Ways to Volunteer & Get Involved in Live Theatre
Live theatre is built by a wide range of people, skills, and passions — and we have room for all of them. Whether you are an experienced theatre professional or someone who simply loves the arts and wants to contribute, Gatehouse Theatre relies on volunteers to keep live theatre thriving in our community.
Below are some of the many ways you can get involved.
Instructors & Workshop Leaders
Do you have a background in theatre and something you’d love to teach or share?
Currently, Grades K–3 are not represented in our programming simply because we do not have an instructor willing to run a class. If an instructor were interested, we could easily add this program.
There are also opportunities within our Adult Group, including sharing the instructor role to create a multi-instructor experience, or guest teaching sessions for Junior or Senior programs to highlight specific skills.
If you specialize in stage fighting, scriptwriting, improv, musical theatre, or any of the many subcategories or genres of theatre, we would love to offer workshops or incorporate your skills into our existing programs. We truly value the talents people are willing to share — it makes the theatre experience we can offer richer and more diverse.
Directing
This is one of the roles we need filled the most.
The number of shows we produce each year is limited only by the number of people willing to direct. Currently, productions are restricted by the amount of time one person can offer in this role.
Directors play one of the most important roles in any production and may also have the opportunity to help select the play they will be working on.
Set Building & Design
At present, most set building falls on the shoulders of the Drama Coordinator, with limited assistance from instructors when possible. In the past, we had a larger set team, but life has taken many of those people on to new adventures.
In an ideal world, we would have a solid group of volunteers with construction, design, or painting skills, as well as a set coordinator to help organize each production. When our set team isn’t an army of one, we are able to create truly amazing sets.
Props
While we have a well-stocked props room for basic needs, nearly every show requires at least one unique prop that must be created from scratch. Past productions have included everything from specialty furniture to a human-sized oven.
Our instructors and directors are already very busy, and having volunteers willing to take on prop building lifts a significant workload. Any level of experience is welcome — creativity and problem-solving go a long way.
Costumes
Costumes are always needed.
Sometimes this involves simple tasks like hemming a dress, and other times it may mean creating a costume entirely from scratch. We do our best with what we have in our costume room, but having dedicated volunteers to help with costume planning, alterations, or construction would be invaluable.
Tech: Lighting & Sound
What is a show without lights and sound?
We are always scrambling to find tech support, not just for live theatre, but also for concerts and other performances. At times, directors have had to fill this role themselves.
We would love to build a tech team that can:
Run lights and sound for events
Troubleshoot technical issues
Set up and strike equipment
Help plan future tech needs
Maintain existing equipment
This area also offers excellent opportunities for North Island high school students seeking work experience hours. Tech-savvy youth are very welcome, and we can accommodate experience through both theatre productions and concerts.
Hair & Makeup
This is an area that has been largely neglected due to lack of available volunteers.
Unless actors handle it themselves, hair and makeup often go unmanaged — which has occasionally resulted in enthusiastic but chaotic results (including a significant amount of glitter still lingering from last year).
We are in need of an adult volunteer to oversee hair and makeup, manage supplies, and guide performers during production days.
