SHERBURNE — The Sherburne Music Theater Society (SMTS) is calling all experienced and aspiring directors to apply for their 2022 season. SMTS is looking for directors to propose ideas for a play, musical, or original work, and to bring them to life for 2022 performances.

"They need to come to us, you know, with a show in mind and a proposal, giving us information about the show and, you know, kind of a tentative budget or what they think it might be. If there's any special issues with it that we might have to think about," said SMTS Board Secretary Colleen Law-Tefft.

She added that while experience in the theater is preferred, it is not required to be considered for the position.

"It could be anyone, honestly. We prefer they have experience in the theater, they don't necessarily have to have directed before," said Law-Tefft. "We'd like them at least to have been onstage or done some backstage work or something. You know, cause that's going to give them a better sense of what the whole job of being director entails. Because it's a big job."

The deadline to apply is this Saturday, November 13. Prospective directors who wish to apply should fill out the form provided on the SMTS Facebook page.

"There's a post in there with the links to the form and like a, just kind of an explanation of everything so they know what the requirements are," said Law-Tefft.

Applicants can also email the completed form to info@sherburnemusictheater.org.

"Applicants should be prepared to provide details on cost of royalties, special technical elements required and any other extra costs that might need to be incurred for their vision of the show to be realized," said SMTS officials in a press release.

“What we’re most interested in is finding those who have a vision for a show that they’ve always wanted to direct, and helping them bring that vision to life,” said former SMTS President Emilee Janitz. “Part of what makes theater magical is the artistry and the unique perspective every director brings to the stage.”

Law-Tefft said she hopes to hire two to three directors for the upcoming season.

"We'd love to do, you know, constant shows. But of course we can't do that as an organization. But we look for two or three, I'd say, a year. Because that's about as many shows as we could produce in a year," she explained. "If we're lucky enough to get a lot of applications, we'll look through all of them and, you know, we go over it as a board and decide what we think is going to work for us."

While SMTS generally puts on already established works, Law-Tefft said they are open to producing an original play by a new director.

"We're open to most anything. We like to see something new and interesting. So, you know, we like doing every kind of show: musicals, straight plays, yeah, and original works would be interesting too. We've not done them much but we'd certainly be interested," she said.

To finish up this year, SMTS will be putting on a rendition of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on Saturday, December 4, at the Earlville Opera House.

"We have a production at the Earlville Opera House, we're doing 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas,' and it's a staged reading with music and dance," said Law-Tefft. "We have two shows on that day, at 2 [p.m.] and 7:30 [p.m.]. So we'd love to have people come, of course, and see that."

After that SMTS will be going into their 2022 season, and Law-Tefft said that she hopes to make this process of hiring new directors an annual process, and get back into putting on live, in-person shows.

"We're trying to make it a regular thing. I think we started a couple years ago, doing it again. We had done it in the past but it had been a while, and we really need to get back into the swing of things. And then, of course COVID hit, so that's been a whole other issue," explained Law-Tefft. "We're trying to look at it as a hopefully normal year next year and, you know, we can produce shows and do live theater again."