BIO{blurb}

Sean Michael began pursuing a career in theatre in 2005 when he moved to Staunton, VA, focusing largely on Shakespeare and early modern theatre. He discovered Barter Theatre as an acting apprentice in 2010. After returning for several technical theatre jobs, he was invited to join the Barter Players as an actor and then moved into Barter's Encore Company in 2015. In 2018, he pivoted from acting to production and leadership roles and was ultimately promoted to Assistant Technical Director at the end of 2019. In 2021, he pivoted once more, returning to school to research systemic social inequity and develop analytical writing skills, among others. Today, he lives just outside Charlottesville with his fiancé, Lindsey, and is preparing for graduate school.

An Unusual Path

When I was 17, I emancipated from my parents (with their blessing) and moved two hours away in order to finish high school in a city with more theatre. Staunton, VA, had several community theatres, two college theatre programs, one or two small professional companies and an Equity/LORT theatre.

I was offered my first paid acting job halfway through my senior year of high school but I knew that it would conflict with my class schedule, so I presented the problem to my principal. “What should I do?” I asked. He looked down at his desk and pondered for a moment, then looked up and said, “I think you should leave.” With his blessing, I left early, took my GED, and started working on as many as 12 productions a year in the various companies around town.

A Tuition-Free Treasure

The other actors in that first production out of school were mostly students in the local grad program, a dual M.litt/MFA in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance, which was in partnership with the LORT theatre there in town–ASC’s Blackfriars Playhouse. Even though I didn’t yet have the degree necessary to join the program, the students and faculty graciously took me under their wing. They cast me in their productions and allowed me to audit some of their classes. When they all went away for the summer, their library became my playground.

My Intro to Regional Theatre

In 2010, I started my first contract at Barter Theatre, a resident repertory company like Blackfriars. Walking into that theatre for the first time felt akin to a budding astronaut walking into NASA. Every moment was tinged with the sense that I had finally made it, that I had arrived. The next day, ten minutes into my first rehearsal, I panicked: I had no clue what I was doing. Years later, my director helped me verbalize my experience. Young people routinely think landing their first real job means transitioning from the learning portion of life to the doing portion. In reality, the bulk of our learning starts on day one of the job and, ideally, never ends.

I stumbled through the first two productions that summer, seeking out coaching in off hours and straining to incorporate a slew of new concepts. When I eventually succeeded, earning the leading role in the third production, it was for unexpected reasons—not superior acting knowledge or skill, but my acknowledgment of what I did not know combined with my willingness and drive to figure it out. That incredible opportunity, my first full-time acting job, was not an arrival but a departure; it was not a reward for work done but a challenge to perpetually build upon prior work, update misconceptions, and course correct as necessary.

I Pivoted

Ten years later, I told my partner, Lindsey, that I was considering returning to school. The driving force behind my work had changed over the years. Progressing from acting to leadership positions over my decade at Barter Theatre meant I was serving not only the audience and the institution but also the individuals I supervised. As a result, I spent my last few years in theatre advocating for employees who suffered injuries or assaults or who were tasked by other leaders in the company to perform unduly dangerous tasks.

By 2020, I perceived greater value in addressing those challenges than in my day-to-day work for the theatre. The most demanding part of my work shifted from investigating and communicating the needs of fictional characters to investigating and communicating the needs of real people, and I found the latter profoundly more rewarding. I could either continue in my profession, only developing those skills as opportunities arose or pivot to a more suitable path for their perpetual growth. Research and reflection revealed an array of paths in the public and private sectors that demand daily growth and allow me to build upon my decade of work while engaging in real-world problems.

My desire to change course gained strong reinforcement. After months of consideration, my fiancé, Lindsey, confided that she fully supported my pivot toward direct service work and that she wanted to change paths as well to advocate for survivors of gender-based violence. We enrolled in school together—Lindsey for her Master of Human Services and I for my bachelor’s degree. She started her job as a survivor advocate and prevention specialist in Charlottesville the same month I started classes at UVA, and she remains a major inspiration and source of support as we approach ten years together.

In the spring of 2024, after just under three years, I completed my bachelor’s in analytic philosophy from UVA, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with distinction. Now I am looking for an opportunity to apply my 10+ years of experience and passion for lifelong learning to listen to, learn from, and serve our community while earning my Master’s in Nonprofit Management on my own time.

Outside of Acting

I’ve always loved finding new mediums through which to communicate. Over the years, I’ve taught myself guitar, realistic pencil drawing, bookbinding, cooking songwriting, and graphic design, and I’ve owned a web design business called Downstage Design since 2011.

When I’m not indoors creating, I love getting out on my bike. Cycling became a major part of my free time in 2013 when I upgraded to a new Trek. Virginia has some great rail-to-trail options if you’re ever in the area.

If you get a chance to explore art history and its relationship with societies and individuals, do it. Nothing can fill the well better than studying a civilization’s most-generated style of art and connecting it with the greatest needs of that civilization, from the Venus of Willendorf right up to Paris Street, Rainy Day. Really useful if you’ve ever questioned the greater purpose or influence of art.