Performers Kristine Reese and Billy Tighe ready local students for onstage success

Broadway performers Kristine Reese and Billy Tighe know all too well that making a living as an actor takes more than just talent. Now calling metro Atlanta home, the married couple has honed what they learned from years of auditioning and performing at the Broadway level into a curriculum in the City Springs Theatre Conservatory, which will present All Shook Up June 29 through July 1.

Since both Tighe and Reese are actively in the auditioning game themselves, their curriculum is constantly put to the test.

“We are our own testing ground,” Tighe says. “We’ve come up with this curriculum, and we’re being forced as artists and professional commercial theater people to articulate what we think works  — and then we have to go and do it ourselves.”

While the City Springs Theatre Conservatory offers classes for young performers of all ages and experience levels, Tighe and Reese direct the top two pre-professional companies and a college process class. Having instructors who are currently auditioning allows students the chance to learn what’s required now in the ever-changing realm of New York auditions.

“I think because we’re still [auditioning and performing] in the New York space, we’re directly, anecdotally saying, ‘This is what you need to do. This is the expectation,’” says Reese. “And, hopefully, that’s giving them a little bit of an edge.”

Tighe recalls a time during his freshman year at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music when he heard the head of the musical theater program say that much of the freshman curriculum was focused on helping students unlearn bad habits they were taught in high school. In light of this, he and Reese aim to address bad habits in their students now, teach them what they would learn in all four years of college and set them up to use their time as a chance to hone their skills before launching into the real world.

Reese says she and Tighe have high standards for their students, who must audition to be in a pre-pro company.

“[Pre-Pro] is really intended to be about triple-threat-based training, which is what Billy and I came from at [the Conservatory of Music],” Reese explains. She says this philosophy requires equal focus on acting, singing and dancing. Partway through each semester, their focus shifts to rehearsing for a showcase. [In showcase rehearsal], hopefully we’re implementing all of the things that we did in training into the performance while also teaching them about a professional rehearsal and working with them at a professional rehearsal pace, which is very fast,” she adds.

The couple describes creating a positive, community-oriented environment where students can grow as performers and as people. At the same time, they challenge the students and don’t shy away from giving professional-level feedback.

“Our job, in a lot of ways, is to create friction because this business is full of it,” says Tighe. “We’re trying to make them tough but also create a space where they can have moments of growth where there aren’t stakes attached. I would hate for a talented student to get all the way to New York.  . . .  and then regress and/or run away with defeat because they weren’t able to handle the soul-crushing loss of auditions that happens again and again and again.”

Tighe shares experiences from the early days of his career when he often felt intimidated seeing famous people in the audition rooms and let that hamper his auditions.

“I feel, for me personally, I wasted the first probably three to five years of my professional career being afraid of my opportunities,” he admits. “When our students are presented with these opportunities, they have been provided with the tools to feel confident in themselves as artists and independent business people [so that] they’re prepared.”

Though most pre-pro students won’t have those opportunities for a few years, one of them already has. With Tighe’s help, the high schooler prepared for and shot an audition tape for a major professional musical — and he got called back to audition in New York. Tighe talked the student through the logistics of the callback, sharing his insights on who would likely be in the audition room, how the room would be laid out and what to expect from the experience.

“He ultimately didn’t get [the role], but he felt prepared, and he succeeded in what he went there to do,” says Tighe. “And I know members on the creative team who [told me], ‘This kid’s great. He’s a little young, but he’s on our radar, and we’re definitely going to be calling him back when we need people in the future.’ So, ultimately, he had a successful audition for a 17-year-old in high school.”

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Sally Henry Fuller is a theater nerd and performing arts journalist with a passion for telling people’s stories. When she’s not interviewing artists, you can find her at a local coffee shop or on an evening stroll with her husband and baby girl.