Today we’d like to introduce you to Mitchell Oden.
Hi Mitchell, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
If I could narrow it down to one sentence, I would say I am a middle school theatre teacher who had no intentions growing up to teach, let alone teach middle school theatre. But here I am! The longer version though, is that I grew up (like most theatre teachers) hating theatre. I got cast in Annie as the milkman and I did NOT like it. I have to pretend to have a crush on someone?? Ew! I quit promptly after the first rehearsal. It wasn’t until I was cast in the all-too-famous “The Best Chrismas Pageant Ever” by Barbara Robinson as one of the Herdman kids. Honestly, icons. I remember it so vividly. It was a sold out show, I was center stage, I stood up, gave my line like I always did, and proceeded to receive the most uproarious laughter. In reality it was probably a small chuckle but that tiny moment set the course for the rest of my life. You could not pry theatre from my grasp no matter how hard you tried from that point on. My band teachers hated me in high school as I confidently told them I would be pursuing theatre instead of Tuba in college. In hindsight, maybe a mistake, but theatre has become so ingrained in my life there would be no saving me. As I moved into college, I followed the advice of my mother and left theatre as a minor and tried to pursue a computer science major. After two years of probably the worst time of my life, I decided to make my own path and switch majors. Theatre major with a concentration in performance and production and a computer science minor.
Again, I had no plans on teaching so my career opportunities really shrank. Still very confident in my future, I auditioned for the Shakespeare Ensemble course at Texas State University. It was here that my life’s course was set. I met one of my best friends and current roommate, Nate Nelson, here. It’s a pretty embarrassing story on how we met. To keep it short, I didn’t realize that the course had an audition workshop BEFORE the actual audition. I walked in fully dressed up in a suit to a classroom full of students in casual gym shorts and relaxed wear. Nate and I were paired up and as he puts it, he thought I was “that weird kid who wore suits all the time.” It was a friendship waiting to happen. It was in this class that we both realized how good of friends we would become. We both shared the same passion for theatre and Shakespeare. He was incredibly intelligent, creative, and talented. I learned a lot from him including our shared dream of starting a theatre company. Starting from my junior year in high school, I began wanting to either join or start a traveling theatre company. They take on different productions and travel the country performing. It was a dream. Little did I know all it took was a strong friendship and an equally strong passion to get the dream rolling. It started with a conversation about how we would love to perform Love’s Labour’s Lost. We talked about what roles we would want to play and eventually got around to asking others if they would be interested too. Soon, we had a full production and director ready to go. With the help of a professor, we found a room in Centennial Hall that looked VAGUELY like a stage and BOOM we had a performance. It started off very rocky.
Lots of problems, low audience numbers due to no social media presence, sketchy ticket sales through a personal Venmo, and not a lot of actor/crew support. We had the means to crash and burn right there. But we picked ourselves up, worked on fixing our problems and continued to our next production. From then on, we only got more successful. Our name “Broke Thespian’s” began to stick more in people’s minds and soon we were recognized by the state of Texas as a 501(c)(3) non-profit company! We formed a board of directors with a few of our close friends who we know had our vision in mind and continued on the course. We are now just over two years in and have grown from five board members to nine, from two productions per season to now having six including two full-length musicals one of which is sponsored by the city and will be performed during the summer on the Plaza Park stage! Be sure to come see it last three Friday and Saturdays of July!! Our goals keep growing just as fast as we are. Our next step is to find a theatre space in San Marcos to call home and began providing theatre camps to all ages. It’s been a rough and long journey but through it all, we have reflected on our mistakes and built ourselves on open communication so anyone can let us know what we need to do to improve.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. It has been extremely bumpy and I’d say we’ve even steered right off the cliff a few times. Starting a theatre company is a lot more difficult than people may make it out to be. Especially if you want to become 501(c)(3) non-profit. Our biggest challenge from the beginning was consistency. Because of how new we were, we did not have a pool of actors or technicians to pull from. There was very little consistency in regards to an audition process for actors or interview process for technicians. We were struggling to build and maintain a level of professionalism and genuine courtesy between all parties involved. We did not have a set standard yet for how people involved should be treating each other and what our expectations as a theatre company was. To be completely transparent, people involved in our earlier shows were not wanting to come back. We were not treating them with the respect they deserved, we weren’t sticking up for them when we needed to, and actors were telling us they felt they would have been better off if they had not been involved. It was a tough reality to face but it was one we needed to hear if we were to improve. Our current Vice President, Tommie Jackson, can tell you best. Believe it or not, he did not want to work with us after our first show if progress was not made in improving relations with those who have been involved. Including himself.
That is why moving forward, we created an open communication standard for everyone involved in one of our productions. We encourage and welcome criticism because the last thing we want is someone having a horrible experience due to our lack of response. Thanks to the input from our board this year, we created a form that cast and crew can submit anonymously to voice their experience during the process. It can be negative or it can be positive. We welcome all input. Another challenge, probably less “exciting” is all the backend work that needs to be done to maintain a non-profit theatre company. The next biggest challenge is budgeting and the challenges that come from it. If the name didn’t give it away, we are broke. We have had to be extremely creative when it comes to raising funds to continue productions. We can’t rely solely on our productions. With only having six this season, there’s no way we will make enough from one show to fund the next. We have had to create merchandise which came with purchasing our logo and securing the rights. We then have to promote it but that can cost too so we have to rely on our friends and family. We have started a Patreon even to help us fund monthly. However, this adds another thing that we have to keep track of. What I have learned during this process and continue to learn is that there is always something to be done. Something to improve, something to write, something to make, something to work on. It’s a never ending to do list.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Our mission is to enrich the San “Marvelous” Marcos community with performance and visual arts. We strive to create art unburdened by discrimination based on identity. We will educate all with an interest in theatre to provide an opportunity for expression and spread the importance of the arts with the help of our community. What I think sets us apart is that we are trying to build a community theatre for San Marcos that currently does not exist! We are here for the San Marcos public as a whole. While we love and appreciate Texas State University and what it provides for theatre, it is available to only students and can oftentimes be expensive for the public. We want to give every person an opportunity to perform, learn, grow, and artistically express themselves all while keeping it affordable to the public. What makes us special is that we provide students coming right out of graduation an opportunity to gain immediate experience. This also gives our younger thespians a chance to explore theatre outside of school without having to travel to Austin, New Braunfels, or San Antonio. We are right smack dab in the middle! I am most proud of the strides this company has made to bring theatre to San Marcos. In only two years, we already are creating something that hasn’t been done before (at least in my lifetime), an outdoor summer musical! It’s a huge accomplishment to be promoted by the city and to potentially start a tradition of musical theatre. If you are free on the last three Fridays and Saturdays of July come see The Wizard of Oz at the Plaza Park in San Marcos!!
How do you think about happiness?
I’m a big weirdo. Organization makes me happy. A well put-together food pantry, a neat filing cabinet, color coded shelfs, an easy to navigate Google Drive – UGH! I love it. It’s a boring reason but I love it because it makes my life just a tiny bit easier. Allows me to keep track of things that might be lost to the world. Again, like I said, boring. However, I do also really love putting together legos. I get to add my touch of organization as I put all the same color pieces in small piles and group together similar pieces. I love being able to mindlessly listen to a youtube video or podcast while putting it together. Most importantly though, theatre makes me happy. I’ve always considered myself a bit strange. Theatre allows me to be strange for a purpose. I get to take on the life of different characters, I get to work with people who share the same passion and dreams, I get to fully give everything I have to something. It’s incredible. I have also found a new happiness for teaching. Getting to ignite that passion that I have in our youth is nothing short of magical. Watching students who start the year hating me and hating theatre almost ALWAYS become the top-performing students. I love it so much.
Pricing:
- Tickets for our upcoming production: Smell of the Kill is $10 for student/senior/military and $12 for general admission
- The summer musical tickets will be FREE!
Contact Info:
- Email: info@brokethespians.org
- Website: www.brokethespianstheatrecompany.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/brokethespianstheatrecompany
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/BrokeThespiansTheatreCompany
- Other: www.patreon.com/brokethespians
Image Credits
Lainey Poole, Bridget Gates, Mary Rath
