DOWAGIAC — At the age of 3, Aislinn Frantz was already using her acting skills on stages at The Beckwith Theatre and in Dowagiac Union High School theater productions.

Frantz started as an associate producer at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater a year and a half ago. She made a shift from growing up acting in rural southwest Michigan to working on the administrative side of theater in a regional capacity.

As a Dowagiac native, Frantz had acting in her veins. Her father, Rich Frantz, was a founding member of the Beckwith Theatre and brought the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival to the town.

Acting is a generational art in Frantz’s family. Her grandfather was also an actor and had stepped on stage at the age of 6. Frantz’s older brothers, who were 10 and 12 years older, were also constantly acting in local productions.

As Frantz continued blossoming her own acting career in productions at The Beckwith Theatre, Dowagiac Union High School, Southwestern Michigan College, Barn Swallow Theatre, The Tin Shop Theatre and South Bend Civic Theatre, she took advantage of every opportunity she had to be on stage.

Growing up, Frantz also experienced the administrative side of theater, as her home phone number was also the number for the Dogwood festival for many years before an office was opened. Frantz remembers her father’s email always being connected to bringing writers into town.

After graduating from high school in 2008, Frantz went to Western Michigan University for a year, played the tuba in the marching band and made the decision to transfer the following year to the University of Michigan. Frantz worked towards a major in theatre arts, which she called, “A choose your own adventure theatre degree.”

It was during her time in college that she reevaluated her love of acting.

“I sort of realized, as much as I loved acting, there were people that I went to school with that had more natural talent for it,” Frantz said. “They were more driven in that realm of things.”

Frantz said she was always in her own head and would overanalyze scripts she was working on — both which are characteristics of a dramaturg. A dramaturg is a literary advisor editor in a theater.

“I started working on the literary side of things with writing and dramaturgy,” Frantz said.

She worked at literary offices in both Maine and New York, eventually interning at a literary agency alongside playwrights, directors and designers.

That was one of the first moments Frantz discovered her passion for the administrative side of theater.

The summer after Frantz’s sophomore year, she completed an internship at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in their dramaturgy department. On her days off, she sat in on rehearsals.

“I watched the director, the way she talked to the writer, and the way the script developed over time,” Frantz said. “I could see a path for myself there.”

Another aspect of a dramaturg’s job is bringing in plays to the community, which was something of interest to Frantz.

The following summer, Frantz worked at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and was constantly surrounded by new musicals, new plays and new puppetry pieces.

“I started to feel like I was part of the community and seeing what I could contribute to the community,” Frantz said. “One of the first plays I worked on is called “How I got on.” In that room, as a 21-year-old, I was really invited in to offer my opinion, give my support and work directly with the director and dramaturg. I got the opportunity to share my voice.”

Frantz described that moment as a real turning point in her career. 

Today, Frantz is continuing to follow her theatre passions as the associate producer at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Frantz visited the theater back in 2001 through a high school trip and saw “King Lear.” It was the first time she saw a full-length Shakespeare play, and it is still burned into her mind.

Currently, Frantz’s time is spent doing new work development and line producing shows the theater does on its main stage. She spends half of her time meeting with writers and directors, seeing shows, reading plays and researching future collaborations the theater might be interested in. Line producing involves keeping an eye on productions and ensuring the budget and artistic vision are staying on track.

Besides her routine work responsibilities, earlier this year, Frantz presented a lecture on work-life balance at the Humana Festival.

“There is this pressure to hold the arts sacred that often compromises a personal life or personal health,” Frantz said.

After being in the field for 10 years, Frantz said she has seen members of her generation already leave it. With her talk, she wanted to bring awareness to work-life balance, encourage people to take action and stand up for their own boundaries.

“Our art is better when we lead fuller lives,” Frantz said. “A lot of us spend all of our time in a theater building and don’t really experience the outside world. If we aren’t experiencing it, then I’m not sure how we should expect to put it on the stage.”

In March of this year, Dowagiac Union High School’s Humanities Club traveled to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and was given a tour by Frantz of the space. Frantz took this opportunity to broaden their ideas of employment in the theater world.

“I got to make them aware that there is this other side of working in theater, too,” Frantz said. “I think that’s something I didn’t really know until college. It’s just helpful to get that information out there.”