Roustabout Theater grads turned pro help mentor new students

Breaking into show business is a dream for many aspiring actors. There are never any guarantees, of course, but training and advice from people who have gone on to professional careers can’t hurt.

Founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Clark Houston Lewis, Roustabout Theater is the resident theater company of the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. Its apprentice program began in 2006, offering classes to students ages 11 to 18.

The company holds an annual summer camp culminating in a public production. Next up is “Grease,” opening June 20. The theater also presents other shows during the year.

“I feel I get so much training at Roustabout that is going to prepare me to act professionally,” said Maren Negri, 15, a Maria Carrillo High School freshman who has been taking classes at Roustabout for the past two years and has appeared in five shows there.

“I’ve been in a lot of different programs,” she added, “but I never have been in a program that taught me so much.”

Visiting professionals teach classes at Roustabout, and one of the extras the theater provides is connecting its current students with past students who have gone on to professional careers.

“We have an ongoing ‘Talkback’ series that features our alums who meet our students on Zoom to talk about what their career has been like since they left Roustabout,” Lewis said. “We have actors who have just come off an off-Broadway show ... appeared in Disney productions, etc.”

One of those alumni is Barrett Riggins, 26, a 2013 graduate of Santa Rosa High School’s ArtQuest program who now lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works as an actor, composer and lyricist. He also trained with Roustabout from 2008 to 2013.

“With training at both ArtQuest and Roustabout, I felt more than prepared,” Riggins said. “The X factor with Roustabout’s training is that we were treated with respect as young performers. Given that treatment, you rise to that expectation.”

Riggins recently starred in “An American in Paris” at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts, and appeared off-Broadway in Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s “Harmony: A New Musical” at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene in New York.

With his writing partner, Graham Techler, he collaborated with Lewis at Roustabout on a new adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” produced there with a young local cast in 2021.

“Clark had done an adaptation of the Dickens novel as a play and gave me and my partner carte blanche to write the music for it,” RIggins said.

Kristina Conophy, 30, an Ursuline High School graduate who started training with Roustabout when she was 14, currently lives in London. She’s kept in touch with current students in Santa Rosa through Zoom calls.

“My last ‘Talkback’ was a couple weeks ago, answering a kid’s questions about preparing for college and the entertainment industry,” she said.

Conophy’s own success qualifies her to counsel aspiring performers.

“After moving to New York City and graduating from Pace University with my (bachelor’s degree) in musical theater, I have been lucky enough to spend the majority of my performing career doing shows abroad,” she said. “I began performing for the Walt Disney Co., which completely changed my life.”

Conophy performed in live Disney shows in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and in Toyko in a jazz show called “Big Band Beat” before moving to London earlier this year.

“I wouldn’t be able to say any of this if it weren’t for my time with Roustabout. When I got to Roustabout, I was 14 and theater was really just a hobby or something to do over the summer,” she said.

“At Roustabout, the education I was given, the guidance they provided and the confidence they had in me made me realize that I wanted to make this my career,” Conophy added. “Clark helped me pick my materials and coached me for my college auditions.”

Negri, a current Roustabout student with high ambitions, appreciates the attention from the alumni who have become professionals.

“Hopefully, I can come back when I am working professionally and help students at Roustabout,” she said.

For more information about Roustabout Theater, visit roustabout-theater.org.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.