KSC students spend their college years developing the skills they need to go off and work in their desired field. One Keene State student has taken advantage of an opportunity to display his professional skills this fall at The Seacoast Repertory Theatre (the Rep) in Portsmouth, NH, in “Green Day’s American Idiot.”
The two-time Tony Award-winning musical ran from Aug. 27 to Sept. 27 and featured senior acting major Ethan Nowack, who was cast this fall. According to The Seacoast Repertory Theatre, the musical is filled with songs from two Green Day albums (American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown) and tells a story about three guys named Johnny, Tunny and Will who struggle to find meaning in a post-9/11 world. The Rep, located in Portsmouth, NH, is a nonprofit, year-round production facility. Nowack said that it’s a place he has always wanted to perform at.
“It’s been a theatre that I wanted to work at for a long time, like a dream place to go, really,” said Nowack.
Nowack began his acting career in his last year of high school, which he said is “a late start to theatre.” Nowack said that seeing performances at the Rep specifically showed him what he wanted to do, although he pointed out that he “never really thought I was ready enough for that.” He said it was in his junior year that he felt he was ready to audition for a production like “American Idiot.”
“It was like a shot in the dark; whatever happened, happened. And then like seven months later I got a call back from them,” Nowack said. “It was really cool because I didn’t expect to hear back from them, and then I actually got to go and meet these people that I looked up to this whole time.”
The senior also spoke about differences between this production and ones he had previously been a part of, such as the two-hour commute from campus.
“How somebody here [at Keene State] would have a weekend or a week of show performances, we had two and a half weeks of rehearsal and then a whole month of performances,” said Nowack.
Theatre and Dance Professor Kirstin O’Brien said she cast Nowack in an ensemble role during his first year at KSC and has since directed him in two other productions. She highlighted Nowack’s performance as Gabe in the Theatre and Dance Department’s production of “Next to Normal.”
“That is a hard show to sing. It is a small ensemble of actors, it is tough material in terms of storyline and he comes in and completely blows me away with his voice and his commitment to the part and I just thought that that was his breakout,” said O’Brien.
This semester, O’Brien and Kowack have been working on an independent study that focuses on auditioning, which O’Brien emphasized as “vital.”
“Auditioning is your job. When you get the show, you’re on vacation,” O’Brien said. “For Ethan, he already has that amazing mindset of: He knew that “American Idiot” was going to be closing, so he’s already looking forward to future auditions to keep himself working during his senior year and post-graduation.”
Kowack talked about his mindset, reiterating O’Brien’s point that auditioning is the job.
“It can change, but I’m pretty comfortable right now where I am. I have a very relaxed mindset when it comes to that [auditioning]. If they like what they see, they like what they see. That’s the best mindset you can have,” said Nowack.
“[During] my initial audition, my ring light had died, so the lighting had shifted between cuts,” Nowack said. “It doesn’t look good at all. I’m playing the guitar and my ring light died, and then I continued on. Happy little accidents like that might help. If that’s it, if that’s what works, it works.”
According to O’Brien, KSC students performing in outside productions during the academic year is rare, making Nowack “one of the few.” She said that students are blessed to have the Keene Lions Club, a local community theatre.
“Our students literally can be here, do the classes, live on campus and then they can walk right down the street to a rehearsal for the Lions Club. We’ve had some students do that,” said O’Brien.
Nowack said he is going to be the lead in the Winter Show for the Keene Lions Club, as he has done before. The senior said he values the community and experience he gets from the local theatre.
“It’s a huge community over there. Some of the shows reach up to 100 people in the cast. They’re very welcoming, just a warm atmosphere,” Nowack said. “Last show that I had with them, they had these cast dinners before each show… They’re really nice there.”
When speaking about outside productions and the opportunity of “American Idiot,” Nowack said, “It doesn’t hurt. It was really cool and probably the greatest learning experience I’ve had so far.”
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
jenscoe@kscequinox.com
