Ambassador program
The application window for the 2023 ambassador program has closed. Please check back for more information on applications for 2024.
Ambassadors help facilitate a generative environment for Ground Floor artists during their time at Berkeley Rep. The ambassadorship offers highly motivated, responsible individuals the opportunity to delve into the world of new play development at a major regional theatre. Ambassadors have gone on to opportunities at theatres across the country, including positions here at Berkeley Rep.
Guided by our artistic, management, and production staff, ambassadors will assist in supporting a rehearsal and/or writing process for our guest artists. Ambassador may be assigned to specific projects to help artists in the rehearsal room realize their development goals. (Tasks in the room vary widely from project to project; each is different!)
Ambassadors will also serve as liaisons between visiting artists, Berkeley Rep’s year-round staff, and the Berkeley community. They will foster a welcoming environment that is conducive to artists developing new work, including assisting with artist arrival and prepping project workspaces. Additionally, this rotation involves assisting with the preparation of the communal, catered dinner in which all Summer Residency Lab participants (ambassadors, artists, and staff) partake each evening.
The Summer Residency Lab is a hectic, fast-paced, changeable environment — responding to the artists’ processes keeps us all on our toes — and the program is designed around our belief that responsiveness, creativity, and flexibility are paramount to creating good art. The Summer Residency Lab is what you make of it: resourceful, curious people tend to get the most out of the program.
Ambassadors are integral to providing a welcoming, fun space for the creation of new work. In addition to developing and honing new skills, ambassadors will have many opportunities to interact with Berkeley Rep staff and guest artists, including participating in meet-and-greets, attending Q&A sessions, observing readings and presentations, and simply chatting over dinner.
Questions? Email us at groundfloor@berkeleyrep.org.
Special thanks
The Ground Floor is supported by Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau, with additional funding provided by Bank of America, First Republic Foundation, The Maurer Family Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
What artists say about the Summer Residency Lab
I greatly appreciated the combination of freedom and support. The whole Lightning Rod Special crew loved the space, the food, the Berkeley Rep team, and the other Ground Floor artists. I felt encouraged to work in the ways that best served my artistic process, and also benefited from being around other artists engaged in their own work. Dinners were delicious (as were breakfasts and often lunches with all the snacks and leftovers!), and a great time to check in with everyone else and draw some collective energy to raise morale. Special thanks to our ambassador, who was clever as heck, making wisecracks at all the right moments, and offering great thoughts about our project.
My Ground Floor experience was a highlight of my life. I felt a tremendous warmth from the other theatre artists, the staff, and the marvelous young “ambassadors.” As a monologuist, I haven’t often gotten a chance to be part of a theatre community (the way, say, normal actors do)—and it’s an incredible feeling to inhabit a lovely space with others who share my passion for storytelling and the theatre.