My Bright Star theatre experience was amazing. The company recently underwent a restructuring while I was on the road—but they were very communicative to us and we only noticed positive changes in the transition. My partner and I had a great time together and the shows were big hits. The management is very communicative while on the road. Anytime I texted or called I was answered almost immediately. Yes! There are drives on this job, it’s a touring theatre, but we had a blast checking out all the new cities and there are places I never would have seen without taking a job like this. I have worked with other touring companies but this was my favorite. They would book the hotels for us which my last contract did not. The cons are a lot of time with just 1 other person, driving, lots of quality inns, early morning shows, we were in and out of schools a ton. LOTS of DRIVING.

Unless you don't have any other options to build your resume or REALLY REALLY love TYA avoid this company. I did a tour in 2018 and it was one of the hardest contracts I've ever done. Multiple times we were stranded in without a hotel because they would wait to book the hotel the day before each new city. There were money issues. You will be worked to the core, you will have days where you drive 7 plus hours with 3 to 4 shows, your tour partner does make or break your experience, you have 1 to 3, 20 to 45 minute plays that they waited until 2 weeks before rehearsals (which are 4 days total) to get us the scripts to start memorizing. You are responsible for dealing with the administration aspects of this tour (keeping recepts for everything, being the contact point for all the schools you go to) as well as being the crew, stage manager, props master, and performer. You likely will have a van that will need multiple oil changes because you drive likely over 10,000 plus miles. The heads of the company were very nice but that didn't make up for the fact that there were several times we were left with no idea where we were going in the middle of the country. There were also times were we had no idea that we were booked to lead after show educational talkbacks with several school audiences, which neither of us was qualified to lead or create. We made it work but it was not in our contract. I get it, I did it to build my resume and I'm grateful for it. But this is a very hard contract (I had a tour partner I got along with and it was still very rough) and honestly you do not get paid enough for all the work you are doing for this credit.

So the whole thing with this tour is that you’re partnered with one person. If you get along with that person and you like children’s theatre, it’s not a terrible job at all. It’s definitely a solid gig for performers just starting out/just graduating from college. It gives them the tour experience along with a pretty mediocre paycheck. (400 a week) I personally didn’t get along with my tour partner super well, so a lot of the tour was pretty hard and unenjoyable for me. But I do know that if I had been paired with someone I got along with, it would’ve been a much better job. Having said that, there are other downsides, as well. As is true of most educational/children’s theatre tours, you are the actor, crew, driver, and road manager all at once. So the days are really hard. Lots of driving. Lots of moving the sets in and out of the van. A fair amount of paperwork. However, they explain all this in the audition process. They’re very upfront about the difficulties of the job, which I can appreciate. The bosses Lucy and Josh are both very approachable and kind. They are always open to helping fix problems however they can. Some other positives: if you like seeing the wonder and magic in kids’ eyes, this is the job for you. They love these shows. (Even though they’re not amazingly written.) These kids are truly amazed and changed by what you do at this company. Bright Star is a lot. It’s a hard job. But they’re up front about the difficulties. The big thing you can’t plan for is if you’ll get along with your tour partner or not. And that makes or breaks most of the contract. All in all, I recommend it to those interested in TYA/Educational theatre and to those who are still resume building. But for others, you may be biting off more than you can chew.