manda Detmer laughs loudly when she remembers her first play—an obscure, original production performed in the Chico backyard of her brother’s friends.

“My brother, Matt, and those guys ripped out the backyard to make the theatre, and they called it ‘The Butcher Shop,’ ” recalls Detmer, a 1995 theatre arts grad. “It was free and we did these plays, right, these crazy plays, with puppets.”

The makeshift theatre later grew into the Blue Room Theatre in downtown Chico, while Detmer grew up to attend New York University, entertain theatrical audiences of thousands, and star opposite actor Jim Carrey.

Detmer was introduced to theatre by older brother Matt. The more theatre she did, the more she liked it. Although her sights were set on a career as a high school English teacher and settling in Chico as her parents and grandparents did (her grandparents started the first town dairy, and, as a child, her grandfather stayed at Bidwell Mansion under the care of Annie Bidwell), she realized she would graduate much faster if she dropped her liberal arts major and concentrated on the theatre program.

After graduation, Detmer auditioned for the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She credits the late CSU, Chico theatre professor Donna Breed for encouraging her to continue her studies. Breed passed away during the second week of Detmer’s senior year. Theatre professor Sue Pate recalls how Detmer helped her ailing colleague: “I remember Amanda’s incredible dedication and selflessness when it came to our dear friend Donna Breed’s last days. Amanda and [classmate] Jessica Neiman were always over at Donna’s in between classes and rehearsals, helping her out by cleaning, cooking, running errands, or just sitting and joking with her. I think Amanda’s big heart is one of her best assets, along with all the talent, training, and drive, of course!”

After losing her mentor, Detmer turned to theatre professors Bill Johnson and Cynthia Lammel to help her prepare for the grueling graduate school auditions. She was accepted into NYU, and, despite the long hours and course work demands, she said it’s the best thing she’s ever done.

“I was so homesick and so far away,” she recalls. “You go to school six days a week, 14 hours a day. You could very easily have a breakdown. It’s very scary—you think, ‘Is this what I really want to do with my life?’ As hard as it is in the real world, it doesn’t come close to that program.”

A slice of Chico

Luckily, Detmer had a bit of Chico comfort away from home. When she arrived, she was connected to her first roommate through fellow CSU, Chico alum Coy Middlebrook. Other Chico theatre grads in New York made it a point to gather as a group once a month.

After receiving her master of fine arts in 1998, Detmer signed with an agent. She arrived in Los Angeles, auditioned, and landed a lead as a tough young cop in the television miniseries "To Serve and Protect". Although her voice drops a few octaves when she describes it as being “very mediocre,” she had a blast working with a new medium.

“I had been doing theatre for nine years, so it was something new,” she says. “Hitting your mark, having to imagine that you’re looking at a horrible plane crash when you’re really just looking at a piece of tape.”

Detmer has worked consistently over the past few years, starring in the films Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Final Destination (2000), Boys and Girls (2000), Saving Silverman (2000), and The Majestic with Jim Carrey, to be released this Christmas. She’s also appeared in several television movies. But theatre remains Detmer’s true love. She spent her summer at the renowned Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis playing Mozart’s wife, Constanze Weber, in Amadeus.

“Theatre was why I started acting,” she says. “I feel like you can’t spend too much time away from the theatre—trying to reach a house of 1,500 people is quite different from whispering to another actor and only a microphone can hear you. For me it’s important—I feel like if it wasn’t for theatre, I wouldn’t be here.”

She still remains close to her ties back home in Chico. “I go home as often as I can,” she says. “My family would never let me get too full of myself. I think they are what has kept me grounded.”
Since her brother recently moved to L.A. to pursue his acting career, Detmer says she is once again hanging out with him and his friends. As for future projects after Amadeus, Detmer says she is “just hoping for a job.”

“You never know,” she says. “I will just go home and try to get a job. Every job is a battle—it never gets easier.”

Bright lights, big city

For quite a few CSU, Chico alums, New York City has been the launching pad for careers in the performing arts. Many have persevered—even thrived—and helped each other along the way.

“That is what we call ‘the Chico factor,’ ” notes Tim McDonald, a Broadway director who studied music at CSU, Chico. “Often when I show up at meetings or functions someone will find out that I’m from Chico State and say, ‘What is it with you Chico people? You’re everywhere!’ For such a small college we do seem to be doing well in the theatre industry.”

In New York, CSU, Chico arts grads are not hard to find. According to McDonald, who completed a B.A. in music in 1988 and an M.A. in music in 1991, they are a tight-knit group. “It’s amazing to me how many alums are in New York and doing so well,” he remarks. “Carrie Stroud, Coy Middlebrook, Reed Davis, Jessica Neiman, Fred Stuart, Jeffrey Duncan, and Rob Greene are just a few off the top of my head. Since we’re all in the same industry, everyone looks out for everyone else—alerting each other about opportunities, sharing accomplishments, and networking in general.”

McDonald recalls how when he first arrived in New York in 1998, Carrie Stroud got him a job at the Manhattan Theatre Club. “Without that job, I’m not sure I would have lasted in New York,” he says.

McDonald reports that Middlebrook recently assistant-directed Bells Are Ringing on Broadway, while Stroud assistant-directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—and the shows performed next door to each other on Broadway.

Originally from the small town of Anderson, California, McDonald chose CSU, Chico over the University of the Pacific in Stockton because of the multiyear Bravo Opera Scholarship he received. “I think the highlight of my master’s was coordinating and raising funds for the 1990 choral tour of the Soviet Union,” he says.

McDonald perhaps is most remembered in Chico as one of the founders of the Chico City Light Opera and the Chico Area Student Theatre in 1991. He also developed the Eaton Road Opera House. He says he was given a lot of responsibility by CSU, Chico, where he taught and musical-directed several musicals and a couple of Court Theatre shows. “These experiences gave me a chance to make big mistakes in a safe environment,” he observes. “I had to balance producing, grant writing, directing, managing, schmoozing, success, and failure. I also learned the importance of working with a team, and motivating and trusting individuals to do their best work. New York is easy compared to Chico.”

Theatre professor Randy Wonzong corroborates that fact. “Our students tend to do well after they leave here because we have a really extensive performances program, and they get many chances here to discover and hone their talent,” he says. “We practically work them to death, and, son-of-a-gun, they get better.”

Soon after arriving in New York City, McDonald began working as a project director for Music Theatre International, developing a new corporate division called The Broadway Junior Collection, which adapts musicals for young children to perform.

Through Broadway Junior, McDonald has worked as an editor, director, and producer with Broadway writers such as Stephen Sondheim (Into the Woods), Ahrens and Flaherty (Ragtime), and Arthur Laurents (West Side Story). “I love the magic of theatre and want to create new and exciting projects that will revivify theatre for the next generation,” says McDonald.

McDonald recently finished writing a new musical, “The Hotel Yardley,” with Chico alumni Fred Stuart and Rob Greene. The play is scheduled for readings in Los Angeles and New York this fall.

“I’m very proud of my association with Chico State and with my colleagues and their accomplishments,” says McDonald. “I hope we’re creating a great buzz about the university.”

Meanwhile, back in L.A. …

On the other coast, Jeff Di Franco’s CSU, Chico ties connected him with a group of alums who look out for each other in L.A. Through his Chico connections, he landed a production assistant job at Nash Entertainment, a Hollywood-based company famous for television shows like When Good Pets Go Bad.

Di Franco, who grew up in Palos Verdes, received a B.A. in information and communication studies from CSU, Chico in 1995. He said his college degree has given him the ability to support himself between acting roles. “We’re all struggling to a point, but it’s a lot easier to get by when you have a college degree because there are more opportunities available to you,” says Di Franco.

But there’s a catch: You must be available to audition at any time of the day. Because of this, for now Di Franco is “just concentrating on work” in the advertising department of the National Geographic Channel in L.A. He recently earned membership to the Screen Actor’s Guild for his role in the independent film Caller and DJ.

Di Franco has been working on and off in advertising since working in accounts receivable at the Chico News & Review after graduation. At the same time, he was acting and directing—without pay—at the Blue Room Theatre in downtown Chico, where many CSU, Chico arts students build their résumés with off-campus performances.

Di Franco originally planned on a career in radio and television broadcasting but lost interest during his senior year. He took a few theatre classes, performed in a few plays, and rediscovered a passion he thought had disappeared. Once Di Franco moved back to L.A. in 1997, he looked up CSU, Chico alumnus Jeff Hohimer, who was working in the accounting department of Nash Entertainment. Hohimer, who was recruited to Nash by another CSU, Chico alum, Ross Weintraub, later passed the favor on by hiring both Di Franco and Shannon McNally, a 1997 CSU, Chico theatre graduate who was also recently accepted into the actor’s union after appearing in a Dole fruit commercial.

Writing the blues

Matt Olmstead, a 1988 English and journalism graduate who worked his way from hotel bellhop to lead writer and co-executive producer for the Emmy-winning police drama NYPD Blue, moved to L.A. eight years ago without a single connection—Chico State or otherwise.

Originally from Long Beach, Olmstead spent the first six months back in L.A. learning to fit in with the other hungry young writers on the scene. At a talk he gave on campus last spring, he said he learned to “wear black, smoke cigarettes, and go to bars”—all before he wrote a saleable word.

“It was easier to talk about writing than do it,” he recalled. “Because I knew the goal was so far away, the fear paralyzed me.”

But the struggling writer wasn’t about to throw in the towel. “I never wanted to give up,” said Olmstead. “I just really wanted to live this life, to be a working writer.”

In his early college years, Olmstead focused on becoming a journalist and wrote for student newspaper The Orion. During his junior year on a student exchange to the University of Georgia, he saw films like Raging Bull, Chinatown, and Taxi Driver, and they clarified his path.

He wanted to be a screenwriter.

Back at CSU, Chico, Olmstead continued honing his writing skills, including taking Lynn Elliott’s Advanced Play Writing course. “What our students learn in the playwriting/screenwriting class is how to create a good dramatic story, complete with well-rounded characters and a storyline that pulls the reader forward scene by scene,” explains Elliott, chair of the English department. “I find that many places teach the ‘techniques’ (how to set up your page, where the dialog and action goes, etc.). That takes about one day to teach. What I do is teach the students how to create and develop a story.”

Olmstead recalls: “What I learned in Lynn Elliott’s class was how to write a scene. And when I did this, I knew it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Olmstead’s first job in L.A. was as a bellboy for the Beverly Hills Hotel, where he hoped to gain industry connections. He later worked as an assistant at a talent agency where he met his first writing partner and sold his first script. Although they were paid handsomely for “Jack’s or Better,” the film was never made.

When their other scripts didn’t sell, Olmstead broke off on his own, switched agents, and went to work as an assistant at a production company. He also wrote nightly from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. He shifted his focus to writing for television—a career-making decision. His agent got him an interview with producer Steven Bochco, who hired him as a freelance writer for the series Brooklyn South. From there, he worked his way to the full-time writing staff at NYPD Blue.

Having gained admission to the show, he kept a low profile in the beginning. “The first year I worked there I said about 20 words,” notes Olmstead. “ ‘When do you need it,’ ‘I’m all over it,’ and ‘I’ll see you later.’ ”

A virtual veteran now into his fourth season at Blue, Olmstead is eager to help other alums aspiring to make it in show business. He helped graduate Kelly Thomas get a production job with Bochco. Honored recently as a distinguished alumnus, Olmstead read that Amanda Detmer is a CSU, Chico alum as well. “I’d never met anyone out here from Chico State,” he remarks. “I called her agent, and we went out for lunch. I will definitely keep her in mind for a role, but it’s obvious she’s already doing really well.”

Hitting the mark

Chico is a world away from Broadway and Hollywood, so what is it about CSU, Chico that breeds such success?

Theatre professor Gail Holbrook has an idea. “Our curriculum is so experiential,” she says. “Every course we offer requires participation and practice in the area of theatre it covers. You don’t usually graduate from our department without having tried every aspect of production—backstage as well as onstage. And we get to know them. And we don’t ever tell them they can’t do something.”

Whether they’re writing, acting, producing, directing, or promoting, CSU, Chico grads are showing they have what it takes to make it in the entertainment industry. They are, often with each other’s help, hitting the mark.

About the author

A CSU, Chico alum who received a B.A. in journalism with minors in theatre and Spanish in 2000, Roseann Langlois is a features reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record. In early 2001, she worked at her day job answering phones and fetching lunches for a mortgage company in L.A. while pursuing a career in writing, until receiving a full-time role at the E-R.