - housing is horribly maintained and dirty. You are required to buy your WiFi and the furniture and accommodation were infested with rat scat - they have equity actors working actual positions for the theater which makes all the shows bias - they work on the "show must go on" mentality and make you feel guilty for not feeling well - all the people who work there actually seem to not enjoy each other - they prioritize apprentices who have worked there before and give them solos and leads because they "earned it" - they don't give you enough time to eat dinner, get ready, and do pre-show assignments which do not correlate with actual show duties - this theater only runs bc of the apprentices and they genuinely treat them like they aren't human (edited)

Wish I could give zero stars. I worked here many years ago and it’s sad to see that nothing has changed and that young actors are still falling into the trap of working here. The abuse of power was absolutely shocking. As mentioned before, it really is a playhouse for the returning equity members and the owners to give themselves all their favorite roles, while they step on the backs of the underpaid “apprentices” who do all the physical and emotional labor. The memory that will stick with me forever is cleaning the sidewalks with an actual TOOTHBRUSH and PAINT THINNER while my friend and I sobbed. That’s all you need to know. I hope the reviews before me are right and that they go out of business with the end of the EMC program! (edited)

DO NOT WORK HERE!!!! Accountability and naming names are what’s required if you want change. The owners of The Barn should be held accountable for their horrid treatment of others. Per website regulations, I have excluded personal or identifying information in this review. HOWEVER, that info is easily accessible and publicly available for you to personally find (hint - Google, social media, their own website). *Do your own research and come to your own conclusions.* My experience: Ditto to everything said in the previous reviews. Everyone else has been very polite and anonymous, but the mistreatment and and blatant disregard for anyone that doesn’t share the family name (do your own research) doesn’t deserve anonymity. The artistic director and his wife are pure evil. They are not passionate about theatre, supporting the arts, or doing good in any way. Their only concern is money. And trust me, they need the money. I have no idea how this place survived covid. Without EMC points to lure in young unsuspecting actors, I strongly believe this place will shut down within the next 5-10 years. Owner is an absolute failure trying any manipulative and abusive tactic possible to keep The Barn running. He longs to be as successful as his (moderately successful) father who directed a show on Broadway that closed after 2 weeks of previews. This is a family run business and they function like it’s still 1960 and his dad is in charge (think “the good ‘ol days” if you will). Back in the day, many to-be stars did in fact launch their career as an apprentice at The Barn. I won’t elaborate because I’m not giving them free advertising. Anyway, they have been riding on the coattails of the few success stories for years. The only way the Barn will ever improve is with new ownership/management, and sadly that’s never going to happen. I worked approximately 90 hrs a week for $175 and $75 was required to go to my host family to pay for my housing (thankfully I had a lovely and gracious host that waived the housing fee many times after hearing our horror stories). The EMC points I suffered for (I mean really suffered) are now meaningless. I am thankful to have survived the mental abuse and deplorable working conditions. Let this review stand as a beginning of a formal and collective complaint about The Barn Theatre School for Advanced Theatre Training to the Actors Equity Association. It is unacceptable that the union supports (by association) this company. The strength and image of the union is damaged by companies like The Barn. We as professional stage actors deserve and demand better! Please do not let negative experiences with companies like this ruin your dreams and passions! DO NOT WORK AT THE BARN IN AUGUSTA MICHIGAN! DO NOT WORK FOR THIS FAMILY! *this review is solely my opinion and expression* (edited)

I think the other reviewer really touched on it all, and I completely agree with everything they say. I cannot stress how unimportant you are to this AD and those who will make money off of you. You will lose money living here. You are paid PENNIES, and then they charge you for housing. Trust me when I say, EMC points are NOT worth your mental health or well-being. You will be over-worked, underpaid, sweaty, hot and miserable all while being expected to be 100% for every show, tech call, and required cabarets every weekend. Take care of you first, and don't accept contracts that will discourage you from the true theatrical experience. It's not supposed to be like this. I promise. (edited)

I have worked at other theaters that have one star on this website, and working here makes me look at the reviews for those companies and go "Is that really fair? Those companies only make you work during rehearsal hours, only ask you to act, and let you keep all your promised money at the end of the pay cycle" The phasing out of EMC points means the one thing that made this theater a draw for young actors is now no longer a factor. Do not sell your collective souls to this company any longer. The 10% chance of getting in with the company and having a $500 a week summer stock guaranteed until you die or they go under isn't worth the very real chance of you losing the passion for why you do this, and likely traumatizing most of your worst personality traits to the surface. The AD has about 3 brain cells to rub together, all of them are sexist. His wife works him like a puppet and her numerous brain cells are infinitely more selfish and hateful than his if possible. She is an adept manipulator and will earn your trust only to betray that trust the moment it benefits her in the slightest. Seeing her dramatic range on stage (she basically uses this place as a playground because she's immensely talented but too radioactive to work elsewhere) you realize emotion is a tool to her and wonder what she stands for save for her own self interest. The story that still sticks with me about how this place runs to this day is tiny but feels very indicative. As an intern you're only allowed to eat either before or after work or on one of your breaks. The lunch break also is used for rehearsal. That being said many patrons know how underpaid and overworked you are and donate food. That being said, the Equity actors and staff are allowed to eat whenever they want and the donated food is put in a community spot where they get first access and we get to watch them eat our donated food. That wasn't the worst part. One day, the AD and his wife's youngest 20 something kid who at the time made more than the interns solely to mow the lawn (a fact he told us), only showed up, over 3 hours late, to take a third of the food donated to us so he could bring it home to his family home. You are nothing but cheap labor to them. If you're thinking of working here, because you really need to book so bad, look at all the other one star theaters here and send them your material. This one is in a league of it's own.

NEVER WORK HERE. Never have I been so gaslit, manipulated, and lied to in my entire life. We worked from 9am- 1am every day with every other Monday "off". We still had to work a 3-4 hour box office shift on that Monday. We also frequently worked through our lunch and dinner breaks. When I struggled to get enough sleep and grocery shop often enough to not starve I was made to feel like I "wasn't a team player." If you stood up for your needs at all you were punished. Not to mention this was all for less than $200 per week. The misogyny and overall male privilege in the choice of musicals, cabaret songs, and general attitude from the owners was shocking. They also tried to get away with stealing our EMC membership application fees, and we had to contact equity ourselves to force the Barn to refund us the money. For months they claimed to have sent our applications and $200 fees to Actors Equity Association. They claimed first that it would "take a long time" for equity to receive them. Then they claimed they were "lost in the mail." We contacted the Barn multiple times to straighten this out ourselves. When Actors Equity finally got involved our applications suddenly appeared and were scanned and emailed to the membership department within hours.

Run in the opposite direction of this place. The only positive outcome for me was making life long friends as we needed to help each other “get through.” Racism, misogyny, and a true insult to the entire art form. If you want to work 18 hour days chipping paint off old fences, mowing lawns, and working a sewing machine while those who run the theater cast themselves and their friends in the shows, this is the place for you. I will leave you with this one final image, a black guest artist being put up in housing with a confederate flag out front. SHUT THIS PLACE DOWN.

BEWARE!!! Not only was there racism, misogyny, homophobia and general lack of empathy/sympathy, but as "apprentices" we were paid pennies for work days starting at 9am and ending anywhere between midnight and 1-2am. Throughout the contract we received maybe 3 to 4 days off total. The COVID protocols were told to us in the start of the summer and were ignored after about 3 to 4 weeks into our contract. When there were cases going up in our company it seemed as though they were more concerned with the money they were making than the safety of the cast seeing as how they had company members learn new tracks in less than 24 hours and had people performing in a very intimate cabaret setting with no masks on and then testing positive the next morning. The general well being of company members seemed like the last possible thing on the owners mind which went along with the superiority complex that they seemed to have about their theatre. We were screamed at by a grown man on more than one occasion for seemingly no reason. Overall, The Barn Theatre made me lose my passion for theatre for an entire 6 months. It is not worth the time and work you put in, the pennies you get, and I would never recommend this work environment to anyone.