Bridgetown Conservatory sends Salem students Broadway-bound

With the close of Enlightened Theatrics in February, Portland-based Bridgetown Conservatory fills the gap in Salem’s theater arts community. The fall term kicked off on September 7th at their new location in the Salem Arts Building downtown.

Bridgetown Conservatory empowers students with the connections and confidence they need to make it on Broadway. “Our program is geared for a young performer who wants to do this seriously as a career,” said founder Rick Lewis. “We take that student, give them a skillset, and teach them how to work professionally.” Collegiate musical theater programs have a 33% acceptance rate. 95% of Bridgetown students get accepted to one of these programs, usually with multiple offers, Lewis explained.

The conservatory’s success lies partly in their philosophy of empowerment. Instructors at Bridgetown don’t try to mask or fix their students’ flaws—rather, they recognize that students’ flaws make them unique and powerful. “By the time they’re ready to go into a college program for musical theater, our students are confident in what they do and who they are,” Lewis said.

The program focuses on what they call “triple-threat training,” developing the disciplines of acting, dance and vocal performance. Students meet for three hours on Saturday mornings, spending an hour on each discipline.

Each eight-week term dives into a different aspect of the industry, equipping students with a robust repertoire of audition materials. Lewis periodically brings in actual Broadway performers to provide top-tier training opportunities.

Lewis’s deep connections in the theater industry proves a unique advantage for his students. He spent 15 years in New York City, working on pre-Broadway shows and writing several off-Broadway shows of his own. Since moving to Portland, Lewis has served as a conductor and director at Portland Center Stage for more than 21 years.

Lewis explained that for his students, “the end goal is to work on Broadway.” Lewis’s colleague at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York—one of the top performing arts schools in the nation—remarked that Bridgetown students just walk into the room differently. “The reason is because they know who they are, and they’re not filled with anxiety and stress,” Lewis said.

Sage Gonzalez, who started with Bridgetown last year at age 11, serves as a prime example of the program’s personality. “Sage came in with confidence and was not afraid to be authentically himself,” said Sage’s mother, Kari-Anne Gonzalez. Sage dove head-first into Bridgetown’s program after falling in love with his experience at Enlightened Theatrics in Salem.

Being from the Salem area, Sage now attends Bridgetown in his own city. After performing a vocal piece at a Bridgetown gala, a door opened for Sage to star as Ralphie, the lead role in Lakewood Theatre’s upcoming production of A Christmas Story. “He has grown tremendously the past year due to the exceptional training he received through Bridgetown,” Gonzalez said.

Bridgetown fills the void left by the loss of Enlightened Theatre and offers even greater opportunities for Salem’s Broadway-bound students. The program has already proved a significant success in the community, reaching full capacity for their first term. Lewis summed it up, “What I would love to see happen is that we help people find their dreams.”