Temple Repertory Theater combines students with professionals

Usually, college students are preparing to become professionals. But Philadelphia's newest professional theater company opens this week at Temple University, and it's composed mostly of students - students who already are certified pros. They've returned, midcareer, to school.

In a move that other universities with well-rounded theater departments are making, Temple has started its own professional repertory company, which will produce work apart from the academic year's roster of undergrad plays, readings, and workshops. Instead, master of fine arts students will take the major roles during the Temple Rep summertime season.

Almost all these MFA students already are professional actors - members of Actors' Equity, the union of stage pros - who are taking a break from their careers to study for advanced degrees in theater. They range in age from early 30s to 60.

The new Temple Repertory Theater begins its inaugural season this weekend, with those actors performing the leads in two classics. Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters began previews Saturday night and will open Friday, and Shakespeare's Measure for Measure starts previews Tuesday and opens Saturday.

Why does a university with a large roster of theater-training courses and a busy year of performances need - or even want - a professional theater?

The answer has become clear as more university-run repertory theaters open, especially in top-tier theater departments: A professional company on campus bolsters the theater program by giving undergrads additional entrée into their fields. It also makes recruiting easier and provides another theater company for the larger community.

Nonprofessional students work in minor roles and stagecraft positions alongside actors who have been in the business. In that atmosphere, theater educators say, there's no business like the business of showing, when professionals are the role models.

"Having the opportunity to work alongside a professional is a trump card when it comes to recruiting," says Dan Kern, who heads Temple's acting program, has been Temple Rep's chief inspiration, and is now its artistic director. Early in his career, Kern's work with a repertory theater - a resident company that employed actors with long-term contracts - made a deep impression on him, he says, and Temple's method of establishing such a troupe was to bring professionals into its MFA program as students.