Apprentice Company

The 2025-2026 Apprentice Company Breakdown

Trustus Theatre is launching a college apprentice company program! While we remain committed to providing access to high school age students, we now welcome enrolled college students to learn about theatre arts in hands-on workshops culminating in a year-end showcase partnering with the high school apprentices. The first half of the year will feature separate workshops to assess student knowledge in theatre arts, with a cabaret performance between both groups. The second half of the year will combine both sections of the apprentice company to begin building a student-created and student-led showcase to be performed in June.

Apprentice Company Vision Statement

The Trustus Apprentice Company offers high school students a diverse range of pre-professional theatre training with opportunities to observe, work alongside and receive instruction from practicing theatre arts professionals.

The Apprentice Company was launched in 1989 as a way to educate Midlands’ 9th-12th graders to celebrate the “whole” of theatre, which simply means that whether your desired part is writing, directing, designing, dramaturgy, acting, stage managing, running the board, or the front of house, having a knowledge of ALL these elements makes you better at not only your specific part, but gives you the opportunity to expand your mind as to what may be possible for you in theatre as a whole. Our past Apprentice Company members have gone on to careers as Broadway stage managers, children’s book authors, professors, screenwriters, and stage/screen/film actors. They’ve also retained a sense of curiosity and adventure and empathy  that we can’t take credit for, but we pretty raucously celebrate.

Led by Trustus Company Member Erin Thigpen Wilson, and mentored by the professional artists in the Trustus Company, the Apprentice Company meets monthly to attend workshops on playwriting, design, improv, and scene study to use as the foundation for an original piece of theatre – written, designed, managed, and performed by the Apprentice Company on the Thigpen Mainstage in June of 2026.

This program is free to all participants thanks to a generous grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, but it requires a commitment of time, brain, and heart.

Email [email protected] with any questions regarding the 25-26 Apprentice Company.